String of Killings Leaves Five Guatemalan Activists Dead
String of Killings Leaves Five Guatemalan Activists Dead
Saturday, 6 April 2013, 12:32 pm
Press Release: Refugee Rights Action Network
While Guatemala attempts to bring former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt to justice in a landmark genocide trial, deadly violence elsewhere in the country continues unpunished. In less than one month, five activists and human right defenders struggling against mining companies and fighting for land and labor rights have been murdered in rural areas.
Tomas Quej, a young indigenous leader from Baja Verapaz, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the heart on February 26, 2013, as Comunicarte reported. Quej had just won a long struggle in court for the lands of his community. He had seven children, including a newborn.
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On March 13, 68-year-old indigenous Tzutuhil leader Gerónimo Sol Ajcot was brutally murdered by masked men on his way to work.
Four days later, Exaltacion Marcos Ucelo, an outspoken leader from the minority Xinca indigenous group, was murdered and three of his colleagues were kidnapped, beaten and then released. The group was demonstrating against mining operations by Canadian company Tahoe Resources and the murdered leader was also involved in land disputes, another possible cause of the criminal act. There are still concerns for the safety of the surviving leaders, as an urgent action appeal by Amnesty International explained:
"On 17 March, four Xinca leaders - Exaltacion Marcos, Rigoberto Aguilar, Rodolfo López and Roberto González - participated in a public event held in the El Volcancito hamlet, San Rafael Las Flores, where they acted as observers at a community-organized consultation on mining in the area. Following the event, the four men left El Volcancito at 8.30pm. At approximately 9.15pm, as they were approaching Mataquescuintla, approximately 12 men in two trucks stopped their vehicle. The heavily armed men, who were wearing balaclavas, forced them into the trucks. Rigoberto Aguílar and Rodolfo López were released at different times during the night. Rigoberto Aguílar had reportedly been beaten. In the early morning of 18 March, Encarnación Marcos was found dead. His body had been thrown into a ditch and his hands were tied. One of the pickup trucks had been left near the corpse."
More:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1304/S00059/string-of-killings-leaves-five-guatemalan-activists-dead.htm
