CICIG Opens Dialogue to Establish Its Priorities
The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) has announced it will begin its operations the first of January, 2008. CICIG is the result of a joint agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Guatemala to investigate and bring to light the identities of the illegal groups and parallel structures, their sources of financing, and their ties with agencies within the government.
In his last visit the director of CICIG, Carolos Castresana, said that they will work within the existing legal framework, but he said they are going to propose indispensable legislation that will give them the tools they need to carry out their work. At the same time, he revealed that the CICIG is to be composed of 50% international personnel and the same percentage of national investigators.
Determinations about which cases will be investigated will be subject to the CICIG mandate. According to the report from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Guatemala (GOG) established that the CICIG will gather information about the existence and methods of illegal bodies and clandestine security apparatus that operate in the country.
Castresana explained that priority in the selection of cases to be investigated will be given to the cases that the Government recommends, however they will also take into account the cases proposed by human rights organizations and organized civil society.
In recent statements to the press Vice President Eduardo Stein has made it clear that the primary concerns of the GOG is that CICIG investigate the adoptions racket, the national police, and the penitentiary system among other state institutions where there have been indications of the activities of organized crime.
For additional information about CICIG see:
NPG reports from July and August: www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org
International Commission of Jurists : www.icj.org
Text of the CICIG, Portal web: www.noticias.com.gt
Fundación Myrna Mack, web: www.myrnamack.org.gt
Diario Prensa Libre, web: www.prensalibre.com
2. The Presence of Observer Missions in the Second Round
The Observer Missions of the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union (EU) and the Indigenous Mission of Electoral Observation of Guatemala, are among those that confirmed they would be present to monitor the second round of elections. They intend to have more personnel placed in the capital, they said.
The head of the OAS mission, Diego Garcia-Sayan, while underscoring that they would be vigilant in tracking the process of the second round including the political campaigns, also reminded the candidates of their commitments with respect to the results. Before the first vote, the OAS Mission managed to get 12 of the 14 parties to promise to respect the results reported by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and to avoid confrontations. In its third observation report, the OAS demanded that the crimes linked with the political parties or those that affected the parties be investigated.
In October, the most highly publicized political crime was the double assassination of the secretary and another close collaborator of Otto Perez Molina, candidate for the Patriotic Party. This was followed by a rapid exchange between the two presidential candidates accusing each other of being linked to and financed by drug traffickers and organized crime.
Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler, head of the Observer Mission of the EU indicated that they will pursue step by step any challenges to the election results. He also expressed concern about the high number of violent crimes against politicians and activists during this political process.
His assistant explained that the work of the observers will be the same as in the first round. They will have 110 observers available on November 4 and will publicize their first report on November 6.
Controversy Challenges the Legitimacy of Officials Elected in the First Round
In a country where organized crime is known to have infiltrated all levels of government, many had believed that the candidates would be required to provide proof of their moral and economic solvency, i.e. free of outstanding claims against them, and have not abused the public trust in the past. However, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE for its Spanish initials) did not require this before the first round and their decision has generated a controversy leading all the way to the Supreme Court.
Carolos Mencos, the Controller General, said that his office had found that 242 of the candidates elected were without this proof. He claimed that the deputies, mayors, town councils and other officials elected on September 9 could not take office without the necessary “finiquitos” (a legal document that states the person is clear of any pending judgments against them relating to the management of public funds).
However, Carlos Bolaños, president of the Tribunal responded that there is no agreement with the Controller General’s office nor is it required by the Election Law that these documents be submitted in order for a new office holder to be accredited. The Human Rights Ombudsman, Sergio Morales, entered the controversy by presenting a case against the TSE to the Supreme Court. He called on the court to require the TSE to stop credentialing newly elected officials and to order the TSE to demand finiquitos of all the candidates. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Ombudsman and ordered the SET functionaries to demand the presentation of these documents. The president of the Court, Oscar Vásquez, stated that the decision was based on the Integrity Law.
In spite of this ruling of the Supreme Court, the TSE officials are refusing to comply and insist that neither the Electoral Law nor the Constitution require the presentation of this document.
Many new office holders have already been credentialed. The controversy remains at a stalemate. The outcome could have far reaching implications for the integrity and functioning of the new government.
The second round
The winner and new president beginning January 14, 2008, is a centrist social democrat, Alvaro Colom, of the Unity of National Hope party. Election day – November 4 – was peaceful and orderly and it appears that the transition of power will be the same. NPG will send more information on the elections and the reactions of human rights defenders in a special report.
Examples of cases the accompanied groups are working on
The following cases are intended to give a more detailed picture of the work being done by La Unidad and the accompaniment of NP volunteers.
