Judgement in case of forced disappearance of Edgar Fernando García 
The maximum penalty 40 years imprisonment, were sentenced on October 28 the two former agents of the former National Police (PN), Hector Ramirez Rios and Abraham Lancerio Gomez for the 8th Court of Criminal Sentencing City Guatemala. Both were found liable for the forced disappearance of union leader and student Edgar Fernando García, a crime committed over 26 years. This is the third sentence in Guatemala for the crime of enforced disappearance and the first based on the Archives of the National Police (AHPN) [1] in the 14 years since the signing of the peace. In mid 2009 he was sentenced the former military commissioner, Felipe Cusanero Coj to 150 years for the disappearance of six people in the community Choatalum , and late same year was sentenced to four people (including Colonel Marco Antonio Sánchez Samayoa) to 53 years and 4 months imprisonment each for the disappearance of eight people in El Jute . Both cases were accompanied by Acoguate, who also noted the hearing in the case of Edgar Fernando García. "The crime of enforced disappearance is a cruel fact that must not go unpunished"
Defendants for the detention and disappearance of Edgar Fernando García were acquitted of two counts because of the time prescription, despite having been found guilty: specific aggravated unlawful detention, so that the Public Ministry (MP) called 3 1 years, and abuse of authority, as requested 3 years. The MP also called for a penalty of 15 years in prison for the crime of kidnapping, but the court did not classify this as such by law because the documentary evidence and testimony showed that order for his arrest and disappearance was to obtain information from their political work, according to the doctrine of security prevailing in the country, and not otherwise.
The disappearance by itself was accepted to be a permanent and inalienable crime, ie crime committed while the prisoner is gone does not appear [2] , which is the case of Edgar Fernando García. The penalty, the court explained, must be proportionate to the offense for which issued the maximum penalty 40 years imprisonment, taking into account that: the victim was a student, the motive for the crime was political, the intensity of damage caused to their families and Guatemalan society has endured for more than 25 years, forced disappearance is a cruel fact that you can not go unpunished and that the family and the nation are entitled to the truth.
Documentos del AHPN fueron clasificados como evidencia
El tribunal dio valor probatorio a todos los testimonios de los testigos, por la espontaneidad de estos y la congruencia entre sí. También dio valor probatorio a los informes de los peritos y a los documentos presentados del AHPN y del Diario Militar, así como a los recortes de prensa, programa de televisión acerca del Diario Militar y el audio con la declaración de Danilo Chinchilla, compañero de Fernando García con quien se encontrara en el momento de su detención, en el que contó que a Fernando García lo habían llevado agentes de la Brigada de Operaciones Especiales de la PN (BROE) en un vehículo.
The experts based their report largely on an analysis of 667 documents for the first time AHPN has been used as evidence in legal proceedings to clarify the responsibility in a case of enforced disappearance. To complement and contrast the information obtained and provided the evidence that was used declassified Military Journal, a document that can be read for example that only between 1983 and 1985 the State Security Forces conducted 188 disappearances.
According to various surveys and documents, it stated that the reason for the disappearance of Edgar Fernando García was political and that their activities policies (in the underground as the Guatemalan Workers Party Central Committee member), student and trade union was considered the internal enemy. The key document was one in which the head closest of the two accused officials proposed the award, which motivated the transaction in the place, date and time Danilo Chinchilla said they had arrested Edgar Fernando García. They are also accused in this case two more agents (Alfonso Guillermo Leon and Hugo Rolando Osorio Gomez) who are currently fugitives from justice.
sufficient evidence for conviction
The court stated that, according to witnesses and experts, and a number of documents AHPN, Edgar Fernando García was arrested by men in civilian clothes on 18 February 1984 when he was, along with fellow Danilo Chinchilla Party at the intersection of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue in Zone 11, near the market called the store. Both tried to flee but the police opened fire injuring a hip Danilo Chinchilla, who later moved to Roosevelt Hospital, while Edgar Fernando García him into custody, according to Danilo Chinchilla told in a recording made, having been rescued from the hospital.
Ninth Montenegro, wife of Edgar Fernando García, said in his testimony that day her husband had left home early and that she refused the keys to his vehicle, he needed to find his touch, for fear something happened to him. That night men came to her home in civilian clothes, who told him not to worry, they had her husband, who were friends of him and would return that Tuesday. Never saw him again.
PN operated in conjunction with Army Intelligence and
Both the Public Ministry (MP) as the Attorney Human Rights (PDH), a complainant, emphasized the state's responsibility in the disappearance of Edgar Fernando García, as well as the thousands of students and unionists, mainly between 1978 and 1984. Specifically, between 10 February and 11 March 1984 took place in Guatemala City called Operation Clean 84, a joint venture between the National Police, the intelligence service and army of Guatemala, after training ( 30/1-8/2) duly documented in the AHPN, and which includes the participation of the accused as part of the IV Corps of the then PN.
Discussion oral groups, which lasted five days, aroused great interest of national and foreign. MP members were present, the PDH, GAM (Mutual Support Group) and FAMDEGUA, plus AHPN employees, representatives of the diplomatic corps in Canada, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States, among others, and staff of the Office the High Commissioner for Human Rights UN Guatemala.
Judgement is just one step in the dignity of victims of enforced disappearance
To Aura Elena Farfán, FAMDEGUA, this statement is definitely a step in seeking justice, but only a halfway step "because it believes that" has not yet reached the masterminds and has ensured that claimed they did with the missing "since that "while not knowing what they did with their relatives still waiting to hear" and "help to at least say where they were left or who were served."
Regarding MP's request the court to open proceedings against the police chiefs and army as responsible for this and other disappearances, the court granted this request clarifying it is up to the MP to investigate and follow due process.
Mario Polanco, director of GAM, he believes that "this sentence is an important fact in the fight against impunity and when the sentence is hereby granted the law firm for cases of enforced disappearance." GAM is committed to bring to court 102 cases of enforced disappearance, the first two processes will begin in the coming months.
[1] AHPN was discovered by accident in July 2005 when the PDH was tasked to inspect a building in the complex of the Civil National Police after an explosion in the vicinity. This file consists of some 80 million documents, a large number dating from the time of armed conflict, in which are numerous documented human rights violations, but police had previously denied its existence. When they discovered the contents of the file, raised hopes in the relatives of missing persons to clarify what happened to their relatives. This trial is the first in which part of this file has served to highlight the responsibility of the two officers now convicted of a crime against humanity.
This file will be an important tool to work against impunity because it displayed documents showing among other things, the structure of National Police (PN) and its work with the intelligence and the Army of Guatemala in the fight counterinsurgency was conducted during the years of internal armed conflict meant the disappearance of about 45 thousand Guatemalans. It also listed names of those involved in specific operations, who gave the orders, who were made up, etc. as is the case of illegal detention of Fernando Garcia.
[2] In a decision of the Constitutional Court in July 2009 ( www.caldh.org / desaparicionforzada.pdf ), recognized the disappearance as a continuing crime of limitations.
BY: ACOGUATE
PHOTO: Edgar Fernando García, courtesy of GAM
