GUATEMALA - Amnesty InternationalNot only has the government’s failure to deal with past ... lead to a richer interchange of ideas and information. Given the recent threats against

Amnesty International May 2002 AI Index: AMR 34/040/2002

PUBLIC

GUATEMALA

BRIEFING PREPARED FOR HINA JILANI, SPECIAL

REPRESENTATIVE ON HUMAN RIGHTS

DEFENDERS OF THE UNITED NATIONS

May 2002

AI Index: AMR 34/040/2002 Amnesty International May 2002

2

AMR 34/040/2002

Ref.: UN 37/2002

24 May 2002

Dear Ms. Jilani,

Amnesty International has been very pleased to learn that your mission to

Guatemala, originally scheduled for 2001, will now be taking place later this

month.

As you will be aware, Amnesty International (AI) has long-standing

concerns about threats and attacks against human rights defenders in

Guatemala and the impact this pattern of abuses has had on the human rights

situation in the country, most particularly as regards efforts to combat

impunity.

As you will also know, there has been an extremely disturbing incidence of

such abuses over the past two years, including death threats, attacks, office

break-ins and interference with electronic communications and data. The

situation has become so severe that incidents are reported on an almost daily

basis, leading Amnesty International to consider that the human rights

community in Guatemala is living under a virtual state of siege. Rather than

trying to protect those at risk, the authorities have issued a number of

statements accusing human rights defenders and others involved in

anti-impunity initiatives of seeking to destabilize the country, in effect declaring

“open season” on them. AI’s recent report, Guatemala’s Lethal Legacy: Past

Impunity and Renewed Human Rights Violations (AMR 34/001/2002),

catalogues not only numerous abuses against human rights defenders but also

describes many of the attacks made upon them by the current administration.

We hope it will be of assistance to you for your important visit to Guatemala,

and have enclosed a copy for your information.


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We also attach a second document, entitled Appendix 1, which lists

further abuses directed against human rights defenders since that document was

finalised, or concerning which we have since received additional details. We hope

it will serve to update the record of abuses against human rights defenders in

recent months.

AI is convinced that the link between impunity for past abuses and these

new violations are clear. Not only has the government’s failure to deal with past

abuses left structures, attitudes and practices in place that permit new abuses,

but the new abuses continue to be directed in large part against the very persons

involved in efforts to obtain the truth about past violations, including victims,

witnesses, lawyers, prosecutors and government officials, particularly those

affiliated to regional offices of the Human Rights Procurator who appear to have

made genuine efforts to investigate abuses and bring those responsible to justice.

Others victims whose cases are detailed in AI’s report and in Appendix 1

appear to have been targeted because of their efforts to press for

implementation of the Peace Accords agreed in 1996, particularly as regards

land issues and respect for trade union rights. Journalists reporting on

important anti-impunity suits and other human rights issues form another

heavily hit sector.

Appendix 1 also includes several abuses which highlight another issue of

concern to AI, namely the resurfacing of the civil patrols, responsible for so

many abuses during Guatemala’s long-term civil conflict. Ostensibly discontinued

under the terms of the Peace Accords, members of these groups have been

involved in a number of the abuses against human rights defenders and others

described in AI’s report and in Appendix 1.

Although AI understands that the Special Representative is necessarily

most concerned with inquiring into abuses directed at human rights defenders,

Appendix 1 concludes with a brief description of some other current human

rights concerns in Guatemala, including lynchings, social cleansing, corruption


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and the death penalty. These issues are touched on to place abuses against

defenders in context and in the hope that mention of these other problems in

Guatemala may be helpful in understanding the causes and ramifications of the

break-down of law and justice in that society.

AI hopes that the cases and issues described in both Guatemala’s Lethal

Legacy and in Appendix 1 will assist the Special Representative in her efforts to

inquire into the current human rights situation in Guatemala and the difficulties

facing human rights defenders there.

AI would also like to take this opportunity to suggest a number of groups

and individuals whom it believes would be interesting and important for the

Special Representative to meet during her visit to Guatemala.

Groups and individuals to interview and areas to visit:

The areas where human rights issues are of particular concern and where

a visit from the Special Representative might be of special support to the local

human rights community will of course be evident from reading the cases

described in the accompanying document, but AI would also like to highlight

them here:

Clearly, as the major human rights organizations, who have recently come

together as the Movimiento Nacional de Derechos Humanos, have their principal

headquarters in the capital, Guatemala City, a visit to their offices in the capital

will clearly be of great value. To date the Movimiento Nacional de Derechos

Humanos includes:

Alianza contra la Impunidad (Director Miguel Angel Albizures, Tel. + 502

232 2651, Email

[email protected])

Asociación Feminista La Cuerda


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Asociación para el Avance de las Ciencias Sociales en Guatemala

(AVANSCO)

Casa Alianza

Casa de Desarrollo Comunitario

Centro de Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos (CALDH)

Centro de Análisis Forenses y Ciencias Aplicadas

Centro de Estudios, Investigación y Bases para la Acción Social

Coalición Guatemalteca por la Corte Penal Internacional

Colectivo de Lesbianas Liberadas

Coordinadora de Derechos Humanos de Guatemala

Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos de Guatemala

Coordinadora Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas

Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos de Guatemala

Federación de Sindicatos Obreros y Campesinos

Fundación Myrna Mack

Fundación Rigoberta Menchú Tum

Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo

Instituto de Derechos Humanos de la USAC

Movimiento Social por los Derechos de la Niñez y la Juventud

Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado

OASIS

Unidad de Acción Sindical y Popular

Unión Sindical de Trabajadores de Guatemala

As these major organizations are currently and in AI’s view, very laudably,

undertaking a number of joint initiatives in an effort to coordinate and

harmonize their work, AI hopes and trusts that the joint meeting which AI

understands the Special Representative intends to have with them will serve to

support this new initiative. Further, in AI’s experience, such joint meetings often

lead to a richer interchange of ideas and information.

Given the recent threats against forensic anthropologists, particularly

those affiliated to the Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala (FAFG),


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the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation and the Centro de

Antropología Forense y Ciencias Aplicadas, (CAFCA), the Centre of Forensic

Anthropology and Applied Sciences, of which we expect the Special

Representative is already well aware, AI would certainly hope that the

Representative’s visit to Guatemala will include meetings with these specialist

organizations. We believe that the attacks upon them suggest that those anxious

to avoid accounting for their past actions have become aware of the crucial role

that these groups play in anti-impunity initiatives through the important

physical evidence they collect during exhumations. More details can be found in

Appendix 1.

