Friends, Family and Allies,
One of the lawyers working on the national Guatemalan genocide case was recently kidnapped, while other members of the legal team have received a written threat, been tailed by unknown men and incurred other forms of grave intimidation; I typically only send out updates every two months, but I hope you will agree that these alarming circumstances require this plea for your urgent solidarity!
As many know, I am working as an accompanier to the Association for Justice & Reconciliation (AJR), a coalition of Maya survivors volunteering to be witnesses in the national genocide case. It is hoped that by placing international observers in the communities where AJR members live, the threat posed to them is reduced - namely because if anything happens to them, our friends, family and allies (this is you!) will rise up in outrage and demand justice of the Guatemalan authorities.
Please pardon the slight delay in relaying this information; I wanted to hear directly from the aforementioned legal team, the Center for Legal Action in Human Rights (CALDH), before writing you all.
On Feb. 2, Otto Navarro, a CALDH lawyer, found the tire of his car slashed. Later that day, Josè Roberto Morales, CALDH’s indigenous rights coordinator, was kidnapped by two armed men in a carjacking in front of his house. They released him in another neigborhood, telling him that if he activated the vehicle’s alarm they would return to his home and murder him. His vehicle was later found with all of his belongings (including a laptop computer) seemingly untouched.
Between Feb. 3-5, the offices of three other human rights organizations were broken into: their files were searched, and computers and film equipment were stolen. On Feb. 5, as members of these groups waited for the authorities to arrive, a red Toyota Corolla drove by and filmed the group.
Also on Feb. 5, a note was left on the windshield of CALDH lawyer Angèlica Gonzàlez, saying:
“Stop bothering with protection, protect yourself which you do not understand despite so much warning, tell Pancho [CALDH’s legal coordinator] to take care of himself and his children and the wife that is always alone, we see them and you Lawyer-Gangster pieces of shit that only want money. Look for another job but one of these days we will go out for lunch together, as always it’s on us. Understand, you sons of bitches.”
According to CALDH, these threats spring directly from their pursuit of the genocide case. The most important figure that the AJR and CALDH seek to charge with genocide, Efraìn Rìos Montt (who ruled over the killing of some 70,000 predominately Maya people during the 1980s), announced on Jan. 17 his plan for this year’s elections:
“I will reach the highest rank. It could not be any other way… I will be president of Congress from 2008-2012.”
The threats to CALDH and Rìos Montt’s political ambitions are hardly a casual
coincidence.
On Feb. 7 - as had been planned before the intriguingly-timed threats and kidnapping- CALDH & the AJR presented a formal complaint to the courts, voicing their discontent with the Attorney General’s unwillingness to advance the genocide case past the investigative stage, where it has stalled since its original filing in 2001. CALDH & the AJR also requested that the judge proceed with collecting Ríos Montt’s initial statement in order to formally accuse him of genocide against the Maya Ixil people.
If the judge does not act, Rìos Montt may quite feasibly become the head of Congress in November, dramatically complicating any attempts to hold him accountable for his horrific crimes.
One of the most potent weapons we, individuals who believe in justice and universal human dignity, possess is the ability to exert pressure on the authorities to confront Guatemala’s recent, yet unpunished genocide.
As the AJR, the indigenous survivors of the genocide, and the CALDH legal team,
their allies in struggle, are literally placing their lives on the line to demand justice, I would ask that you please devote a single minute of your time (or less) to send an e-mail via NISGUA to the Guatemalan authorities urging them to advance the genocide case.
Or, better yet, challenge yourself and those you love to craft a creative act of resistance to Guatemalan authorities’ refusal to address the state-led campaign which killed upwards of 200,000 people largely during my (and perhaps your) lifetime…send them a drawing, a poem, a photograph - however you feel most able to express whatever repugnance or pain or fury their inaction and indifference might generate within you.
Mailing addresses for the authorities, as well as more information about the kidnapping, threats and genocide case, can be found here at NISGUA.
Background
See our post tracking the development of the above mentioned urgent action.
