GUATEMALAN GUERRILLA ORGANIZATIONS
FORM COMMON FRONT
(The following is the second part of the unity statement issued February 8 by the four Guatemalan guerrilla groups. The signatories are the Ejercito Guerillero de los Pobres (EGP--Guerrilla Army of the Poor), the Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes (FAR--Rebel Armed Forces), the Organizacion Revolucionario del Pueblo en Armas (The Revolutionary Organization of the People in Arms), the Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo-Nucleo de Direccion Nacional (Guatemalan Party of Labor--National Leadership Nucleus), the section of the Guatemalan CP that broke away from the rest of the party in 1980 to join the guerrilla
The translation is by IV.)
In the grave situation in which our people find themselves, facing the danger that imperialist intervention represents for the peoples of Central America and the Caribbean, the Guatemalan revolutionary organizations engaged in guerrilla warfare declare that Revolutionary People's War is the only road by which our people can win complete national and social liberation.
This is the only road by which the Guatemalan people can take power and establish a revolutionary, patriotic, democratic, people's government that will put an end forever to exploitation, oppression, discrimination, repression, and subordina-
In order to achieve this considerable objective, the revolutionary organizations are calling for the formation of a broad revolutionary and patriotic front. This front should represent an alliance of our entire people. It should be headed by the revolutionary vanguard of the Guatemalan people, pursuing the strategy of Revolutionary People's War. It will overthrow the power of the Guatemalan and foreign big owners that practice exploitation, oppression, and racial discrimination; and set up a revolutionary, patriotic, people's and democratic government.
The revolutionary political-military organizations that today proclaim this historic unity of the Guatemalan revolutionists hereby issue a fraternal appeal to objectives of the program of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) as set forth in this document. MAIN POINTS OF THE PROGRAM OF
THE REVOLUTIONARY, PATRIOTIC,
PEOPLE'S AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT
The revolutionary, patriotic, people's and democratic government that we will establish in Guatemala pledges to the Guatemalan people and the peoples of the world to implement the following five programmatic points:
1. The revolution will end for ever repression against the people and guarantee citizens the right to life and peace, the supreme human rights.
The right to life and peace are the highest human rights. The revolution will end repression against the people and eliminate forever the political regime that has arrogated to itself the right to murder its opponents in order to hold onto power.
Since 1954, the government of the exploitative big owners has taken the lives of thousands of Guatemalans for political
This blood is a debt that the revolution must repay by assuring freedom, peace, and respect for life.
The revolution will lay the foundations for meeting the fundamental needs of the great majority of the people by putting an end to the economic and political domination of the Guatemalan and foreign big owners who run the country.
The main cause of our people's poverty is the economic and political domination by the Guatemalan and foreign repressive big owners who run the country. The revolution will end this domination and assure that the product of the labor of all benefits those who produce this wealth by their creative
The holdings of the big owners will be taken over by the revolutionary government, which will make sure that this wealth will be used to meet the needs of the working people. The revolution will guarantee that a genuine agrarian reform will be carried out, giving the land to those who work
The revolution will guarantee the welfare of small and middle traders, and will promote the growth of national industry, which Guatemala needs in order to develop.
The revolution will guarantee an effecfive control of prices, for the benefit of the great majority, at the same time as a reasonable profit that does not harm the people.
In taking power away from the Guatemalan and foreign big owners, the revolution will create new sources of employment and will legally establish fair wages for all workers in towns and the countryside.
The passing of power into the hands of the people will make it possible to find solutions to the big problems of poor public health, bad housing, and unemployment that afflict the great majority of the Guatemalan people.
Ill. The revolution will guarantee equality for the Indians and put an end to cultural and racial discrimination.
The domination of the big owners is the main cause of the cultural oppression and racial discrimination imposed on the Indian population of Guatemala. To end cultural oppression and racial discrimination, it is essential first of all that the Indian population, an essential part of the Guatemalan people, have a share in the political power. The involvement of the Indian people in running the country, together with the non-Indian population, will enable us to meet the needs of the Indian population for land, work, decent wages, health care, housing, and public welfare in general.
Satisfaction of these needs is the first precondition for achieving equality between the Indian and non-Indian population. The second is respecting the culture of the Indian population and recognizing their right to preserve their identity.
The development of a culture that unites and combines the main historical roots of our people is one of the major objectives of the revolution. In power, the Indian and non-Indian people will decide freely how the future Guatemala will look.
IV. The revolution will guarantee the creation of a new society in which all patriotic and democratic sectors, all sec fions of the working people will be reprethe Guatemalan Party of Labor (PGT), which it, either in the form of individual plots, which has not yet joined in the revolutionary. war, to begin discussions to secure its incorporation in this revolutionary front.
Its inclusion must be based on recognizing the validity of the strategy of revolutionary people's war and on practical. involvement in work to achieve the fundamental
14 collective farms, or cooperatives.
The revolution will guarantee the holdings of small and middle farmers and divide up among those who work it the land that today belongs to corrupt, greedy, and repressive high military officers, functionaries, and businessmen.
sented in the government.
The revolution will respect the right of the people to elect their local, municipal, and national authorities.
All citizens who by their work, their knowledge, or the capital they own can help to extricate Guatemala from poverty,
backwardness, and subjugation will have a place in the new society. Patriotic businessmen ready to help achieve this great objective will enjoy every guarantee, on the sole condition that they respect the interests of the working people.
The revolution will guarantee freedom of political association, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, and freedom of religious belief as forms that make it possible for all citizens to participate in the building of the new society.
The revolution will apply severe penalties against unrepentant enemies, the clique of top military officers and their accomplices, who adopted and directed the repressive course against the people.
The revolution will be magnanimous toward those who were ordered to repress the people, and will take note of those who did not carry out such orders.
The revolution will end forcible and discriminatory recruitment into the military service.
In the new Revolutionary and People's Army that the people of Guatemala will build to maintain the security and defense of the country, there will be a place for patriotic officers and soldiers whose hands are not stained by the blood of the people.
In the new society, women will have equal rights with men, since they share the same obligations, and in fact have additional burdens because of their duties as mothers.
Children and old people will receive the protection to which they are entitled by their past or future contribution to the production of social wealth.
The revolution recognizes the Christian people as one of the pillars of the new society, inasmuch as their belief and faith are put to the service of the freedom of all
V. The revolution will guarantee the maintenance of a policy of nonalignment and international cooperation. This is what the poor countries need to develop themselves today on the basis of self-determination of peoples.
Nonalignment with the big powers and international cooperation are a necessity in the complex and interdependent world of today. Poor countries need foreign investment, and it must be made on the basis of respect for the national sovereignty of every country, taking account both of the needs of these peoples and a reasonable return to capital coming in from other countries.
For this, political stability is essential. Without political stability, there can be no international cooperation. When the right of peoples to self-determination is respected, international cooperation is not prevented by differences in ideology or political systems.
--Build the revolutionary unity of the entire Guatemalan people!
--Extend the People's Revolutionary War!
-- Overthrow the system of exploitation!
--We must take power and establish a revolutionary, patriotic, people's and democratic government!
...Nuestro pueblo con anima fiera antes muerto que esclavo sera! (Our proud people would rather die than be slaves).
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