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Criminal Justice In Guatemala: A Salvadoran Case Study
PHOTO: Siglo XXI
The recent case of the open assassination of three prominent Salvadoran politicians and their driver in Guatemala provides a dramatic snapshot. It's shone a light on the criminal justice system in Guatemala; and the state of relations between El Salvador and Guatemala.
Eduardo D'Abuisson, William Pichinte and Ramon Gonzalez were leading members of El Salvador's ruling party, ARENA (Nationalist Republican Alliance). They represented El Salvador at the Central American Parliament, which is based in Guatemala City.
[AP] The escorts had followed the men – who were traveling in three cars – from the Salvadoran border to the capital's edge, where the vehicles took different roads into the city, officials said. They were believed to have been kidnapped and then taken to a farm to be executed… [Reuters] The GPS in the agents' truck tracked the vehicle to the abandoned dirt track 22 miles (36 km) outside the capital, Guatemala City, where the four were shot with automatic weapons, doused with fuel and set ablaze, authorities said.
It's mind blowing that those planning to assassinate three prominent politicians should do it in a vehicle fitted with equipment that allows it to be tracked by GPS. But why? Stupidity or fearless impunity?
Associated Press reported:
[Interior Minister Carlos] Vielman said the assailants used an unmarked police vehicle equipped with a Global Positioning System device, which later enabled investigators to track the car back to the crime scene. “Either they didn't know the car had GPS or they didn't know how GPS works,'' Vielman said.
Reuters reported:
Four Guatemalan policemen were arrested on Thursday (22-02-07) in the murder of [the] three Salvadoran politicians after being linked to the crime by a global positioning system in their vehicle, the government said.
Luis Herrera, [one the policemen arrested] the head of a special police unit charged with investigating organized crime, was captured after the GPS receiver in his police truck revealed he had been at the scene of the kidnapping and the site where the bodies were found, authorities told reporters.
Herrera, along with three men from his unit, was also filmed by traffic cameras as he intercepted a car carrying the three members of the Guatemala-based Central American regional parliament and their driver, the officials added.
Great, an open and shut case. But hang on, not so fast. Reading the Guatemalan press, for instance in El Periodico, you can read comments from readers which offer another perspective. One reader of El Periodico posted the following comment on the paper's website:
“Por favor, que las autoridades no despachen este asunto con un mero “ya se ha solucionado”. Al contrario, la investigación acaba realmente de comenzar: ¿quien tiene el poder suficiente como para corromper al jefe de la DINC y tres agentes más?”
For the Guatemalan authorities to have arrested and implicated such high ranking police officials in this crime so rapidly makes this case stand out. It seems to suggest that 'miracles' can be achieved if the external pressure is sufficiently strong. And given the fact that the victims in this case just happened to be members of El Salvador's governing party, there is certainly significant pressure. El Diario de Hoy in El Salvador leads the charge:
“Esta ha sido una acción coordinada, teniendo bastante logística dentro de
Guatemala para perpetrarla. Esto indica que es algo verdaderamente realizado por
personas que son mandadas por alguien y eso queremos que se esclarezca”, declaró
Roberto d'Aubuisson, hermano de Eduardo d'Aubuisson, quien fue sepultado ayer.
Guatemala para perpetrarla. Esto indica que es algo verdaderamente realizado por
personas que son mandadas por alguien y eso queremos que se esclarezca”, declaró
Roberto d'Aubuisson, hermano de Eduardo d'Aubuisson, quien fue sepultado ayer.
Why the need for external involvement? There's also the possibility of getting the FBI involved- not to everyone's liking. Theories explaining the crime abound- but most suspect the illicit trade in narcotics.
“It is clear that the police are infiltrated by organized crime,” said the head of the president's human rights office, Frank La Rue. “These are people dedicated not only to drug trafficking, but trafficking of arms, explosives and even children.”
