The Dominion - impunity

Lies and War Crime

hillarybain — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:35:30 +0000

Guatemalan ex-military accused of war crimes held in Alberta prison

CHIMALTENANGO, GUATEMALA—Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, ex-member of the Guatemalan special forces known as the Kaibiles, was arrested in Lethbridge, Alberta, on January 18, 2011. He was detained at the request of the United States; the US may solicit his extradition to face charges of immigration fraud.

If proven guilty of having lied about his role in the Guatemalan military on his US application for naturalization, Sosa Orantes could face up to 10 years in prison in the United States. Meanwhile, human rights groups in Canada and Guatemala are petitioning the Canadian courts to try him for war crimes.

Sosa Orantes has been implicated in the planning and execution of the massacre at Las Dos Erres, in the northern department of Peten, where at least 252 unarmed civilians were systematically killed on December 6, 1982. This massacre was carried out in much the same manner as the more than 650 massacres committed by the Guatemalan military during the country’s 36-year internal armed conflict, which included widespread rape, torture and the mass killing of men, women and children, most of whom were Mayan.

According to Aura Elena Farfan from the Association for the Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Guatemala (FAMDEGUA)—the plaintiff organization that since 2000 has been bringing forward a case against Sosa Orantes and 16 other ex-Kaibiles implicated in the massacre—it is important that he be tried for the more serious crimes against humanity, rather than for the lie he told US immigration officials.

“Of course that lie is important,” says Farfan. “But for there to be justice, it is important that he is not only judged for that lie, but for the serious violation of human rights in Guatemala.”

Even with an unprecedented amount of evidence, including survivor testimonies, exhumation records and the testimony of a repentant ex-Kaibil who took part in the massacre, Farfan does not believe the justice FAMDEGUA seeks is possible in Guatemala.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has found the Guatemalan government unwilling to live up to its judicial responsibilities to investigate and successfully prosecute those responsible for the massacre. The country is still characterized by widespread violence, while many of the intellectual and material authors—those who planned and those who carried out the massacres—retain high positions of political power in the current government and military.

Even though the Guatemalan Supreme Court issued arrest warrants in 2010 for the 17 ex-Kaibiles implicated in the massacre, Farfan believes this case is stuck in impunity. “It needs to be heard in a place where there does not exist the same danger of being bought off.” Such bribery, says Farfan “is likely to happen in Guatemala.”

Matt Eisenbrant from the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ) has called on the Canadian government to launch a full criminal investigation against Sosa Orantes.

“Usually, a trial in the place where the abuses occurred is preferable,” he says. “This should only be done, however, if all due-process guarantees can be protected and there are assurances that a fair trial can proceed without being tainted by outside influences.” The CCIJ is calling on the Canadian government to ensure that Sosa Orantes will be held fully accountable by conducting its own criminal investigation into possible war-crime charges, taking this into account when considering the extradition requests.

Legal support for the case first surfaced in 1994, after FAMDEGUA officially received an exhumation request from three families from the area. Within a year, anthropologists had found 162 complete skeletons in a 12-metre grave, 67 of which were from children under age 12.

According to a report released by Amnesty International in 2002, the findings of the exhumation matched up with survivors’ testimonies about the massacre; it involved first the mass and repeated rape of the women and young girls, followed by the killing of the children and then the women, many of whom were pregnant. The men were killed last. Anthropologists’ reports reveal that most of the victims were killed by a blunt object to the back of the head, after which they were thrown into the mass grave.

Both witnesses and FAMDEGUA have received numerous threats for bringing this case forward. Still visibly affected by the case, Farfan says that “[Sosa Orantes] did not have compassion for the victims who were asking not to be killed, not to be tortured.” She expresses the weight of the blood that was spilled in Guatemala, stating that the bodies of the young children and pregnant women should tip the scales of justice further than the lie Sosa Orantes told to gain US citizenship.

“If victims are to be satisfied and if we are to provide deterrence against such abuses happening in the future, perpetrators must be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible,” says Eisenhart.

Sosa Orantes was denied bail on March 9, 2011, by Albertan judge Suzanne Bensler who deemed him too much of a flight risk. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 20, 2011.

