Disappeared in Guatemala
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March 1995 Vol. 7, No. 1 DISAPPEARED IN GUATEMALA THE CASE OF EFRAÈN BÁMACA VELÁSQUEZ CONTENTS I.I.I.................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................IntroductionIntroduction 111 II. .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. The Disappearance of Efraín Bámaca Velásquez 333 Evidence that Bámaca Was Held AliveAlive........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................444 III.III.III.................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Investigations.........Investigations 777 A. Initial ExaminationsExaminations.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 777 B. First ExhumationExhumation.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 999 C. The Special CommissionCommission.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 101010 D. Second ExhumationExhumation...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 101010 E. The Ombudsman's InvestigationInvestigation...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................11...........111111 F. Attorney General Sues Jennifer HarburyHarbury..................................................................................................................................................................................................................12121212 IV.IV.IV.................................IV..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... The Role of the United StatesStates 131313 V.V.V.................................V................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Conclusions.....Conclusions and RecommendationsRecommendations 141414 I. INTRODUCTION Tens of thousands of Guatemalans have been forcibly "disappeared" by government forces over the past three decades, many of them civilians and some of them combatants. One of the fundamental tasks assumed by the government and guerrillas through the ongoing U.N.-mediated peace process is to end the impunity with which such crimes have been committed. In an agreement on the formation of a commission to study past human rights violations, signed in Oslo on June 23, 1994, the two sides acknowledged "the right of the Guatemalan people to know completely the truth about these events."1 In a separate accord on human rights signed by the parties on March 29, 1994, they agreed on "the need for firm action against impunity."2 In other words, the parties agreed that the truth about human rights violations should be exposed and those responsible should be brought to justice. The disappearance of Efraín Bámaca Velásquez, a combatant with the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) who was captured by the army in March 1992, puts these solemn commitments to the test, a test which thus far, the government has failed. It is also a case which highlights the fundamental rights that any human being enjoys under both Guatemalan and international law, regardless of his status as a combatant in an armed conflict. While Bámaca's status as a combatant made him subject to investigation and prosecution under domestic law, it by no means gave the army license to secretly detain and "disappear" him.3 The facts of the Bámaca case open a window into the secretive world of clandestine army detention. The cover-up illustrates a well-established pattern, familiar to many Guatemalans who have sought legal redress for the disappearances of their loved ones. Also typical has been the harassment of Jennifer Harbury, Bámaca's North American wife, who has aggressively pursued the case in a high-profile confrontation with the government. Fear of the army permeates the Guatemalan judicial system, rendering it dysfunctional in resolving disappearances. Habeas corpus petitions presented on behalf of the disappeared are handled mechanically, and investigations are routinely abandoned long before the truth is established. To this day, there has not been a single prosecution in a case of forced disappearance in Guatemala.4 Over the years, the victims have included trade unionists, leftist political activists, students, teachers, peasants, and human rights activists, and many people suspected of having contacts or sympathizing with the guerrillas. Recently, information has surfaced regarding long-term clandestine detention of captured guerrilla combatants as well. Guatemala's security forces engaged in massive disappearances beginning in the late 1960s and through a succession of military governments. The practice has persisted, albeit more selectively, since the army turned the government over to civilians in 1986. According to the Archbishop of Guatemala's Human Rights Office, in 1994, forty-one individuals were forcibly disappeared. Recent victims of disappearance are Lorenzo Quiej Pu, a member of the National Council of Displaced Guatemalans (CONDEG), who disappeared on January 12, 1994, in Guatemala City; Mario López Gabriel and Mariano Gómez Ramos, who disappeared in the village of Tuixiquel-Xemal on February 4, 1 Acuerdo sobre el establecimiento de la Comisión para el esclarecimiento histórico de las violaciones a los derechos humanos y los hechos de violencia que han causado sufrimientos a la población guatemalteca, Oslo, June 20, 1994. 2 Acuerdo Global sobre Derechos Humanos, Mexico, D.F. March 29, 1994. 3 The Guatemalan army appears unwilling to acknowledge the rights of combatants. In a television interview in November 1994, Defense Minister Gen. Mario Enríquez Morales criticized the media for giving the Bámaca case so much coverage: "...this is an attempt to turn someone who has committed atrocities in Guatemala into a martyr. He has kidnapped, he has extorted, he has demanded war taxes, he has killed, and he has crippled a whole lot of