Rights Action - May 10, 2011
Guatemala Impunity Alert

GUATEMALAN WAR CRIMINAL 'PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE' COMES TO WASHINGTON

ACTION NEEDED:  Come to a Protest; Call Congressional & Governmental Offices

BELOW
An urgent action - prepared by the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (www.ghrc-usa.org), edited here by Rights Action (www.rightsaction.org) - concerning a pending visit to Washington DC by 'Genocidal General' Otto Perez Molina, now candidate for the conservative Partido Patriota in Guatemala.

* Please re-distribute this info, all around
* Please take action, as set out below
* What to do: see below
* Get on/off Rights Action's listserv: www.rightsaction.org
* Join Rights Action's Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rights-Action/176850879028427?ref=ts

MORE INFORMATION
* Annie Bird, Rights Action, annie@rightsaction.org
* Amanda Martin, GHRC, amartin@ghrc-usa.org
* Jennifer Harbury, jharbury@yahoo.com

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NO U.S. SUPPORT FOR GUATEMALAN 'GENOCIDE GENERAL' OTTO PEREZ MOLINA WHO WILL BE IN WASHINGTON D.C. TO SEEK SUPPORT FOR HIS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

It was reported in the Guatemalan media, May 8th, that General Otto Perez Molina, right-wing Presidential candidate for the Partido Patriota, will visit Washington D.C. to marshal U.S. support for his campaign.  He will likely be received in many offices, despite his well known participation in the U.S.-backed Guatemalan army's campaign of genocide, and other crimes against humanity, against their own population in the 1970s, 80s, and into the early 90s.  A majority of their victims were Mayan people.

Please call your congressional representatives, and other government offices [see below], to alert them that a war criminal, and one of the intellectual authors of the U.S.-backed genocide in Guatemala, is coming to town.  Below find talking points and a list of the members of particular Committees.

PROTEST:  In the Washington DC area, come protest at the State Department
WHEN:  Monday, May 16, 12noon
WHERE:  2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC

BACKGROUND
Systematic State repression began again in Guatemala in 1954, after the U.S. government and CIA orchestrated a military coup against the democratic government of President Jacobo Arbenz, and continued through to today, even after the Peace Accords were signed in 1996.

In the worst years of State repression (1970s, 80s, early 90s), the Guatemalan army, police and death squads unleashed a campaign of State terrorism against the Guatemalan own people, a majority being Mayan, and against all proponents of change, earning Guatemala the grim title of worst human rights violator in the western hemisphere. Even today, mass graves continue to be dug up where the bodies of the massacre victims were dumped.

According to the United Nations Truth Commission report ("Memoria de Silencio", Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico - CEHG), the Guatemalan 'security' forces engaged in genocide against its Mayan population in the 1980s, carrying out village by village massacres in the highlands. More than 660 such massacres occurred.  In many cases, hundreds of civilians of all ages were killed in a single day. Pregnant women were hacked open and children disemboweled or smashed against stones as a warning to others.  Urban areas suffered equally harsh repression, with thousands of church leaders, students, unionists, and human rights defenders tortured, mutilated, killed or "disappeared". Well over 200,000 people were either killed or disappeared.

Today, Guatemalan 'security' forces continue to dominate and corrupt institutions of the State and judiciary in order to maintain their power and impunity. As a result, killers continue to kill, and the so-called transition to democracy and the rule of law have yet to occur in Guatemala.

GENERAL OTTO PEREZ MOLINA
General Otto Perez Molina rose to the highest ranks of the Guatemalan army during this horrific period. Today, he presents himself as a moderate and a military reformist, but his history speaks for itself:

1. Perez Molina was a commanding officer in the Ixil Triangle region in the Quiche department in 1982, the peak year of the massacre campaign, and one of the hardest hit regions in the country. As stated in the Truth Commission report, "The investigation has also proved that the killings, especially those that were indiscriminate massacres, were accompanied by the razing of villages. This was most significant in the Ixil region, where between 70% and 90% of villages were razed."

2. Perez Molina is recognized and remembered only too well by the survivors in the Nebaj and other areas in the Ixil. In a recently released State department cable, Perez Molina is confirmed to have been in a command position in that region then. The Truth Commission held all such commanders liable for genocide.

3. Survivors in other areas also recognize and remember him for a number of war crimes.

4. Perez Molina was the head of intelligence in 1992, the year that the Mayan leader Comandante Everardo (Efrain Bamaca Velasquez) of the URNG forces was captured alive, illegally detained in clandestine detention centers, and submitted to a 'special intelligence program' for 'high value' prisoners. He was battered, drugged, injected with a toxic substance that caused his entire body to swell enormously, and held in a full body cast to prevent his escape, always in custody of the intelligence division answering to Perez Molina.