Given the rapidly escalating phenomenon of electronic surveillance of

human rights defenders and the indications that their data and communications

have been electronically monitored, altered and erased might we also suggest

that if not already on her agenda, the Special Representative seek a meeting

with the Asociación para el Estudio y Promoción de la Seguridad en Democracia,

(SEDEM), the Association for the Study and Promotion of Security in

Democracy. This is the principal group which has studied this phenomenon and

attempted to advise Guatemala’s human rights community as to how to secure

their electronic communications. Contact details are as follows:

Iduvina Hernandez (Director of SEDEM)

Boulevard Liberación 15-86 Zona 13, Edificio Obelisco,

2 Nivel Oficina 208, Guatemala 01013

Telefax: + 502 3615303 / 3619945

Mobile: + 502 7047003

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

In recent months, AI has also been struck by the high instance of threats

and abuses being reported from San Marcos Department, many of them linked

to land issues that have remained unresolved despite the agreements and

undertakings of the Socio-Economic and Agrarian Situation agreement of the

Peace Accords. Other areas, for example El Quiché, were also hard hit by the


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civil conflict and have continued to suffer abuses. However, whilst these areas,

particularly El Quiché have been frequently visited by missions of inquiry, San

Marcos is more difficult to access and less well known, leading, in our view, to

relative under-reporting of human rights problems there. As many of the recent

abuses in that department have been directed against church figures who have

been supporting peasants engaged in land conflict issues, La Oficina de Derechos

Humanos del Arzobispado, (ODHA), the Human Rights Office of the

Archbishopric, may be the best place to advise on logistics and objectives of a

visit to that area. Contact details are as follows:

Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado de Guatemala (ODHAG)

6a Calle 7-70, Zona 1, Guatemala City

Tel: +502 232 2226

Fax: +502 232 8384

E-mail: [email protected]

Other recommendations:

With particular regard to Guatemala, AI would like to suggest that:

1. Clearly, in the Guatemalan context, implementation of the agreements

set out in the Peace Accords and in the recommendations made by the Historical

Clarification Commission (CEH) are of vital importance, particularly as regards

human rights defenders. The Global Accord on Human Rights of March 1994

specified for example that: "the Guatemalan Government will take special

measures to protect all persons and organizations working in the field of human

rights, and is obliged to carry out exhaustive investigations into all reports of

threats or attacks against them..."

Recommendation 41 of the CEH is also particularly germane: “That the

Government promote, with prior consultation [with] the organizations for

human rights, legislative measures specifically oriented towards the protection of

human rights defenders.”


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AI would therefore urge that the Special Representative press for

implementation of and support for these Accords and Recommendations in all

appropriate contexts and conversations whilst in Guatemala and afterwards,

including with Guatemalan and second country government officials and relevant

international bodies.

2. Continued international support for the country’s peace process

depends on progress in human rights. Attacks on the offices of human rights

groups and members of civil society working to end impunity and protect

human rights can, therefore, not be tolerated. AI would urge that the Special

Representative press the authorities to publicly announce their support for the

work of human rights defenders and other sectors of civil society working to end

impunity and for the protection of human rights. It should be also be insisted

that the authorities make clear at the highest level that no further statements

from officials that could be intended to incite attacks upon human rights

defenders and other sectors of civil society working to promote human rights

and the Peace Accords will be tolerated.

3. As amply illustrated by the information in AI’s recent report and

Appendix 1, security measures taken thus far in an effort to protect human

rights defenders and others involved in the struggle against impunity have

clearly been inadequate. Therefore, AI urges that the Special Representative press

in all appropriate contexts and conversations for an independent review of

existing protection measures for human rights workers and others involved in

anti-impunity initiatives, particularly survivors, witnesses, judges, other

members of the judiciary and journalists reporting on such initiatives. This

review should aim to produce concrete, specific recommendations as to how to

implement the human rights-related aspects of the Peace Accords and the CEH

recommendations and ensure the protection of Guatemala’s human rights

community.


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4. Further, as regards protection measures, AI urges that the Special

Representative press for information as to what progress has been made in the

investigations opened by the Special Fiscal established in the wake of visits from

the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Param

Cumaraswamy, which AI understands was to operate under the Public Ministry,

to inquire into threats against journalists, judges and trade unionists.

5. AI would also support establishment of a Special Fiscal to investigate

abuses against human rights defenders and make recommendations as to how to

improve protection mechanisms for such persons and institutions.

6. In this regard, AI also urges the Special Representative to inquire into

the current operations of the small witness protection program run by the Public

Ministry for those involved in human rights injuries and resultant legal

proceedings, with a view towards identifying ways in which it could be

strengthened and amplified, including if necessary, through additional support

from foreign governments and agencies.

7. On a great many of these issues, support from the international

community is crucial. AI would therefore urge the Special Representative to press

representatives of second governments and other donor institutions with whom

she may meet to consider ways in which their Governments or Agencies can

assist in protecting human rights defenders and others involved in efforts to

bring past offenders to justice, as for example, via public statements of support

for the Guatemalan human rights community, and financial cooperation for

witness and judicial protection programs.

In this regard, AI believes that the Consultative Group, of donor groups

and institutions, must play a crucial role. As the Special Representative will

know, the Group met recently in Washington, DC, and set out a number of

areas, including impunity and human rights on which it wished to see progress

in coming year if the cooperation funds agreed in principle in Washington are

actually be dispersed. The Group announced its intention to monitor these areas,


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and to review and certify performance in a year’s time. AI would urge that in

discussions with representatives of countries and institutions represented on the

Consultative Group, the Special Representative press for the Group to establish

concrete measurable benchmarks against which it will assess whether the

Guatemalan authorities have indeed made progress on the crucial areas

identified. The Special Representative should also, in AI’s view, encourage the

Group to adhere to its undertaking, to disburse the agreed funds only if these

benchmarks have been attained.

8. Over the past year, AI has been very pleased to learn of efforts to

create a national human rights umbrella coordinator. An effective body of this

nature could help overcome tensions and disagreements within the local human

rights community which are often used by those opposed to their work to

denigrate and undermine their vital work. We believe that progress is being

made in this area, but further efforts should continue, and AI hopes that the

Special Representative will express support for such initiatives, both in

conversations with the local human rights community and with donor countries

and agencies that have been supporting this initiative.

9. AI would also urge that the Special Representative discuss with second

governments and other donor agencies the critical situation as regards data

protection for Guatemalan human rights defenders and others working on

anti-impunity initiatives, urging these governments and agencies to express

concern to the authorities at reports that State agencies may be responsible, and

encouraging them to lend their support to initiatives intended to help NGOs and

others combat this new threat to their work.

10 . Finally, AI urges the Special Representative to press the President’s

human rights agency, Comisión Presidencial de Derechos Humanos (COPREDEH)

the Presidential Human Rights Commission, to take a strong and public stand in

support of human rights defenders and to play an independent and vigorous role

and ensuring that the competent authorities provide protection.


