Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA
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Justice and Impunity
For up-to-date weekly news, visit our blog.
December 15, 2011: Former military officer and PAC members to be tried for Plan de Sanchez massacre. Judge Carol Patricia Flores has ruled that ex-military Lucas Tecú and former PAC members Julián Acoj Morales, Mario Acoj Morales, Santos Rosales García and Eusebio Grave García will stand trial for the death of 256 members of the community of Plan de Sánchez, Rabinal, Baja Verapaz during the armed conflict. According to the accusations put forth by the Attorney General, the five former officers were directly involved in the massacre in Rabinal on July 18th, 1982 and are being charged with crimes against humanity and murder.
December 5, 2011: Millions of documents from the national police to be available online. The Guatemala Times and El Periodico report on the recent release of millions of documents from the Guatemalan national police archives, which will now be publicly available online thanks to collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin. The documents contain valuable information on torture, forced disappearances and violence during Guatemala’s armed conflict. Read more about the archives and the history of the national police at UT-Austin’s website.
December 2, 2011: 38 supposed guerilla members accused of crimes against humanity. Groups such as the Association of Military Widows (Asomilgua) continue to carryout out public attacks against Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz, demanding investigation of 36 supposed guerilla members, which include her aunt, Laura Paz y Paz, and her deceased father, Enrique Paz y Paz. The supposed guerrilla members are being accused as the intellectual authors and directors of more than 45 acts of violence committed between 1978 and 1982.
August 8, 2011: Another UCN activist murdered. The municipal council candidate of Santa Cruz Muluá, Retalhuleu, for the UCN, Eliseo Mejía, and the activist Bosbelí De la Cruz, were attacked by fire arms when coming back from a rally. De la Cruz died hours later while Mejía is still wounded. [Siglo XXI]
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August 8, 2011: Jutiapa mayor murdered. The Xinca mayor of Jutiapa, Dimas Encarnación Ramírez López, was shot to death Saturday, August 6. He was also coordinator of the Nationalist Change Union (UCN). Vicente Ramírez, director of the Xinca community, stated that he believes Ramírez López was murdered because of his activism in defending the rights of the indigenous community. [Prensa Libre]
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August 3, 2011: Exkaibiles sentenced in Dos Erres case. Daniel Martínez Méndez, Manuel Pop Zun, and Reyes Collin Gualip received a sentencing of 6,060 years for the 201 murders and human rights violations they committed. Carlos Antonio Carías López was sentenced to 6,066 years in prison for being the intellectual author of the massacre and for two previous crimes. [El Periodico]
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August 2, 2011: The Public Ministry demands 12,060 years for Dos Erres case. Exkaibiles Daniel Martínez Méndez, Manuel Pop Zun, Reyes Collin Gualip and Carlos Antonio Carías are under trial for the massacre that occured at Dos Erres in Petén on December 4-8, 1982. [El Periodico]
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July 26, 2011: Guatemala tries soldiers on massacre charges. Four men were brought to trial in Guatemala City this week for involvement in the Dos Erres massacre in Petén in 1982. The men pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and crimes against humanity. Opening testimony was provided by two former Kaibiles under protected witness status who described the way that the massacre took place, and testified to the horrors that occurred. This is the first massacre trial from the internal armed conflict to be heard in Guatemalan courts. [El Periodico], [Al Jazeera]
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July 13, 2011: United States deports Guatemalan ex-Kaibil linked with Dos Erres Massacre. Pedro Pimentel Ríos, a former Kaibil linked with participation in the 1982 Dos Erres Massacre was deported from the United States on the basis of illegal documents. He was arrested upon his arrival in Guatemala by the Guatemalan air force. [El Periodico], [Chicago Times]
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June 27, 2011: Former Mayor José Pérez Chen captured and arrested for crimes of violence and attempted murder. The former mayor of San Juan Cotzal was captured with allegations against him including abuse of authority, attempted murder, illicit associations, and extrajudicial killings. [El Periodico], [Siglo XXI]
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June 24, 2011: President Colom authorizes the release of nearly 12,000 government documents. President Colom announced the release for public viewing of over 12,000 government documents pertaining to the period between 1960 and 1996.
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June 20, 2011: Ex-Armed Forces General Lopez Fuentes arrested in Guatemala City. Hector Mario Lopez Fuentes was arrested Friday, June 17th for genocide in the Maya Ixil region during the 36-year Internal Armed Conflict. The Office of Public Prosecutions has said that he was involved in the murder of over 300 Mayan people during the Rios Montt dictatorship from 1982 to 1983. [El Periodico] , [BBC]
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June 9, 2011: Police chief arrested for disappearance of union leader Fernando Garcia. The National Civil Police (PNC) and the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) captured Héctor Bol de la Cruz, the Director in 1984 of the former National Police involved in the disappearance of union and university leader Fernando Garcia. He is the fourth person arrested for the crime. [Prensa Libre]
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May 31, 2011: Murders of prosecutors cause extreme concern to the UN. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights today expressed "extreme concern "about a new pattern of killings that has emerged in Central America which have made public prosecutors the victims of organized crime. [Prensa Libre]
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May 17, 2011: 70 Guatemalan human rights defenders protested the upcoming arrival of General Perez Molina. The protest addressed Guatemalan General Otto Perez Molina’s upcoming visit to Washington, D.C. to seek support for his presidential campaign in the September 2011 election. People of all ages (including a four year old girl and an 80 year old blind activist) held signs stating “No Visas for Torturers, Authors of Genocide, or War Criminals”. A thirty foot banner with photos of mass grave exhumations, victims’ families, and indigenous women served as a backdrop to the protest.
