December 10, International Human Rights Day: Guatemala celebrates this day through the public events, exhibits, publications, and forums of many organizations including the government’s own President’s Commission on Human Rights (COPREDEH). This year COPREDEH presented the fruit of many years of consultation and advocacy in the form of “The National Action Plan for Human Rights”.
NPG had accompanied La Unidad staff in August to one of the many consultations in which input into the plan was solicited. We were also present at the public presentation of this plan on December 6. Both the current and future presidents as well as other national dignitaries expressed their support for the plan, while human rights leader, Ruth del Valle of the National Movement of Human Rights, expressed skepticism due to the slow progress of this administration in purging and democratizing the state’s institutions.
With specific goals and actions the authors of the Action Plan hope to commit future governments to this program for the next ten years. The process drew on multiple sectors and includes such things ideas on reducing poverty, increasing gender representation in public office, protecting the elderly, and preserving the environment, among others. The Action Plan also fulfills commitments to the international community made by Guatemala beginning in 1993 at the world conference of the “Declaration and Action Program of Vienna” and again in 2001 at the “Third Summit of the Americas” in Quebec.
International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG)1: In November, the CICIG passed through the last barrier to its installation. The Constitutional Court rejected a challenge from the Pro-Patriot League, which argued that the Congressional vote to approve CICIG was technically flawed and the Congressional Representatives were subject to unusual pressure. Carlos Castresana, the UN-named commissioner of the CICIG, responded that this debate is a healthy manifestation of a democratic process. A representative of Pro-Patriot League CICIG would not change anything; “foreigners know very little about what the country really needs.”
Although the clock began ticking for CICIG’s two year term in October of 2007, the official inauguration of their activities was January 11. Castresana has appeared frequently in the press since October, once congratulating the Guatemalan government for its willingness to ask for help and thereby admitting that it is unable to resolve the problem alone. CICIG is starting with a budget of $20 million and is funded entirely from international sources, not the Guatemalan government.
At the January event, Castresana pointed to the almost 6,000 violent deaths in 2006 including 590 women and said Guatemala is not a propitious place for justice. Impunity is the “black hole of justice”, he said, “a source of shame for us professionals who are not capable of protecting the citizens that pay our salaries and have put their confidence in us.”
The Myrna Mack Foundation, one of the strongest human rights organizations in Guatemala and a key player in pushing for passage of the CICIG in Congress, posed its own view of the challenges. According to their spokesperson, for any progress to occur the government institutions will have to be responsive to the CICIG, Castresana must screen out anyone of questionable background from serving on the commission, and the new president must not allow his security team to have links with the “occult powers”.
Attacks Against Human Rights Defenders Declined: According to Claudia Samayoa of The Unit of Protection of Human Rights Defenders (La Unidad de Protección de Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos), attacks against human rights defenders have declined by 30% since July 2007.
She attributes this improvement to two factors. The first was a strong display of international solidarity and support demonstrated on June 22 when Guatemalan human rights organizations, international NGOs, international accompaniers including NPG, and diplomats from several embassies gathered to show support for all the Guatemalan Human Rights Defenders, which had received serious threats and intimidations.
The other factor was when Adela de Torrebiarte replaced the Minister of the Interior (Gobernación) who was forced to resign in early 2007 over possible links to the February murders of El Salvadoran diplomats and their driver. Torrebiarte has ordered purges of the police force and investigations of crime rings followed by military style operations that have led to the arrests of leaders of gangs and organized crime. Samayoa believes these actions have sent the message that impunity is not absolute. The fact that the General Attorney Office has not followed through with prosecutions remains a serious problem, but for the moment this demonstration of political will has contributed to the decline in crimes and attacks against human rights defenders.
Popular Beliefs about Human Rights: On December 15 security forces entered Zone 18 of the capital and raided the houses of suspected drug traffickers and cells of organized crime. The raid resulted in the arrest of several crime syndicate leaders and arms caches. The press interviewed the neighbors and reported that many expressed hope that the human rights people NOT be brought in, adding that those people only “protect the criminals”. According to several NP sources this attitude, which our volunteers have also encountered in many conversations with neighbors and taxi drivers, has been fostered by the security forces over decades.
In an effort to counter this misperception, the National Movement for Human Rights, represented by Claudia Samayoa, has worked with the Convergence of Human Rights organizations to direct a contest for written press, radio and TV correspondents. The prize was $500 cash plus books and a digital camera to the journalist in each category who produced the best story on human rights. The winners will be announced in January.
