Brave Move in Guatemala

The peoples of the United States and Guatemala have been linked by blood since the 1950s, when the Central Intelligence Agency helped overthrow that verdant Central American nation’s legitimate government. In the intervening years, the Guatemalan military has slaughtered tens of thousands of citizens with impunity in an effort to crush opposition to various repressive regimes, say human rights activists.

Now, for the first time in that bloody recent history, a Guatemalan court has called military officers to account. Last week, in a small, brave move toward bringing justice to Guatemala, a three-judge tribunal found two officers guilty of murdering Roman Catholic Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi in 1998. Each was sentenced to 30 years in prison. The jurists also convicted a former presidential bodyguard and a Catholic priest of participation in the conspiracy that led to the slaying.

It was difficult to reach a verdict in the trial. There were threats against many of the officials who investigated the case. Two judges and several witnesses fled the country out of fear. Potential witnesses died under mysterious circumstances.

Even now the case against Disrael Lima, a retired colonel and former head of military intelligence, his son, Capt. Byron Lima, and the bodyguard, Sgt. Jose Obdulio Villanueva, is far from over. They will appeal the sentence, the defense has announced. They have every right to do so. But as the case proceeds, Guatemala President Alfonso Portillo must use all his power to keep the armed forces, and the right-wing political forces behind them, from interfering with the justice system.

The officer corps has been unnerved by this verdict, and not just because two of its peers are on trial. Many of the officers want to prevent further inquiries into the military’s involvement in human rights crimes dating back to the 1950s, when the CIA-inspired coup overthrew a moderately leftist regime during the early days of the Cold War.

It is worth remembering that Bishop Gerardi was murdered just two days after he released an official report blaming the military for the vast majority of the 200,000 deaths that occurred in Guatemala during the 35-year-long civil war that followed that coup.

Like other civilian leaders before him, Portillo will surely come under pressure from the military to not allow officers to be jailed for crimes against civilians. But, as an Amnesty International official recently said, “If justice cannot be attained in such a high-profile case, what hope is there at all for the justice system in Guatemala?” The world will be watching.