Guatemalan Bishop Threatened

[HagiaSophia]

U.S. church leaders, concerned over death threats directed against Guatemalan Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini Imeri, have appealed to U.S. and Guatemalan leaders to protect him. “For some time now, we have been receiving disturbing reports of attacks against church workers in migrant ministry, including break-ins of migrant centers and, more recently, of the death threats directed at some of these workers and at Bishop Ramazzini himself,” said Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Policy. In a Feb. 7 letter, Bishop Ricard asked John R. Hamilton, U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, to tell Guatemalan authorities “the concerns these reports have raised with people in this country.” Bishop Ramazzini, who heads the Diocese of San Marcos, has been an active advocate for Guatemala’s indigenous people and for land reform. He also has opposed a Canadian-U.S. firm’s creation of a gold mine where many indigenous people live in San Marcos. The World Bank’s International Finance Corp. lent Glamis Gold $45 million to develop the mine. Guatemalan authorities killed two protesters during a Jan. 11 protest outside the proposed mine site, according to a Jan. 26 action alert issued by the Geneva-based Franciscans International. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger later said Bishop Ramazzini should have calmed the protesters. On Feb. 2, the Washington-based Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns said that earlier this year, the Guatemala Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office released evidence of a plot to assassinate Bishop Ramazzini.

catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20050208.htm#head7

 

[Matt25]

Struggle Against Impunity

THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN The tenacious campaign by the survivors of the Rio Negro massacres could not have achieved so much without allies at home and abroad.

The Guatemalan church was an early supporter of the drive for exhumations and the prosecution of war criminals. The prominent human rights group GAM (Group of Mutual Support) has also taken a leading role in the fight against impunity. CALDH, the Center for Legal Action for Human Rights, is another prominent human rights group that has worked intensively in the Rabinal area, helping the Rio Negro survivors, transmitting information to the authorities, seeking redress for victims, and lobbying with courts.

advocacynet.org/cpage_view/images/photos/reebok_mini_logo.gifThe Rio Negro campaign began to acquire international prominence in 1996, when Jesus Tecu received the prestigious Reebok Award for human rights activism. This drew further attention to the Rio Negro, and produced $25,000 of prize money for Adivima.

The same year, 1996, the U.S.-based Witness for Peace visited the region and conducted a thorough investigation of the Chixoy dam. Its report criticized the World Bank for ignoring its own safeguards and financing the dam even as the Rio Negro was being destroyed.

The Bank responded quickly and sent a high-level mission down to Guatemala to investigate. The mission concluded that World Bank officials had not known of the massacres and could not be held responsible. But the Bank was also aware that an international campaign was gathering momentum, and it pressed the Guatemalan authorities to improve its package of compensation for the Rio Negro survivors.

A long and drawn-out search for new land then ensued until in March of 1999, the governmental Foundation for Peace (FONAPAZ) purchased 350 hectares of land for the Rio Negro survivors on a farm that lies about five hours drive from Pacux. This was not enough to meet their demands, but it still represented a significant achievement by the Rio Negro campaigners. And it would not have been possible without international advocacy.

Towards the end of the 1990s, the campaign drew encouragement and legitimacy from two prestigious reports in Guatemala. On April 24, 1998, the Catholic Church’s truth commission (the Recovery of Historical Memory-REMHI) released a report that attributed over 90 percent of the human rights violations to the Guatemalan army and other government forces. (Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi, a leading human rights advocate and coordinator of the REMHI, was murdered two days later.)

advocacynet.org/cpage_view/images/photos/palomita_fonopaz_logo.gifIn February 1999, the U.N.-supported Truth Commission released its own massive report, which included a case study on Rabinal. Going a step further than the Catholic Church report, the U.N. Truth Commission concluded that the state repression of the late 1970s and 1980s had in some areas amounted to genocide. One of those regions was Baja Verapaz, where the Chixoy dam was situated.