His ordeal of illegal detention and torture lasted for at least two years. There are reports that he was either thrown from a helicopter or dismembered. He remains disappeared to this day. Perez Molina has been named in the criminal complaint.

EVERY PHONE CALL COUNTS IN THIS SITUATION:
TELL THE U.S. GOVERNMENT & GENERAL OTTO PEREZ MOLINA
"THERE IS NO SAFE HAVEN FOR GENOCIDE"

1. Below, a list of offices and telephone numbers to call. Please make as many calls as you can. More importantly, please try to organize a small group of friends to also make the calls. We do not yet have a date for his arrival, which is likely to be kept secret, but it will be soon. We need to get the key information to these offices now, so that they are well informed before he arrives.

2. Please speak with them courteously, and share what you know.

3. Speaking Points:

A. We understand that General Otto Perez Molina is visiting Washington D.C. soon to raise support for his Presidential candidacy.

B. We think you should know that he participated in the army campaign of genocide documented in the UN Truth Commission report. Specifically, he was a commanding officer in the Ixil triangle during the village by village massacre campaign in 1982.

C. The survivors recognize and remember him only too well.

D. Perez Molina has also been named in the criminal complaint filed for the torture and disappearance of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, husband of US citizen Jennifer Harbury. Bamaca was captured alive, illegally detained in clandestine jails, severely tortured for more than 2 years, then either thrown from a helicopter or dismembered, at the hands of high level intelligence officials under the command of Perez Molina, who was the national head of intelligence at the time of his capture.

E. The on-going military and police impunity in Guatemala continues to impede any possible transition to democracy and the rule of law today. Conditions of violence and corruption are escalating.

F. THERE CAN BE ZERO TOLERANCE FOR TORTURE

G. INTERNATIONAL LAW SAYS THERE CAN BE NO SAFE HAVEN FOR WAR CRIMINALS

H. WE STRONGLY OBJECT TO PEREZ MOLINA'S ADMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES WHILE HONEST WORKERS ARE DEPORTED DAILY.

I. WE STRONGLY OBJECT TO ANY SUPPORT OR WELCOME FOR PEREZ MOLINA HERE.

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MAKE CALLS, SEND EMAILS

Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SUBCOMMITTEE ON WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS

Howard Berman, California, 28th District
Eliot Engle, Bronx, NY, 17th District
Albio Sires, New Jersey, 13th District
Eni Faleomavaega, American Samoa
Donald Payne, New Jersey, 10th District
Iliana Ros-Lehtenan, Florida,
Connie Mack, Florida, 14th District
Michael McCaul, Texas, 10th District
Christopher Smith, New Jersey, 4th District
Dan Burton, Indiana, 5th District
Elton Gallegly, California, 24th district
Ron Paul, Texas, 14th District
Jeff Fortenberry, Nebraska, 1st District
Gus Bilirakis, Florida, 9th District

SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS

Richard Lugar - Indiana
John Kerry - Massachusettes
Bob Menendez - New Jersey
Barbara Boxer - California
Jim Webb - Virginia
Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire
Tom Udall, New Mexico
Marco Rubio - Florida
Mike Lee - Utah
Jim DeMint - South Carlina
Johnny Isakson - Georgia
John Barrasso - Wyoming

WHITE HOUSE: http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/, 202-456-1111, Comment Line: 202-456-1414

CONGRESS: Go to http://www.house.gov/ to get info for your member of Congress, and call:  202-224-3121

SENATE: Go to http://www.senate.gov/ to get contact for your Senator, and call: 202-224-3121

STATE DEPARTMENT: 202 647-8947

STATE DEPARTMENT - Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs: 202 647-0834, WHAAsstSecty@State.Gov

AMBASSADOR CRAIG KELLY, Principal Deputy Asst. Secretary, Western Office of Hemisphere Affairs: KellyC@state.gov

MARIA OTERO, Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs; c/o Laura Pena, Assistant: PenaL@state.gov

PAUL MONTEIRO, Office of Public Engagement, Darron_P._Monteiro@who.eop.gov

AMBASSADOR to the OAS
H.E. Carmen Lomellin,
(202) 647-9430

AMBASSADOR to Guatemala
Avenida Reforma 7-01, Zona 10
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
AmCitsGuatemala@state.gov

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WHAT TO DO

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