Inauguration of Alvaro Colom and Rafael Espada1 : On January 14 at 8:00 p.m. Alvaro Colom and his wife Sandra Torres walked the last few blocks into the Central Park of the capital, smiling and waving at the crowd through the tight circle of security personnel and photographers. In his address to the public Colom said his administration would focus on “those who have the least and those who are most abandoned”. “Today begins the privilege of the poor, today begins the privilege of those without opportunity.”
In the public ceremony he received a staff from elders of the Mayan people and the crowd was treated to a cup of atol, a traditional corn drink.
Dignitaries attending the inaugural events included the presidents of Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Taiwan. Also in attendance were Prince Felipe de Borbón of Spain, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services from the U.S. All of this stretched the security personnel of Guatemala to its limits. Fortunately, all of the presidents brought their own security personnel as well, and the celebrations passed without incident, at least for the dignitaries. Nevertheless, press reports of the murders of ordinary citizens, including a six year old child, 3 young men, and a bus driver, continued as usual.
The most frequent comment heard by NPG has been “I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.” Human Rights Defenders, however, are generally more skeptical about the prospects of this administration. The fact that at least three well known human rights activists have been invited to take significant posts in the government, including Ruth del Valle, former director of the National Movement of Human Rights, has not assuaged fears that impunity and corruption are deeply entrenched and the system is very resistant to change.
There is even greater concern that some of the worst human rights offenders from past regimes have been named to lead key ministries. For example, the new Minister of Defense, Marco Tulio Garcia Franco (alias El Ratón), was a prominent member of the G-2, military intelligence, during the government of Jorge Serrano Elias (1992-1993)2 and director of the G-2 during the period of Alfonso Portillo (1996-2000).
Security Plan: After 13 days in office, Colom faced pressure from the press on the subject of violence and insecurity. Prensa Libre reported that in those days 170 people had met violent deaths, an average of 13 people per day. Another 10 people have been kidnapped. Within 3 days the president countered that big changes could hardly be expected in such a short time but that the number of assassinations before he took office averaged 17 per day and it’s now down to 12. His security plan calls for the creation of local security committees that will provide information through an informal network. Neighbors will inform police about details of pending criminal activity and known criminals.
Party of Rios Montt heads the Congressional Human Rights Commission: In the distribution of committee control, the new Congress has assigned the legislative Human Rights Committee to the FRG, the party of Rios Montt. Montt, who led a Coup in 1982, oversaw a period of extreme violence and repression directed mainly at the Indigenous population. There were an estimated one million people internally displaced or in exile in Mexico. (Estimates range as high as a million and a half.) This is not the first time, however, that the FRG has controlled the Human Rights Committee.
Constitutional Court decision favors Rios Montt: General Rios Montt and six other former military leaders have for years fought off charges of genocide brought by the Audiencia Nacional Española in Spain. In December, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court (CC) ruled that Spain had no jurisdiction over this case, signaling that Guatemalan authorities will not cooperate in the investigation. Consequently, the defendants will not have to face extradition to Spain.
Nobel Prize Prize Winner Rigoberta Menchú responded by charging that the magistrates of the court were guilty of “discrimination” and should be investigated. However, a lower court rejected her appeal. In her statement, Menchú said 667 massacres have been documented and 83% 3 of the victims were “of Mayan origin”.
Following on the CC decision, Spanish judge, Santiago Pedraz, whose court issued international arrest warrants and extradition orders in July of 2007, said he will discontinue the legal process inside Guatemala, but the warrants will remain in force at the international level. Pedraz called upon the victims, witnesses, and any person who had information relevant to the genocide and other crimes committed against the Mayan people in Guatemala, to make their cases known to the Spanish tribunal through the proper channels. The Fundación Rigoberta Menchú is responding by sending 15 witnesses to Spain to make declarations before Judge Pedraz.
Another Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzón, called the Guatemalan court’s decision “shameful” accusing it of denying the existence of genocide between 1961 and 1996 in which 250,000 people were killed and 45,000 remain “disappeared”.
In apparent contradiction to the Constitutional Court, one Guatemalan judge requested that state institutions and human rights organizations supply information about the victims and families affected by the war as a legal collaboration with a request from Spanish legal authorities.
These efforts may not lead to the extradition or conviction of the former military men, but may keep the case alive in the media and in international human rights arenas.
The work of NP
Team Prepares to Close the Project: The NP accompaniment project officially closed January 31. All volunteers and staff will depart Guatemala by February 12. Seven volunteers and one coordinator have served on the NPG teams during the past 10 months: Ann Frisch, Penn Garvin, Begoña Bouza, Vittorio Ghibaudo, Margarita Pareja-Stoyell, Thiago Wolfer, Vilarmina Ponce, and Betsy Crites, Coordinator
We have accompanied La Unidad de Protección de Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos, El Consorcio de Actoras de Cambio, the community of Los Cimientos and their various advisors. Due to the large groups involved with El Consorio and los Cimientos, we estimate our team accompanied directly or indirectly approximately 425 people over the months. Team members traveled in the countryside a combined total of 145 days.
There have been many expressions of appreciation for our presence and regret that we are leaving. There have been a few requests for consideration of a future presence in Guatemala especially from NP’s member organizations. The team hosted a good-bye party and expressed NPs gratitude for the opportunity to serve in Guatemala and for the friendship and support we have received.
Although the security situation in Guatemala continues to be tenuous, we can say that the personnel of La Unidad have not received direct threats or harassment in the period of our tenure. El Consorcio was subject to one threat and two acts of intimidation during the time we were accompanying them, but fortunately no one was attacked. The internal refugees from Los Cimientos returned to their home with NP accompaniment, although tensions remain high there due to the lack of security. The group is also suffering from hunger because they were not able to plant and harvest this year. NPG has shared our observations from visits to the village with the Human Rights Ombudsman’s office. Their staff is presenting the case to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights.
