State of seige in western Guatemala

This article was orginially posted in Swedish by my collegue Tamara Vocar.

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Tamara Vocar

On Tuesday afternoon Guatemala's Home Secretary, Mauricio López Bonilla, declared a state of seige in Santa Cruz Barillas, in the western province of Huehuetenango, after nearly 200 armed men took a military base and demanded justice for a local leader's death, and two others who were injured, earlier that day. 

During the afternoon of May 1st three local civil society leaders were subject to an ambush as they were returning to their village near Posa Verde, where the company Hidro Santa Cruz is planning to construct a hydroelectric power plant. One person died as a result of the attack and two were injured. One of the surviving men have previously refused to sell their land to the company, something for which he has faced legal harassment. The two survivors report that their attacker drove vehicles similar to those owned by the company Hidro Santa Cruz, so it is assumed that the attack was carried out by persons associated with the company.

It was this event that triggered the rancorous atmosphere that led to 200 men armed with handguns and machetes seizing the local military base. According to Rony Urizar, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, several soldiers were beaten and wounded, one seriously. Afterwards, the men set fire to several buildings in the city. Guatemalan President and former General Otto Pérez Molina called the conduct of the rebels an attack on the military, and accused the participants in the riot of collaborating with drug cartels. According to reports, the Home Secretary López Bonilla in addition to the state of emergency also ordered the strengthening of military and police forces from Guatemala City to restore order in the province.

The events mark the culmination of a conflict between local people who oppose the construction of a hydroelectric power plant near Posa Verde. The company Hidro Santa Cruz has begun construction with approval from the government despite the fact that the municipal council took a vote on the construction of the power plant in 2007 which rendered a Nay.

Several human rights defenders in the area have been subjected to persecution and harassment, including threatening phone messages, because of their resistance to the hydroelectric power plant. As recently as two weeks ago, residents discovered that the company possessed homemade explosives and a report was filed against the company.

The local civil society condemned the violence in a statement, but says that it is necessary to see the riots in their context, something that Guatemalan media have so far turned a blind eye to, considering the one-sided reporting of the event.

The conflict in Santa Cruz Barillas is one of several which have arisen in relation to the exploitation of natural resources in Guatemala.

Tamara Vocar, Peace observer for SweFOR 2012-2013

AHPN: Key documents for justice

In 2005, at the National Police in Guatemala City, about 80 million sheets of paper were found by chance. The papers, that were stored in stacks in very poor conditions, contain documents from 1882 until 2003. These documents also hold evidence of the involvement of the National Police of Guatemala in gathering intelligence on citizens and in participating in disappearances, torture and murder during the civil war.

Because of the poor condition of the documents the first task of the Historical Archives of the National Police (AHPN) has been to restore the documents, which is a meticulous work made by hand. Once restored, the archives then need to be sorted and indexed.

Alberto Fuentes explains that it is important to take into account the context that the individual document was found in and that seemingly insignificant documents can play a key role. For example, if a witness has seen a family member be forced into a car by such a simple document as a record of the vehicles owned by the National Police at the time can work as a compelling evidence of that the National Police is responsible. Fuentes emphasizes that testimonies, exhumations and documentation play a key role in the pursuit of justice.

Finally, the documents are digitalised and publicized. By cooperating with the University of Texas at Austin the documents are made available online.

These documents are an invaluable resource in the search for the truth and a way for relatives to find out what actually happened to their loved ones. Although I have just passed a few weeks here in Guatemala I am stricken by that the wounds that the civil war left still are wide open. There is a will to struggle for justice and a great need to find out the truth in order to get a closure.

Impunity – a threat to human rights defenders

- Do you think it'll be alright to go to the laundry service at this time of day, or do you think it is better if I wait until tomorrow?

We have just finished a day of education and preparation in our new home and office in Guatemala City. It is 7.10 pm and already dark outside.

There is really no time of the day that is safe to wander the streets of the city, and after nightfall we are recommended to call a taxi if we need to go anywhere. Even if we just need to go a few blocks from home. Planning ahead is a necessity.

The civil war of Guatemala ended in 1996, but the violence has not ceased. According to figures from 2010, 6000 homicides were committed in Guatemala with a level of impunity of 97 per cent. During the civil war, approximately 45 000 forced disappearances occurred, whereas there have only been verdicts for four of the cases. In other words, Guatemala has a long tradition of impunity.

People who strive to defend their human rights as well as the rights of others are increasingly exposed to different types of assaults, according to a report from Front Line Defenders and UDEFEGUA (see http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/files/front_line_defenders_and_udefegua_upr_submission_-_guatemala.pdf). The most common type of assault are death threats and other types of intimidation, but the report also notes that 55 human rights defenders have been murdered from 2008 to 2011. Female human rights defenders, labour union activists, indigenous rights defenders as well as people who work to prosecute those responsible for violations during the civil war are particularly vulnerable.

Arrival in Antigua

After one month of intensive training at the main office in Stockholm we have finally arrived in Guatemala, where I will stay for the duration of the year. Right now, we are in Antigua and we have already had our first day of training here. On Monday we will move into Guatemala city and start our training with our partner organization ACOGUATE.

Guatemala suffered civil war between 1960-1996 and a genocide that had its greatest intensity during the 1980's. Whole villages were massacred in pursuit of guerilla, and people were arbitrarily arrested and disappeared. 16 years after the civil war officially ended victims and relatives that demand justice, gather evidence from the massacres and step forward to witness in trials still fear violence and intimidation.

A lot of the work that I will be doing here will circle around the judicial process and to accompany the witnesses. During this year, I will accompany the witnesses both in their homes and during the trial hearings. The purpose of my presence is to dissuade the abuse of the their human rights.

The 20th of March 2012 five soldiers were sentenced to 7 710 years of prison for committing the massacre at Plan de Sánchez in 1982 when 256 identified victims were murdered. On January 26th the ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was prosecuted for genocide.

The end, and the beginning of something new

Outside the train window a snow clad landscape rushes by. In a couple of weeks I will exchange this for something completely different. I will be heading towards Central America. To be honest, I am still not sure what awaits me there.

Last Friday I quit my previous job and said good-bye to my colleges. It is always hard to let go – to end something that is good in many ways and to bid farewell. But this phase is more about a beginning than an end, because every end unavoidably means the start of something new.

Tomorrow I start my training to become a peace observer. There are many admirable people in the world who risk their lives in the pursuit of justice, in the pursuit of defending the human rights of themselves and of others.

People who are too outspoken, people who are too uncomfortable in their criticism get harassed, intimidated, abducted and murdered. Silenced when trying to make a difference. They should not have to fear for their lives for speaking out against injustice, but sadly they do. My part is to dissuade abuse by being present and, should it occur, make sure that the abuse is reported. Hopefully, this will contribute to giving these people the peace that they need to act.