Valerie Croft is living in Guatemala, completing a CIDA internship with CEIBA—a Guatemalan environmental advocacy organization that works on issues related to climate justice, food sovereignty and the defense of territory.

Corn and Feet

Justice: Transparency or Incarceration?

Moira Peters — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:08:31 +0000

150 years for forced disappearance a precedent, families not satisfied

TORONTO—An historic verdict was reached in Guatemala’s first tried case of forced disappearance, leading to the conviction of ex-military commissioner Felipe Cusanero Coj*, with a sentence of 150 years in prison.

Eleven witness testimonies accompanied evidence including bones from clandestine graves found around the military compound, and historical records and reports of the nature of forced disappearance. On August 31, 2009, President Judge Walter Paulino Jiminez Texaj, representing the Criminal Court of the Department of Chimaltenango ruled that Cusanero’s “innocence was destroyed,” and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for each of the six cases being tried.

Charges were brought against him April, 2003 for crimes he committed between 1982 and 1984 while acting as Military Commissioner in the region. The Centre for Legal Action in Human Rights (CALDH) and the Association for Families of the Detained-Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA) began the process as joint plaintiffs to the witnesses.

Several years later, the case made it to court March, 2008. The trial was stalled, however, after Cusanero claimed his constitutional right not to be tried retroactively was being violated, since his crimes were committed before Guatemala recognized forced disappearance as illegal in 1996.

After a lengthy delay in Cusanero's case, the Constitutional Court made an historic ruling when it declared that since the very nature of forced disappearance makes it an ongoing crime, Cusanero should be fully tried for it. (Since no bodies have been recovered, and Cusanero refuses to give further information about what happened and the whereabouts of the bodies, the victims are still considered “disappeared.”) The Court ruled that it did not matter when they were disappeared, but more importantly that the crime was continuing—it was being committed in the present.

Following the verdict's reading at the Constitutional Court, the case returned to the Court in Chimaltenango, where Jiminez Texaj concluded there was sufficient evidence to lead to a conviction of forced disappearance.

The implications in the judge's conclusion are deep. When the 1996 Peace Accords were signed, political amnesty was given to all military members for crimes they had committed during the war. (Without this clause the accords wouldn’t have been signed.) However, crimes against humanity—such as forced disappearance—are outside this amnesty law and can be tried.

Cusanero became the first person in the country to be tried for a crime against humanity. At the same time, he was a low-level military commissioner. Rios Montt, one of the authors of the genocide, enjoys political immunity by being a member of Congress.

Although many human rights organizations are claiming this to be a major step forward in the struggle for social justice in Guatemala, the witnesses' reality is much different.

For many, the hope in bringing the case forward was to find out information about their loved ones. “How is it important to us if he goes to prison?” asked Hilarion Lopez, father of one of the disappeared and a witness in the case. “We have always wanted to know where our loved ones are and what happened to them. But he never told us.”

Lack of information about those disappeared leaves families imagining horrors of rape and torture, and, on the flip-side, leaves room for the (unfounded) hope that their loved ones may still be alive. The nature of the crime creates such a degree of uncertainty that families are incapable of moving past or healing from its trauma. Particularly in cultures where proper burial rites are of extreme importance, the inability to lay individuals to rest leaves families in a perpetual state of paralysis and grief.

In a statement made during the reading of the verdict, Jiminez said, “For all of the cultures and religions present in Guatemala, it is almost inconceivable not to grant dignity to the deceased; it violates the dignity of everyone. For the Mayans, this phenomenon is of particular importance due to the central relevance in their culture of the active link between the living and the dead.”

He continued by describing the findings of a report made by the Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), stating that the lack of information about the disappeared continues to be an open sore in the country. “The CEH considers locating and exhuming the clandestine graves where the bodies are buried to be an act of justice and reparation, while being a fundamental step in the road to reconciliation."

Echoing these sentiments in a news conference the day after the verdict, Lopez stated, “[Cusanero] should ask forgiveness of the people of San Martin, of the community of Choatalum. I am really upset because my son is still not returned to me. And I want justice....I want to bury him in the cemetery so that I can bring him flowers and candles.”

Despite the seemingly successful verdict, it doesn’t go without notice by the witnesses that what means most—information—will likely die with Cusanero in prison.

