Miami Herald
March 24, 2001
By Frances Robles

Twenty-two businessmen on the Atlantic Coast of Guatemala were convicted of harassing banana worker union leaders in a high-profile case that was closely watched by U.S. trade officials and labor rights groups.

Prosecutors portrayed the businessmen of Morales, Guatemala as goons so bent on preventing a strike at Bandegua -- a subsidiary of Coral Gables-based DelMonte Fresh Produce -- that in October 1999 they kidnapped union leaders at gunpoint. A hundreds-strong throng of the town's highest authorities -- judges, doctors, merchants and bankers -- showed up at the headquarters of the local banana workers union to force five leaders into signing resignation letters.

A three-judge panel in Guatemala convicted 22 of the 24 defendants late Thursday and handed down 3 1/2 year commutable sentences. The defendants will be allowed to pay fines ranging from 65 cents to $13 a day to avoid jail time on their coercion and false imprisonment charges.

The verdicts were hailed by activists and U.S. government observers who see the convictions as a sign that Guatemala's history of violence against labor leaders is easing. And while activists denounced the "light" sentences, defense attorneys vowed to appeal, saying the convictions were a product of international pressure.

"My clients were given sentences given to dangerous criminals," attorney Maynor Berganza told the Prensa Libre in Guatemala.

Berganza blamed international pressure by labor rights groups, which this month urged the U.S. Trade Representative to penalize Guatemala by suspending its recently enhanced trade benefits.

In October, the United States lowered tariffs and increased import quotas, with the condition that Guatemala improve its shoddy labor rights record. Hearings on the Morales case were held this month in Washington, where labor groups said Guatemala had not done enough to ensure worker and union rights.

Twelve labor leaders have been murdered in Guatemala since 1994; each case remains unsolved.

"The fact that the accused were brought to trial without incident reflects the fact that the Guatemalan government is making efforts to combat impunity for rights violations, especially those against workers and labor leaders," a U.S. embassy official in Guatemala City said.

The government still has to make progress in its labor code, the official said.

Stephen Coats, executive director of the U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project, agreed that international pressure likely aided swift justice.

"In terms of international pressure, it was likely somebody was going to be sentenced for something," he said. "The judges went as far as they could go without ensuring jail time. But it's not an acceptable outcome to have people walk free. They will pay some money and don't serve time in jail, and on the other side of the equation, you have five families whose lives have been destroyed."