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View Article  Indigenous Mayors Association Suspects Intimidation Tactics

LA ASOCIACIÓN GUATEMALTECA DE ALCALDES Y AUTORIDADES INDÍGENAS AGAAI AJK’MALB’E RECH UTZILAL TINAMIT

HACE SABER:

A LA OPINION PÚBLICA NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL

./ Que el día martes 20 de marzo del año en curso, nuestra oficina ubicada en el edificio El Centro, 7ma. Avenida 8-56 de la zona uno de la ciudad de Guatemala, fue violentada por desconocidos posteriormente fue allanada, habiéndose llevado únicamente documentación y una caja chica.

../ Este hecho fue puesto en conocimiento de la Policía nacional Civil como lo establece la legislación respectiva, pero hasta el momento aún el Ministerio Público no ha hecho las averiguaciones correspondientes.

…/Consideramos que este hecho de violencia responde por sus características a un claro acto intimidatorio a los trabajadores y a los miembros de nuestra Asociación. Por esta razón el caso ha sido también denunciado a la Oficina del Procurador de Derechos Humanos.

…./Lamentamos y condenamos este hecho de violencia que impera en las organizaciones indignas que únicamente busca generar un escenario de intimidación a nuestra organización.
-/Relacionamos estos hechos intimidatorios a la labor que nuestra Asociación está realizando en apoyo y acompañamiento a los Alcaldes y Autoridades indígenas que luchan para la protección de la madre tierra.

POR LO TANTO LA AGAAI DECLARA Y DEMANDA:

./ La garantía y el respeto a nuestra asociación indígena a nivel local y nacional ya que somos una Asociación que busca el fortalecimiento de los Alcaldes y autoridades indígenas y luchamos por nuestros derechos colectivos e indígenas.
../Que el Gobierno de turno, inicie la investigación respectiva de los responsables de este hecho de violencia, que solo genera un escenario de terror e intimidaciones.

…/Solicitamos a las organizaciones e instituciones de derechos humanos nacionales e internacionales y la cooperación internacional la solidaridad y el acompañamiento respectivo, a los miembros de la Junta Directiva y personal de nuestra Asociación AGAAI.
…./Asimismo hacemos un llamado a las comunidades a que en cumplimiento de sus derechos y normas nacionales internacionales continuemos organizados y seguir luchando por la reivindicación de nuestros derechos como pueblos y en defensa de la madre tierra.

-/Solicitamos a todos los participantes a la tercera Cumbre Continental de Pueblos y Nacionalidades Indígenas de Abya Yala, su apoyo a los Alcaldes  y a las autoridades Indígenas de Guatemala y la denuncia de este hecho de intimidación.

La AGAAI, manifiesta que estas acciones de intimidación no disminuirán los esfuerzos y formas de organización como pueblos indígenas,


JUNTA DIRECTIVA DE AGAAI

View Article  Plan Sofia comes to Light - English Translation

By Lorena Seijo, Prensa Libre, March 18, 2007

(translation by P. Harris and E. Lawless)


Secret military document, in possession of the Attorney General, directly links Rìos Montt in Quichè massacres

Not one district attorney has had access, until now, to a classified Guatemalan Army document which tells of military operations executed during the internal armed conflict, against subversive cells or elements.

Delia Dàvila, head of the prosecutor’s department of human rights, within the Attorney General’s office, has been the first to receive a copy of one of those plans, protected by State secrecy and which was partially obtained in a clandestine manner by plaintiffs in the genocide case pursued within Guatemala.

Despite having in her possession documents which record the existence of the Sofìa Pan of operations, that, together with declarations of the witnesses, directly link the Army high command and their commander-in-chief, Efraìn Rìos Montt, with massacres committed predominantly within the Western region of the country, from 1982 to 1983, Dàvila has roundly refused to make an appointment with the former head of State and his leadership, to interrogate them.

The reason is, according to what the prosecutor (Dàvila) told the presiding judge in the case, Roberto Peñate, that she is not certain that those documents are authentic. To verify her doubts, the judge ordered that on January 31 the Minster of Defense, before an open court, present the original documents of Plan Sofia and Victory 82, due to their relation to each other, since the former derived from the latter.

In response, Ronaldo Cecilio Leiva, Minister of Defense, mailed a letter to the judge on February 8 in which he protests his disagreement with the judicial resolution, because “it violates article 30 of the constitution, which protects the confidentiality of military affairs.”

In the missive, Leiva affirms that Plan Victory 82 is a military affair of national security, classified as secret and that Plan Sofìa does not exist.

To avoid that the documents become public, he presented an appeal and claimed that these records, along with others that contain Operation Ixil Civil Affairs and Firmeza 83 plans, are off-limits.

The appeal was rejected by the judge who reminded the Minister of Defense that the accusation is not against him and summoned him for next March 26, so that he may show before the court the entirety of the plans and the original documents, to which Prensa Libre had partial access. Coincidentally, the meeting will be held 3 days after the 25th anniversary of the coup d’etat, in 1982, which brought Rìos Montt to power.

 

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