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Justice and
Accountability in Guatemala
Update:
Hitting the Streets of New York to Bring Former
Ruler Ríos Montt to Justice for Crimes against Humanity
Thank you to all of the participants in this year’s Get on the Bus for
Human Rights who gathered with us in front of the Guatemalan Consulate
in Manhattan, and for powerfully raising your voices to demand justice
in the case against former dictator Ríos Montt.
Background
General José Efraín Ríos Montt was the military ruler of Guatemala from
March 1982 to August 1983. A United Nations-sponsored truth commission
concluded that severe human rights abuses, including acts of genocide,
had been committed during Ríos Montt’s rule, “through methods whose
cruelty has outraged the moral conscience of the civilized world.”
For 25 years, survivors and victims’ loved ones have worked to bring
Ríos Montt to justice through every means available to them, including
through courts in Guatemala and abroad. In July 2006, Spain’s National
Court charged Ríos Montt and several other former senior officials with
genocide, torture, terrorism and illegal detention, and issued warrants
for their arrest. In spite of the charges, Ríos Montt has remained free,
and has retained a place of privilege in Guatemala. In January 2007, he
announced his plan to run for Congress, asserting that a Congressional
seat would provide him with parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
Our Action
Standing in solidarity with the Guatemalan community and its
international allies, Get on the Bus participants rallied in front of
the Guatemalan Consulate on April 20th, amplifying the message that Ríos
Montt should either face trial in Guatemala or be extradited to Spain.
We were inspired by the testimony and call to action from Adriana
Portillo-Bartow, a survivor of the conflict in Guatemala and the Deputy
Director of Amnesty International USA’s Mid-West Regional Office.
With a sea of more than 1,000 participants, we cheered and chanted in
front of the consulate. Holding high hundreds of posters saying,
“Guatemala, ¡Alto a la Impunidad! Bring Ríos Montt to Justice Now!” and
other homemade signs, we shifted to a more vigi l-like
atmosphere. Adriana helped us set the context for our gathering, and the
importance of our work. We then recited the names of some of the
communities that suffered massacres during Ríos Montt's rule, as the
crowd responded with "¡Presente!" During the recitation, participants
came forward with red tissue-paper carnations made by participants and
friends, in memory of those who were killed or disappeared by government
forces during the internal armed conflict. The carnations, symbols of
hope and rebirth amidst devastation and pain, were placed in three large
baskets (which later were presented to the Consul General.) We closed
out the rally by uniting our voices in chants for justice, as Dara Kell
of Skylight Pictures captured footage of the event for an Amnesty
International documentary on international justice and accountability.
As the rest of the GOTB participants headed towards the Chinese Mission
to the UN for our China/Darfur action, a four-member Get on the Bus
delegation went inside the Consulate to meet with Consul General Rosa
María Mérida de Mora. Consul General Mérida de Mora had watched the
action from the window, and told us how moved she was by the vigil,
Adriana’s words, and by the presence of so many young people.
During the meeting, we gave an overview of Get on the Bus and the
National Day of Action for Guatemala, and we presented Amnesty's core
asks on the Ríos Montt case and the femicides in Guatemala (a focus of
GOTB 2006, and a major campaign for AIUSA). The Consul General was very
gracious. She solemnly accepted our carnations, as well as our postcard
actions to Ambassador Castillo and President Berger. We also presented
her with hundreds of crosses from Amnesty’s Stop Violence Against Women
Campaign’s Day of Dead action, calling on the Guatemalan government to
take action against the increasing numbers of murders of women and
girls. She offered to mail the postcards, carnations and crosses for us
to the leaders of Guatemala.
Beyond GOTB
As we rallied in front of the consulate in New York, similar actions
were held in front of all of the Guatemalan Consulates in the United
States as part of Amnesty’s National Day of Action for Guatemala. In
addition, activists met with officials at the Guatemalan Embassy in
Washington, D.C., and hundreds of other allies attended smaller actions
and events in cities and towns across the U.S. To read more about how
our message was amplified through these solidarity actions, please go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/International_Justice/
National_Day_of_Action_for_Justice_in_Guatemala_Events/
page.do?id=1051112&n1=3&n2=35&n3=1418
In early May, U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva of Arizona and 30 of his
colleagues from the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to
Guatemalan Attorney General Juan Luis Florido to express their concern
about justice in the Ríos Montt case. The letter asked Florido "to take
action to prevent General José Efraín Ríos Montt and other former
leaders… from obtaining immunity… for alleged serious human rights
violations.”
Also in early May, a gloating General Ríos Montt officially filed
paperwork declaring his candidacy for the Guatemalan Congress.
Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Court, unfortunately, accepted these
documents. While this does not guarantee him any protections from the
arm of justice, human rights groups in Guatemala and around the world
will continue to work steadfastly to prevent Ríos Montt’s efforts to
escape trial. According to the Network in Solidarity with the People of
Guatemala (NISGUA), the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR)
and the Association of Relatives of Detained-Disappeared in Guatemala (FAMDEGUA)
have filed a request with Guatemala’s Constitutional Court to revoke
Ríos Montt's candidacy.
NISGUA also reported this week that the Spanish Parliament has
officially urged the Government of Guatemala to move the cases forward.
For more information and to demand that the Guatemalan government move
ahead with the case against Ríos Montt, please go to http://nisgua.org/get_involved/action_alerts/action_alert_02.asp
and http://www.amnestyusa.org/By_Country/Guatemala/
page.do?id=1011162&n1=3&n2=30&n3=912v.
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