By CATHERINE NORRIS
While the abuses at Guatanamo Bay and other setbacks for human rights
are often in today's headlines, one of the most important international
victories for the respect of human rights in recent years is going
largely unreported. On July 7, a Spanish judge issued arrest warrants
for eight former Guatemalan military leaders, including three
ex-presidents, who are responsible for some of the worst crimes against
humanity committed in the hemisphere in the last century. Controlling
the government at the height of Guatemala's 36 year-long internal armed
conflict, these men orchestrated a scorched earth campaign that included
the torture, murder and forced disappearances of over 200,000 people.
More than two decades later, they are finally facing charges of genocide
and crimes against humanity.
Remarkably, the arrest warrants are not the culmination of some Spanish
official's judicial activism, but rather stem from the perseverance of
Guatemalan survivors of genocide fighting for justice. In 1999, under
the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchú, a group
of plaintiffs filed the case in the Spanish legal system. Survivors have
also continued to pursue similar cases in the domestic legal system and
the Inter-American system in hopes of finding that justice delayed does
not have to mean justice denied.
In a significant move towards strengthening the application of
international human rights law, Spanish National Court judge Santiago
Pedraz heeded both Guatemalan and Spanish calls for justice by issuing
international warrants for the arrest of former military rulers Efraín
Rios Montt and Oscar Humberto Mejía Victores, in addition to six others.
Pedraz also ordered that the defendants' assets be frozen both in Spain
and internationally, lodging the warrants with Interpol to alert
countries across the world.
The Spanish-issued warrants are a major setback to Guatemala's efforts
to reform its international image. The current administration of
President Óscar Berger, a former businessman and wealthy landowner, has
pleased Western countries by deregulating the economy and liberalizing
trade, at the same time promoting an international image that his
government is concerned with human rights issues. But while the Berger
administration strongly enforces its economic agenda, most noticeably by
enacting the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), it has only
paid lip service to respecting human rights, maintaining impunity for
past and current abuses by the country's security forces and allied
criminal groups.
President Berger has incorporated prominent human rights figures into
his administration, including Eduardo Stein (Vice President), Frank
LaRue (head of the Presidential Human Rights Commission), Rosalina Tuyuc
(coordinator of the National Reparations Program), and Rigoberta Menchú,
for whom he even created the special post of Goodwill Ambassador to the
Peace Accords. In its actions, however, his administration has
prioritized the wealth of few over the well-being of many, increased
land evictions against poor farmers, allowed an increase in threats and
attacks against human rights defenders, and failed to seriously address
an alarming rise in murders of women and girls.
Guatemala has sought to compensate for its domestic human rights
shortcomings by bolstering its image in international forums. As of May,
Guatemala holds one of the 47 seats on the United Nations' new Human
Rights Council, the highest international human rights body. Guatemala
has also recently sent peacekeepers to Haiti and the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, claiming that "10 years after the signing of the Peace
Accords, we're exporting peace!" Ironic for a country that reported
5,338 cases of homicide in 2005 (a 60% increase from 2001) to serve as a
model of peace and justice for others. After a May visit to Guatemala,
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour was blunt in
expressing dismay "that not only reforms are progressing slowly, but
that more and more people are becoming increasingly frustrated with the
State's inability to deliver the promised security, equality and
justice."
Despite this recent censure from the U.N., Guatemala is now also vying
for a seat on the Security Council. Guatemala's bid for the rotating
two-year seat comes mainly from the Bush administration, which has
launched a diplomatic offensive to ensure that Guatemala and not the
first declared candidate, Venezuela takes over the seat. The U.S. is
conveniently overlooking the myriad problems and challenges that the
Guatemalan government has failed to address, claiming Guatemala is a
"viable candidate" solely to thwart Venezuela's bid.
Concerns about Guatemala have dominated the Inter-American human rights
system for several years. Nonetheless, as part of the Berger
administration's efforts to boost its international image, the
Inter-American Human Rights Commission has been invited to hold a
special session in Guatemala this summer. The hosting country, however,
has chosen to only comply with certain elements of verdicts handed down
by the Inter-American Court for Human Rights (IACHR). In July 2005, Vice
President Stein accepted state responsibility for a 1982 massacre in the
community of Plan de Sánchez and issued a tearful apology to the
survivors there, as mandated by an IACHR verdict. But those responsible
for the massacre, as well as the hundreds of other massacres of Maya
people, have yet to be held accountable by a court of law, as this same
IACHR verdict demands. Berger may have incorporated Frank LaRue into his
administration, who headed the human rights organization CALDH when it
began pursuing genocide cases against Ríos Montt and others in the
domestic legal system, but the genocide cases continue to languish in
the preliminary investigative phase six years after their filing.
