Guatemalan Human Rights activists face death threats again

[AlphaCentauri]

The Convergence for Human Rights, Guatemala, with the gravest concern hereby informs about death threats, an attack fence and harassment faced by the organization SEDEM, "Security and Democracy" and the organization "Protection Unit for Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala", UDEFEGUA.
The death threats and the harassment started on Thursday April 30, 2009 and have continued until today.

Since that date, Iduvina Hernandez, Director of SEDEM, and four other people who work with SEDEM; Claudia Samayoa, Coordinator of UDEFEGUA and two more people who work with UDEFEGUA, have received death threats on their respective cell phones.

The threatening cell phone text messages say:
"You have one hour, this is the last warning.
Stop investigating the declassified army files.
We will kill your children and then it is your turn."

http://www.guatemala-times.com/news/guatemala/1090-guatemalan-human-rights-activists-face-death-threats-again.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Declassified documents show U.S. Embassy knew Guatemalan security forces were behind abductions

Declassified documents show U.S. Embassy knew Guatemalan security forces were behind abductions

Kate Doyle and Jesse Franzblau
Upside Down World
Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:28 UTC

© Prensa Libre

Declassified documents show U.S. Embassy knew that Guatemalan security forces were behind wave of abductions of students and labor leaders. National Security Archive calls for release of military files and investigation into intellectual authors of the 1984 abduction of Fernando García and other disappearances.

Following a stunning breakthrough in a 25-year-old case of political terror in Guatemala, the National Security Archive today is posting declassified U.S. documents about the disappearance of Edgar Fernando García, a student leader and trade union activist captured by Guatemalan security forces in 1984. The documents show that García's capture was an organized political abduction orchestrated at the highest levels of the Guatemalan government.

Guatemalan authorities made the first arrest ever in the long-dormant kidnapping case when they detained Héctor Roderico Ramírez Ríos, a senior police officer in Quezaltenango, on March 5th and retired policeman Abraham Lancerio Gómez on March 6th as a result of an investigation into García's abduction by Guatemala's Human Rights Prosecutor (Procurador de Derechos Humanos - PDH). Arrest warrants have been issued for two more suspects, Hugo Rolando Gómez Osorio and Alfonso Guillermo de León Marroquín. The two are former officers with the notorious Special Operations Brigade (BROE) of the National Police, a unit linked to death squad activities during the 1980s by human rights groups.

According to the prosecutor Sergio Morales, the suspects were identified using evidence found in the vast archives of the former National Police. The massive, moldering cache of documents was discovered accidentally by the PDH in 2005, and has since been cleaned, organized and reviewed by dozens of investigators. The National Security Archive provided expert advice in the rescue of the archive and posted photographs and analysis on its Web site. Last week, Morales turned over hundreds of additional records to the Public Ministry containing evidence of state security force involvement in the disappearance of other student leaders between 1978 and 1980. As the Historical Archive of the National Police prepares to issue its first major report on March 24, more evidence of human rights crimes can be expected to be made public.

More:
http://www.guatemala-times.com/news/guatemala/1090-guatemalan-human-rights-activists-face-death-threats-again.html

~~~~~~~~~~~

Historical Archives Lead to Arrest of Police
Officers in Guatemalan Disappearance

Declassified documents show U.S. Embassy knew
that Guatemalan security forces were behind
wave of abductions of students and labor leaders

National Security Archive calls for release of military files
and investigation into intellectual authors of the 1984
abduction of Fernando García and other disappearances

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 273

By Kate Doyle and Jesse Franzblau


Washington, DC, March 17, 2009 – Following a stunning breakthrough in a 25-year-old case of political terror in Guatemala, the National Security Archive today is posting declassified U.S. documents about the disappearance of Edgar Fernando García, a student leader and trade union activist captured by Guatemalan security forces in 1984.The documents show that García’s capture was an organized political abduction orchestrated at the highest levels of the Guatemalan government.

Guatemalan authorities made the first arrest ever in the long-dormant kidnapping case when they detained Héctor Roderico Ramírez Ríos, a senior police officer in Quezaltenango, on March 5th and retired policeman Abraham Lancerio Gómez on March 6th as a result of an investigation into García's abduction by Guatemala’s Human Rights Prosecutor (Procurador de Derechos Humanos—PDH). Arrest warrants have been issued for two more suspects, Hugo Rolando Gómez Osorio and Alfonso Guillermo de León Marroquín. The two are former officers with the notorious Special Operations Brigade (BROE) of the National Police, a unit linked to death squad activities during the 1980s by human rights groups.

According to the prosecutor Sergio Morales, the suspects were identified using evidence found in the vast archives of the former National Police. The massive, moldering cache of documents was discovered accidentally by the PDH in 2005, and has since been cleaned, organized and reviewed by dozens of investigators. The National Security Archive provided expert advice in the rescue of the archive and posted photographs and analysis on its Web site. Last week, Morales turned over hundreds of additional records to the Public Ministry containing evidence of state security force involvement in the disappearance of other student leaders between 1978 and 1980. As the Historical Archive of the National Police prepares to issue its first major report on March 24, more evidence of human rights crimes can be expected to be made public.

Government Campaign of Terror

The abduction of Fernando García was part of a government campaign of terror designed to destroy Guatemala’s urban and rural social movements during the 1980s. On February 18, 1984, the young student leader was captured on the outskirts of a market near his home in Guatemala City. He was never seen again. Although witnesses pointed to police involvement, the government under then-Chief of State Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejía Víctores always denied any role in his kidnapping. According to the Historical Clarification Commission’s report released in 1999, García was one of an estimated 40,000 civilians disappeared by state agents during Guatemala’s 36-year civil conflict.

More:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB273/index.htm

[Judi Lynn]

2. It must mean someone's really scared that his past is going to catch up with him fast.

The very idea they know how to get unpublished phone numbers would say they have an extraordinary range. How could anyone feel safe in that country, or even one country away?

This really makes one's heart sink knowing these people are still there, and fully capable of any of the atrocities they've already committed.

Thanks for the news on this. Will be keeping an eye out for more information. Sure hope these frightened people will get a decent level of protection from the current government.