Web pages about "Guatemala"

Guatemala disappearance trial begins

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:03:48 +0000

Guatemala's first ever trial for enforced disappearances began last week. A former paramilitary, Felipe Cusanero, was accused on Monday 10 March of participating in the enforced disappearance of six civilians, with the complicity of the army.

Cusanero is accused of forcibly disappearing Lorenzo Ávila, Alejo Culajay, Filomena López, Encarnación López, Santiago Sutuj y Mario Tay between November 1982 and October 1984.

The prosecution began in 2003 when six inhabitants of Choatalum filed a legal complaint against Cusanero before the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Chimaltenango. According to the UN-sponsored Commission for Historical Clarification, reporting in 1999, Choatalum, a small village within the Municipality of San Marin Jilotepeque, witnessed a large number of human rights violations during the internal armed conflict.

The term "enforced disappearance" refers to state-sponsored abductions in which the victim's whereabouts and fate remain unknown. The internal armed conflict, which began in 1960, left an estimated 200,000 people dead (including approximately 45,000 "disappearances”) before hostilities ended with a peace agreement in 1996.

Guatemala: Opening military archives is only a first step

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:15:26 +0000

"Opening Guatemala's military archives is a long awaited positive step which Amnesty international welcomes. But the real test will be whether anyone is brought to justice for the hundreds of thousands of killings, torture and disappearances which took place during Guatemala's internal conflict," said Sebastian Elgueta, Guatemala researcher at Amnesty International.

Amnesty International's statement came in reaction to Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom's announcement that military archives spanning nearly four decades of civil war in Guatemala will be opened to the public.

Guatemala: Death penalty won’t solve public security crisis

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:30:33 +0000

In an open letter sent today, Amnesty International urged Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom not to reinstate the death penalty and instead to look for more effective and lasting solutions to the public security crisis affecting the country.

Just two months ago, Guatemala voted for a global moratorium on executions at the United Nations. "President Álvaro Colom must now respect this commitment," said Sebastian Elgueta, researcher for Guatemala at Amnesty International. “Guatemala must turn its back to this archaic practice and join the overwhelming majority of countries that have already done so.”

"The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It is arbitrary, it has proven ineffective in reducing crime, and it perpetuates a climate of violence in which justice can never be truly achieved," said Sebastian Elgueta.

In its letter, Amnesty International also called on President Colom to take concrete action on some of Guatemala’s most pressing human rights issues -- including the lack of effective investigations into human rights violations committed during the armed conflict, the increasing number of cases of violence against women -- particularly the number of killings reported every year, the high number of attacks against human rights defenders and the forced evictions of rural communities.

“The human rights challenges in Guatemala remain huge. During forty years of monitoring the situation in the country, Amnesty International has witnessed successive governments fail to make real improvements in the administration of justice or in combating impunity,” said Sebastian Elgueta.

“Just last December, the decision by the Constitutional Court to rule against the detention of those accused of genocide during the internal armed conflict was yet a further setback in tackling impunity.”

Amnesty International also urged the new President to authorise the release of archive material held by the Ministry of Defence that could assist in the investigation of the killings and enforced disappearance of more than 200,000 people during the internal armed conflict in Guatemala.

“The new administration in Guatemala owes it to the people of the country to take concrete steps to investigate and bring to justice past violators of human rights and ensure the future rights of the population are fully guaranteed,” said Sebastian Elgueta.

Amnesty International's letter to Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom

War crimes go unpunished in Guatemala

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:21:24 +0000

On 31 January 1980, Guatemalan police stormed the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City where protestors had sought refuge. Thirty-seven people inside the building died as a result. Twenty-eight years on, no one has been held to account.

Over a decade after the end of Guatemala's armed conflict, many of those responsible for its most brutal crimes continue to evade criminal prosecution.

A ruling releasing two former officers from pre-extradition detention in Guatemala is the latest obstacle to justice for the victims of the 36-year conflict, which ended in 1996.

In December, former army General Angel Aníbal Guevara Rodríguez and ex-Police Chief Pedro García Arredondo won an appeal to be released from provisional detention pending extradition. Spain has requested the extradition of both men, along with five others (including ex-president Efraín Ríos Montt), and wants to investigate them for crimes under international human rights law committed in Guatemala between 1978 and 1986.

31 January marks the 28th anniversary of one of those crimes: the massacre of 37 people in the Spanish Embassy fire is a brutal act for which no one has been punished.

The Guatemalan court's decision in favour of the retired officers wrongly questions the well-established principle of universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity. It also suggests the crimes were political, and interprets this as meaning criminal responsibility could be waived.

Amnesty International calls on the new administration - led by President Alvaro Colóm - to tackle the ongoing impunity for crimes under international law committed during the armed conflict.

Mr Colóm's government must ensure the investigation and prosecution of these crimes. None of the cases brought against the ex-ruling military regime have advanced, while witnesses and victims with the courage to participate in them have faced intimidation, threats and attacks.

The decision to release two of the officers severely undermines the possibility of a future extradition and strengthens the reign of impunity in Guatemala.

Until those responsible are held accountable for the 200,000 disappearances and extrajudicial executions committed during the armed conflict, Guatemala’s victims will continue to be denied justice.

Video: Death penalty stories (animated slideshow)

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:40:37 +0000

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Animated slideshow of stories about the death penalty around the world narrated by Colin Firth.