We're going to need another high risk court
Guatemalan authorities moved against more than a dozen retired military officers in connection with human rights violators stemming from the country's counterinsurgency war against the civilian population.
Two or three years ago, I questioned whether pursuing charges against Rios Montt were worth it. I supported the trial and thought that it was a tremendous step forward for the rule of law in Guatemala. The underhanded manner in which the verdict seemed to be tossed, however, led me to reconsider whether it was the appropriate course of action. Perhaps some elites would have been more supportive of CICIG and the MP's office if it had not pursued civil war era crimes. Perhaps the MP's office should have waited until they and the court's were in a stronger position to tackle such a delicate case. In the end, though, I decided that pursuing crimes of the past (and the present) was the right decision.
The crimes of the past should be investigated and prosecuted simply because it is the right thing to do when it comes to the victims and survivors. The Guatemalan army was perhaps the most brutal of all institutions in the Americas during the second half of the twentieth century.
However, the crimes of the past can't be separated from the crimes of the present. Look at the former military officers arrested last year, such as Otto Perez Molina, and in years past, such as Byron Lima.
There's also the fact that there are certain elites who won't support the rule of law even if it came with a promise to forgive and forget all those committed before the year 2000. Maybe all those who were against the charges of genocide for overreach will be supportive of these crimes against humanity charges (playing it safe, huh?).
Finally, the pursuit of justice for civil war era crimes has helped to strengthen the hand of justice and to further shed light on those who have sought to keep Guatemala in the dark. That's the point of CICIG. To fight for justice within the country's institutions, therefore, exposing the corruption in the process.
Perhaps that's how I want to see recent events even if my evidence in support of those beliefs remains elusive.
Among the men who were arrested was retired Gen. Manuel Benedicto Lucas GarcÃa, 83, who was the army chief of staff during the dictatorship of his brother, Gen. Romeo Lucas GarcÃa. A former military intelligence chief, Manuel Antonio Callejas y Callejas, was also detained, as was one of the generals who ousted General Lucas GarcÃa in a 1982 coup.
“These are the big fish,” said Victoria Sanford, an anthropologist at Lehman College of the City University of New York who has studied human rights violations committed during the 1960-96 war, when security forces razed whole villages as they pursued leftist guerrillas.
....
Most of the arrests stem from a three-year investigation on a military base in Cobán in the central region of Alta Verapaz, where investigators have found the remains of 558 people, including 90 children, Ms. Aldana said. DNA testing confirmed the identities of 97 people at the site who disappeared from 1981 to 1986, when the accused officers were commanding the base or in the chain of command.
Four of those arrested Wednesday have been charged in the disappearance of a Guatemala City teenager in 1981.The arrests of retired military officials continued after Otto Perez Molina was elected in 2011. That was a surprise given his background and those in his Patriotic Party. I was pleasantly surprised. While Jimmy Morales' party is connected to former military officers from the 1980s, as well, I think that there was more concern with whether AG Thelma Aldana would pursue these types of cases rather than Morales somehow interrupting them. She has moved against corruption but stance on "historic" crimes hadn't really been tested.
Two or three years ago, I questioned whether pursuing charges against Rios Montt were worth it. I supported the trial and thought that it was a tremendous step forward for the rule of law in Guatemala. The underhanded manner in which the verdict seemed to be tossed, however, led me to reconsider whether it was the appropriate course of action. Perhaps some elites would have been more supportive of CICIG and the MP's office if it had not pursued civil war era crimes. Perhaps the MP's office should have waited until they and the court's were in a stronger position to tackle such a delicate case. In the end, though, I decided that pursuing crimes of the past (and the present) was the right decision.
The crimes of the past should be investigated and prosecuted simply because it is the right thing to do when it comes to the victims and survivors. The Guatemalan army was perhaps the most brutal of all institutions in the Americas during the second half of the twentieth century.
However, the crimes of the past can't be separated from the crimes of the present. Look at the former military officers arrested last year, such as Otto Perez Molina, and in years past, such as Byron Lima.
There's also the fact that there are certain elites who won't support the rule of law even if it came with a promise to forgive and forget all those committed before the year 2000. Maybe all those who were against the charges of genocide for overreach will be supportive of these crimes against humanity charges (playing it safe, huh?).
Finally, the pursuit of justice for civil war era crimes has helped to strengthen the hand of justice and to further shed light on those who have sought to keep Guatemala in the dark. That's the point of CICIG. To fight for justice within the country's institutions, therefore, exposing the corruption in the process.
Perhaps that's how I want to see recent events even if my evidence in support of those beliefs remains elusive.
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