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March 3, 2011: Civil society lends support to the work of the CICIG. Representatives of more than 100 social, humanitarian and cooperative organizations, as well as members of the Diplomatic Corps expressed their support yesterday for the work of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), after a series of campaigns against it. [Prensa Libre]
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February 21, 2011: Jennifery Harbury speaks publicly on the case of her husband, Everardo Bámaca. After a year of work to move the case of Everardo Bamaca forward, Jennifer Harbury spoke with La Hora about her struggle for justice. The interview comes after the Bámaca Case was suspended again by the Constitutional Court on February 13. Colonel Alpirez, one of the accused, presented a motion to suspend the reopening of the case. He claims it violates his right to defense and that the Inter-American Court's ruling is not imparcial. Guatemala has an obligation to comply with international law, but has failed to do so since 2000 when the Court ordered the government to investigate the case.
Read background on the case and view all relevant documents at www.casobamaca.org.
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February 21, 2011: International community urges denial of bail for ex-kaibil wanted for war crimes. GHRC joins partners across the U.S. and Canada, including the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Networkand Canadian Centre for International Justice, in pushing for criminal charges to be filed against Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, a member of the kaibil unit (Guatemalan special forces) responsible for the brutal massacre of the community of Dos Erres. The international community asks that Sosa not be granted bail, and that he be investigated for war crimes in Canada. The U.S. has requested his extradition on charges of immigration fraud, and he faces charges in Guatemala for crimes against humanity and could face charges in Spain for genocide. Canadian legislation would allow Jorge Vinicio Orantes Sosa to be tried under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, which implements the principle of "universal jurisdiction," and allows his prosecution in Canada even though the crimes occurred in Guatemala. His bail hearing will be held February 23.
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January 26, 2011: Supreme Court orders reopening of Bámaca Case. The Guatemalan Supreme Court resolved to reopen the case of the disappeared guerrilla Efrain Bámaca, husband of Jennifer Harbury. The decision was based on the resolution emitted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in 2000 that ordered the case to be reopened. The Guatemalan Constitutional Court tried to close the case, but the IACHR argued that the case was considered a crime against humanity and therefore could not be closed. The office of the UN High Commissioner called the decision “significant,” saying it “sends a clear message that the grave human rights violations committed during the internal armed conflict won’t remain in impunity.” [CEG] Read background on the case.
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January 21, 2011: CICIG's mandate extended. The CICIG’s (UN-backed Anti-Impunity Commission) mandate was extended for an additional two years (until Sept. 2, 2011). The extension was requested by the Guatemalan Minister of Foreign Relations and agreed upon by the UN Secretary General in a letter on Jan. 13, 2011. All UN member states present in the December General Assembly supported the resolution and urged the Guatemalan Government to continue its collaboration with the CICIG and to redouble its efforts to support the rule of law and human rights.
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January 21, 2011: Guatemalan kaibil captured in Canada for massacre at Dos Erres, Peten. Jorge Vinicio Orantes Sosa, a former Guatemalan special forces officer, or kaibil, was detained in Canada while visiting his parents. He is accused of having led the massacre of 251 farmers in the community of Dos Erres, Peten in 1982 and had fled the United States to escape arrest. The U.S. has requested his extradition to process charges against for falsifying information on his application for citizenship. [Read more at the NSA Archive.]
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January 19, 2011: Judge orders opening of public trial against two men accused of murdering human rights defender Pedro Ramírez
The Judge of the First District Criminal Court in Salamá, announced the opening of a public trial for the murder of Pedro Ramírez. The defendants, Benito and Alberto Taperia, stand accused of Ramírez’s murder, committed November 29, 2009.
After three months of delay, the allegations of prosecuting attorney, Julia Ramírez Reyes, were finally declared sufficient to establish the opening of a trial in the near future.
Pedro Ramírez was a human rights defender of Guatemalan indigenous communities, and a member of various indigenous rights groups, among them the local Community Development Council (COCODE by its Spanish acronym). He dedicated himself to the defense of indigenous rights, leading him to denounce the corrupt actions of the COCODE in his community, and he became involved in a dispute with another family with whom there was a long-standing dispute over land rights. After a series of threats, Ramírez was murdered.
The Ramírez family has since sought justice for his murder. The threats continue.
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