Seeking Justice in Guatemala

URGENT ACTION

Now is a critical time for us to act in solidarity with Guatemalans seeking justice for genocide. Given Efraín Ríos Montt's desire to secure a spot in Congress, which would give him parliamentary immunity from domestic prosecution and arrest yet again, now is the time to urge Guatemalan Attorney General Licenciado Florido to follow international law and move the litigation to bring Ríos Montt to justice forward.

Please tell your friends, familiy, coworkers, and classmates to complete this online urgent action.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE

I will be in Guatemala to explore the human rights situation from June 23-July 19th. For this reason, I cannot guarantee that this blog will be updated during my month of absence.

During my stay in Guatemala, I will be meeting with the lawyers prosecuting the Guatemalan genocide case. If you understand Spanish, their website is http://www.caldh.org/. If anyone has any questions or comments they would like me to address to the lawyers, please put a comment on any blog entry, as I promise to read them.

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Friday, June 22, 2007

The June 26th Delegation

[Local]

I'll be gone to Guatemala for a month, so this site may not be updated until I get back at the end of July. While there, I will be visiting the Guatemalan lawyers (caldh.org) prosecuting Ríos Montt, so if anyone has any questions or comments you'd like me to relay to the prosecution team, please respond to this entry with your question/comment.

Meanwhile, I want to leave with an update about my local Amnesty Chapter, Group 4 (Seattle)'s efforts to initiate a Congressional Resolution calling for the arrest and extradition of Ríos Montt to Spain. This upcoming Tuesday, June 26, Group 4 will be meeting with Washington Senator Patty Murray and House Representative Jim McDermott to propose both Senate and House Resolutions regarding the aforementioned arrest and extradition.

On April 27, 2007, a Congressional Letter signed by various members of the US House and Senate, was sent addressing the Guatemalan Attorney General, Licenciado Juan Luis Florido, to prevent Ríos Montt from running for Congress (and thereby gaining parliamentary immunity) and to call for his prompt arrest and extradition (in accordance to the ruling by the Spanish National Court). The April 27th letter can be accessed by clicking here.

This upcoming Tuesday, Group 4 will be meeting with Senator Murray and Representative McDermott to propose that they sponsor (and preferably seek bipartisan co-sponsors) a text Resolution drafted by Amnesty International USA in D.C. If our local Congressional representatives agree to sponsor a Resolution to extradite Ríos Montt, then Amnesty USA can move on to drafting the actual text of the Resolution. If the Resolution were to pass, this would be a significant victory at home, because a Resolution, compared to the April 27th letter, would carry the weight of the nation (so to speak), rather than just the signatures of a few Congressional reps.

Thank you to Eugene Martin and Aaron Tovo of Group 4, as well as Leanne Smith (Amnesty's Legal Advisor), for drafting some talking points for the June 26th delegation.

Hopefully, I'll be able to find some way to relay the outcome of the delegation to the Guatemalan lawyers I'll be meeting with.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Introducción

[Announcement]

Hola! Welcome and mucho gracias for visiting this blog!

I'd like to refer all first-time visitors to the "About this Blog and Author" section on the sidebar for more general information on what this blog is about and of course, the common disclaimer attached to blogs of this nature.

I want to reiterate the urgency of acting in solidarity with Guatemalans to bring Efraín Ríos Montt to justice. For this reason, be sure to always check the top of this blog for updated urgent actions and petitions issued by existing human rights organizations.

In the entries to come, I hope to fill in a narrative (*) that will help viewers understand the historical and contemporary context in which Ríos Montt was able to rise and maintain his power, but more importantly--and indeed, I should emphasize the primary reason for this blog--to update viewers on the progress of pressuring the Guatemalan Government to see that justice prevail.

I have decided to preface my entries with headers, to minimize the confusion and set the context of the post. Examples of headers include: [Announcement], [Local], [National], [News Update], [Op-Narrative].

Before I end this entry, I'd like to thank:

Amnesty International's (AI) Program for International Justice and Accountability (IJA) for their support, resources, and updates to help spotlight this issue within the USA and make this blog a reality;
NISGUA, which has done a lot to spread awareness and activism within the USA through their national speaking tours;
My local Amnesty chapter AI Group 4 (Seattle chapter) for their consistency and assiduousness in pursuing our Congressional Representatives and Senators to take this issue to D.C.;
and Dr. Angelina Godoy, Assistant Professor of the Law, Societies, and Justice and Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, whose knowledge, passion, and dedication to Guatemala has challenged, inspired and empowered a generation of undergraduate students to fight injustice and help affect real, sustainable change in Guatemala.

*Please see 4th paragraph of disclaimer on sidebar

About this Blog and Author

Following the 1954 CIA-sponsored overthrow of the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz, Guatemala was devestated by a thirty-six year civil war that has only recently ended with the 1996 UN-brokered Peace Accords. A Truth Commission, known as the Commission for Historical Clarification, was initiated by the UN as a result of the accords. The Commission found that the mass killings of the indigenous Mayan population, which comprised of over 90% of the 200,000-plus total deaths calculated over the span of the civil war, amounted to genocide. Furthermore, it specifically noted that the worst human rights violations occurred during General José Efraín Ríos Montt's brief fourteen-month stint in power. From March 1982 to August 1983, General José Efraín Ríos Montt headed the Guatemalan Government. According to one Guatemalan NGO, Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM), besides killing or kidnapping of over 15,000 members of social organizations, his administration was responsible for 442 massacres, many of which were included in his scorched earth campaigns, that murdered over 14,000 Mayans.

Today, to complement the issued charges of genocide, torture, and crimes against humanity, the Spanish National Court has issued an international arrest warrant against Ríos Montt. Yet, in Guatemala, Ríos Montt retains significant popular and political support. From 2000 to 2004, he served as head of Congress under the Portillo Presidency. He is currently running for a seat in Congress that would give him parliamentary immunity from domestic prosecution and arrest.

There is a significant amount of literature on Ríos Montt's past violations as President, but only a handful of articles dealing with the the implications of his continual presence in Guatemalan politics. Fewer still deal with the day-to-day current situation of the current legal efforts of bringing him to justice.

This blog will document the current struggle of various humanitarian groups to bring the ex-dictator to justice. Additionally, this blog will delve into relevant issues-both past and present- to illuminate the significance and necessity for Guatemala to bring Ríos Montt to justice. It should be noted that though the entries of this blog draw from a wide array of reliable sources, including books and contacts within groups such as Amnesty International's Program for International Justice and Accountability (IJA), this remains a personal blog. While some entries, particularly updates on current campaigns, will be stated as facts as given by trusted sources, others will inevitably reflect the author's beliefs.

The author is currently a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Washington, Seattle, majoring in both International Studies and Political Science. He is a coordinator for the campus Amnesty International chapter (Group 94), and an active member of other various student activist groups.

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