Even so, the verdict and declaration by the Constitutional Court open doors to the possibility of trying other crimes against humanity which took place during the armed conflict.

According to representatives from CALDH, the legal organization representing the witnesses in the Choatalum trial, several other cases that have gone through the courts in Guatemala should have been tried as forced disappearance. Instead they were reduced to charges of kidnapping. Kidnapping is a much less severe crime with a maximum sentence of eight years, compared to 40 for forced disappearance.

Judges often try the accused for kidnapping instead of forced disappearance, says a representative from CALDH, because it won’t implicate the State. “[It is easier to say that] it was just some senseless members of the military who were responsible for each individual crime, and that it doesn’t have anything to do with the subsequent military leader, or the whole chain of command.”

According to CALDH, kidnapping can be an individual crime, whereas to be classified as forced disappearance, proof of a systematic plan, implemented by the state to use forced disappearance as a terror tactic, is required. The fact that the State has been implicated in a Guatemalan Court for its role in creating and facilitating a culture of forced disappearance might have widespread implications for the intellectual authors of the genocide.

Written with files from Amanda Kistler, an international human rights observer with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA). Amanda currently lives in Guatemala City. Valerie Croft is a freelance journalist living in Toronto. She worked as an International Accompanier in 2008, in the department of Chimaltenango.

For more on precedent-setting court cases in Guatemala, read Guatemalan Court Sets Precedent in the Case of Israel Carias by Amanda Kistler, and Valerie Croft's Disappeared Before the Courts.

****

* Cusanero was the military commissioner in the community of Choatalum, in the municipality of San Martin Jilotepeque in Chimaltenango, during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict that took place between 1960 and 1996. The conflict was characterized by widespread massacres, scorched earth policies, the forming of civil patrol units, and genocide against the Mayan indigenous peoples. In addition, the use of “forced disappearance” was employed as a common terror tactic.

Forced disappearance is the kidnapping of an individual by military or paramilitary forces after which they are often raped or tortured, and eventually murdered. By selecting individuals arbitrarily, it heightens a climate of fear and uncertainty. A UN-sponsored Truth Commission found that 45,000 people were disappeared in Guatemala during the armed conflict.

Justice Photograph

Justice Inhumation

Guatemalan Court Sets Precendent in the Case of Israel Carias

dawn — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:56:42 +0000

Community remembers a leader who gave his life for the struggle

ZACAPA, GUATEMALA—June 22, 2009, was an historic day for the family of Israel Carías Ortiz, and for the people of Guatemala. The Sentencing Tribunal in Zacapa, Guatemala found two men guilty of the 2007 murder of Ortiz and his two sons Ledwin Anilson (age 9) and Ronald Aroldo (age 11).

The precedent-setting sentence recognizes Carías was killed because of his leadership in the struggle to reassert legal rights to community land, and mandates an investigation into the planning or 'intellectual authorship' of the murder: the finqueros (large land-owners) presumably responsible for contracting the assassins to protect their interests.

In Guatemala, this sentence is referred to as 'dejar abierto,' meaning that though there was a verdict, the judges do not consider the crime resolved. However, due to many obstacles impeding justice in Guatemala, action to persecute intellectual authors remains extremely difficult.

The ruling has implications in establishing guilt for human rights crimes of the past, especially those committed during the 36-year internal armed conflict, over 99 per cent of which, according to the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHAG), remain in impunity. For the first time, a Guatemalan court established that guilt in attacks against human rights defenders goes beyond the actual perpetrators. Those responsible for orchestrating the attacks must be identified and held accountable for conceiving and financing the crime.

Carías, president of the regional peasant farmers’ association (ACUS) was shot at point-blank range while walking from his community, Los Achiotes, to the city of Zacapa with his sons in February 2007.

Backed by more than 80 families, Carías had led the campaign to recuperate community lands—legally recognized as such in 1951—from finqueros illegally usurping the territory.

In an audio-recording submitted as evidence during the trial, Carías described the campaign to residents of Los Achiotes: “We don’t want to touch lands that already have papers. We are fighting for national lands. I am only the spokesman for the needs of the community. I am not a judge; I do not decide. You have a right to the land according to the law.”

