Legal case against 17 soldiers, special forces soldiers and army officers kaibiles of Guatemala for the slaughter perpetrated in December 1982 in the fragmentation of the Dos Erres, department of El Petén, in which they were massacred 252 people. ACOGUATE provides support to the Association of Relatives of Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala, FAMDEGUA, legal representative of the families of the victims of the Dos Erres.
Photo: Aura Elena Farfán, President of FAMDEGUA, gives remarks at a news conference.
In March 1982 is installed in power - after a coup - a military junta led by José Efraín Rios Montt and Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores. This de facto government issued the National Security Plan and Development Agreement with the U.S. national security doctrine that prevailed in America and identified the strategies in the fight against communism. The Victory 82 campaign plan is the implementation of this doctrine in Guatemala, giving way to one of the bloodiest phases of internal armed conflict, characterized by a scorched earth policy aimed at "wiping out the guerrilla and parallel organizations [1]. In this context, carried out massacres, systematic and indiscriminate against people who allegedly supporting "subversive forces."
On the morning of December 7, 1982, a patrol of about 60 kaibiles - counterinsurgency army special force [2] - entered the fragmentation of the Dos Erres (La Libertad, El Petén ) posing as guerrillas. Step to parceling closed behind them, drove the people from their homes and separated women, men, elders and children. The first victim, thrown into a well, was baby joins three months, 252 people were tortured and killed in 18 hours [3]. On 9 December the commander of the military in Las Cruces, Carlos Manuel Carias, ordered the burning of parceling.
Seeking justice
In June 1994, Aura Elena Farfán - FAMDEGUA president - filed a criminal complaint for the crime of murder to the Court of First Instance for Criminal, Drug and Crimes against the Environment of El Petén, requesting the exhumation of victims of the slaughter. This exhumation was carried out in El Pozo de las Dos Erres, by a team of anthropologists Argentine forensic (EAAF) that found 162 bones and numerous evidence. In parallel with the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHAG), the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and filed a complaint FAMDEGUA American Commission on Human Rights, the process would take sixteen.
In 2000, talks began between representatives of the victims and the state, to reach a friendly settlement. Under this agreement truth, justice and reparation [4] - signed in April 2000 - the Guatemalan State acknowledged responsibility for the slaughter perpetrated between 6 and 8 December 1982, as well as its institutional responsibility in front of the expansion of the judicial investigation of the facts. The government was committed to the following:
- make public the recognition of state responsibility. (President Alfonso Portillo publicly took responsibility for the slaughter in August 2002.)
- Conduct research and convict the perpetrators and masterminds of the slaughter. Repair
- collectively to the surviving victims and relatives of the victims.
- clinical Provide psychosocial support to victims.
- create a Commission for Identification and Location of Victims and Relatives of the Slaughter of Las Dos Erres.
In the judicial field, the special prosecutor assigned to the case received - in March 2000 - as anticipated evidence, the testimony of three former kaibiles who witnessed the incident, after which turned warrants on charges of murder against 17 members of the military. With the arrest of six of the defendants began the long process of bringing to court-ordered the Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court. To date, records were under 45, most of them based on the National Reconciliation Act that provides for the extinction of criminal liability for political crimes committed during the internal armed conflict [5].
In this context of expansion of the judicial process, the office was raided FAMDEGUA twice - 2000 and 2003 - evaded and information related to the case of the Dos Erres and Josefinos [6]. In this regard, the Verification Mission United Nations Guatemala (MINUGUA) stated that such acts "searches inhibit the actions of the victims regarding complaints of human rights and impeding the progress of procedure in some cases with national impact in that links to state officials. " [7] The civil society organizations and national these facts strongly repudiated international - urgent action on September 8, 2003 - sought only hinder the search for truth and justice, and in turn blamed state institutions for "inability ( ...) to provide security and protection of human rights defenders ".
Slow Guatemalan judicial system led to the representatives of the victims to withdraw from the friendly settlement with the state and re-activated in 2006, the proceedings of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In March 2008 the Commission completed its report on the lawsuit filed in 1996, concluding that:
"1. The slaughter of Las Dos Erres was planned and executed within the policy of "scorched earth" directed by the Guatemalan government against the entire population classified as "internal enemy" in a context dominated by ignorance of the most fundamental human rights and shared values \u200b\u200bfor inter-American community. 2. The State of Guatemala is responsible for the violation of human rights to recognition of juridical personality, life, personal integrity, personal liberty, protection of families and children, to private property, judicial guarantees and judicial protection (...). " [8]
Faced with the unwillingness of the Guatemalan State to comply with the recommendations of the Commission, the Commission presented the case to the Inter-American Court (IACHR), which started its proceedings in September 2008. On November 24, 2009 Case Court collected for violations of the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights of Prevention and punishment of crimes of genocide of Prevention and Punishment of Torture committed by the State of Guatemala in the slaughter of the Two Rs. The statement also stressed that given the seriousness of the facts "State laws can not apply for amnesty or argue prescription, non-retroactivity of criminal law, res judicata (...) or any other similar responsibility (...) The State must continue criminal proceedings, without further delay ". Following this ruling, and the Ministry FAMDEGUA Público (MP) sought the expertise of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) to identify skeletal remains found in 1995. Found genetic fingerprints will become part of the National Genebank of Relatives and Victims of Enforced Disappearance.
The decision of the Commission forced the reactivation of the case and the Supreme Court declared the high-impact case as it moved to the Court of First Instance Criminal Court of High Risk capital. During the months of July to September held hearings at which Lieutenant formally accused Carlos Manuel Carias and sub-instructors kaibiles Pop Manuel Reyes Collin Gualip Sun and criminal theft, killing 201 people and a crime against humanity duties. FAMDEGUA and organizations in support of national and international civil society expressed concern about the pressures of legal defense against Judge Carol Patricia Flores, and palpable tension among relatives of the defendants and families of victims during hearings .