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In closing, let me wish you every success in this very important visit to

Guatemala. Please let us know now or following the visit if we can be of any

further assistance. Should further timely information come to our attention

during your visit to Guatemala or upon your return, we will forward this on to

your office in Geneva.

Yours sincerely,

Susan Lee

Director

Americas Regional Program

Enclosures:

· Guatemala’s Lethal Legacy: Past Impunity and Renewed Human Rights

Violations (AI Index: AMR 34/001/2002)

· Annex 1 entitled recent abuses against human rights defenders and others

involved in anti-impunity initiatives.

APPENDIX I:

RECENT ABUSES AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AND OTHERS

INVOLVED IN ANTI-IMPUNITY INITIATIVES.

[Note: Abuses which have occurred in San Marcos Department are indicated

with an asterisk * to assist any eventual field trip to that area.]

Here follows a selection of emblematic new abuses against human rights

defenders and others involved in anti-impunity initiatives which have been

reported since AI compiled Guatemala: Guatemala’s Lethal Legacy: Past

Impunity and Renewed Human Rights Violations, or concerning which AI


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subsequently obtained significant additional detail. For illustrative purposes, AI

has grouped these abuses into a number of categories:

A. Abuses directed at individuals and institutions involved in specific

anti-impunity initiatives

B. Other attacks against human rights defenders and others involved in

anti-impunity initiatives (including staff of the Human Rights Procurator’s Office

(Ombudsman)

C. Abuses against those pressing for implementation of the United Nations

(UN)-brokered Peace Accords and the recommendations of the Historical

Clarification Commission, particularly as regards socio-economic and land issues

D. Abuses suggesting the re-surfacing of the civil patrols

E. Abuses directed at journalists reporting on human rights issues and/or

corruption issues

F. To suggest the framework in which these abuses are occurring, a final section

summarizes other human rights problems currently facing Guatemala. Topics

covered include lynchings, social cleansing, corruption and the death penalty.

A. Abuses directed at individuals and institutions involved in specific

anti-impunity initiatives include:

Attacks against those involved in specific anti-impunity initiatives include a

number of attacks apparently directly related to the AJR/CALDH genocide suit

including:

Santa María Tzejá, Quiché:


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Domingo Us Quixán, a well-known community leader, was shot and killed on 28

June 2001 as he worked his plot of land in Santa María Tzejá, El Quiché

Department. Shortly before, he had received an anonymous death threat.

Us had worked for the local community for many years on a wide range of

church, refugee and other projects, any of which could have provoked his

murder. However, Guatemalan human rights observers believed that the real

reason for the attack may have been that Santa María Tzejá was one of nine

communities that joined together in May 2000 as the Asociación Justicia y

Reconciliación (AJR), Association for Justice and Reconciliation to file a suit

against former president General Romeo Lucas García and several members of

his government for genocide and other crimes against humanity. Since the suit

was filed with the assistance of the Centro de Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos

(CALDH), the Centre for Legal Action in Human Rights, community members

have faced repeated threats and intimidation, both locally and in Guatemala

City where several students and teachers from the community had gone to

study. Villagers say that the police have done little to investigate the threats,

and fear there could be further attacks on the community.

Attack on president of the AJR

In July 2001, human rights defender Anselmo Roldán, president of the AJR

and also president and legal representative of the Asociación de los Derechos

Humanos del Area Ixcán (ADDHAI), the Human Rights Association of the Ixcán

region, was attacked with a knife by a resident of the Cuarto Pueblo community,

Playa Grande Ixcán, El Petén Department. Cuarto Pueblo is another of the

community’s involved in the AJR/CALDH lawsuit. The attacker had repeatedly

threatened Mr. Roldán and other witnesses involved in the law suit, and

members of the AJR have reported other incidents including surveillance by

soldiers dressed in civilian clothes, threats, and attempts to break into the homes

of witnesses’ family members.

Threats against employee of church centre lodging AJR/CALDH suit participants


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The Centro de Iglesias, Sister Parish Centre, a Christian church centre in

Guatemala City customarily offers lodging to solidarity and popular groups

needing temporary accommodation in Guatemala City. On the nights of 11-13

October, 2001 it opened its doors to indigenous peasant witnesses attending the

biannual gathering of communities involved in the AJR/CALDH suit.

From 12 October, those answering the telephone at the Centre heard strange

noises or were repeatedly disconnected. Other callers asked specifically for Ruth

Carrido, an employee of the Centre responsible for liaising with human rights

organisations and supporting victims of human rights violations. When she

answered, she was told, "We know who you are."

Upon arriving at the Centre on the morning of 14 October, after the guests had

returned to their homes in the countryside, Ruth found that the combination

padlock on the office door had been opened and the office searched. A number

of items including a computer containing lists of personal and institutional

contacts, as well as financial and work reports had been stolen. However, a great

many other more valuable and highly transportable items had not been touched.

Ruth Carrido subsequently received other intimidating calls at her home and on

her cellular from people who will not identify themselves and appear to be

trying to disguise their voices.

B. Other attacks against human rights defenders and others involved in

anti-impunity initiatives include:

Intimidation of AVANCSO researcher

Matilde Leonor González Izas is a historian working for Asociación para el Avance

de las Ciencias Sociales (AVANCSO), Investigation Centre for the Advancement of

Social Sciences. Founder member Myrna Mack was extrajudicially executed in

1990, apparently because her research had concluded that the Guatemalan

military was targeting civilian populations, findings which were made known at


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a crucial point in the Guatemalan peace process and were highly damaging to

the military and the government. Since her death, for which only one lower

ranking military man has thus far been convicted, those attempting to clarify

her killing or continuing the sensitive social science research for which AVANCSO

is known, have been subjected to constant threats and abuses.

In Matilde González’ case, she believes that threats and intimidation directed

against her in October 2001 have been orchestrated by the Estado Mayor

Presidencial (EMP) the Military Chiefs of Staff1, in reprisal for her research

findings that the military has been using mob violence and lynchings to

manipulate and control indigenous communities and so retain power at local

level. After being followed and harassed on a number of occasions, González went

into hiding. However, she subsequently reported further threatening phone calls.

Witness in Gerardi case

1The EMP is ostensibly responsible for protecting the President and Vice President and

their families, but in fact has played a key role in army intelligence operations. It has frequently

been cited as implicated in some of Guatemala's most high profile human rights abuses, including

the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan José Gerardi. The EMP was to have been disbanded under the

1996 Peace Accords but this has not yet happened.

As outlined in AI’s report, Guatemala’s Lethal Legacy, those involved in the

Gerardi case, whether as witnesses, prosecutors or lawyers have been subjected

to continuous abuses. A number have been killed and others have gone into exile.