Yet after years of frustration in a stagnated legal and bureaucratic process, ACUS turned to negotiation in 2004 as a more effective way to secure the land. Though it meant ceding a portion of land to the finqueros, negotiation was seen as a necessary way of curbing further finquero encroachment and establishing firm boundaries.

The timing of Carías’ assassination coincided with a final land measurement, an approximate three-month deadline for the lands to be handed over to the community, and a nationwide increase in repression against those asserting their rights to land and natural resources.

According to witnesses and police reports prior to his murder, Carías had been intimidated and received death threats from the two accused, their families, and the finqueros, beginning in 2004. These actions had one goal: to force him to stop his campaign.

In spite of the dangers, Carías never stopped organizing.

A speech filmed before his death, which had been presented as evidence, reminded those in the packed courtroom of Carías’ steadfast commitment. “Despite the persecution, I will not allow a backward step,” declared Carías in the film footage.

The panel of judges affirmed that Carías was killed for defending his community’s rights.

After languishing in the public prosecutor’s office for two years, in March 2009 public hearings began. Over the course of four months, judges heard testimonies from more than 20 witnesses and reviewed upwards of 50 documents.

On June 22, 2009 the Tribunal delivered its verdict: the two accused, Jacobo Salguero and Manfredo Ramirez, respectively perpetrated and were accomplice to the premeditated assassination of Israel Carías at the instruction and in possible employment of the finqueros. Salguero was previously acquitted of a murder in 2004 because, as he described, "No one was willing to testify against him." Ramirez is his brother-in-law, as well as the nephew of Carías. Both men lived in Los Achiotes until their arrest.

It is assumed that the two children were killed for being with their father at the time. The sentence acknowledges the complexity and danger in communities that dare to defend land rights in the face of unlawful opposition.

Although there has not yet been any movement towards prosecuting the finqueros in this case, the sentence sends a clear message to those historically protected by nationwide impunity. This aspect of the sentence is perhaps more important for its symbolism than its possibility for prosecution in the case of Carías' murder.

Although the verdict sets key precedents, the sentence does little to change the day-to-day reality in the community—at least so far. Minutes after the sentencing, Carías’ widow commented on the verdict: “It’s a little.” For many members of the community of Los Achiotes, the sentence is exactly that: a little.

Today, the community is still waiting for the final document to arrive settling the land issue, and ACUS and the Association for Community Development of Los Achiotes (ACIDEA) leaders report feeling like targets for their organizing.

Currently, the president of ACIDEA is Carías’ twenty-one-year-old niece who knows intimately the responsibility and risk of the position. Inspired by her uncle, she refuses to be silenced by fear. “[My uncle] knew that sooner or later he would be killed for his organizing. But we all die. It is a question of dying on your knees or living standing up. We choose with our eyes open.”

Despite the risks, approximately a dozen members of the community and Carías’ family attended each of the hearings in solidarity—making the two-hour hike down the mountain to the hearings as a group. Many gave testimony themselves and received threats for doing so. One of Carías’ brothers likened the community to a flock of sheep that experienced the devastating effects of a coyote in their midst—now the community is “always alert, tense, vigilant. We learned,” he explained, shaking his head.

ACUS and ACIDEA have worked to reconstruct and honor the memory of Carías’ life that had been overshadowed by his murder and the trial in the weeks since the verdict.

ACUS organized a march to the Tribunal as a tribute to Carías’ organizing, to demonstrate appreciation for justice served, and to petition the court to proceed with other pending ACUS cases. At a community lunch, people remembered Carías, their memories building upon each other as they recalled his dedication to the community:

“He was kind to everyone.”

“Even as a boy, he knew he would lead his community.”

“He was a man of vision.”

“He was a great leader. He literally gave his life for the community.”

ACIDEA hopes to construct a memorial in Los Achiotes to ensure that Carías—and his sacrifice for the common good—is not forgotten.

Amanda Kistler has been an international human rights observer with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) since January 2008. She currently lives in Guatemala City.

For more about impunity in Guatemala and prosecuting forced disappearance cases, read Valerie Croft's Disappeared Before the Courts.

