"Modus Operandi: The Assassination of Bishop
Gerardi"(1)
History
Nunca Mas: Guatemala -- Importance of exposing
the truth
Impunity and Obstacles to Justice
Role of the FBI -- Conflict of interest
Whither the peace process
Action
"They're trying to send a message
that in this country to speak about historical memory and justice
will not be tolerated." (2)
On Friday, April 24th, Juan Gerardi, a 75-year-old Guatemalan bishop,
presented on national television "Nunca Mas: Guatemala" (Guatemala:
Never Again), the final report of the Recovery of the Historic Memory
Project ("REMHI Project") of which Gerardi had been director. Nunca
Mas contains a clear analysis and strong condemnation of the role
of the Guatemalan security forces in planning and systematically
committing atrocious political and civil rights violations since
1954.
Two days later, on Sunday night, April 26th, Gerardi was assassinated
in the garage of the Church of San Sebastian residence, in Guatemala
City.
The killer (or killers) "hit Gerardi on the back
of his head with a piece of cement, and later delivered blows to
the bishop's face, disfiguring it."(3)
An autopsy revealed that Gerardi was bashed in the head and face
17 times. The priest who found him, hours later, could only identify
him by the ring he was wearing.
Quickly, news circulated the globe concerning the death of this
well known advocate for the rights of Guatemala's poor majority.
Just as quickly, debate began as to whether he was a victim of common
crime or of a political assassination. Most persons that work on
human rights issues don't believe this was a common crime. Preliminary
church investigations conclude that at least 6 people were involved
in the planning and execution of the murder. Christian Tomuschat,
head of the United Nations "Truth Commission",
is convinced Gerardi was murdered for political reasons.(4)
Most persons that work on human rights issues also believe the
authorities will not discover who carried out the killing, and --
particularly -- who ordered it.
History
While Gerardi was bishop of the department of Quiche, in the 1970s
and early 1980s, the United States under Reagan was providing extensive
support to military regimes in Central America. The Guatemalan Army
was carrying out a "scorched-earth" military plan across the country;
as many as 600 rural villages (many in the Quiche) were destroyed;
thousands and thousands of massacre victims --the majority being
Mayan-- were dumped indiscriminately in mass graves. Priests and
lay-workers became targets of the repression; the Army boasted of
"killing priests." While president of the Guatemalan Bishop's Conference,
Gerardi survived an attempt on his life.
To draw international attention to this situation, Gerardi took
the unprecedented decision to close the Quiche Diocese. After having
an audience with the Pope in Rome, Gerardi was denied reentry to
his own country. After a number of years in exile, the Vatican helped
negotiate his reentry into Guatemala. Named auxiliary bishop to
the Archdiocese, Gerardi founded and headed ODHA, the Archbishop's
Human Rights Office. In 1995, Gerardi CO-founded and became director
of the Catholic Church's REMHI Project.
Nunca Mas: Guatemala -- Importance of exposing the truth
Members of the REMHI Project spent three years taking thousands
of testimonies concerning the repression. Focusing on killings,
disappearances, torture, rape and illegal detentions, "Nunca Mas:
Guatemala" (Guatemala: Never Again) concluded that government soldiers,
death squads and paramilitary groups were responsible for over 85
percent of the political and civil rights violations since 1961;
the URNG armed rebels were blamed for 9 percent. Of 422 massacres
investigated, REMHI concluded that 401 were committed by the army,
death squads or paramilitary groups; 16 by the URNG. Approximately
200,000 people were killed or disappeared and over 1,000,000 people
fled their communities, many finding refuge in Mexico, the United
States and Canada.
"While most Guatemalans don't know
what happened in that garage, most know why it happened. ... A concrete
block may have been the weapon that killed Gerardi, but truth was
the actual cause of death; Gerardi spoke it, wrote it, and now he's
dead." (5)
The REMHI Project is based on the notion that individual healing,
and then Guatemalan reconciliation and reconstruction, cannot happen
until the truth is known about the destruction of life and community,
about the enduring suffering and trauma, about the State apparatus
of repression, and about who were the intellectual and material
authors of the repression.
Across Guatemala, since the early 1990s, courageous efforts have
been underway to uncover and tell the truth about the horrors of
the past. Surviving family and community members (along with forensic
anthropologists) are exhuming mass graves. They are doing this so
as to properly reburying their murdered loved ones, and then to
erect monuments to commemorate their names and lives. These are
the most important first steps of healing and re-empowerment.
