
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 27, 1993                   TAG: 9305270068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA                                LENGTH: Medium

GUATEMALA HALTS NEWSPAPERS

The government imposed news censorship Wednesday under President Jorge Serrano's emergency rule and troops were deployed in front of the shuttered Congress and Supreme Court.

Serrano suspended democratic rule Tuesday and said he would govern by decree because of two weeks of protests over his economic policies. The presidents of Congress and the Supreme Court were fired and put under house arrest.

The government sent censors to all broadcast stations and newspapers. No television or radio stations broadcast news Wednesday morning and no newspapers appeared in the capital. Soldiers surrounded the printing plants of the dailies Siglo Ventiunio and La Prensa and shut them down after the newspapers refused to cooperate with censors.

Several foreign governments condemned Serrano's move. The United States said it might suspend aid.

The Constitutional Court - the nation's high court - said Wednesday that any actions taken under the expanded powers Serrano assumed were invalid.

"The government's measure intends to control what the people think and how they react," Mario Castro, chief editor at Prensa Libre, told The Associated Press. A military intelligence officer threatened to "punish the president's enemies and critics, including those in Prensa Libre," Castro said.

Serrano said an election would be held within 60 days to choose an assembly to discuss unspecified changes in the constitution. He also said he would remain in power until his term ends in 1996.

by CNB