Rebel Aid Denied by Guatemalans Regime Says Country Was Not Base for Cuban Raid
By Paul P. Kennedy
Special to The New York Times
GUATEMALA, April 17--The Guatemalan
Government categorically denied today that it was participating in the
attack on Cuba.
An official statement published
at noon in the Government newspaper Diario de Centro America dealt principally
with a charge that part of the invasion of Cuba had been launched from
Guatemalan bases. The statement denied this charge.
The Government statement
concluded with the declaration, "Guatemala, faithful to her international
obligations and invariable policy, has not intervened and will not intervene
in the internal affairs of other countries, including Cuba."
Referring to the charge
that the invasion had been launched from Guatemala, the Government statement
declared, "Any one interested in proving the inaccuracy of those accusations
may inspect the seventy kilometers (about forty-four miles) of Guatemalan
Atlantic coastline and the cities of this shore, including Puerto Barrios,
Matias de Galvez, Livingston, etc."
Peten Base Mentioned
Meanwhile, there have been persistent
reports here that part of the military strike against Cuba originated at
a training camp in the Guatemalan Department of Peten, which lies between
Mexico and British Honduras.
The Government, before today's
statement, has repeatedly denied that Guatemala has been involved in the
action against Cuba. President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes declared in an interview
that Guatemala was not going to send "anything or anybody" against Cuba
from Guatemala.
The reports on the training
camp wholly unconfirmed, maintain the camp is in southeastern Peten, the
largest and most isolated of Guatemala's twenty-two departments. The reports
maintain that the camp is near the town of Sayaxche. This town is on the
Pasion River, about thirty miles west of the Mexican border, between Honduras
and the Mexican State of Chiapas.
Flights of private planes
recently have been forbidden over this area. Last week an anthropological
expedition from the National University of Guatemala had to postpone flights
over the area on the orders of Government authorities.
Students Score Government
Reports that the airfield at
the Caribbean port of Puerto Barrios had been closed to all except military
traffic were confirmed here this morning. There is no other Guatemalan
airport on the Caribbean coast. All traffic for the port, about 200 miles
from Guatemala City, now must go by highway or rail.
The Association of Engineering
Students at the Guatemala National University issued a statement last night
criticizing the Government for what it alleged was the toleration of foreign
military bases on Guatemalan territory. The statement declared that the
association was "greatly preoccupied by the gravity of the existence of
foreign military contingents on our soil."
The statement also "repudiated
whatever type of aggression operated against the Cuban Government from
our territory." It demanded that the national army "maintain national sovereignty,
avoid the installation of foreign military bases on Guatemalan territory
and repel any type of aggression against this country."
A statement charging the
United States with an "offensive" against Latin-American sovereignty in
the Cuban invasion has been issued by the Association of Students in Economics
Sciences at the National University. This statement declared that the attack
on Cuba was "by North American imperialism at a time when the wounds of
aggression by these same forces against the Guatemalan people in 1954 has
still not healed."
The Cuban invasion was the
chief topic of conversation in the streets and in stores and cafes here.
The morning newspapers and radio news broadcasters devoted many words to
the event. The morning newspapers, however, did not react editorially to
the situation.
Guatemala Opens Maneuvers
GUATEMALA, April 17 (Reuters)--The
Guatemalan Army announced today the immediate opening of week-long military
maneuvers. However the Defense Ministry said the maneuvers were not connected
with the Cuban situation.
The Ministry said army guards
surrounding the United States embassy and residence were also a routine
preventative measure.