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Sister Parish is involved in all aspects of their relationships including political advocacy. To become more involved in political issues in Guatemala, the committee suggests that you investigate the Guatemalan Solidarity Committee. They meet the 3rd Sunday of each month at various venues at 6 pm. and work for political reform. Contact Bob Heberle at Jean.A.Heberle-3@tc.umn.edu or Mark Arneson at 341-9933. |
NISGUA's Homepage also is a good place to visit for
the politically motivated. |
| January 14: From Minnesota SOA
Watch: We are very excited to have our
prisoners of conscience back home with us again. On
Monday January 14th, Mary Vaughan, White Bear Lake and
Betty McKenzie, CSJ, St Paul and Mary Benson, Brainerd
will be released after spending 6 months in Pekin Federal
Prison Camp in Illinois for their activities protesting
the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, GA. Celebrate their release from 11:00 - 1:00 on Sunday January 20 at St Stephen's Community Center 2211 Clinton Ave. Minneapolis. |
| June 8: Gerardi Conviction Returned After over 3 years, 3 members of the military and a priest were convicted of the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi. Details |
| March 23:Gerardi Trial Begins The trial of five suspects in the 1998 murder of prominent human rights advocate Bishop Juan Gerardi began on Friday amid strict security following Wednesday's grenade attack on one judge's house. Presiding Judge Eduardo Cojulum declared the trial, delayed for three years, open after dismissing objections to video cameras from prosecutors and defense lawyers. All five suspects were present on Friday, including Lima Estrada's son Capt. Byron Lima Oliva, former presidential bodyguard Jose Obdulio Villanueva, a wheelchair-bound Roman Catholic priest and a housemaid. |
| December 15:U.S. and Guatemalan Militaries to Carry Out Joint Operations in 2001 In a move that is unclear whether it violates the Peace Accords, The U.S. and Guatemala have agreed to carry out joint military operations between January and April of 2001, announced Peter Pace, head of the U.S. Southern Command on December 14. "We are seeking a way to renew the joint work between the two armies," he said during a recent visit to Guatemala. Beginning in January of 2001 the two armed forces will be involved in what is being called Operation New Horizons, in which military engineers will be participating. "The army is to carry out good works, such as building schools, roads and even seminars between the armies to prepare themselves to be able to better respond in the case of possible natural disasters," Pace said. |
| November 17:DEFENSE MINISTER PROPOSES NEW MILITARY POLICE UNIT On November 9, in the process of budget discussions, Guatemalan Defense Minister Juan de Dios Estrada announced plans for the creation of a new Military Police for the purposes of supporting the civilian police to safeguard internal security. De Dios said the military police will be created on bases approved by the Guatemalan Congress, to offer support to the civilian police force when necessary. In addition, they will help provide security for military bases, he said. Retired Army general Otto Perez Molina said he agreed with the formation of the military police, but only on a temporary basis. "It is not the mission of the Army," he said. He said it would be more appropriate to adequately train civilian forces for these tasks. Progressive forces in Guatemala voiced their objections to the creation of a Military Police Farce. Nineth Montenegro, legislative deputy for the leftist New Nation Alliance, said the creation of the Military Police "is making a new cadre in which the problems of the past will be revived, which is worrying." |
| November 17:GUATEMALA IS SAID TO HAVE AMONG THE HIGHEST RATES OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA Human rights organizations said on November 11 that Guatemala is one of the Central American countries with the greatest incidence of human rights violations, including illegal execution and the imposition of the death penalty. One of the elements contributing to citizen insecurity in Latin American countries is the lack of basic necessities resulting from the obligation of governments to pay off their foreign debt instead of using government funds for social investment. The climate of insecurity is worrying because of the practice of illegal executions and that fact those who perpetrate the killings are not severely punished. |
| October 18:ACTIVISTS WIN HUNGER STRIKE AFTER NEGOTIATING WITH THE GOVERNMENT On Oct. 18, leaders of the Residents Front of Guatemala (FREPOGUA) signed an agreement with the Guatemalan government, ending a 22-day hunger strike by more than 20 people in front of the presidential palace (see UPDATE Vol. 12, No 20). The hunger strike began on Sept. 25 with six strikers in front of the offices of the United Nations Mission to Guatemala (MINUGUA), and moved two days later to the presidential palace. As part of the agreement, the government pledged to purchase from the armed forces a piece of land from which residents were being evicted and to create a commission to find solutions to Guatemala's housing crisis. FREPOGUA is an alliance of 11 organizations that represent a total of approximately 90,000 families living in precarious conditions, including some 3,000 who were left homeless by Hurricane Mitch in November 1998. |
October 2:Guatemalans on Hunger
Strike Ask for Support
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| September 7:GUATEMALAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE AUTHORIZES U.S. TROOPS IN GUATEMALA Members of the Guatemalan Congressional Defense Commission released a report authorizing up to ninety-nine U.S. military officials to enter Guatemala for one year to assist with anti-narcotics operations. Guatemala allowed eight-five U.S. soldiers to enter the country in May 2000 for logistical support under the name "Maya-Jaguar" to counter-narcotics operations with the Department of Anti-Narcotics Operations (DOAN) of the National Civil Police (PNC) (see Update 15/00). The full Guatemalan Congress must still approve the measure for a second joint exercise. Human rights groups in Guatemala and the US oppose the dispatch of our soldiers there. |
September 15: Gerardi Saga
Continues
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Monsignor Juan Gerardi, Auxiliary Bishop of Guatemala
and General Coordinator of the Office of Human Rights
of the Archbishop of Guatemala, was brutally
assassinated on April 26th, 1998, two days after he had
made public the Report of the Interdiocesan project to
Recover Historic Memory(REMHI). This report called
Nunca Mas reveals that 115,000 Guatemalans were killed
by the Guatemalan military during the 36 year civil
war. The report analyzed 55,000 human rights
violations, 150,000 murders, and names the principal
perpetrators. Out of 422 massacres, it blames the
military for 401 and the guerrillas for 16. Ten percent
of the victims were children. Bishop Gerardi's
asassination is generally believed to have been
committed by people connected to the military.
The following is an excerpt from a Feb. 8, 1999 letter from Jennifer Harbury, American lawyer whose Guatemalan husband was disappeared by the military. Meanwhile the murder case of Bishop Gerardi in Guatemala becomes more brutal by the day. The evidence against the army is frightening...a car at the crime scene with a military license plate...a call from Gerardi's living room to a phone booth near a military installation on the night of the murder (torn out of the sidewalk the next day), and two military officials filming the crime scene as police and family arrived. Who called them? Why did they come? Last but not least, an insider report from a very credible source naming a high level military father-son team as the intellectual authors. Coincidentally the son left the country days after the murder and the father was the former head of Intelligence or G-2. But Orantes ended up in jail on the grounds that blood was tracked into the house and there might have been a dog bite on the body. The German Shepherd Baloo belonged to Orantes. After a long investigation, exhumation, and second autopsy, it turns out that the dog lived in peace with the Bishop for eight years, and was too old, and with a deteriorating spine, to walk easily, let alone jump. There were no dog paw prints in the garage anywhere despite the huge amounts of blood, and there was simply no dog bite to the face. There were dozens of people at the crime scene tracking blood all over the house. In short, Father Orantes was framed and thrown in jail to block the investigation and prosecution of the military suspects. He is ailing in prison, but is too terrified to speak, other than to declare his innocence. Now the authorities say Orantes may be innocent...but that two more priests and a relative of a different Bishop may be arrested for the murder. Every time the law turns towards the army, more members of the Church are thrown onto the bonfire. |
