Fear for safety / Death threats

GUATEMALA Edgar Herber Hernández Figueroa (m)
Mónica Victoria Teleguario Xitay (f)
Paula Barrios (f),
David Dávila (m),
Oswaldo Samayoa (m), of the Guatemalan Institute for Comparative Studies in Criminal Sciences (Instituto de Estudios Comparados en CienciasPenales de Guatemala, ICCPG)

Five members of staff of the ICCPG have been harassed and received death threats in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to dissuade them from investigating cases of killings and rapes allegedly committed by police officers. Amnesty International fears that their lives may be at risk.

On 25 April Mónica Teleguario Xitay, an ICCPG lawyer was intercepted by unknown assailants in a black jeep. The assailants drove their car close to her car, hitting it mildly in a threatening and hostile manner and then overtook her. A short time later, the jeep stopped in front of her and another car appeared behind, also stopping and effectively trapping her. Four armed men wearing balaclavas and one holding a baseball bat got out of the pick-up truck and forced her to get out of her car. One of the men told her that they knew about the work being done by the ICCPG and wanted to know where she had been. Monica Teleguario Xitay had been travelling back from interviewing an alleged victim of police violence but gave the masked men different information. The men became angry saying that they already knew where she had just been. They then told her that “this was the last warning”“esta fue laúltima advertencia”.

On the afternoon of April 12, Edgar Herber Hernandez Figueroa, an ICCPG researcher was leaving the ICCPG when an unknown man put a gun to his head and forced him into a blue car where another two armed men were inside. Inside the car the armed men questioned him about the ICCPG. Initially he denied working for the ICCPG but on being threatened admitted to working there. One of the armed men then said “tell those sons of bitches [at the ICCPG] that we know how they are organized and how many people they have. If they continue getting involved in things where they have no business, we are going to start cutting heads off.

We are tired of giving warnings.” “decile a esos hijos de la gran puta, que sabemos como están estructurado y cuantas cabezas tiene. Si se siguen metiendo en cosas donde no los han llamado vamos a comenzar a cortar cabezas. Ya estamos cansados de estar advirtiendo.” The researcher was let go one hour later after having money stolen by the armed men.

On 20 March a Paula Barrios, an ICCPG researcher on women in prison and gender violence, returned from work to find her home raided. Although nothing was missing, one of her children’s teddy bears had its mouth covered with masking tape. Her home is approximately two blocks from the national headquarters of the police. On 14 March ICCPG researchers David Dávila and Oswaldo Samayoa where followed by a green car while carrying out errands in the centre of Guatemala City in preparation to take testimony the following day from an alleged victim of police violence. The following day they left at 3:30 am to interview the alleged victim and over the next two and half hours were stopped five times by uniformed police who checked their ID.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The ICCPG is an academic and human rights organization which conducts research into criminal policy, judicial reform, prison conditions, gender violence and conflict resolution. One area of their current work is to research cases of alleged human rights violations committed by public security forces and prison guards (arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, torture, extra-judicial executions, etc.) and to providing legal support to victims and their families.

The ICCPG is currently assisting in the legal proceedings against officers accused of raping Juana Méndez in 2005, and in a number of cases of possible extra-judicial executions that are currently being heard in national courts and at the Inter-American Commission.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Spanish or your own language:
- Expressing concern at the recent threats and attacks against Edgar HerberVladimir Hernández Figueroa, Mónica Victoria Teleguario Xitay, Paula Barrios, David Dávila and Oswaldo Samayoa and their colleagues;
- Calling for prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into these incidents and for those responsible to be brought to justice;
- Urging the Guatemalan authorities to take immediate and effective measures to guarantee the safety of these human rights defenders, according to their wishes;
- Reminding the Guatemalan authorities that human rights defenders have the right to carry out their activities without any restrictions or fear of reprisals, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups and Institutions to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;
- Calling on the Guatemalan government to develop a national plan of action to implement the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders to ensure they are able to carry out their legitimate work without fear of reprisals.