In memory of Israel Carías

Looking down at the city of Zacapa

From Memory to Resistance, Children Bear Witness

Moira Peters — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:33:34 +0000

HIJOS celebrates 10 years in Guatemala

TATAMAGOUCHE, NS–Walking through the streets of Guatemala City, HIJOS slogans are hard to miss: "Justice for Nueva Linda"; "Trial and Punishment for Military Assassins!" Words demanding an end to impunity remind everyone that 36 years of civil war in Guatemala have not ended in justice or peace.

HIJOS Guatemala—Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice Against Forgetting and Silence—was founded in 1999 by young people who were forced into exile, or who lost family members due to State repression during the war. (The group's name, HIJOS, is a play on the Spanish word for "children.") In June 2009, HIJOS Guatemala celebrated 10 years of fighting to preserve historical memory, to end impunity, to memorialize the victims of the war, and to shed light on the human rights violations committed during the conflict.

Using public education events, protests, and political art and murals to articulate and strengthen the movement toward justice, HIJOS is comprised of students, workers and professionals of Ladinos (Guatemalans of mixed Hispanic and Indigenous origin) and Indigenous descent. A new generation of HIJOS is now being born as those who started the group 10 years ago pass on to their hijos the struggle of those before them. HIJOS members—including children of the disappeared and murdered, and Guatemalans who stand in solidarity with the group—work in rural communities as well as in the urban centre of Guatemala City. While many group members hold "day jobs" with other human rights and social justice organizations, they are more than simply volunteers for HIJOS; for many, HIJOS is a way of life, an extended family.

HIJOS not only focuses on justice for past crimes, but also draws attention to new threats Guatemalans face today. In a recent bulletin, HIJOS stated: "According to our interpretation of the history and the memory of the resistance of the People, we understand justice to be a historical demand of the grassroots struggle for dignity, sovereignty and self-determination."

Bety Reyes Toledo knows HIJOS well. Reyes Toledo is the daughter of Hector Reyes, a Guatemalan peasant who, after trying to organize workers and obtaining evidence of back-door dealings involving the owners of the Nueva Linda plantation where he worked, was kidnapped and disappeared on September 5, 2003. Reyes Toledo, her family, and over 170 other families have been camped on the side of the road outside the plantation since 2004, demanding justice and information on the whereabouts of her father.

"HIJOS has been with us throughout our struggle and because of them, more people have become involved. They help give us the strength to go on because we feel supported," said Reyes Toledo. HIJOS, in collaboration with other social justice organizations, has arranged food and clothing drives, the "Caravan for Justice" on the anniversary of the disappearance of Hector Reyes and protests to support justice for the Reyes family and all families and workers at Nueva Linda.

But not everyone is happy with HIJOS’ call for an end to impunity. The group has experienced threats and acts of intimidation, including office break-ins and an attempted kidnapping. Members of HIJOS have been victims of political campaigns and attacked through the Guatemalan media. According to a June 2008 "Urgent Action" (a call to action sent to HIJOS' national and international solidarity networks), one member was followed, beaten up on the street and warned to tell others to back off a public demilitarization campaign that involved HIJOS and 15 other organizations, or suffer the consequences.

The group continued its work and 2008 marked the first year the military parade was suspended from its annual June 30 march through Guatemala’s historic centre.

"For HIJOS Guatemala, who have been going out into the streets...to point out [and] to reject the criminal presence of the army and its high command which acts in total impunity, the suspension of the parade is a victory that has been won thanks to the people who year after year have marched in light of threats, attacks and repression," said Wendy Mendez, a human rights defender and co-founder of HIJOS Guatemala.

In fact, HIJOS' June 30 anniversary falls on the same day as Guatemala's annual military parade—a day now known, thanks to the efforts of HIJOS and others, as the "Day of Heroes and Martyrs."

"Along the way we have learned that the struggle for memory, truth and justice in Guatemala is a long and historical process for the survivors of genocide, therefore it has many actions, strategies and chapters that must be written in order for those democratic principles to become a reality." Mendez said that stopping the Military March was one such action on the road to democracy and peace.

Born in Guatemala, Mendez and her family fled to Vancouver, B.C., after witnessing the forced disappearance of her mother, Luz Haydee Mendez, by the Guatemalan Military Intelligence on March 8, 1984.

