RIGHTS-GUATEMALA:
Legal Action by
Activists Against Judges
Stymied
By Inés Benítez
GUATEMALA CITY, (IPS)
- A Guatemalan court
rejected accusations
lodged by Coordinación
Genocidio Nunca Más
(Genocide, Never Again)
Wednesday against the
members of the
Constitutional Court,
which in December
blocked the extradition
to Spain of seven people
accused of crimes
against humanity.
"We have prepared an
appeal for reversal,
asking the judge to set
aside his decision
because, in our view, it
is mistaken and
contravenes the law,"
Benito Morales, a lawyer
for the Rigoberta Menchú
Tum Foundation (FRTM),
told IPS.
On Dec. 12, 2007, the
Guatemalan
Constitutional Court
annulled the prosecution
for genocide, under way
in Spain, of five
generals, including
former dictator Efraín
Ríos Montt (1982-1983)
who is currently a
member of parliament,
and two civilians,
arguing that Spain has
no jurisdiction over
crimes committed in
Guatemala.
On Jan. 17, indigenous
leader Rigoberta Menchú,
winner of the 1992 Nobel
Peace Prize, together
with the Genocide, Never
Again group, brought a
lawsuit before a local
court against judges
Mario Pérez, Gladys
Chacón, Roberto Molina,
Alejandro Maldonado, and
José Rolando Quesada of
the Constitutional
Court, complaining their
decision was biased.
The previous day, the
Spanish National
Audience -- high court
-- which deals with
important criminal,
administrative, and
labour cases, cancelled
its official requests to
the Guatemalan judicial
branch with regard to
the case of the seven
accused for crimes
against humanity. This
was "in view of the
refusal of the country’s
authorities to
cooperate," Spain said.
The Spanish court
document went on to call
on "victims, interested
parties and witnesses"
to come forward and
provide information to
it directly about these
crimes.
Menchú -- who created
the Foundation that
bears her name -- laid
charges before the
Spanish National
Audience in 1999 of
genocide, torture, state
terrorism, and other
crimes against humanity,
perpetrated in Guatemala
during the civil war
between state forces and
the leftwing insurgency.
The Spanish court
investigated these
charges and issued
international warrants
for arrest and
extradition to Spain
against Ríos Montt and
other officials of his
dictatorship, on Jul. 7,
2006.
At a press conference
last week, Morales said
that "we will prove that
this is political
discrimination, and
we’ll see whether it
isn’t also ethnic
discrimination, because
the accused are not
indigenous people, and
neither are the members
of the Court, whereas
the majority of the
genocide victims are."
According to the
document from the
Spanish court, 83
percent of those killed
in the Guatemalan armed
conflict -- many of whom
were tortured first --
belonged to the Maya
ethnic group, and 17
percent were mestizos
(of mixed indigenous and
European descent).
Close to 1.5 million
people were forced to
flee their homes, over
45,000 people remain
disappeared, and 150,000
people sought refuge in
Mexico.
The document also says
that agents of the state
committed 93 percent of
the crimes. There were
667 massacres, and 430
villages were wiped off
the map.
The Guatemalan court
which threw out the
complaint against the
Constitutional Court
based its decision on a
law that says the
magistrates of this
Court cannot be
persecuted for opinions
expressed in the course
of their duties.
However, Morales argues
that the same article of
the law also states
explicitly that
magistrates must
exercise their duties
impartially, which he
considers a key issue in
this case, and which the
judge did not include in
his ruling. "He has only
quoted what suits him,
and he mistakenly
mutilates" the text of
the law, Morales says.
The article in question
starts with the
sentence: "The
Magistrates of the
Constitutional Court
shall perform their
functions with
independence from the
body which appointed
them and in conformity
with the principles of
impartiality and dignity
inherent to their
position."
The charges laid against
the Constitutional Court
by the activists on Jan.
17 say that the
magistrates who signed
the resolution showed a
marked preference for
certain persons and bias
against the
constitutional rights of
the victims of crimes
against humanity.
The complaint added that
the Constitutional Court
magistrates have by
their action taken the
position of genuine
defenders of persons
accused of crimes as
atrocious as genocide,
and by means of their
resolution propose to
block any judicial
investigation into the
perpetrators of that
crime.
Morales said that the
Constitutional Court’s
decision to block the
prosecutions "violates
basic rights, and is
biased because it is
based on selected
criteria in order to
protect the accused."
Considering the crimes
to be political in
nature, according to the
lawsuit which has just
been rejected by the
Guatemalan court, "is a
serious offence and
violation of our
dignity, and the dignity
of thousands of victims
in Guatemala."
Since 2005, National
Audience Judge Santiago
Pedraz has been
investigating the deaths
of some 250,000 people
during the military
regimes that governed
Guatemala with an iron
fist between 1961 and
1996, and with
particular harshness
from 1978 to 1984.
Menchú announced she
will travel to Madrid in
the first half of
February, to reaffirm
her allegations before
the Spanish court, which
will shortly be taking
statements from
witnesses of the
massacres that took
place during the armed
conflict.
On Jan. 16 the Spanish
court requested of the
media in Guatemala and
the countries with which
it shares borders --
Belize, El Salvador,
Honduras, Mexico,
Nicaragua and the U.S.
-- "to publish a notice
calling on victims,
interested parties,
witnesses and
investigators to provide
it with information
about the genocide and
other crimes committed
against the Maya people
in Guatemala."
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