Throughout the last five years, the Rio Negro survivors have received support from Rights Action, which has funded a wide range of projects including exhumations and the establishment of Adivima’s legal aid center in Rabinal. Rights Action used its base in Washington and an office in Guatemala City, to support Adivima in Rabinal and bring activists on speaking tours abroad. Rights Action brought Carlos Chen to Washington in April 2000 for the spring meeting of the World Bank. Its representatives raised the case of Rio Negro again at the fall 2000 meeting of the Bank in Prague.

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[Matt25]

cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/mar/chronology.asp?groupId=9002

Apr 7, 1997 The Project to Recover Historical Memory, sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church’s human rights office, stepped up its efforts to collect evidence of human rights abuses during the 30-year civil war in Guatemala, in light of what it viewed as a lax amnesty law. (New York Times 4/7/97)

   **Apr 26, 1998 **Bishop Juan Gerardi, a Roman Catholic priest in charge of the Archbishop's Human Rights Office, was found killed by at least eleven blows by a heavy blunt instrument, a few days after releasing his report on human rights violations during the Guatemalan civil war. While the president promised to investigate, he rejected a demand by the Archbishop's office for an initial report within 72 hours. A right-wing group called Jaguar Justice later claimed responsibility for the crime. 
             
   
   **Nov 30, 1998 **A Guatemalan court condemned three former paramilitaries responsible for executing 269 people in two massacres carried out in 1982. The three were found to be members of the Civil Self-Defense Patrols (PAC) directly involved in massacres carried out on March 13 and September 14, 1982 in the northern provinces of Salama and Quiche. This marked the first time in this country that individuals had been condemned for carrying out mass killings during the conflict. 
                **

Feb 25, 1999 A United Nations truth commission released a report on the human rights abuses that occurred during the civil war. In total, investigators documented some 42,000 cases of severe human rights violations and 29,000 executions or disappearances, and found that military and paramilitary forces were responsible for 93 per cent of the massacres carried out during the war. Only 3 per cent to 4 per cent of such rights violations were carried out by the insurgents. Eighty-three percent of “fully identified victims” were Mayan Indians and 17 percent were of European descent. The commission accused the army of genocide against the Mayans and recommended steps be taken to preserve the memory of the victims, compensate the families for the losses, and strengthen human rights around the country.**
**
Jul 26, 1999** The Guatemalan Court of Appeals ordered the re-trial of a military commissioner accused of over 150 human rights violations which occurred in the 1980’s. Though the commissioner had been acquitted twice, in each case international observers noted bias in the court officials and inadequate translation of the eyewitness testimony of the indigenous witnesses. In addition, a human rights worker testifying on behalf of the prosecution was kidnapped and told to avoid the trial in April. According to Amnesty International, at this point, tens of thousands of human rights cases in Guatemala remained unresolved, while no high-ranking military official had ever been convicted. They also criticized the retrials of officials, stating that witnesses in these trials were at increased risks.

Nov 12, 1999 The Sentencing Tribunal of El Quiche region sentenced a military commander to a total 240 years in jail: 30 years each for the six murders and 20 years each for two kidnappings for which he was convicted. But the sentences were reduced to a total of 30 years. The guilty verdict and sentencing came at the end of the third trial of the officer The former member of the Civil Self Defense Patrol (PAC) was tried on 11 counts of murder and seven kidnappings – out of a total 155 crimes including robbery, rape and arson. The month before, the former chief of the PAC was sentenced to death for the March 1982 Rio Negro massacre.

Jan 22, 2000 The police arrested father-and-son military officers and charged them with the murder of Bishop Gerardi. They also held the bishop’s cook, and announced plans to re-arrest the other people living with Gerardi, who had previously been arrested in connection with the murder. The chief prosecutor in the case, however, had fled to the United States in October 1999 after he and his family had received kidnapping threats.

Aug 9, 2000 The Roman Catholic Church accused the army, pro-government forces and leftwing guerillas of kidnapping dozens of children during the Guatemalan civil war, often children of Mayan decent. The fate of the children was not known, although many were believed to have been sold to firms specializing in foreign adoptions.
Aug 10, 2000 President Portillo admitted that the government was responsible for human rights atrocities during the country’s civil war, and pledged to investigate Guatemalan village massacres, to prosecute the murderers and to compensate the victims’ families.

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