Following its investigation between April 1997 and February 1999, the United Nations Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH)—a commission created through the peace negotiations and the Accord of Oslo in 1994—reported that state forces and related paramilitary groups were responsible for 93 per cent of the violations documented by the CEH, including 92 per cent of arbitrary executions and 91 per cent of forced disappearances. Victims included men, women and children of all social strata: workers, professionals, church members, politicians, peasants, students and academics; in ethnic terms, 80 per cent were Indigenous Maya. During the 36-year conflict, the CEH reported that over 200,000 men and women were killed or disappeared. Forced disappearance is a war tactic used to systematically terrorize a population. 626 villages were completely destroyed, 1.5 million people were displaced by the violence, and more than 150,000 were driven to seek refuge in Mexico.

Ten years after the release of the report, the numbers are estimated to be higher still as clandestine graves continue to be exhumed and those once unwilling to talk about la violencia have begun to open up and tell their stories.

To date, however, none of the intellectual authors of the war—including military high command and civilians in power during the violence in the early 1980s—have been tried, let alone convicted.

The recent presentation of the Guatemalan Presidential Peace Secretariat’s "Report on the Authenticity of the Military Diary" verified facts found in a military dossier detailing crimes committed by the military during the civil war. The dossier was smuggled from Guatemalan military intelligence files in 1999. Given the release of historical documents from the national policy archive that affirm these details, Mendez is disappointed with the Guatemalan government's unwillingness to act on its own findings. She reiterated the sentiment of those who continue to struggle for justice: "We do not need another study into the authenticity of the facts. We need a judicial investigation, trial and punishment for those responsible."

It has been 13 years since the state and the URNG (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity) signed the Peace Accords for “true and lasting peace.” However, structures of exclusion, antagonism and conflict continue to oppress the majority of Guatemalans who suffer at the hands of an unwieldy and corrupt National Civil Police force, a so-called social democrat government with a neo-liberal trade agenda, corruption and weak state institutions. Above all, the power of the highly trained Guatemalan military continues to seep into and thus control all levels of Guatemalan society, provoking instability and fear throughout the country.

Mendez reflects upon the disturbing trend of increased violence in Guatemala: "At first we were certain that the wall of impunity would come down with the fulfillment of the Peace Treaties signed in 1996, but since these have not been respected by any of the governments since, and on top of that, the Free Trade Agreements' agenda and policies have been imposed, the reasons that gave origin to the war are still present and the levels of impunity and corruption have grown."

As crime levels surpass those reported during the war—of which 99 per cent go unpunished—and drug cartels control borders and entire communities, the military continues to move freely into rural communities. These are the same Indigenous communities wherein not long ago the state orchestrated massacres. The low-paid National Civil Police provide little civil security for Guatemalans, and in many cases they are not trusted due to their associations with the mafia. Practices include demanding bribery payments, brutal treatment of civilians and general abuse of power. In its desperation to reduce the high levels of crime, the population is turning to the military for protection.

On the other hand, thanks to a beefed-up military budget, military bases have been reopened and new ones have been created. In communities fighting to save their natural resources from transnational mega-projects, such as mines and dams that threaten to destroy the land and displace thousands of Indigenous people, the newly created "combined forces"—police-military patrols—are stationed to remind citizens that their moves are being watched and reported upon.

Mendez reflects on the work and struggle to which HIJOS has committed. "On our 10th anniversary, we confirm that the best way to bring honour and glory to our mothers and fathers, to all the victims of genocide in Guatemala, is to continue the struggle for social justice and democracy."

Jackie McVicar works with the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network (BTS) in Guatemala City. BTS has been supporting and collaborating with HIJOS initiatives for nine years.

HIJOS close up

HIJOS drums

Disappeared Before the Courts

Moira Peters — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:06:48 +0000

Internationals accompany witnesses to forced disappearance in Guatemala

TORONTO, ONTARIO – The first case of forced disappearance ever to be heard in Guatemala is currently sitting on hold in the constitutional court.

