Years after civil war, Guatemalan activists still face challenges

[struggle4progress]

By Ezra Fieser
Catholic News Service

GUATEMALA CITY – ... Two days before his death April 26, 1998, Bishop Gerardi released a report that documented crimes committed by police and military during the country’s 36-year civil war.

This year, in March, Guatemala’s lead human rights investigator, Sergio Morales, released his own damning report, “Right to Know,” on crimes committed during the civil war. The report led to the arrest of two police officials on charges that they oversaw the disappearance of an anti-war activist.

It also led to the abduction of Morales’ wife, who was tortured, burned with cigarettes, sexually assaulted and released hours later. Morales has said the only reason the captors kidnapped his wife was to lure him into a trap in which they could kill him ...

More than a decade after the war ended, the conditions for human rights investigations are as difficult as they were during the war. But the church’s human rights office has continued the work that Bishop Gerardi, who co-founded the office, began ...

http://www.catholicreview.org/subpages/storyworldnew-new.aspx?action=6083

[Judi Lynn]

1. Horrendous. The murderous right-wing is still there. Now more people know about them.

Hoping for ultimate justice in Guatemala. All these years of suffering should not be lost forever.