ATROCITIES IN GUATEMALA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27396, 8 July 1954, Page 11

ATROCITIES IN GUATEMALA

Confession By Former Prison Guard

NEW YORK, July 6. A former prison g'uard said today in Guatemala City that before the Arbenz regime fell he saw “huge mounds” of murdered anti-Communists piled in the secret police headquarters in the Guatemala capital. The former guard, Sergeant Reginaldo Achila, confessed to officials of the new junta government that he tortured political prisoners, but denied that he took part in any murders. Rebel officers said they know that more than 400 murders were committed during the regime of the pro-Commun--1 ist President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmap. Sergeant Achila once was one of the most feared men in Guatemala. But today he stood trembling when questioned about atrocities. “Si, senor,” he told rebel officials when asked if he had tortured anti-Communists. “I may have beaten a few prisoners—but they made me do it. I only followed orders.” The former police chief. Rogelio Cruz Wehr, and the secret police head, Jaim Rosenburg, were the men who ordered the torture and murder of the antiCommunist political prisoners, the sergeant said. ' Cruz Wehr and Rosenburg fled Guatemala before the rebels overthrew the government, but about 2000 other suspected Communists have been imprisoned by the new junta. Sergeant Achila said that most of “the murdered persons he saw at the ; secret police headquarters had been (drowned in bath tubs by a team of l “executioners,” who held the victims’ I heads under until they were dead. The rebels charge that Achila was the “chief executioner.” The new junta today barred illiterates from voting in the national elections. Communists in Guatemala have had wide support among the uneducated peasants. The junta also published a list of persons under the Arbenz regime whose assets have been frozen by the new regime. They included Mr Arbenz, the former Foreign Minister (Mr Guilermo Toriello), and a number of leading Communists.