Case: Santiago Atitlán
Since 2003 a group in Santiago Atitlán has been murdering people under the supposed rationale of “social cleansing”. The group that calls itself “Social Cleansing” eliminates presumed thieves, adulterers, “witches” as well as other people they have identified as undesirables. It is estimated that this group has killed approximately 50 people a year in this town.
In August of this year a new group appears names “The Judges”, which seems to be a splinter group of the first and which has emerged out of the problems in the division of extortion money taken from the campesinos in exchange for security services. This group has threatened several human rights defenders including the Director of the local Association for Development of the Committees of the Village of Panabaj, Francisco Coché.
La Unidad has asked the Public Ministry to investigate the situation in the area. It has also presented a request to the Interamerican Human Rights Commission for protective measures for Mr. Coché. NP Guatemala has accompanied La Unidad in its investigations of this case.
Case: Santa Lucia
In the community of El Naranjo within the municipality of Santa Lucia Cotzamagualpa en Escuintla, a conflict arose in 2004. Members of the community, out of concern for their security, approached the owners of a store about their practice of selling alcohol late at night. The issue led to an agreement that prohibited the sale of alcohol after ten at night. All the members of the community, and including the store owners, promised to abide by this norm.
However, the practice continued after hours. In May of 2004, when the members of the local COCODE (Community Development Council) and the police paid a visit to the store owners to call attention to this fact, one of the owners came out and began to attack them with a machete. Gunshots were fired, which according to witnesses came from inside the store, and killed the store owner and wounded one of his sons.
The members of the COCODE and the police were accused of illegally breaking in and gravely wounding a person. During the long process of pre-trial investigation the accused have been threatened by the family of the store owner and two of the accused and two witnesses have been killed. The presumed ties the family has with known paid killers in the area has generated a fear in the COCODE. Additionally, the store owners have relatives in the Public Ministry (i.e. Dept. of Justice) and the judicature has been compromised en this case.
The trial began in October however the judicial process is now stalled until there is a decision regarding the introduction of a new accusation by the prosecution. La Unidad has halted its accompaniment, but has instructed the defenders to maintain a high level of alert to the possibility of being watched or attacked.
NPG has accompanied La Unidad for 12 trips to Santa Lucia, most of them to be present for the trial and to strengthen La Unidad’s accompaniment of some of the accused.
Case: Ixqik in Peten
NPG accompanied La Unidad to the distant province of Peten for four days in October. Our volunteer accompanied La Unidad staff who was giving a workshop on security and as she consulted with the women’s group, Ixqik. Ever since the women managed to bring about the transfer of a judge, who they accused of obstructing cases of sexual harassment and sexual abuse of minors, they have been constantly persecuted and threatened by some clandestine structure. The violence against the women is believed to be due to the judge serving the interests of drug traffickers and organized crime networks. Unaware of what they were getting in to, Ixqik has ended up in the middle of this.
Case: The Consortium of Actors for Change in Huehuetenango
El Consorcio (“Consortium”) is a collective of two groups working with women affected by the violence of the past and present. NPG has made three trips with them to the capitol of this province in the far western part of the country. In October we accompanied them as they carried out a workshop on the subject of Rape Trauma.
The workshop was interrupted by the surprising news that in a near-by town the office of the mayor had been occupied by an opposition political group that refused to accept the results of the elections. They held the sitting mayor, along with other members of the town council, as hostages and were mistreating them. This development was greatly disturbing to the mother and two sisters of the mayor who happened to be participants in the workshop.
The women from El Consorcio called the Human Rights Ombudsman’s office and the police who managed to free the hostages, but the crisis continued. The armed group declared that since it had not obtained its objectives it was going to take out vengeance on the family. This generated great concern for the security of the women in the workshop and led the El Consorcio staff to activate its network for emergency response.
In the process, the Consorcio staff decided they needed to extend their stay in order to help the women find a safe place to stay. They consulted with their supervisors in the capitol. Worried about the security of their staff, the supervisors asked if the NP accompaniers could stay as well. When the response was positive, they decided to allow the staff to remain to help resolve the situation.
Additional Cases:
NPG accompanied La Unidad to a municipality in Izabal province as they initiated a process of investigation of two possible cases of aggression against human rights defenders in that area. These cases are in the process of verification and investigation of the evidence. La Unidad staff has not yet decided if they will proceed to accompany the people involved; they foresee additional trips to the area.
The work of the team
This month the team has traveled frequently with La Unidad staff as they carry out the necessary investigations of new cases, with almost every week providing an opportunity for everyone on the team to travel outside the city. At La Unidad office, NPG has also participated in meetings analyzing and planning for security risks and evaluating the first election and possible scenarios after the second round.
(Written by Betsy Crites)