One recent incident involved prison inmate Gilberto Gómez Limón, a key witness

against one of the three high-ranking military officers eventually convicted in

2001 of the Bishop’s extrajudicial execution. The officer claimed that at the time

of the Bishop’s murder he was an inmate at the same prison where Gómez was

imprisoned. However, Gómez testified that he had seen the officer entering and

leaving the prison at will. On 18 November 2001 Gómez was reportedly

attacked with a knife at another prison where he is currently incarcerated. His

assailant entered and exited the prison unchallenged. At the time of the attack,

new developments had been expected in the officers’ appeal, and human rights


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observers in Guatemala considered the attack on Gómez Limón may have been

an attempt to kill or intimidate him to prevent him from testifying.

Threats against trade unionist Romeldo Peña Cruz

In January 2002, General Secretary Romeldo Peña Cruz, and other members of

his Puerto Barrios municipal workers’ union reported written and telephoned

death threats warning them to drop accusations of corruption and violation of

municipal workers’ labour rights, which Peña had publicly laid against the

mayor and other officials. If not, the threats warned that Peña would meet the

same fate as murdered journalist Mynor Jorge Alegría, who had also campaigned

against corruption in Puerto Barrios (see below). The unionists believed the

threats came from petty criminals linked to the mayor and other municipal

authorities.

Threats against GAM member Dionisio Camajá Sánchez

El Grupo de Apoyo Mútuo (GAM), Mutual Support Group, formed by relatives of

the “disappeared” in 1985, has also been active in seeking information about

the fate of the “disappeared” and pressing for exhumations of massacre victims.

It too has been a regular target of abuses, and again, some recent threats and

attacks against its members are catalogued in AI’s 2002 Guatemala publication.

Since then, new incidents have been reported. On 7 February 2002, for

example, primary school teacher and GAM member Dionisio Camajá Sánchez

reported that an anonymous handwritten note had been slipped under his door

in Uspantán, El Quiché department warning him to leave Uspantán, or “será

quemado a pura gasolina” (you will be doused in petrol and burned alive). The

name of another GAM member was mentioned in the note , indicating she may

also be in danger, although she was not specifically threatened. Those responsible

have not been identified or brought to justice.

Threats against director of CUC


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Arturo Caníz, director of the Comité de Unidad Campesina (CUC), the

Committee for Peasant Unity, has received a series of death threats since 19

February. Anonymous callers threaten him or play funeral music and anonymous

notes to his home have warned that his life is in danger. He has also been

followed by unidentified men who have photographed him.

Caníz believes these incidents may be efforts to obstruct his work with CUC for

whom he leads a literacy program aimed at educating peasants about the

abuses committed by the Guatemalan armed forces during the civil conflict. He

also produces posters and leaflets with the names of thousands of Guatemalans

who “disappeared” during the conflict or are missing massacre victims.

The threats have been denounced to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the National

Civil Police, the United Nations Verification Mission for Guatemala, MINUGUA,

and the Human Rights Procurator's office.

Abuses against Casa Alianza

Casa Alianza is the Guatemala branch of the US-based Covenant House, a

non-governmental agency that assists street children and has been involved in

several suits against police officers for alleged abuses against such children. It too

has suffered many past abuses; one, a raid on its offices in April 2001,

apparently provoked by its efforts to force an inquiry into the rape of two street

girls allegedly carried out by two uniformed members of the police, is described

in Guatemala’s Lethal Legacy.

Another such raid was reported on 7 March 2002; further files with confidential

information on children allegedly ill-treated by police were ransacked. A video

camera and rucksack were taken, but other valuable electrical equipment,

including a laptop computer was left untouched, suggesting to local observers

that the break-in may not have been a common robbery, as authorities

maintained.


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Intimidation directed at its staff includes death threats left in September 2001

on the home and mobile telephones and intimidation of Héctor Dionisio

Godínez, coordinator of the group’s Legal Assistance Programme. He also

reported an attempt to force him off the road as he drove to work with

colleagues. Leonel Dubón, Casa Alianza’s Coordinator for Guatemala, has also

received anonymous threats left on his mobile phone, beginning in February

2002. Suspicious men also asked for him at a Casa Alianza crisis centre and on

several occasions in April and May, unknown men battered on his door or fired

shots outside his home, calling out his name. Police were called, but never arrived

to investigate.

Also in May, Mirza Juárez, the Coordinator of Casa Alianza’s Family

Reintegration program was threatened at gun point and her mobile phone stolen

as she left the Casa Alianza office on foot with a social worker. In another such

incident in May, Manacer Salazar, 28, an Educator at Casa Alianza’s girl’s Crisis

Center was held up at gunpoint as he left a Casa Alianza staff meeting in

Guatemala City. After telling him “Y digales a los que dirigen a Casa Alianza que

se callen, ” and tell the leaders of Casa Alianza to shut up, an unidentified man

made off with Manacer’s mobile phone.

Casa Alianza fears both incident were not common crime, but were intended to

intimidate its staff or obtain their phone numbers. The second theft may also

have been a reprisal for a decision made known only hours earlier by the

Constitutional Court, which had ruled favourably on a Casa Alianza/ Rigoberta

Menchú Foundation petition, ordering Congress to set a date for implementation

of the Children’s Code, a process suspended indefinitely by the legislature in

January 2000.

All the incidents have been reported to the police and the Special Prosecutor’s

Office but, to date, Casa Alianza knows of no resultant investigations.

Parish priest Rigoberto Pérez Garrido


19

On 23 April 2002, an anonymous caller warned parish priest Rigoberto Pérez

Garrido “Hijo de la gran puta, si seguís investigando, te vas a morir” (you son of

a bitch, if you carry on investigating, you will die”.). Pérez lives in the heavily

indigenous town of Nebaj, El Quiché department, one of

the most heavily targeted regions during Guatemala’s long-term civil conflict.

Quiché suffered 344 of the 699 massacres recorded during that period, while

Nebaj was one of four areas where the United Nations-sponsored Historical

Clarification Commission (CEH), established under the terms of the Peace

Accords, found genocide had occurred.

Forensic scientists are now exhuming the victims of the massacres at Nebaj and

elsewhere, uncovering crucial evidence against government officials involved in

the massacres. Church figures believe that the threats against Father Pérez are

reprisals for his active support for exhumations in his parish. He has also allowed

scientists to store their exhumation equipment in his church.

The threats may also be related to Pérez’ efforts to press for investigations into

the apparently deliberate fire started in his church on 21 February, which

destroyed information stored there on 35 massacres recorded by the church

between 1980 and 1983 in the Nebaj area. Remains recovered in the

exhumations had only just been removed from the church before the apparent

arson attack.

Killing of Guillermo Ovalle de León, staff member of the Rigoberta Menchú

Foundation

In December 1999, the Rigoberta Menchú Foundation filed suit in Spain against

a number of former Guatemalan officials for genocide and other crimes against

humanity. Since then, as outlined in Amnesty International’s recent

publication, Guatemala’s Lethal Legacy, foundation staff have been experiencing

harassment and persecution, including death threats.


