GUATEMALA DEATH THREATS …
January 14, 2009
MORE THREATS AGAINST PEOPLE & ORGANIZATIONS SEEKING TRUTH ABOUT AND JUSTICE FOR STATE CRIMES & GENOCIDE OF THE PAST
BELOW: Information, from the Guatemalan exhumation team [FAFG - Guatemalan Foundation of Forensic Anthropology] about death threats they are receiving
RIGHTS ACTION COMMENT: Since 1992, the FAFG has carried out exhumations across Guatemala, digging up the remains of victims of the US & western-backed State terrorism and genocide in Guatemala, determining – when possible – cause of death and identity.
Every exhumation initiates criminal proceedings to determine cause of death and who committed the crime.
Evidence recovered by the FAFG is being used in numerous criminal trials, including the 2 genocide cases in Guatemalan courts (that are not advancing due to the impunity of the military and powerful economic sectors, and the lack of political will from Guatemalan politicians and the international community) and the genocide case before the Spanish courts that is advancing, … slowly and painfully.
For a number of years, Rights Action has provided funds to the FAFG and we regularly take our educational delegations to visit the FAFG and learn of the scope of their work.
WHAT TO DO: see below. JOIN RIGHTS ACTION’S EMAIL LIST: http://www.rightsaction.org/lists/?p=subscribe&id=3
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NEW THREATS RECEIVED BY THE GUATEMALAN FORENSIC ANTROPOLOGY FOUNDATION (FAFG)
Friday, 9th January 2009
Yesterday, Thursday, 8th January 2009, Fredy Peccerelli, Executive Director of the FAFG, received an email sent from the address juantok@yahoo.com, with a copy sent to Omar Bertoni Girón, Head of the FAFG’s Forensic Anthropology Department. The email contains the following message:
“Bloody bastard fredy, we are watching you fucking revolutionary your families will pay the price we are watching you and we will start with your siblings, first we will kill yani I am sending photos so you don’t think it’s a joke.”
A photo taken on the 5th January 2009 of a car, property of Gianni Peccerelli, brother of Fredy Peccerelli, parked at a gas station close to the homes of Fredy and Gianni Peccerelli was attached to the email.
The FAFG has received threats since 2002, and the State of Guatemala has been ordered to provide security for the FAFG and its staff by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Last year, the FAFG received threats on several occasions, the last being text messages via cell phones during the month of June.
We are asking the Public Prosecutor’s Office to conduct an exhaustive investigation of the threats received over the last seven years, as so far no one has been held responsible for the more than 30 direct threats made.
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SECOND THREAT IN FOUR DAYS RECEIVED BY THE GUATEMALAN FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY FOUNDATION (FAFG)
Monday, 12th January 2009
We regret having to inform you that today Omar Bertoni Girón, Head of the FAFG’s Forensic Anthropology Laboratory, and Fredy Peccerelli, Executive Director of the FAFG, received an email stating:
“OK you bastards, you haven’t taken us seriously. This will show you. Omar your wife looks very good in red with your daughter. We saw them today in front of the FAFG. You fucking revolutionaries won’t stop until we kill you. Fredy your suit won’t be of any use to you, after we kill you they will never find you. You have little time left you bastard, first your siblings then you revolutionary anthropologists. Death”
Omar Bertoni Girón is also Fredy Peccerelli’s brother-in-law, married to Bianka Peccerelli. She, accompanied by their daughter, dropped off her husband at the FAFG at 09.46 this morning.
The email was sent under the name of Pedro Yax, from the address yax_p@yahoo.com.
Two death threats received last year on the 19th and 22nd May were sent under the same name, but from a different address. Both Omar Bertoni Girón and Fredy Peccerelli received a previous death threat via email last Thursday, 8th January.
We insist that the Public Prosecutor´s Office investigate the origin of the threats thoroughly and, considering the seriousness and detailed nature of this last threat, the heightening of the security provided by the State of Guatemala for the FAFG.
FUNDACIÓN DE ANTROPOLOGÍA FORENSE DE GUATEMALA
Avenida Simeón Cañas 10-64, Zona 2, Ciudad de Guatemala. Tel./Fax 2288-7297, 2288-7302 y 2254-0882. Subsede: 1ª Calle 1-53, Zona 2. Tel./Fax 2232-4843, 2220-3537, 2238-4674 y 2232-6774
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FOR MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT THE FAFG: Silke Gatermann, Technical Assistant to the Executive Director, silke.gatermann@fafg.org
WHAT TO DO
EDUCATIONAL DELEGATION-SEMINARS: Form your own group and come on an educational seminar trip to learn more about community and Indigenous development, human rights and environmental issues in Guatemala and Honduras.
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DAILY NEWS: Watch & listen to www.democracynow.org; Read www.upsidedownworld.org, www.dominionpaper.ca
BOOKS TO READ: Eduardo Galeano’s “Open Veins of Latin America”; Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”; Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”; Paolo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”;
www.rightsaction.org - Based in Guatemala, Rights Action (with tax-deductible legal status in Canada and USA) funds and works with community-based Indigenous, development, environment and human rights organizations in Guatemala and Honduras, and also in Oaxaca, Chiapas, El Salvador, Peru, Haiti and Nicaragua; and educates about and is involved in activism related to global development, environmental and Indigenous and human rights struggles.