Guatemala Alert

December 6, 2004

GUATEMALA: Death threats against family of Congresswoman Nineth Montenegro.

Below, an urgent action from Amnesty International. Not only is Nineth
Montenegro involved in high level corruption cases, as set out below, in
this way going directly at the highest levels of impunity, but the
Congressional Commission on Human Rights is taking the lead on a number of
serious human rights cases.

Amongst Guatemala’s formal political system, she is the only elected or
appointed to show serious interest in having justice done for the massacres,
forced relocations and total community destruction caused by the Chixoy
Hydro-electric Dam, a mega-“development” project of the World Bank and
Inter-American development bank in the 1970s, 1980s.

Please read the urgent action below and send your letters of concern to the
addresses below, including the offices of the WB and the IDB.

If you want on-off this elist: info@rightsaction.org

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GUATEMALA -- URGENT ACTION, 30 November 2004

Fear for Safety: Nineth Montenegro (f) and her family

Congress member Nineth Montenegro has received a death threat, which appears
to be linked to her work investigating corruption among high-ranking
military officers. Amnesty International believes that she and her family
are in danger.

Nineth Montenegro is the Chair of the Congressional Commission on Human
Rights. She has been investigating government spending from 2000 to 2004,
and has discovered that over a billion quetzals (US$133 million) has been
embezzled from the budgets of the Ministry of Defense and two other military
institutions. On 23 August 2004 she filed a complaint with the Public
Ministry, which prosecutes criminal cases, accusing senior military officers
of embezzlement and corruption, including Colonel Raul Cerna, the former
Financial Head of the Estado Mayor Presidencial (EMP), Presidential High
Command.

On 22 November 2004, a man approached a member of the human rights
organization where Nineth Montenegro's husband works, and told him, ''algo
grande en contra de Nineth o su familia iba a ocurrir antes de fin de ano'',
''something big will happen to Nineth or her family before the end of the
year.''

Colonel Raul Cerna had not been seen since April 2004. His body was found
recently: according to the press he had been poisoned, and died on 12 April.
The public prosecutor's office began an investigation, but stopped it
without giving any reason. The authorities identified and buried the
colonel's body, but gave his family no information on his death. The
Minister of Defense claimed that the colonel had simply deserted. In the
complaint filed with the Public Ministry, Colonel Raul Cerna was accused of
involvement in the embezzlement of 250 million quetzals (US$33 million) from
the EMP budget. It is feared that he was killed to prevent him implicating
others.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Human rights activists have long been under attack in Guatemala, but this
has intensified since 2000. Those attempting to expose the connections
between organized crime and the State have been especially targeted. On 7
January 2004 the United Nations signed an agreement with the government to
create CICIACS (the Comision de Investigacion de Cuerpos Ilegales y Aparatos
Clandestinos de Seguridad), Commission for the Investigation of Illegal
Bodies and Clandestine Security Apparatus. These “illegal bodies” are
criminal networks that include serving and retired military and police
officers as well as common criminals. They attack human rights activists and
others, who might expose the activities of politically powerful figures
involved in illegal activities.

Opponents of the CICIACS have sought to undermine the agreement by arguing
that parts of it are unconstitutional. An August 2004 Constitutional Court
opinion declared parts of the CICIACS agreement unconstitutional. While the
need for a
CICIACS mechanism is greater than ever (no agreement has yet been
implemented), opponents have succeeded in significantly weakening the
proposal.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

- calling on the authorities to provide meaningful protection to Nineth
Montenegro and her family;
- calling for a prompt, impartial and exhaustive investigation into the
death threat received by Nineth Montenegro on 22 November 2004, with the
results made public and those responsible brought to justice;
- asking the authorities to carry out a full, prompt and impartial
investigation into the killing of Colonel Raul Cerna, to publish the results
and bring those responsible to justice;
- urging the authorities to secure the creation of an effective independent
mechanism to investigate and prosecute illegal groups operating in
Guatemala.

APPEALS TO:

President of the Republic of Guatemala
Oscar Berger Perdomo
Fax: 011 502 2221 4423 / 2239-0090

Ambassador Jose Guillermo Castillo
Embassy of Guatemala
2220 R St. NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 745 1908
Email: ambassador@guatemala-embassy.org

Ambassador John Hamilton
US Embassy in Guatemala
Tel: (502) 331-1541 to 1555

Ambassador Allan Culham
Embassy of Canada in Guatemala
E: gtmla@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

Mr. James D. Wolfensohn
President, The World Bank

Attention to: Minneh M. Kane, [Asst. to the President]
E: mkane@worldbank.org

Vice President David de Ferranti
E: Ddeferranti@worldbank.org

Mr. Enrique Iglesias
President, The Inter-American Development Bank

Jorge Sapoznikow
Division: Modernization of the State and Civil Society - Jefe de
Modernizacion del Estado, Region # 2
E: jorges@iadb.org

John Ferriter
E: johnfe@iadb.org

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RIGHTS ACTION, with its main office in Guatemala, is tax-charitable NGO that
supports community development, relief and human rights work in Chiapas,
Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Peru, Nicaragua, and engages in north-south
education and work related to global development and human rights issues.

CONTACT US:
- to come to Central America on a fact-finding educational delegation
- to be a community development and human rights accompanier in Guatemala

info@rightsaction.org/ 416-654-2074/ www.rightsaction.org

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