20

It is in this context that the killing on 29 April 2002 of Foundation accountant

Guillermo Ovalle de León must be evaluated. On that day, Ovalle was eating

lunch, as he frequently did, at a local restaurant close to the Foundation’s

offices. Three gunmen reportedly entered and began robbing customers. When

one customer resisted, the gunmen opened fire. Two were injured, but Ovalle

died after being shot at least 25 times.

A number of factors have raised suspicion that the killing was not a common

crime as the authorities have claimed but an act of intimidation: Two suspicious

looking individuals and a car with polarised windows were reportedly seen

outside the Foundation’s offices prior to the shooting. At about the same time as

the killing, several anonymous telephone calls were made to the office, in which

funeral music was played. Furthermore, the shooting occurred one day before

civil hearings were to begin into the alleged massacre of 11 peasants in the

village of Xamán by Guatemalan soldiers in 1995, a case with which the

Foundation is closely associated And, important developments in the

Foundation’s suit in Spain against former Guatemalan officials for genocide and

other crimes against humanity were also expected in May: Only three days

before Ovalle’s death, the Spanish Supreme Court announced that the

Foundation’s appeal, against an earlier decision that the Spanish courts did not

currently have jurisdiction, would be heard on 30 May.

Abduction, interrogation and beating of CONAVIGUA associate

Since its formation in 1988, the Coordinadora Nacional de Viudas de Guatemala

(CONAVIGUA), National Coordination of Guatemalan Widows, has been active in

attempting to establish the fate of the “disappeared,” and in the exhumation of

clandestine graves. In 2000 CONAVIGUA also joined the Menchú Foundation

genocide lawsuit in Spain. Because of its activism on such issues, the

organisation’s leadership and members have repeatedly suffered threats and

harassment. A number of such incidents are described in AI’s 2002 publication.


21

The most recent incident of this nature known to AI involved the abduction,

interrogation and beating of Domingo Yaxón Guarcax in Guatemala City on 3

May 2002. Yaxón is a courier for the Movimiento de Jóvenes Mayas

(MOJOMAYAS), Young Mayan Movement, an affiliate of CONAVIGUA. He was

on his way to a bank to deposit cheques when he was seized, and was carrying

cash as well, but his assailants stole nothing. Instead, they warned him to stop

working with CONAVIGUA or he would be killed, leading local observers to

conclude that the incident was yet another attempt to intimidate those involved

in investigating human rights violations by the army during Guatemala’s civil

conflict.

Threats and abuses against staff of forensic groups

In the absence of any official government exhumation programme, groups such

as the Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala (FAFG), the Guatemalan

Forensic Anthropology Foundation and the Centro de Antropología Forense y

Ciencias Aplicadas, (CAFCA), the Centre of Forensic Anthropology and Applied

Sciences have stepped in to assist in exhumation of remains of individuals

massacred in the Guatemalan military’s ferocious counter-insurgency campaign

of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since 1992, FAFG for example has carried

out 191 exhumations of more than two thousand victims of the armed conflict.

FAFG is currently carrying out an exhumation of secret mass graves in Xiquín

Senahí, Comalapa, Chimaltenango Department where between 80 and 130

victims are believed to be buried.

Because of their work, repeated threats and acts of intimidation have been

directed against these forensic groups. One such incident is reported in AI’s 2002

report. Since then, such abuses have escalated markedly, suggesting to

Guatemalan observers that there is growing awareness amongst perpetrators

of the key role the evidence the scientists are helping unearth could play in

eventual proceedings against them.


22

Recent incidents include death threats made in letters received on 21 February

2002 at the home of a forensic scientist involved in exhumations. Eleven people

were explicitly threatened; five had carried out exhumations in the past, four are

present employees of FAFG and two work for CAFCA. Several have given key

forensic testimony in proceedings against former government officials for past

abuses.

The wording of the threats left no doubt as to their link to anti-impunity

initiatives: No hay responsables en la guerra y ustedes no son quien para

juzgarnos” (in a war there are no guilty parties, and it is not your place to judge

us.) The letters also directly attacked the role of exhumations in combatting

impunity: “no habrá procesos judiciales de ninguna exhumación hecha por

ustedes hijos de puta, ni de ningún extranjero maldito primero los matamos

cerote” (There will be no legal proceedings because of any exhumations done by

you bastards or any damned foreigner. We will kill you first, you piece of ....) The

threats also referred to “any institution” working on exhumations. It

demanded that the exhumations stop and warned that if forensic scientists

continued carrying out their work, their families would “soon be burying their

bones and those of their children”.

At the same time as the letter was issued, the fire in Father Pérez church in

Nebaj, El Quiché, apparently related to his support for exhumations and already

referred to above, was started.

Then, in March, five of the 11 named in the original letter received anonymous

telephone death threats against themselves and their families, or found such

messages on their answering machines. Their phone lines also appear to have

been tapped, and the head of the FAFG also reported that his house appeared to

be under surveillance. One of those threatened, Miguel Morales, was robbed of

his mobile phone at gunpoint on 6 March, possibly explaining how the

anonymous callers obtained the other scientists’ numbers.


23

Following these incidents, the forensics stopped work for a while, then reinitiated

exhumations. However on 14 May, FAFG and GAM announced that exhumations

had once again to be suspended due to “continuing death threats and

intimidation against human rights defenders, forensic specialists and massacre

witnesses.”

Abuses directed at officials of the Human Rights Procurator’s Office

Amnesty International understands that abuses against employees of official

agencies victimized because of their efforts to fulfil their formal responsibilities

and initiate genuine inquires into reported abuses or to prosecute them in courts

of law do not formally fall within the brief of the Special Representative.

However, it would also like to record in this submission a number of abuses of

this nature, particularly as the abuses relate in most cases to efforts at

investigation or prosecution of abuses against human rights defenders described

earlier in this briefing.

Threats against Assistant Human Rights Procurator Waldemar Barrera

A number of abuses against staff of various offices of the Human Rights

Procurator were outlined in AI’s document, Guatemala’s Lethal Legacy. Since

then, there have been further incidents involving the Procurator’s regional staff.

Waldemar Barrera, Assistant Human Rights Procurator in Izabal Department

has been heading the Procurator’s inquiries into the apparent extrajudicial

execution of radio journalist Jorge Mynor Alegría on 5 September 2001,

(described below.) Barrera has publicly given the names of those he believes

responsible and in reprisal, has received a series of threatening calls,

demanding that he cease his investigations and make no further statements

about the case.