Six charges of forced disappearance have been brought forward from the community of Choatalúm in the municipality of San Martín Jilotepeque against ex-military commissioner Felipe Cusanero Coj. He has been accused of disappearing many community members while he acted as a military commissioner during Guatemala’s 36-year armed conflict. However, six specific cases are being brought forward for crimes committed between 1982 and 1984. Like so many others who collaborated with the army during the armed conflict, Cusanero enjoys a position of political power: he is the current mayor of Choatalúm.

This trial marks a milestone for social justice and reconciliation in Guatemala, as the trial’s witnesses are the first in the small Central American country's history to give their testimonies of forced disappearance in front of a judge.

Disappearance is a terror tactic that was used in many of the "Dirty Wars," which were wars against the general population in the name of protecting capital and the oligarchy in Latin America. Some argue that forced disappearance first began to be used as a mechanism to systematically terrorize the population during the internal conflict in Guatemala. There are nearly 50,000 people who are still disappeared in Guatemala.

The case has now reached a standstill in the constitutional court, and may be there for a long time to come. The defence for Cusanero argues that his client should not stand trial for felonies he may have committed before they were recognized as crimes. Forced disappearance was only recognized in 1996 after the Peace Accords were signed, and is non-retroactive, and therefore, the defence argues, the trial is unconstitutional.

Those bringing the case forward reject this argument principally based on the nature of forced disappearance, arguing that since the bodies have not been recovered, it is an ongoing crime. Cusanero is continuing to perpetrate the disappearances as he is unwilling to tell families where the bodies are buried.

The witnesses are being supported by the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared of Guatemala (Asociacion de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos de Guatemala – FAMDEGUA). According to Aura Elena Farfan of the organization, people do not want revenge, but, more than anything, to know where their loved ones are.

“This is why we are motivated, all of the family members. We want [Cusanero] to tell us where he left them. I consider forced disappearance to be the worst practice. It is the worst because you live with an uncertainty; you live with a deep pain.”

As part of the agreement of the Peace Accords, an official investigation took place into what had occurred during the war. As a result, the Historic Clarification Committee (la Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico – CEH) released a report detailing 6,159 reported forced disappearances during Guatemala’s armed conflict. However, the report also indicated that those numbers may be as high as 45,000. Those disappeared were most often taken from their homes in the middle of the night to torture centres or military compounds, never to be heard from by their families again.

The Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala also conducted its own investigation into the war and produced the REMHI report (el Proyecto de la Recuperacion de la Memoria Historica). After gathering thousands of testimonies from Guatemalans affected by the war, the REMHI report found several commonalities in those affected by forced disappearance. The practice is used to provoke terror in family and community members, while leaving families incapable of properly grieving or healing, a result of the absence of information about the fate of those disappeared.

Years later, when the process of exhumations began from within military compounds, mass graves were found with bodies showing signs of extreme torture and mutilation, with many still blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs. The knowledge that this was a likely end for loved ones disappeared has wreaked emotional havoc in Guatemalan communities.

The report is titled “Never Again.” It describes the tactics used by the Guatemalan military during the conflict, which, on top of forced disappearance, was characterized by large-scale massacres, torture, rape and other forms of violence against women, and scorched earth tactics. Characteristic of Guatemala’s armed conflict was also the formation of “community patrol units.” By being forced to participate in these units, many individuals committed crimes such as massacre, rape and torture against their own community members and against people from neighbouring communities. Refusal to participate in these units led to execution or disappearance; however, for some it led to abuse of power. These patrol units lasted long after the Peace Accords were signed and the power structures created by them long outlast the war and continue to deeply divide communities.

The case of Choatalúm is one such community. Most of the disappeared were forced from their homes in front of their families and taken to the local military compound. According to testimonies from the witnesses, family members pled for days with soldiers to give them information about the disappeared, but were told nothing, except that those in question were “bad seeds.”

According to Farfan, the human rights community in Guatemala is very concerned for the safety of the families involved in the trial. “[The families] live close to [Cusanero],” she says, “and we really don’t know the reaction of his family the moment the judge hands out a sentence...I think that the people and families will be left very vulnerable if this case takes [Cusanero] to prison.”

She explains that FAMDEGUA and the witnesses have taken advantage of opportunities presented by international accompaniment organizations like Acompañamiento Guatemala (ACOGUATE) and Peace Brigades International (PBI), as well as those in national and international organizations willing to act as witnesses.