At the same time a court in Florida, USA, Gilberto kaibil sentenced former Jordan to 10 years in prison for naturalization fraud. Jordan gave false information in the form to obtain U.S. citizenship, hiding their share not only a crime, but in the bloody slaughter of the Dos Erres. The court judge said the ruling should be a clear message to "those who have committed egregious human rights abroad" and that they "would not find a safe haven from prosecution in United States . [9]
For countless hours in the sun and rain, the families of the victims have remained standing at the entrance of the Tower of Courts to demand justice and recognition for the slaughter of 1982, several generations of women and men who lost own, and still in a grieving process that has lasted 28 years. For them, "the dead will never be forgotten" [10]. In October, the MP, the FAMDEGUA plaintiff and defense presented their evidence. It is hoped the opening of the oral debate this summer.
memory of the massacres
On December 7 - in the twenty-eighth anniversary of the slaughter - the families of the victims gathered around the memorial erected in the cemetery of crosses to honor those killed in 1982. Relatives held a moving ceremony during which they planted in the ocher soil of El Petén, flags with the names of their relatives, friends and neighbors massacred, read poems and released three white doves symbolizing air to adults, youth and children who lost their lives that day. Several relatives of victims involved, very shocked, remembering loved ones and demanding justice. At the request of the families of the victims, Aura Elena Farfan went to all present to remember how you started this process, thanks to the priests and catechists of La Libertad, and how it has made it to the judicial process that began in July. He also called on unity and solidarity among all the families of the massacres and disappearances perpetrated in the region at that time: "this must not forget please friends and had time to mourn, to wait, now is the time, now is the time that the community of Las Cruces, by Josefina and all around are unified into a single cry, calling for the application of justice ".
The day dawned cold, the fog, but the sun and heated to accompany the massive caravan toured the villages - The Manueles, Los Josefinos, Palestine, Vista Hermosa - touched by violence and cruelty of the armed conflict. As Aura Elena Farfan said at the end of his speech: " is painful to remember the past, because it is very painful, but necessary to build a different Guatemala where we truly respect life, respect for all our rights. "
Recent developments in the case
The case of the slaughter of the Dos Erres continues its way through the maze of the Guatemalan judicial system. In January the Constitutional Court decided to accept the writ of amparo brought by the defendants. FAMDEGUA and the attorney of record, Mr. Edgar Perez, filed a motion for extension and clarification of the verdict, considering that contravene the decision of the Supreme Court to implement the decision of the Commission. In effect the decision of the Commission, urged the Guatemalan State to "remove all obstacles that have resulted in impunity in the case, as the disproportionate use of injunctions." [11] Meanwhile, Canada was arrested in one of 17 syndicated by the slaughter, the kaibil Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, wanted by the U.S. on charges of naturalization fraud. A Canadian court will rule on possible extradition to the U.S. [12].
[1] Campaign Plan Victoria 82.
[2] Esclarecimeinto Commission (CEH). Guatemala: Memoria del Silencio. Illustrative Case No. 31 http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/mds/spanish/anexo1/vol1/no31.html
[3] Larry Kapplow, unearthing a massacre. Post Global. 29/04/2010 http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/100427/guatemala-exhumation-las-dos-erres
[4] friendly settlement framework agreement between the representatives of the victims and the state. 01/04/2000
[5] The Judgement of 24 November 2009 the Inter-American Court Slaughter human case of the Dos Erres v Republic of Guatemala, refers to the actions of the Guatemalan judicial system as follows: "unwarranted delay in criminal proceedings for over 15 years is attributable not only to the indiscriminate use resources of the accused, but lack of will and interest of the State's judicial authorities who have known them, they have not properly handled numerous appeals, and have submitted the case to the procedure laid down in the LRN [Law National Reconciliation]. "
[6] Slaughter perpetrated by the army eg é 29 and April 30, 1982, which killed about 57 people (including 15 children). The houses of the villagers were burned and their bodies dumped in a mass grave. FAMDEGUA, acting as representative of the families of the victims, introduced April 18, 1996 criminal complaint in the Court of First Instance for Criminal, Drug Trafficking and Environmental Crimes in El Petén. In 2004, FAMDEGUA with CEJIL, filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In December this year moved the case to the Court of First Instance Criminal High Risk of capital.
[7] "COPREDEH Minugua and assault on FAMDEGUA concerned", El Periodico. 06/09/2000
[8] 22/08 Fund Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the case of the Dos Erres Slaughter against Guatemala. http://www.cidh.org/demandas/ 20Dos% 11,681% 20Erres% 20Guatemala% 2030% 20Julio% 202008% 20ESP.pdf
[9] National Security Archive, "Guatemala Former Soldier Sentenced to Ten Years for Lying About Role in Massacre Of err", 16/09/2010. Http://www.gwu.edu/ ~ nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB316/index.htm
[10] Declaration Of a family of them miss the ceremony after performed during the second exhumation Levada FAFG out by April 2010.
[11] Appeal for Support create impunity for Dos Erres. Guatemalan news agency. 31/01/2011. Http://agn.gob.gt/agn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4493:recursos-de-amparo-generan-impunidad-en-caso-dos-erres&catid=52 : Security & Itemid = 147
[12] Canada's extradition hearing held related to slaughter of Dos Erres. United Stations. 19/01/2011 http://noticias.emisorasunidas.com/noticias/nacionales/canada-realizara-audiencia-sobre-extradicion-de-vinculado-masacre-dos-erres