24

In a new incident on 5 May, an intruder broke into Barrera’s home in Zacapa

Department. Nothing was taken, and no footprints left, suggesting the job may

have been professional. Since then, Barrera has received further anonymous

telephone calls at his office: the caller either hangs up or sounds like gun shots

are heard. These latest incident may be related to Zacapa cases Barrera is

investigating, including the alleged killing of an 18 year old boy by a policeman

in October 2001 and investigations into illegal logging. In addition, Barrera is

involved in plans to compile a written account of the largely unknown history of

what happened during the civil conflict in Zacapa.

In a similar incident on 7 May, an attempt was made to break into the home of

Gustavo Adolfo Méndez, staff member in the Human Rights Procurator’s office in

Baja Verapaz department. The would-be intruder was reportedly captured.

C. Abuses related to efforts to implement Peace Accords

Human rights defenders and others advocating implementation of the

recommendations of the CEH and of the Peace Accords have been a principal

target of human rights violations in recent months. Two of the most

far-reaching planks of the Accords were those on the Identity and Rights of

Indigenous Peoples and on Socio-economic factors and the Agrarian Situation: If

implemented, the Indigenous Accord would give indigenous peoples a wide

range of economic, social and cultural rights, while the Socio-economic Accord

had promised to ensure the peasantry greater access to land. Powerful sectors

therefore view both as highly threatening to their interests.

Recently indigenous peasants suffering extreme levels of poverty and losing

confidence that either of the two Accords will ever be implemented have begun

taking more direct steps to try and obtain clear land titles. In a number of

areas, increasingly desperate groups of peasant farmers have occupied lands or

refused to vacate plots which they believe they have the right to cultivate.

Threats and attacks have followed as these illustrative incidents indicate:


25

Killing of Eugenio García of the los Cerritos Community, Izabal Department

Indigenous peasant farmer Eugenio García, a member of the Asociación

Campesina de Desarrollo de los Cerritos, Los Cerritos Small Farmers

Development Association in Izabal department, was shot dead on 27 September

2001 while on his way to cultivate his plot of land. Members of the community

had suffered a series of threats and attacks after pressing the government to

grant members the right to occupy and use state land which had been

incorporated into a neighbouring plantation, La Quebrada. On 5 September for

example, 100 heavily armed security men, reportedly encircled and fired on a

group of farmers from the Cerritos community, as they demonstrated for what

they believed to be their right to occupy and use La Quebrada lands.

Those who killed Garcia were said to be employed as security personnel by La

Quebrada’s owner. They reportedly left the scene escorted by a police patrol car,

whose registration and police driver were noted and reported to the authorities.

Eugenio García left a widow and 10 orphaned children. There has apparently

been no progress in bringing those responsible to justice.

Threats against Ovidio Paz Bal, Legal Advisor of Defensoría Indígena (Indigenous

Legal Aid)

Defensoría Indígena was created in the 1980s to seek justice for abuses

committed against indigenous peoples during the civil conflict. Taking the

Indigenous Accord as its framework, it now works to promote indigenous rights,

resolve community conflicts using traditional indigenous practices and promote

the recognition of the authority of traditional Mayan leaders within the state

structure.

Ovidio Paz Bal is Legal Advisor for the Defensoría’s Sololá branch. Since 26

January 2002, he has received a series of anonymous phone calls at his home

January, threatening “los vamos a matar, los vamos a matar", (“we are going to

kill you, we are going to kill you”.) Once, in the space of 24 hours, he received


26

10 such calls. He has reported the threats to the Human Rights Procurator,

the UN’s MINUGUA, which is mandated to verify implementation of the Peace

Accords, and the Human Rights Commission of Congress (COPREDEH).

Tension in Lanquín, Izabal leads to killing of land activist

On 8 March around 70 peasant farmers, moving as a group for safety, were on

their way to spray their crops on the Lanquín II banana plantation, in Morales,

Izabal Department. Some ranchers passed them in a truck, and then returned

with around 30 armed men, who blocked the road. Police arrived and charged

the farmers, who fled. Witnesses said that land activist José Benjamín Pérez was

first shot in the back by a police officer as he fled, then shot again at close range

by a local rancher, known to be a paramilitary leader, as he lay wounded on

the ground. However, police arrested peasant farmer Cecilio Méndez Hernández,

and charged him with the murder and possession of an illegal weapon. Some

500 banana workers staged a protest on 11 March, demanding the release of

Cecilio Méndez and calling for the real culprits to be brought to justice.

The issues underlying the land conflict which apparently gave rise to Perez’ death

are complicated, but as local sources fear there may be more violence in the

area, they are worth exploring.

Local peasant organizations claim that the Lanquín II lands are state lands and

so belong to the Guatemalan government. Under the Peace Accords,

state-owned land is to be “used to promote the peasantry's access to land”

(“promover el acceso de los campesinos a la propiedad de la tierra”) which the

peasants understand to mean that it should be distributed to them.

Furthermore, some 350 peasant farmers claim they have the right to cultivate

plots there under an earlier collective agreement reached by their union,

SITRABI, with the banana company BANDEGUA, the Guatemalan subsidiary of

the multinational fruit producer, Del Monte Fresh Produce, which also claims the

land.


27

Events began to come to a head when in 1998, Hurricane Mitch destroyed the

buildings, equipment and infrastructure of Lanquín II and other Guatemalan

banana plantations. Apparently to avoid paying rebuilding costs after this and

any future such natural disasters, BANDEGUA decided to sell the Lanquín II

plantation to local cattle ranchers, and pay them to grow and package bananas.

The company is said to already be leasing the disputed lands to the ranchers, but

before it can definitively sell the land, the company must first remove the

peasants who also claim and work lands there.

In 1999, in a bid to weaken the union, BANDEGUA broke the earlier collective

agreement by illegally firing 918 banana workers, 350 of whom claim plots on

Lanquín II lands. A few days later, armed ranchers were amongst gunmen who

took over a hall where SITRABI was meeting to protest the dismissals. Fearing

for their safety, the union’s leaders resigned, and later fled the country.

Local peasant organizations have been attempting to resolve the conflict

peacefully, and in 2000 BANDEGUA agreed to award the illegally fired workers

some compensation and not to turn over land to any persons involved in the

takeover of the union hall. However, BANDEGUA’s subsequent offer of the lands

to local cattle ranchers has made the ranchers anxious to gain control of the

lands, and it is for this reason that they are reportedly threatening and

harassing the peasants farmers. The ranchers allegedly have the support of

powerful political figures.

*Tension in San Marcos Department and resultant abuses

San Marcos, in Guatemala's northwestern highlands, has been a particularly

conflictive area in recent years as regards land conflicts, occupations and

evictions. During Guatemala’s civil conflict, peasants involved in similar

occupations were subjected to physical attacks, "disappearance," and extrajudicial

execution, carried out by men in plain clothes, acting under orders of the official

security forces. Church figures sympathetic to the peasants’ concerns also became

a major target of human rights violations. In one 18 month period in the early


28

1980s, 18 priests either "disappeared" or were subjected to extrajudicial

execution. A number of them were foreigners; several were Spanish.