ACOGUATE is an international organization that accompanies Guatemalan human rights organizations and defenders, and is currently accompanying the witnesses in the case of Choatalúm. According to Caren Weisbart, the co-ordinator for ACOGUATE, “Accompaniment provides a political space for people to choose how they want to defend their rights and carry out their socio-political work.”

Accompaniers provide a physical international presence that serves to dissuade attacks against Guatemalan human rights defenders. By playing on the desire of the Guatemalan government to maintain a positive international image, this visible foreign presence acts to broaden the space wherein local human rights defenders might not otherwise be able to work safely. Threats and intimidation come from those who have good reason to believe their attacks will not be punished by the Guatemalan justice system. The introduction of organized foreign presence provides a network of solidarity that acts as a form of protection.

Accompaniers document attacks that do occur and, according to Weisbart, this information is then transmitted to international solidarity networks, international human rights organizations, local government and civil society organizations and key embassies in Guatemala.

Spreading this information has become increasingly important, as attacks have increased in 2008. Between January and June, 109 attacks against human rights defenders were registered; 58 of those occurred in the month of May alone.

“In the Attorney General’s office on Human Rights where attacks against human rights defenders are publicly registered, there is virtually a 100 per cent impunity rate. Whether you’re a ‘common criminal’ or an ex-governmental official you can literally get away with murder, as is the situation here in Guatemala,” says Weisbart.

According to her, a big strength of international accompaniment in Guatemala is that it allows for internationals to work directly with human rights defenders in remote areas of the country. “The struggles of people who live in the countryside are different from those who live in urban areas,” she says. “It is a complex struggle to understand because it is based on more than 500 years of repression, racism and, especially in the Guatemalan political climate of today, it is characterized by a complete lack of access to the justice system.”

Although the case of Choatalúm is a significant advance for human rights in Guatemala, it is still a trial against a low-ranking ex-military commissioner, while the engineers of the genocide rest easy in a country characterized by impunity. Nevertheless, the trial of Choatalúm has the potential to set a precedent in forced disappearance cases, thereby opening the door to future cases targeting individuals intellectually responsible for those crimes.

“Every struggle is such a struggle that you need to rejoice and have a perspective,” says Claudia Samayoa from UNIDAD, a Guatemalan organization promoting human rights defenders, regarding the trial. She says that people are taking the trial seriously and it is likely that the large increase in attacks against human rights workers and defenders in May is directly linked to the case of Choatalúm, which began in April, as well as similar advances.

Moving forward and out of war, a country must embrace truth, justice and reconciliation, but, Samayoa says, “Truth must come first.”

According to Samayoa, the REMHI report had the potential to infuse truth into the mainstream in Guatemala. After the report was published, however, the government rejected it on the grounds that in its conclusion it stated that a government-sponsored genocide had occurred. The government refused to accept that any such event had happened without the full trial of those implicated – namely Lucas Garcia and Rios Montt, Presidents at the height of the genocide. Garcia has since died without facing trial and Montt currently holds a position of political immunity in his seat in the Guatemalan Congress. This official rejection of the report prevents any form of justice or reconciliation from happening.

Paralleling the situation in Guatemala to Canada’s past persecution and massacre of indigenous people, Samayoa says, “The fact that Canada is still dealing with its past shows that if it is not properly addressed, with truth, justice and reconciliation all playing a strong role, it will continue to resurface.”

Farfan from FAMDEGUA agrees and says it is important to set a precedent in the case of Choatalúm. If this trial were to end in a conviction of Cusanero, it may open doors for future cases against the material authors to reach trial. However, as the case of Choatalúm continues to be at a standstill in the constitutional court, it may prove to be another example of the extent of impunity in the country.

Referring to those disappeared, Farfan says, “We cannot forget them; they are with us each moment in every place we are. They are present with us, and make us stronger in the face of threats. This has made us stronger...to look for the 45,000 Guatemalans who are no longer here. This is what moves us, to continue with the case of Choatalúm, and we have hope that the constitutional court will resolve the case in the name of human rights and not for political reasons.”

Valerie Croft volunteered as an international accompanier with ACOGUATE from February to July 2008, and accompanied the witnesses in the Choatalúm case.

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