November 12, 2006
GUATEMALA: ARREST WARRANTS AGAINST FORMER MILITARY!
Since the early 90s, Rights Action has funded and worked with dozens of
community based organizations in Guatemala, founded by and comprised of
victims of Guatemala's repression and genocide. These 'victims' have
overcome huge obstacles - trauma, continuing poverty and exploitation,
continuing impunity and repression - to become 'protagonists' in struggles
to build a decent society characterized by, amongst other things, a fair and
equitable rule of law.
BELOW: A summary, prepared by NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with Guatemala
– www.nisgua.org) about on-going legal work to hold the ‘intellectual
authors’ accountable.
COMMENTARY: This creative and important legal work does NOT address the
role played by the U.S. government – and other government and actors in the
“international community” – in designing and supporting the genocide and
state terrorism in Guatemala. This work – holding Guatemala’s partners and
supporters accountable – needs to be initiated in the U.S. and elsewhere.
If you want on-off this elist: info@rightsaction.org. WHAT TO DO: see
below.
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GUATEMALA: ARREST WARRANTS AGAINST FORMER MILITARY OFFICIALS
Guatemalan courts decided to give the green light for the extradition to
Spain of retired military officials Mejia Víctores, Angel Aníbal Guevara,
Benedicto Lucas Garcia, German Chupina Barahona, Donaldo Alvarez and Pedro
Garcia Arredondo. These are six of the former military officials who are
accused of carrying out genocide and, in this case, charged with the burning
of the Spanish Embassy on January 30th, 1980.
War survivors in the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) are
involved as co-plaintiffs in this case alongside the Rigoberta Menchú
Foundation. The AJR has presented national genocide cases against the former
high military commands, with legal support from the Center for Human Rights
Legal Action (CALDH). NISGUA/G.A.P. has been accompanying the AJR since
2000.
The officials have been charged with terrorism, homicide, and kidnapping,
but not genocide.
Yesterday, November 7, Former Defense Minister Ángel Aníbal Guevara turned
himself into the police upon hearing of the arrest warrant. He was
transferred to the prison in Zone 18. According to the defense lawyer, the
detention is illegal, violating constitutional guarantees. Guevara is 81
years old.
Germán Chupina, 86, is in the hospital under police custody. At 7am
yesterday, a group of police arrived to carry out the arrest warrants. At
9am, an ambulance from the National Police arrived to determine his state of
health and then transferred him to a clinic. According to the doctor that
takes care of him, he is sick with diarrhea, vomit and other maladies which
merit his stay in the hospital. Defendants in other prominent legal cases
have similarly gone to the hospital instead of prison.
Search warrants were issued for defendants’ houses. Mejia Víctores has not
been found, and some speculate that he is in the United States, though this
has not been confirmed. He had proclaimed that he would leave if arrest
warrants appeared imminent.
RÍOS MONTT ESCAPES ARREST
Unfortunately, the court decided not to issue an arrest warrant (that could
also ultimately lead to extradition) for Efrain Ríos Montt. The judges
(Morelia Rios, Isaías Figueroa and Bélgica Deras Román) stated that the
Spanish investigation did not bring forward enough elements to prove the
participation of Rios Montt in the burning of the Spanish Embassy nor his
responsibility for the deaths that resulted.
Furthermore, the orders do not include former president Romeo Lucas Garcia
who died in May of this year in Venezuela. People in Guatemala had hoped
that he would still be included to symbolically bring justice to the many
people who were massacred under his regime.
The original arrest warrant sent from Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz (who
visited Guatemala this past summer) included the charges of genocide for the
massacres that occurred during the armed conflict and specified that the
majority of these crimes occurred during the period of Rios Montt's
government. The official arrest warrant reads, "During Rios Montt's reign,
69% of all executions took place, 41% of rapes and sexual assaults, and 45%
of tortures of all the registered cases, as documented in the Commission for
Historical Clarification."
Currently, people on the ground in Guatemala are trying to see if it is
possible to appeal the decision and therefore include Rios Montt in the
arrest. Meanwhile, the defendants’ lawyers are sure to present many appeals
to prevent the ultimate arrests and extradition of the accused.
Further, these legal proceedings take place in the context of serious
political play between the various parties. The final extradition order must
be signed by President Oscar Berger of the GANA party. With the influence
that Rios Montt's party, the FRG, has in Congress and the various crises
that GANA is confronting (such as the setback in Congress of the approval of
various megaprojects), it is unlikely that GANA will seriously jeopardize
good relations with the FRG by extraditing the party’s leader.
Nevertheless, there is reason in the human rights community to celebrate
this initial victory. "We must analyze the resolution, but what we see as
positive is the fact that universal jurisdiction was accepted…we ask that
the errors committed be made right," expressed Eduardo de León of the
Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation.
THE SPANISH PETITION
In 1999, Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum submitted a complaint to the
Spanish National Court against Guatemala’s military high command for the
crimes of genocide, terrorism, and torture committed between the years 1978
and 1986. After years of legal battles, in September 2005 the Spanish
Constitutional Court ruled that the case could be tried in Spain. They based
their decision on the principle of Universal Jurisdiction which holds that
some crimes are offenses against humanity and therefore prosecutable in the
national courts of any country, regardless of the nationality of the victims
or perpetrators.
In June 2006, a Spanish investigative commission arrived in Guatemala. The
defendants filed over a dozen appeals to avoid being questioned.
On July 7, Spanish Judge Pedraz issued international arrest warrants against
three former presidents and five other former officials and ordered the
freezing of their assets.
On October 27th, Guatemala’s Supreme Court of Justice received the arrest
warrants.
On November 6, the Guatemalan Court (Tribunal Quinto de Sentencia)
officially issued the warrants against the six men.
SOURCES: Guatemalan newspapers; press release by Coordinación Genocidio
Nunca Más; article by Coralia Orantes. Translation and synthesis by Caren
Weisbart, Breaking the Silence. Edited by NISGUA staff. www.nisgua.org.
andrew@nisgua.org.
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rights. In Guatemala, Rights Action channels your financial donations to
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this case forward;
* Get involved in education and activism work in your home community
concerning the negative impacts of North American economic and military
policies on community-controlled development, the environment and the human
rights of local populations in Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Chiapas, El
Salvador;
* Consider coming to these counties on an educational-activist delegation
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