Guatemalan Human rights groups fear that recent threats and attacks on

church figures in San Marcos and elsewhere who have supported peasant

concerns or have attempted to mediate in land conflicts may signal a return to

these patterns of the past.

*Threats against Bishop Alvaro Ramazinni and Father Juan José Aldaz

Donamaría

On 26 February 2002, some 350 peasant families occupied the San Luis estate,

Malacatán municipality, San Marcos, in an effort to secure recognition of what

they say are their rights to the estate’s lands. They point to titles granted by

the government of the reformist President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán under 1944

agrarian reform, which they say gave them rightful ownership. However, the

Chamber of Agriculture insists that the land is private property.

Local church figures, led by Bishop Ramazinni have attempted to mediate, and

have also provided the occupiers with accompaniment, legal advice and water.

The peasants insist he did not encourage them to occupy San Luis, but local

newspaper report that landowners and other powerful figures in San Marcos

including the Chamber of Agriculture, have openly accused him of inciting the

occupation.

Reprisals quickly followed: On 3 March an unidentified caller to La Buena Nueva,

a San Marcos church radio station, threatened that if the Church continued to

interfere, an apparent reference to the land occupation, "vamos a actuar donde

más le duele" (we will hit where it hurts most).

The threats may also arise from public statements Bishop Ramazinni made in

the week of 25 February about apparent intimidation of the priest at San José

El Rodeo, Juan José Aldaz Donamaría. Father Aldaz, of Spanish origin, but now


29

a Guatemalan national has assisted refugees from the conflict to return home to

Guatemala, and has provided health care for them and other local peasants.

On 22 February 2002, Father Aldaz reported that he was being followed by two

armed individuals. The two also reportedly inquired after his whereabouts at his

parish health clinic. Father Aldaz was absent at the time, but according to the

sworn statement of a health worker there, the men implied a funeral mass was

to be organised for him. They warned the health worker not to follow them, and

left in a car with tinted windows, indicating they would return. Bishop

Ramazinni asked for protection for Father Aldaz and requested that MINUGUA

verify that the Public Prosecutor’s office was investigating the case. The threats

against the Bishop followed shortly afterwards.

In protest at the threats against Ramazinni and Aldaz, hundreds of peasant

farmers marched through San José El Rodeo on 16 March. In apparent reprisal,

the following day burglars broke into three offices in the Casa Diocesana (the

Diocese’s administrative centre). They stole money from a safe in the office of the

Pastoral de la Tierra (Land Ministry), which has been involved in mediation

between landowners and the peasants occupying the San Luis finca), but left

other cash from the safe lying on a desk, suggesting their motive was not simply

robbery. They also apparently searched computer files in the office.

The next day, several offices of the Casa Diocesana received anonymous calls

saying, “lo que está pasando no es nada a lo que pueda suceder y que Monseñor

se cuide” (what’s happening now is nothing compared to what could happen,

and Monsignor [Bishop Ramazinni] should watch out).

In another incident, apparently related to events in San Marcos, armed men

broke into the offices of the social science research institute, AVANCSO on 20

March, shortly after the Institute had put its name to a paid advertisement

supporting Mons. Ramazinni. The caretaker was clearly told by the intruders

they did not intend to steal anything, and the raid was interpreted as further

intimidation.


30

In late March, still other threats related to the San Marcos land dispute were

reported. The victims were Luis Chávez of the Coordinadora Nacional Sindical y

Popular (CNSP), the National Trade Union and Popular Movement Coordinating

Body, who works as an advisor to two rural workers unions, one in Retalhuleu

Department, the other in San Marcos Department, and Eleodoro Chums, a farm

workers’ leader on the San Luis estate, San Marcos. Both blamed the threats on

local ranchers, pointing specifically to the Asociación de Ganaderos del sur

Occidente de Guatemala (AGSOGUA), the Southwestern Cattle Ranchers

Association of Guatemala.

In the same month, Gilmar Vallejos Velásquez, who works with the same land

organization Chávez advises in the Department of Retalhuleu, also reported

threats.

All three men have reported the threats to MINUGUA and say they will hold

AGSOGUA and the Guatemalan authorities responsible for any attacks upon

them.

D. Resurgence of civil patrols

The civil patrols served as civilian adjuncts to the Guatemalan military during

the civil conflict and were widely cited as responsible for abuses against the

rural population. They were to have been disbanded under the Peace Accords.

However, worrying incidents reported from a number of areas in Guatemala

suggest that they are re-surfacing and carrying out new violations. Three such

incidents were reported for example in June 2001 alone.

The attack in El Quiché in which Domingo Us Quixán, a well-known community

leader, was shot and killed has already been described above. In other attacks by

parollers, at Los Cimientos, Quiché, and Repollaso Juquinay in Baja Verapaz,

community members were beaten, raped and terrorised. These latter two

attacks were reportedly related to land disputes, illustrating yet again the

importance of ensuring that the patrols no longer operate and that elements of


31

the Peace Accords which addressed Guatemala’s deep-seated social and

economic issues are implemented.

E. Journalists

Journalists reporting on human rights issues, including anti-impunity initiatives,

efforts to implement the Peace Accords and CEH recommendations, or

regarding allegations of corruption or other malfeasance by public officials have

also been targetted in apparent efforts to silence them. In the context of

deteriorating public security, the la Asociación de Periodistas de Guatemala

(APG), Guatemalan Press Association, fears that such attacks are easily disguised

as common crimes.

Extrajudicial execution of radio presenter Jorge Mynor Alegría

Jorge Mynor Alegría was the presenter of a radio phone-in show on which he

regularly denounced alleged corruption and wrong-doing by Izabal district

officials and encouraged callers to the program to do the same. He had received

a number of public death threats from the mayor in the presence of witnesses,

and from other officials from the local Santo Tomás de Castilla port authority.

They and other municipal officials also allegedly offered him bribes to stop his

denunciations, but he refused. He was shot dead outside his home in Puerto

Barrios on 5 September 2001.

In May 2002, the mayor was reportedly suspended from his post, and an arrest

warrant issued again him. The mayor, a member of President Portillo’s ruling

party had allegedly contracted a hired gunman to kill Alegría. The same gunman

also allegedly carried out the contract killings in February 2000 of two

employees of CONAP, the official agency mandated to prevent illegal exploitation

of protected lands in Guatemala, a case also discussed in Guatemala’s Lethal

Legacy.


32

Meanwhile, as explained above, staff of the local office of the Human Rights

Procurator who have been investigating Alegría’s murder, have received death

threats.

Abduction of David Herrera

Journalist David Herrera was abducted by gunmen on 10 April, but managed to

escape. The abduction appears to have been linked to his assistance to foreign

journalists and film crews visiting Guatemala to investigate human rights issues.