We requested one emergency alert from NP’s ERN related to the case of threatened community workers in El Naranjo. The team has done some follow-up with this case since the alert. (See item below.)
Latin American Coordinator, Alvaro Durini, visits Guatemala Team: Alvaro arrived January 10 and stayed 8 days meeting the people and organizations we accompanied, NP’s Member Organizations in Guatemala (Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo and Fundación Rigoberta Menchú), and carrying out part of an internal evaluation for the project. While he was in the country, he participated in an accompaniment to El Naranjo. (See below).
Evaluation: We have conducted an exit evaluation in three parts:
Internal evaluation: Alvaro interviewed each of the team members separately and has written to former team members asking for their input. His conversations with the Member Organizations included elements of evaluation as well as discussions about NP and the overall situation in Guatemala.
Phil Esmond has been conducting another piece of the internal evaluation via email with NP staff outside Guatemala who had some contact with the project.
External Evaluation: Anantonia Reyes, a Guatemalan human rights worker of many years, is conducting the external evaluation. Ms. Reyes was herself accompanied by PBI during the war years. She is working on her doctorate in human rights and is teaching classes in human rights at a local university. She has conducted evaluations for other international organizations and was recommended by the Consejería en Projectos, which funds human rights organizations in Guatemala.
Ms. Reyes’ focus was to evaluate the impact NP has had while in Guatemala. She interviewed each of the team members individually, the people we accompanied, the Member Organizations and a few additional people who know about our work. She met with the team January 30 to discuss her initial observations. She will submit a final report by February 6. Christine Schweitzer will write an executive summary from the different elements of the evaluation.
Accompaniment to El Naranjo: While Alvaro was in the country we accompanied La Unidad staff to El Naranjo in the municipality of Santa Lucia where Felipe Alvarez was killed December 8 (reference NP Alert from December 14). We spoke with Felipe’s widow and Juan Francisco Almira, one of the COCODE (local development council) members for whom we requested protection. As reported in December and to the Emergency Response Network, there has been an additional police investigation, though we are not aware of the results. A broad protection measure has been ordered for Juan Francisco Almira and Manuel Antonio Aguilar, the remaining COCODE members, but it is very irregular and is not serving to deter current threats against Mr. Almira.
When we visited El Naranjo, Mr Almira showed us copies of the complaints he had taken to the justice department both before and after the murder of Felipe Alvarez, citing in detail the direct death threats he and others have received from the Juarez. Nevertheless, he despairs that there will be any response or serious protection.
NP considers these individuals and their family members extremely vulnerable and in fact Juan Francisco Almira has received a specific death threat including the date, February 14. Nearly every threat the Juarez have made has been carried out. Three witnesses and three COCODE members have been killed since the original incident in 2004. The Justice Department (Ministerio Público) has not investigated or prosecuted any of these.
In a final visit to the U.S. Embassy, NP showed our alert to the Human Rights staff. They expressed interest and a willingness to visit El Naranjo. La Unidad staff will follow-up.
Amilcar Mendez pursues justice for the murder of his son Pepe: Alvaro and NPG team members sat on the curb in front of the Presidential residence as Amilcar Mendez talked about the efforts he had made to find the killers of his son. (See August report) He and his wife and a few close friends announced they were going to fast in protest of the slow response of the Berger government to their case. International press, in the city for the inauguration of Alvaro Colóm, appeared for a press conference called by the Mendez family. Local press, however, did not report the story. The Mendez fasted for two days ending at midnight on the 13th, the technical close of the Berger government.
U.S. Embassy personnel informed NP that the U.S. Ambassador has taken a personal interest and visited several times with Mendez and Guatemalan government officials about this case. Mendez is also well known to the new president and a close friend of the new vice president. With this level of support, his case may fall within the 2% of cases that are brought to trial, and possibly within the fraction of those that result in a conviction.
Release of new document on genocide from Rigoberta Menchú Foundation: NPG attended an event celebrating the release of a study by Renata Avila Pinto entitled El Genocidio en Guatemala Como Forma Extrema de Racismo (Genocide in Guatemala as an Extreme Form of Racism). The author analyzes the intensive military campaigns in the countryside in the early 1980s from the perspective of international law and the historical roots of racism against the Indigenous population. She writes that there was no logical military purpose to the campaign of massacres and destruction of whole villages. The terror and trauma left with the surviving Mayan population have contributed to the destruction of the social fabric and culture. Her summary poses the possibility of a repetition given that the perpetrators remain in positions of power and there is silence and inaction on the part of authorities.
Written by Betsy Crites
- Colom is the sixth democratically elected president since 1985. Prior to that there were two democratically elected presidents, between 1944-1954. In 1954 a U.S.-engineered coup overthrew president Jacobo Arbenz. This initiated a series of military dictatorships that continued until 1985 and an armed conflict that continued until 1996. Guatemala is still recovering from the effects of 36 years of guerilla war countered by military counterinsurgency campaigns.
- On May 25, 1993, Serrano illegally suspended the constitution, dissolved Congress and the Supreme Court, imposed censorship and tried to restrict civil freedoms, allegedly to fight corruption. Internal resistance and international pressure prevented the “self-coup” and by June 1 he resigned and fled the country.
- The press account quotes Menchu saying 83%, a figure that appears in the report of the Historical Clarification Commission for the 42,275 cases they personally documented. In “Genocide in Guatemala as a Form of Extreme Racism” (p.38) published by her Foundation, the figure stated is 90%. The Rigoberta Menchú Foundation is a Member Organization of NP.