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Rios Montt ponders a promise

The actors, the props, even the scenario were familiar. Apparently sniffing out plans for at least the seventh coup since he seized power one year ago, Guatemala's President Efrain Rios Montt last week declared an official "state of alarm" to muzzle his critics. Under the new orders, privately owned firearms are to be confiscated, political meetings are forbidden and nothing may be published or broadcast that might "disturb the peace of Guatemala." The government also reserved the right to search homes at will and to arrest anyone suspected of Marxist-Leninist activities. For the moment, at least, the general had survived.

But Rios Montt's support was disintegrating. The Catholic Church has been alienated by the continuing influence of the military, not to mention the born-again general's penchant for Pentecostal proselytizing. The business community has been angered by his mishandling of the economy. Meanwhile, civilian political parties were outraged by his refusal to set an early date for promised elections.

The crackdown was provoked by the taped television appearances of right-wing Politician Leonel Sisniega Otero and of Rios Montt's former junta mate Colonel Francisco Gordillo Martinez. Maintaining that Rios Montt had reneged on his promises as soon as he came to power, Sisniega declared that he could not call the President "a dictator, because he isn't good enough for that. He is a tyrant." Gordillo, whom Rios Montt muscled out last year, accused the general of having tried to pay him to resign quietly. Gordillo then threatened to stage a coup, warning that "the government intends to keep power for many, many years."

Their broadcast and the brief public demonstrations that followed underscored the precariousness of Rios Montt's authority. Acknowledging that frailty, the government swore in an electoral tribunal to prepare for constitutional assembly elections, probably to be held in July 1984. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.