Poverty and Human Rights: Poverty and unemployment took second place to insecurity as issues during the presidential campaign, but they are keys to resolving the violence in Guatemala. The masses of unemployed who set up sales on the sidewalks or sell candy, home remedies or amusement on the buses provide easy targets for organized crime recruiters and extortionists. All Guatemalans, especially in the city, face daily threats from unemployed who have crossed the line into crime or who work for private security forces.
According to the United Nations Program of Development (PNUD for its initials in Spanish) Guatemala is among the four countries in the world with the biggest gap between rich and poor. Ten percent of the wealthiest in the country receive 40.3% of the income while 10% of the poorest must divide 1.7% of the economic pie. The same source recently cited 2006 figures that 67% of the economically active population works in the informal sector making them “almost hidden from the financial system and from the State”. The majority earn no more than Q50 ($6.50) a day making it impossible for them to save money or even cover their daily needs.
President elect, Alvaro Colom, has stated that his priority will be the rural poor and a critical part of his program will be micro credits. A program of micro credits may provide an alternative to the 51% of Guatemala’s population who are in poverty, or extreme poverty who earn less than Q8/day. Relief for the poor could be part of a long term solution to such problems as violent gangs and organized crime. It will take many years, and other changes, like trade agreements that protect small Guatemalan producers and a functioning justice and penal system, before Guatemalans begin to feel some relief from the violence and impunity of organized crime and armed clandestine groups.
The work of the team
Santa Lucia and NP Alert: In our October and November reports NPG presented the case of the members of the local Development Council (COCODE) in El Naranjo, a small section of Santa Lucia Cotzamalgualpa. On December 8 a member of the Council, Felipe Alvarez, was assassinated. He was the third person in the Council to be murdered since the original incident in 2004. NPG issued an alert asking our Emergency Response Network to write to officials of the Government of Guatemala asking that they assure the safety of the remaining members of the COCODE and that they investigate the murder of Felipe Alvarez. For details on the alert see the NP website.
The NPG team wants to express appreciation to all those who sent messages. We understand that some people had trouble getting through using the email on the government website, but nevertheless, many messages were successfully transmitted. Amnesty International, Frontline and other international organizations also issued alerts.
The government responded by initiating a new investigation in to the murder of Mr. Alvarez to determine if police had been involved. However, it will not provide protection to the remaining members of the council, Juan Francisco Almira and Manuel Antonio Aguilar, as they are the subjects of the now-stalled prosecution. This has left the two remaining COCODE members and their families, as well as the families of those who have been killed, very vulnerable. La Unidad is in close touch with the families and the investigators and NPG has a visit planned to the town in January in hopes that an international presence, though brief, can provide some support.
<>Chinique: NPG accompanied La Unidad when it investigated and took testimonies from the parties involved in a dispute the Barefoot Doctors Association and the Pro-Development Committee of Chinique have with the local Catholic Church regarding the use of a house. Our team also participated as observers at the two reconciliation meetings carried out by the Human Rights Ombudsman’s office.
According to data obtained from La Unidad’s investigations, in 1989 the Pro-Development Committee of Chinique, thanks to a donation from the Friendship Committee for the Indigenous of Guatemala (CAIG), bought real estate in the community of Chinique. Due to the violence and repression of those years, they decided to register the property in the name of the Diocese of Quiché of the Catholic Church. The representatives of the Church at that time issued a document granting the use of the house indefinitely. That was 18 years ago. In August of 2007 the new parish priest claimed the property for the Church and initiated a process against the occupants.
In the most recent reconciliation meeting, representatives of the Catholic Church gave the occupants until January 1, 2008 to move out. The Barefoot Doctors Association and the Pro-Development Committee indicated that they wanted to seek a better agreement. In early January we learned that the dispute continues and La Unidad has asked NPG to accompany them again to Chinique.
Montana Mines and the Indians: We accompanied the Rigoberta Menchú Foundation (a Member Organization of NP) as it presented oral arguments before a court convened to try seven Maya Mam campesinos (small farmers) accused of the crimes of assault, promoting delinquency, and coercion and threats against members of the security force of the Montana Exploratory Mining Company of Guatemala, a subsidiary of the Canadian based transnational Gold Corp. The General Attorney Office took up the prosecution on behalf of the mining company.
The Rigoberta Menchú Fundation undertook the defense of the two principle indigenous leaders, while the Catholic Church, through its Environmental Ministry, defended the five remaining accused. On December 11 the judges ruled in favor of five of the accused while two were sentenced to pay reparations (Q5/day for 2 years) and two years in prison, rescinded. The Foundation has decided to appeal.
Like the Santa Lucia murder, the cases of Chinique and the Montana Mining Co. drew national and international attention among human rights organizations and environmental groups who have pressured the government to resolve the cases in favor of the human rights defenders.
Written by Betsy Crites
1. 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. We reported on CICIG in August and October.