ACCESSION NUMBER:384423

FILE ID:PO1405

DATE:03/23/95

TITLE:ADD STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT, THURSDAY, MARCH 23 (03/23/95)

TEXT:*95032305.PO1

ADD STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT, THURSDAY, MARCH 23

(Guatemala) (640)

There was no State Department news briefing, but acting spokesman David

Johnson discussed the following topic with reporters:



GUATEMALA WAS PRESSED TO INVESTIGATE BAMACA CASE COMPLETELY

Johnson said the United States has pressed Guatemalan authorities for the

past two years to investigate fully the case of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, a

guerrilla leader who was captured by the Guatemalan Army in 1992.



He said the United States is convinced that Bamaca died during the first few

weeks after his capture.



"Our embassy in Guatemala and the State Department, in cooperation with

other agencies of the United States government, have made vigorous efforts

since the cases of Michael DeVine and Efrain Bamaca came to our attention

to find out what happened and to have Guatemala conduct thorough

investigations and prosecutions," Johnson said.  DeVine, an American who

ran a hotel in Guatemala, was killed in 1990, reportedly by the Guatemalan

military.



The acting spokesman's comments were prompted by questions stemming from a

front-page New York Times article that asserted the Guatemalan military

officer who ordered both killings had been a paid agent of the Central

Intelligence Agency (CIA).  The Times article contained quotations from a

letter to President Clinton from Representative Robert Torricelli, a New

1ersey Democrat, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee.



Torricelli's letter claimed that the State Department and the National

Security Council learned the facts months ago, but did not tell Bamaca's

widow, Jennifer Harbury, an American lawyer who has undertaken a series of

hunger strikes near the White House and in Guatemala in an effort to get

information about her husband's disappearance.



"In that regard, I will assure you that we acted immediately when we

received new reports in January involving these two cases," Johnson told

reporters.  He said appropriate congressional committees were briefed on

that information at that time by the CIA.



"Our ambassador met with the Guatemalan president, the minister of defense

and others, reiterating our insistence on a full investigation of the

Bamaca case," the acting spokesman continued.  "We also advised the U.N.

Human Rights Verification Mission in Guatemala about our meetings with

Guatemalan officials and requested that they intensify their investigation

as well.  We have kept Ms. Harbury apprised of these efforts."



Beginning in March 1993 and continuing to the present, Johnson said, Harbury

has had frequent meetings with State Department and National Security

Council staff officials in Guatemala City and Washington.



"While we did not provide Ms. Harbury with the specifics of the intelligence

information available to us," the acting spokesman said, "we went to

extraordinary lengths to provide her on several occasions with the

conclusions that the intelligence community had drawn from that

information."



The New York Times said Torricelli identified the man behind the killings of

Bamaca and DeVine as Colonel Julio Roberto Alpirez, a Guatemalan military

intelligence officer.  The congressman said in an interview with the Times

that Alpirez was "a contract employee" of the CIA at the time of DeVine's

murder in 1990, but said it was unclear whether he was still a paid agent

at the time of Bamaca's death.



"I don't have any information on that issue -- whether he was an employee of

another agency of the United States government or what his role may have

been," the acting spokesman told questioners.



It is understood that the information the U.S. government received in

January had to do with the potential connection between Colonel Alpirez and

the CIA and his possible involvement in the death of Bamaca.



Asked if the United States might take further action against Guatemala in

connection with the two cases, the acting spokesman told reporters he

didn't have anything to announce March 23.  But, he said, "I wouldn't

exclude some further changes in our relationship."



NNNN



.