Background
Who was the father of assassinated Eduardo D'Aubuisson? According to a report by Amnesty International into death squads in El Salvador in 1996:
“Roberto DAubuisson founded the right -wing ARENA in 1981. On the purported premises of nationalism and freedom its aim at that time was to rid the country of the forces grouped in the FMLN. Both ARENA and Major DAubuisson have been accused of active participation in the activities of the death squads responsible for the death of thousands of Salvadoreans, including the assassination of the Archbishop of San Salvador Oscar Romero in March 1980. Roberto DAubuisson died of cancer in 1992.”
It's worth checking out the bio of Guatemala's top police chief Erwin Sperisen published on Policia Nacional Civil's website whose heading this investigation. According to the website, it's a pretty meteoric rise for Sperisen (just four years experience in local government prior to landing the top police job).
Update (25-02-07)
Quotes from Siglo XXI:
“Esperaban un traslado de droga o de dinero… Al verse frustrados, tomaron la decisión de asesinarlos”.- Óscar Berger, Presidente de la República
“Esta es una de las hipótesis, nada más, de las que se están trabajando; todas son importantes”.- Carlos Vielmann, Ministro de Gobernación
“Desconozco cuál es la fuente del señor Presidente. Yo, por el momento, me mantengo hermético”.- Álvaro Matus, Fiscalía de Delitos contra la Vida
“Por lo menos de aquí, del Ministerio Público, no ha salido esa investigación, es un caso delicado”.- Cándido Brémer, Fiscal del caso
“No sé cuáles hayan sido las bases para que el Presidente Berger haya dado ese tipo de declaraciones”.- Rodolfo Delgado, Unidad contra el Crimen Organizado de El Salvador
“Hay vínculos con una organización del narcotráfico conformada por guatemaltecos y salvadoreños”.- Jefe policial, guatemalteco
Update (26-02-07)
In a dramatic twist to this news story it's emerged that the four policemen arrested for murders of the Salvadoran politicians have been murdered themselves in the prison where they were being detained. This from AP via the Guardian:
Four imprisoned Guatemalan policemen were killed Sunday during a rebellion by inmates, days after the officers were arrested in connection with the deaths of three Salvadoran politicians, police said. The warden and other prison officials were being held hostage. Riot police gathered outside the jail in Cuilapa, about 40 miles east of Guatemala City.
“It's confirmed, they killed the four of them,” national police spokesman Maria Jose Fernandez said. The four killed included Luis Arturo Herrera, head of the Guatemalan National Police organized crime unit, and three of his officers.
Prensa Libre reported on the possible reasons for this. According a member of the Marasalvatrucha from the prison in Cuilapa:
Un grupo de pandilleros, con la cara tapada, aseguraron a la Prensa que habían asesinado a los policías porque “les habían hecho mucho daño” en la calle.
“Se hizo lo que se hizo porque ya les advertimos a las autoridades que no podían traer a la cárcel a gente de este tipo”, dijo uno de ellos. Pero hubo otro grupo de reclusos que se desvinculó del ataque al afirmar que fue un comando armado el que cometió el crimen. “Los mareros no nos metemos en cosas políticas”, aseveró.
According to a lawyer for the policemen:
A una de las últimas personas que vieron los policías fue a su abogado, Alfredo Vásquez, que salió del penal a las 12 horas. “Ellos me manifestaron su preocupación y miedo, porque en esta cárcel había mucha gente que ellos habían metido presos”, dijo.
But it won't be long until the conspiracy theories start surfacing- the Prensa Libre article ends- pointing out that now the policemen are dead the whole legal case that threatened to unearth shady goings on in the Guatemalan police is brought to a halt.
Según Álvaro Matus, fiscal del caso, “con esto, automáticamente, se cae el proceso”. Para Carlos Vielmann, ministro de Gobernación, detrás del crimen hay más que un ataque de mareros. “Aquí ha corrido mucho dinero”, afirmó.
Los ahora fallecidos fueron sindicados por las autoridades de integrar un grupo de sicarios del narcotráfico.
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