3rd Soldier Held in Guatemalan Bishop’s Death
Guatemalan police arrested a third army officer Saturday as part of a widening probe into the 1998 death of a prominent bishop and human rights crusader who was killed shortly after releasing a report blaming the army for atrocities committed during the country’s bloody civil war.
Deputy Constable Gerson Lopez said police arrested Obdulio Villanueva, who worked for an elite presidential guard, for allegedly taking part in the April 26, 1998, killing of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi.
On Friday, police arrested Capt. Byron Lima Oliva, 30, and his father, retired Col. Disrael Lima Estrada, 58. The three men were being held on charges of extrajudicial killing, Lopez said. Margarita Lopez, an elderly woman who worked as a cook in the Guatemala City parish house where Gerardi lived, was also arrested Friday on charges of being an accomplice.
Human rights groups said the arrests back their claim that state security forces engineered the murder.
“We have always said this was a politically motivated crime,” said Nery Rodenas, of Guatemala’s Archbishopric’s Human Rights Office.
The arrests followed a pledge by President Alfonso Portillo on Jan. 14 to launch an investigation into state security forces for alleged involvement in the bishop’s death.
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