GUATEMALA:
Genocide Plans May Be
Declassified
By
Inés Benítez
GUATEMALA CITY, (IPS) -
Guatemala’s
Constitutional Court
must decide whether or
not to declassify
documents from 1982 and
1983 military operations
commanded by then
dictator José Efraín
Ríos Montt that would
shed light on the
genocide committed in
this Central American
country.
"The victims have the
right to know the truth,
and revealing these
documents is a form of
reparation," Alejandro
Rodríguez, a lawyer with
the Association for
Justice and
Reconciliation (AJR),
said Thursday in a
public hearing held by
the Constitutional
Court.
In the hearing a public
prosecutor and Ríos
Montt’s defence
attorneys presented
arguments in favour of
and against
declassifying the files.
The Court has five
working days, as of
Thursday, to make a
decision.
On Jul. 19, an appeals
court dismissed a legal
plea by Ríos Montt to
keep the military
documents secret.
Appeals court Judge
Napoleón Gutiérrez
argued in his ruling
that the documents did
not compromise national
security because the
crimes had already been
committed.
He instructed the
Defence Ministry, which
has kept the files
confidential as "state
secrets," to hand
certified copies of them
over to the court
hearing the case in
which Ríos Montt and
other military officers
have been charged with
genocide.
The documents in
question deal with
military operations
carried out at the
height of the
counterinsurgency
"scorched earth"
campaign in which
hundreds of rural
indigenous villages were
destroyed, along with
every man, woman and
child living there. The
operations were known as
"Campaña Victoria 1982",
the Jul. 15, 1982 "Operativo
Sofía", the 1983 "Operación
Ixil, Civilian Affairs"
and "Plan Firmeza 1983".
Article 30 of the
Guatemalan constitution
establishes that all
administrative documents
and files are public
unless they deal with
military or diplomatic
affairs involving
national security.
"We cannot try to hide
the atrocities that were
committed by arguing
that a ‘state secret’ is
involved," said another
AJR lawyer, Edgar Pérez.
"The argument of ‘state
secret’ cannot be used
as a mechanism of
impunity," said
Rodríguez, who
maintained that the aim
of those who want the
documents to remain
confidential is to block
an investigation of the
atrocities ordered by
Ríos Montt.
The former dictator, who
governed Guatemala from
March 1982 to August
1983, is facing legal
action in Guatemala for
human rights crimes
committed during his
time in office,
considered the bloodiest
period of the 1960-1996
armed conflict that left
more than 200,000 --
mainly rural indigenous
people -- dead,
including 50,000 victims
of forced disappearance.
And in July 2006, a high
court in Spain, the
Audiencia Nacional,
issued an international
arrest warrant to seek
the extradition to Spain
of Ríos Montt and seven
other former military
and civilian officials
from his de facto
administration, on
charges of torture,
state terrorism and
genocide.
One of Ríos Montt’s
lawyers, Luis Alfonso
González, said Thursday
that under military
rules, a document
considered to be a
"state secret" can only
be declassified "after
30 years, or under a
decision by the same
authority that
classified it" -- in
this case, the Defence
Ministry.
"If the public
prosecutor office’s
request is granted, both
the Defence Ministry and
the Constitutional Court
judge would be violating
the constitution,"
argued González, who
said "the judge cannot
decide whether or not
the document is secret."
Iduvina Hernández of the
non-governmental
Association for the
Study and Promotion of
Security in Democracy (SEDEM)
told IPS that "at this
point, a quarter century
after the events, there
is no national security
argument that can
justify the continued
classification or
secrecy surrounding
military operations in
the field."
"What is a state secret?
Killing children,
burning down thatch
huts? The army wants to
wash its hands like
Pilates," Ramón Caba,
the survivor of a
massacre and the
chairman of the AJR
board of directors, told
journalists Thursday.
The AJR groups survivors
of the massacres
committed during the
civil war.
At the end of the public
hearing, which lasted an
hour and a half, Caba
said he hoped the
Constitutional Court
"will have a good
response for us, the
survivors."
Tiburcio Gutui, 67, will
never forget Feb. 16,
1982, the day the army
came into his village
and killed his father,
mother and five brothers
and sisters. "First they
shot people, then they
set everything on fire
and took away the
animals -- the pigs and
chickens," he described
to IPS.
Euligia López, whose
husband was shot to
death, told reporters
that "In my community
(in the central province
of Chimaltenango) alone,
they killed 24 women,
children and men. We
want justice because we
were left in utter
poverty after the
military burnt down our
houses."
The survivors who showed
up at the public hearing
expressed their trust in
Guatemala’s justice
system.
Juan Francisco Soto, the
head of the Centre for
Legal Action on Human
Rights (CALDH), also
expressed optimism.
In a statement, CALDH
pointed out that
according to the
Inter-American Court of
Human Rights, in cases
of human rights
violations, authorities
cannot invoke mechanisms
like "state secrets,"
confidentiality, or
reasons of public
interest or national
security to refuse to
hand over information
requested by authorities
carrying out an
investigation or legal
process.
The Inter-American Court
took that stance in its
ruling against the
Guatemalan state for the
murder of anthropologist
Myrna Mack, the founder
of the Association for
the Advance of Social
Sciences in Guatemala (AVANCSO),
who was stabbed to death
outside of the group’s
offices in the capital
in September 1990.
In 1989, Mack had
published a study which
concluded that
government
counter-insurgency
policies had caused the
internal displacement of
Guatemala's indigenous
people.
In 1993, Sergeant Noel
de Jesús Beteta Álvarez,
a member of the
Department of
Presidential Security,
was convicted and
sentenced to 25 years in
prison for Mack’s
murder.
Thursday’s hearing added
a new dimension to next
Sunday’s general
elections, in which
Guatemalans will choose
a new president, vice
president, legislators
and mayors.
Ríos Montt, 81, heads
the list of
parliamentary candidates
of the right-wing
Guatemalan Republican
Front, the main
opposition party.
A May 18 ruling by the
Supreme Electoral Court
allowed him to run for
reelection to the
legislature, despite the
legal charges he is
facing. The decision
drew howls of outrage
both within and outside
Guatemala.
On Jul. 30, the
Guatemalan attorney
general’s office
received 1,200 letters
from people in 23
countries urging it to
speed up the cases
against Ríos Montt and
other military officers
accused of genocide and
crimes against humanity. |