A youth theater group is now touring isolated rural communities,
where most of the most massacres occurred. Their play "The Past
Is With Us" addresses the importance of each family and community
telling the truth about the past, and remembering their dead.
Impunity and Obstacles to Justice
Commenting on Gerardi's killing, the director
of Human Rights Watch (Americas department) said: "Nobody really
expected this from today's Guatemala; look at the success of the
peace process, ...". (6)
Yet, when the apparatus of repression has been left intact, and
when many of the individuals who planned and\or carried out the
rights violations are not only given immunity from prosecution,
but also are today in high political or military office, then acts
of repression should be expected. Given certain political conditions
--such as Gerardi's work for human rights, such as the release of
the REMHI Report--, the expected repression becomes a reality.
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For the authorities investigating this crime, there are serious
obstacles. If they examine the (highly) possible involvement of
sectors of the military, they will confront the wall of impunity
that remains intact -- no high ranking officer has ever been convicted
of human rights violations in Guatemala.
Beyond the entrenched impunity, investigators will have to confront
the nature of clandestine political acts of repression -- that it
is next to impossible to find out who are the "material" authors
of politically motivated crimes without, first, locating the "intellectual"
authors who planned and ordered the crimes.
To locate the "intellectual" authors of Gerardi's killing, the
authorities would have to investigate the "modus operandi" of the
200,000 killings and disappearances over the past decades. To be
able to fully understand the modus operandi of the repression, the
investigators will have to understand the "counterinsurgency" thinking
and planning that underlies the apparatus of repression.
Role of the FBI -- Conflict of interest
That the FBI (US Federal Bureau of Investigation) is helping with
the investigation may serve to further cover up the counterinsurgency
apparatus of repression. Since 1954, the United States has provided
substantial amounts of weaponry and training to Guatemalan military,
security personnel and clandestine death squads. The United States
is, in large part, responsible for the design of, and training for
the "counterinsurgency" military plan carried out in Guatemala.
How can the FBI find out who killed Gerardi without having unfettered
access to all US government materials (including the CIA, Pentagon
and State Department) that document military and intelligence relations
with Guatemala over the past 40 years?
Without huge political pressure from citizens, the press and elected
officials, it remains unlikely that the US government (and mentioned
agencies) will release any revealing information of this type --
to do so would show how implicated the United States has been in
many aspects of the repression in Guatemala. If serious about properly
solving the Gerardi case, the Guatemalan government should formally
request that the US government immediately release all information
pertinent to human rights violations in Guatemala.
Whither the peace process
Gerardi's murder does not reverse, or undo the peace process, it
characterizes it, the murder showing that the apparatus of repression
and impunity are intact.
It is likely that the decision to kill Gerardi --as opposed to
a lesser known human rights worker-- was calculated so that terror
would spread further. "Ricardo Falla, a Jesuit anthropologist who
first got to know Gerardi in the seventies, said the manner in which
Gerardi was killed is significant. He contrasted it to the 1980
assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. "Romero
was killed with a bullet to the heart, as if to kill off the love
and the passion that drove people to struggle," Falla told National
Catholic Reporter. "Gerardi was killed by someone
who smashed his brain, as if they were trying to wipe out his memory.""(7)
Despite four decades of repression and terror, and despite the
fact that this killing has had a chilling impact on most persons
that work on human rights issues, Guatemalans will continue with
their efforts, holding closely to the memory and example of Gerardi.
"With blows, they smashed your skull,
without being able to destroy your ideas. They destroyed your ears,
but it was too late because you already had listened to testimonies
from thousands and thousands of victims of the armed conflict. With
blows, they smashed your mouth, but it was too late, because you
already had spoken." (8)
On April 29, a mass for Bishop Gerardi was held in the main Cathedral.
As many as 20,000 gathered to mourn and "to take strength from each
other and their martyred bishop." In the homily, Bishop Gerardo
Flores of La Verapaz declared that Gerardi "struggled for an authentic
peace, not based on lies but rather founded on justice and truth.
That's why he gave his life and that's why they wanted to quiet
his voice. But today his voice sounds louder than ever before."(9)
*****
Action
Help support Guatemalan human rights organizations that, despite
inherent dangers, aim: to expose the full truth about the horrors
of the past; to commemorate the names and lives of the dead; and
to demand that justice be done. Contact: Rights
Action.
Support efforts to have the US government (including the CIA, State
Department, Pentagon) release all information concerning human rights
violations in Guatemala and how the apparatus of repression operates.
Contact: the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (10)
or NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with the People
of Guatemala).(11)
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