APPEALS TO:
Attorney General and Head of the Public Prosecutor's office
Lic. Juan Luis Florido
Fiscal General de la República y Jefe del Ministerio Público
Edificio Ministerio Público
15 Avenida 15-16, Zona 1, Barrio Gerona, 8vo. Nivel
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Fax: +502 2411 9124
+502 2411 9326
Salutation: Dear Attorney General/Estimado Sr. Fiscal General

Minister of Interior
Adela Camacho de Torrebiarte
Ministra de Gobernación
6a. Avenida 13-71, Zona 1,
Ciudad de Guatemala, GUATEMALA
Fax: +502 2413 8658
Salutation: Dear Minister/Estimada Sra. Ministra


COPIES TO:
Institute of Comparative Studies in Criminal Sciences of Guatemala ICCPG
5a. calle 1-49, Zona 1, Ciudad de Guatemala
Fax: +502 2230 1841
+502 2232 5121
+502 2220 2736

AND to diplomatic representatives of Guatemala accredited to your country.


PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.

Human trafficking continues to be an issue in Guatemala, the most frequent manifestation of which being the enticing of young girls into enforced prostitution…

On Friday, 20th of April 2007 Casa Alianza Guatemala in coordination with the National Police, Migration and Public Prosecution Offices raided a brothel disguised as a massage parlour suspected of housing minors for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation in Guatemala City. Two 17-year-old girls were rescued from the premises as a result of this joint raid operation and both were immediately referred to a judge who entrusted them to Casa Alianza for shelter and protection.

The parlour was licensed to operate as a bar and to offer massages but it was evident from the outset that it functioned as a full-scale brothel. The two-storey premises housed roughly thirty girls at any one time and boasted three bedrooms on the upper floor were paid sexual activity apparently took place. The property lacked basic sanitation, there was no running water and bed sheets were stained with blood.  

Those in charge were taken by surprise and several arrests were carried out, including a few individuals who were performing what they claimed to be “traditional Mayan rituals” on the roof of the building and who tried to flee the scene by jumping to adjacent houses.  

Twenty-five girls were found on site during this raid, including three foreign nationals, namely a Nicaraguan, Mexican and a Honduran girl, who faced immediate deportation, as they were not in possession of valid Guatemalan work permits. The case of the Mexican girl was particularly shocking as she was married to a Guatemalan national and had a nine months-old daughter with this man who married her only in order to obtain Mexican citizenship, according to the girl.

She stated she had been trafficked from Mexico at the age of fifteen at which stage she started working at a brothel in Guatemala City were she met her now husband, the son of the brothel’s owner. Despite being the real victim here, she was deported back to Mexico and guardianship of the baby was granted to her husband, who by all means knew about his wife’s prostitution and benefited from her earnings making it a typical case of pandering.     

The Migration and Prosecution Officers failed to properly execute their duties in this raid – by not ensuring that each girl had a legitimate id card proving that they were adults. Several girls appeared to be minors and in possession of fake identity cards but the agents, instead of extending the presumption of being underage privileges to these particularly young-looking girls and ensuring the validity of the documents presented, decided to take the girl’s id documents at face value in a clear violation of Guatemalan youth protection laws.
 In Guatemala, adult prostitution is not illegal therefore just moments after the agents left the premises, the music was put back on and business resumed as usual.

On Tuesday 24th of April 2007, In another joint raid operation, a seventeen years-old Guatemalan girl was rescued from a different brothel belonging to the same human trafficking network. She came from a small village and was lured into the Capital city and forced into prostitution in order to pay for debts she supposedly contracted vis-à-vis her traffickers.

Casa Alianza together with other leading Guatemalan NGO’s is constantly lobbying legislators for important changes to the Penal Code. Under the current Penal Code, those guilty of pimping and pandering offences get away with their crimes by simply paying an insignificant fine, which is low even for Guatemalan standards.

In the three years the Guatemalan Congress has failed to pass any legislation that benefit and protect Guatemalan youth. One example of which is the Adoption Act, which has not yet been approved, despite more than 10 years of continued civil society denouncing irregular adoptions presenting characteristics of human trafficking.

Casa Alianza is a non-governmental organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of children’s rights in the region.

For more information on the work of Casa Alianza please visit www.casa-alianza.org.uk