At the time of his abduction, Herrera had been assisting a journalist from US

National Public Radio (NPR) to collect information on a range of human rights

issues including the government’s failure to implement the Peace Accords; the

recent killing of a member of a new political party, in an apparent extrajudicial

execution; the 30 January raid by the Guatemalan Anti-Narcotics Squad on the

small hamlet of Chocón in Livingston, in which at least two villagers were killed

and one “disappeared”; and a new exhumation of a mass grave of people killed

by the armed forces during the civil conflict, in the Rabinal area, Baja Verapaz

Department..

As he left his office in downtown Guatemala City to pick up the NPR journalist,

Herrera was seized by four armed men with what he described as

“military-style” haircuts. They forced him into his rented car, and three then

drove off with him. They threatened to kill him, and demanded “the material”

(la materia), which he took to mean tapes from sensitive interviews carried out

the day before.

Herrera escaped by jumping from the moving car, but lost all his papers,

including his passport. The following day the Guatemalan authorities dismissed

the abduction as a simple car jacking, before any investigation had taken place

and without interviewing either Herrera or the NPR journalist.

As a result of his ordeal, Herrera was hospitalised for psychological treatment,

and then went into hiding. When he emerged to replace his passport and obtain


33

a visa to leave the country, he was followed by two armed men. He was

eventually able to flee abroad.

Other recent incidents involving journalists

Carlos Víctor Hugo Hernández Rivas, director of the news radio programmes

Impacto, transmitted on Radio La Voz de Huehuetenango, The Voice of

Huehuetenango, and Ultimas Noticias, Latest News, on Radio Santa Fé in

Huehuetenango, was subject to an illegal raid on his administrative office on 1

February. According to his testimony, several public prosecutors from the

Public Ministry, together with staff from the Service of Criminal Investigations

(SIC) and 10 members of the National Civil Police arrived in police cars and

private vehicles. They forced their way into the office outside the authorized

hours for such raids and apparently without a warrant and searched the

archives. Hernández Rivas has filed a complaint with the Human Rights

Procurator Office.

Arnulfo Agustín Guzman, general director of Radio Sonora, situated in

Guatemala city, suffered death threats and a kidnapping attempt by a group of

four armed men on the night of 5 February in front of the radio station. The

men fled when a security officer caught sight of them, but shot at the victim’s

vehicle.

On 6 February, Deccio Serrano, photographer for the newspaper Nuestro

Diario, Our Daily and other members of the press were filmed and then

attacked by agents of the Municipal Traffic Police (EMETRA), as they arrived to

cover a traffic dispute. On the same day, José Cándido Barrillas, director of the

Comisión de Libertad de Prensa of the APG, the Commission for Freedom of

Press of the Guatemalan Press Association, was assaulted, forced into a car at

gunpoint and later released; Journalist Ana Lucía Ramírez was attacked whilst

travelling on a bus in an affluent district of the capital and journalist Nery de la

Cruz of Radio Sonora was attacked outside the Radio's offices.


34

F. Some of AI’s other human rights concerns in Guatemala

AI understands that the Special Representative is necessarily most concerned

with inquiring into abuses directed at human rights defenders. However, it

presents here a brief description of some other current human rights concerns in

Guatemala to place abuses against defenders in context and because mention of

these other problems in Guatemala may be helpful in understanding the causes

and ramifications of the break-down of law and justice in that society.

Lynchings

As of mid-2001, the UN Verification Mission in Guatemala, MINUGUA, reported

that some 346 people had been lynched since the mission first began monitoring

the phenomenon after the Peace Accords were signed in 1996. Already at

worrying levels under his predecessor, lynchings have further increased since

President Portillo took office: By year’s end, the toll for 2001 was 75 lynchings,

resulting in 27 deaths and 140 injuries. Only 13 percent went to trial, and

sentences were passed in only 29 cases. Some 17 further lynchings have been

registered in the course of 2002.

The official line is that lynchings are a spontaneous phenomenon, when citizens

concerned at the rising levels of common crime take the law into their own

hands. There is no doubt that public concern at citizen security issues is high,

and there is no doubt that lynchings are sometimes the result of impulsive

actions by groups of outraged citizens. However on other occasions, there have

been indications that they are sometimes planned and instigated by outside

interests for their own purposes.

At Xalbaquiej, El Quiché in July 2000 for example, supposed lynchings were

apparently a facade for the elimination by former civil patrollers of villagers who


35

had accused them of responsibility for human rights violations, in this case the

massacre of their relatives in 1993. The patrollers allegedly acted with the

support of powerful local officials linked to the ruling party of President Portillo.

In a similar vein, the lynching of a judge in Senahú, Alta Verapaz in March

2001 was initially characterized as a spontaneous expression of local discontent

with the judge’s alleged lack of respect for indigenous practices. However, an AI

delegation to Guatemala in June 2001 was told that the judge’s efforts to crack

a gang of car thieves in which powerful local and national figures were involved

and his inquiries into corruption allegations against local authorities may have

been the real reasons that the fatal attack against him was planned and

instigated.

Social cleansing

Reports also continued to suggest that attacks on street children and sex

workers including transvestites were not seriously investigated by the police,

indeed may have been instigated or carried out by them. Cases unclarified during

the Portillo administration despite the calls of AI and others for their thorough

investigation included the killings in July 2000 of two transvestite sex workers,

Astrid la Fontaine (real name Roberto Martínez Castillo) and Beverly Lineth and

the drive-by shooting in August 2001 of transvestite Mario Leonel Rodíguez

Monzón, known as “Tutis,” in Guatemala City.

Corruption

Reports of corruption in Guatemala are continuous and in such a context

scandals such as “Guategate,” the Tipografía Nacional2 affair and a seemingly

2 The Guategate scandal involved allegations that members of Congress including its


36

endless series of allegations concerning illegal activities by large banks in which

powerful political, military and business figures have interests, contribute further

to erosion in the rule of law and the weakening faith of the common citizen in

the government and the judiciary.

The death penalty

In Guatemala, the existence and application of the death penalty is not directly

relevant to the mandate of the Special Representative, as common criminals

rather than human rights defenders or other social activists have been the

victims of capital punishment, but the fact that it is arbitrarily and inequitably

applied, and that it is offered up as the government’s response and “solution” to

the country’s high incidence of common crime, is worthy of note.

President, General Efraín Ríos Montt had acted at the behest of powerful liquor interests to alter

a law on liquor duties after it had been passed by Congress. The Tipografía Nacional affair arose

from allegations that Guatemalan Vice President Juan Francisco Reyes had illegally ordered the

government printing offices to print leaflets attacking another official.

Documents

GUATEMALA - Amnesty InternationalNot only has the government’s failure to deal with past ... lead to a richer interchange of ideas and information. Given the recent threats against