Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA

ON THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE NUEVA LINDA MASSACRE

August 31, 2005

The Guatemalan Human Rights Commission/USA expresses solidarity with the families and friends of those who died in the violence, including:

1. Official Rudy Baltasar Quiej de la Cruz, Special Police Forces

2. Agent Bernardo Raúl López Méndez, Special Police Forces

3. Agent Jorge Aurelio López Caal, of the section of explosives

4. Jaime Rocael Ángel Monzón, campesino

5. David Natanahel Cabrera García, student, 17 years old

6. Jacobo Abraham Vicente Elías, student, 17 years old

7. Víctor Pérez Vásquez, campesino,16 years old

8. Edwin Anibal Gramajo González, campesino, 43 years old

9. Miguel Ramos Quich, campesino, 69 years old.

10. Pedro López Vásquez, campesino, 43 years old

One police officer and one campesino, whose names unfortunately we do not know, later died in the hospital, bringing the total number of deaths to twelve. At least five deaths have been characterized by the Human Rights Procurator as extrajudicial executions committed by the Guatemalan security forces. The Procurator also reports torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, abuse of authority, obstruction of justice, and violence against vulnerable populations (children, women, and older adults).

More than forty people were injured. Among those mistreated by police, according to the Human Rights Procurator’s report, were a five-year-old boy; a sixteen-year-old boy who was chased by seven officers who beat him into unconsciousness and later forced him to pose with a mortar while they photographed him; a woman who was severely beaten and then arrested; six journalists who had filmed and photographed various incidents of abuse and then were themselves threatened and physically assaulted by officers who stole their equipment and destroyed the tapes.

After the eviction, the police, backed by the army, burned the campesinos’ huts and possessions, destroyed their crops, and killed their domestic animals.

The Guatemala Human Rights Commission notes that the violence that took place at Nueva Linda could have been avoided if the Guatemalan government had effectively investigated and prosecuted the September 5, 2003 abduction of Hector Reyes Pérez, the community leader and finca administrator. Months earlier, the Human Rights Procurator requested the appointment of a special prosecutor to the case. No special prosecutor was named. Several days before the eviction a judge issued arrest warrants for those accused of his abduction, Vidal Fernández and Víctor Chinchilla. If the arrest warrants had been served perhaps no confrontation would have occurred. Campesino leaders and the governor for the department of Retalhuleu, aided by the local human rights procurator, were discussing a peaceful solution to the conflict when the police, without any warning, advanced to forcibly carry out the eviction. If the negotiations had been allowed to continue, twelve people might still be alive.

In a December 2004 interview with GHRC, the human rights officer at the US embassy, said, “The police were shot at first when they were unarmed. Officers of the state also have the right to defend themselves.” This statement contradicts the findings of the Human Rights Procurator, whose work was characterized by the UN mission in Guatemala as “serious and independent.” According to his report shots were simultaneously heard coming from both sides.

Regardless of who initiated the violence, the main point is this: agents of the Guatemalan government are credibly alleged to have committed extrajudicial executions, torture, abuse of authority, and other crimes. Journalists witnessed these events.

Yet while various campesino and human rights groups and two members of Guatemalan Congress called for the dismissal of the Minister of the Interior and the Chief of Police, the US embassy appeared to try to justify the actions taken by the Guatemalan security forces.

Perhaps if the United States had responded differently to the allegations of torture, extrajudicial execution, and abuse of authority by the Guatemalan security forces, events would not have unfolded as they did in Sololá on January 11, when police opened fire on a crowd of protesters, killing a campesino, or on March 15 in Colotenango, when security forces again opened fire, wounded a number of people, one so seriously he lost his leg. Again, in this case, police are accused of torture and extrajudicial execution. Witnesses saw police officers drag Juan López Gómez into an alley and beat him repeatedly. Then they executed him with a shot to the head. Again, the US government was silent.

The human rights official at the US embassy put it this way: “It’s not like we have the responsibility to investigate this.” Perhaps not. But if the US government claims to support the rule of law in Guatemala, the US government must publicly call on the Guatemalan government to fully investigate and prosecute these incidents: the disappearance of Hector Reyes; the violence at Nueva Linda on August 31, 2004; the murder of German Morales Mollinero, the father of one of the journalists who witnessed the events, was attacked, and filed suit; the killing of Raul Castro Bocel in Sololá; the murder of Juan López Gómez in Colotenango; and the more than 130 attacks on human rights defenders that have occurred since January 2005.

To remain silent in the face of these abuses—worse, to excuse them—and worse yet, to press for the restoration of military aid to an army that has backed up the police or participated with the police in the shooting of protesters and is alleged to be involved through its intelligence sectors in the targeting of human rights defenders—amounts to complicity. We call on the US government to stand, not for repression, but for justice.

 

Home | Site Map | Contact Us

3321 12th Street NE, Washington, DC 20017

This site is maintained by the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA
as a means of informing the general public of the Commission's work
on behalf of the people of Guatemala