While the genocide cases stalled in the Guatemalan system, Spain's
Constitutional Court ruled last September that "the principle of
universal jurisdiction takes precedence over the existence or not of
national interests," allowing the case to proceed in Spain. Initially,
Guatemalan courts agreed to cooperate with a visit of a Spanish
Investigative Commission lead by Judge Pedraz and several prosecutors.
However, when the Commission arrived on June 24, 2006, it was stopped by
the Guatemalan courts. Based on appeals filed by Ríos Montt and other
accused officials, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court prevented Pedraz
from collecting any testimony during his visit.
Shortly after returning to Spain, Judge Pedraz issued arrest warrants
for all eight of the accused (this included the former President Lucas
García who had died just weeks earlier). In the order, Judge Pedraz made
special note of "the obstructionist attitude of the defendants," while
the Spanish prosecutor commented on "a clear, constant and voluntary
lack of cooperation with the Spanish judicial authority in investigating
these crimes." The very public failure of the Guatemalan judiciary to
comply with the requests of the Spanish commission underscores the
pervasive impunity gripping Guatemala, as well as the lack of political
will to come to terms with crimes of the past, and thus the need to try
the genocide case internationally.
If the Berger administration was concerned with actively combating
impunity and ensuring the proper functioning of the justice system,
Guatemalan human rights defenders could depend on their own courts
instead of resorting to cumbersome and expensive international systems
to enforce the law. As things stand now, if the arrest warrants for Ríos
Montt, Mejía Víctores and others work their way through the Spanish and
Guatemalan diplomatic channels and arrests are made as they should be,
the extradition agreements will mandate that the accused either be tried
domestically or extradited to Spain to stand trial.
The Berger administration now has two options to finally back up its
rhetoric with action. First, Berger could make the domestic cases
against the former dictators and their military high commands a true
priority by ensuring that the investigative phase draws to a close and
the cases go to trial. Or alternately, the administration can
acknowledge the shortcomings of Guatemala's legal system and extradite
the accused to Spain for trial. In either scenario, the government has a
responsibility to ensure the security of the witnesses and human rights
defenders involved in the case, many of whom are subject to threats and
intimidation.
Rather than lobbying for Guatemala's entrance to the Security Council,
the U.S. has the opportunity to better serve the people of Guatemala, as
well as the ideals of democracy and justice it purports to hold so dear,
by complying with Judge Pedraz's arrest and asset freezing orders for
those accused of genocide. If any of the accused enters the U.S.,
arrests must be made, and if the defendants hold financial assets in the
U.S., as many wealthy Central American officials tend to, the accounts
should be frozen immediately.
When another Spanish judge issued a similar warrant for the arrest of
former Chilean dictator Augosto Pinochet, a 2004 U.S. Senate
investigation found Riggs Bank culpable of helping hide multiple
accounts and millions of dollars on behalf of the dictator. U.S.
financial institutions should be alert to avoid a similar scandal this
time around. The other countries with which Guatemala maintains
important strategic relationships, including Mexico and Panama, must
also take the issuance of the arrest and asset freezing orders
seriously.
Although much still needs to be done for justice to ultimately prevail
before the Spanish and Guatemalan courts, human rights activists can
already begin to celebrate at least a partial victory. The fact that
international arrest warrants have been issued for individuals so long
cloaked in impunity provides hope not only for Guatemalan survivors, but
also for others clamoring for justice worldwide. After decades of being
denied their day in court, survivors in Guatemala have been heard across
the Atlantic, a testament to their persistence and ability to overcome
enormous obstacles. The Berger administration and its allies now have
the opportunity and obligation to put into practice their much touted
commitments to human rights.
Catherine Norris works with the Network in Solidarity with the People of
Guatemala (NISGUA) as the U.S. Coordinator for the Guatemala
Accompaniment Project. http://www.Nisgua.org