Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA

Those Responsible for Human Rights Violations Issue Threats
Translated by Caroline McGee

November 16, 2006

11.16.06 The Mutual Support Group indignantly rejects the declarations made by the Guatemalan Military Veterans’ Association (AVEMILGUA) on Monday November 13. In these declarations, AVEMILGUA threatened to carry out any necessary actions to avoid the extradition of generals Oscar Humberto Mejía Víctores, Benedicto Lucas García, and Angel Aníbal Guevara, and colonel Germán Chupina Barahona.

With profound stupor and incredulity, the Mutual Support Group observes how these groups, which include many military officials who were involved in human rights violations during the internal armed conflict in Guatemala in the 1980s, threaten existing human rights organizations for daring to demand justice.

These members of the military with dark pasts allege the defense of the constitution as their motive and warn that they will defend the nation’s sovereignty as they have done in the past. This argument constitutes a clear threat against organizations that want these military officials to be brought to justice. These organizations believe that the military officials who are responsible for the capture, illegal detention, kidnapping, torture, murder, and genocide of thousands of Guatemalans in urban and rural areas must be brought to justice.

José Luís Quilo Ayuso, president of AVEMILGUA, has threatened the directors of the Mutual Support Group in the past. He has been accused of assembling groups with links to organized crime and now he is threatening human rights organizations that are demanding justice and the arrest of military officials responsible for human rights violations in the 1980s.

The Mutual Support Group also declares its complete disagreement with development of events in relation to the attempted arrest of Oscar Humberto Mejía Víctores. Besides the fact that they could not detain him with the search warrant, the real problem is that this individual is now a fugitive of the law. His arrest is putting the capacity of the justice system in Guatemala to the test.

GAM believes that the judiciary should continue with the proceedings against all of the military officials involved in human rights violations, and should guarantee that the arrest order issued by the Fifth Court of Criminal Sentence is carried out. Upon his arrest, they should also charge him with the crime of fleeing justice.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) must carry out the necessary investigations until the whereabouts of this fugitive are discovered, in spite of the injunction (amparo) that he has been granted. In hiding, Mejía Víctores is committing a crime that should be punished to the full extent of the law.

The wall of impunity should not be allowed to persist.

Guatemala, November 16, 2006

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