Bishops death probe broadens, entangles
military, fellow priest
By MAX W. KINTNER
Special to the National Catholic Reporter Guatemala
City
In a case in which dramatic revelations have become routine, the
latest twist in the investigation of the murder of Guatemalan Bishop Juan
Gerardi Conedera was an Aug. 5 announcement that the probe will include the
possible involvement of military officers.
The broadening of the inquest to include military personnel is
considered a victory for the Guatemalan Catholic church, which for several
weeks has demanded investigation of two officers. But it came only after a
former close associate of Gerardi voiced public agreement with a theory that
Gerardi was killed by a priest in a fit of passion. The churchs human
rights leader, Ronalth Ochaeta, rocked the nation with his comparison of the
priest, Fr. Mario Orantes, to Judas.
Orantes, a longtime friend who lived at the parish residence where
Gerardi was bludgeoned to death last April 26, is still imprisoned in a
Guatemala City detention facility after having been formally charged with the
murder in late July (NCR, July 31).
In the latest development, six career military men, including one
retired and four active duty army officers along with an air force officer,
were named by Guatemalan press sources as subjects of the investigation.
Most church and human rights activists presume that Gerardi was
killed by the military because of his work on a project that documented the
details of violence against civilians during Guatemalas civil war
(NCR, May 8).
The names of Army Capt. Byron Lima Oliva, and his father, retired
Army Col. Byron Lima Estrada, were delivered to investigators by the
archdiocesan office of human rights in mid-July. When no investigation ensued,
statements by human rights office officials to the Guatemalan news media turned
up the heat on the government agency responsible for the investigation, the
Ministerio Publico.
Meanwhile, articles published in Guatemalan dailies reflect a
public relations struggle between the army and the church. Expressing the
viewpoint of reactionary army officers, the younger Lima, whom Guatemalan
dailies have referred to as the presumed author of the crime, told
reporters that Guatemalans are tired of the political manipulation of
groups that supposedly work in defense of human rights and that people like
Ronalth Ochaeta [director of the churchs human rights office] use to
defame the army as an institution and its members in particular.
On occasion, Guatemalan prelates have taken the case directly to
the pulpit, most recently on Aug. 9, when a letter from the Guatemalan
Episcopal Conference was read at Masses across Guatemala.
In the letter the bishops once again voiced an
energetic protest of the arrest of Orantes for the murder. The
prelates also noted the investigators reluctance to take into
account the political connotations of the case, as well as to investigate a
background of army officials and ex-officials who are presumed to be
implicated.
The political rhetoric surrounding the investigation was fostered
first by statements made by Ochaeta of the human rights office. Throughout May
and June, Ochaeta repeatedly criticized official insistence that an alcoholic
indigent who often slept in the plaza in front of San Sebastian Parish
committed the murder and the refusal of investigators to consider a political
motivation for the crime.
On July 13, Ochaeta chose the international forum of a meeting in
Madrid, Spain, to announce that his organization was in possession of evidence
indicating two army officers were involved in the Gerardi murder. He said the
evidence included the license plate number of an army vehicle seen the night of
the murder in the vicinity of San Sebastian Parish, and telephone records
showing that close to the time of the murder, telephone calls were made from a
pay phone in front of San Sebastian to the headquarters of the national
security forces and to a suburban home occupied by army personnel.
Ochaeta said the names and evidence had been turned over to the
presidentially appointed high level commission for delivery to the
Ministerio Publico.
In the Guatemalan news media, various church officials lined up in
support of Ochaeta. The episcopal coordinator of the human rights office,
Bishop Mario Rios Montt, expressed agreement with Ochaeta about the necessity
of investigating the two officers.
The president of the Guatemalan Episcopal Conference, Bishop
Victor Hugo Martínez, said the murder was political in nature and
was a perfect, calculated crime, that only with difficulty will reveal
its authors.
The following day, a news release issued by Guatemala Archbishop
Próspero Penados del Barrio blasted Guatemalan security forces for
wiretapping phones and opening the mail of archdiocesan offices, including his
own.
On July 16, three days after Ochaetas Madrid announcement,
church human rights officials released a statement saying that the high level
commission had failed to deliver the names of the army officers to
investigators.
The statement indicated that the human rights office would
denounce the failure of investigators to examine valid evidence, and the names
of the officers would be turned over to Edgar Gutiérrez, the director of
the Interdiocesan Project to Recover the Historic Memory, sponsored by the
churchs human rights office.
Gutiérrez, in turn, told reporters that if an adequate
official investigation was not forthcoming, he would make the names and
evidence public.
A week later, however, on July 22, Orantes and Margarita
López, the San Sebastian parish residence cook, were arrested as
suspects in the murder.
Although Guatemalan human rights groups and the ecclesiastical
hierarchy in Guatemala were stunned by the arrests, church leaders did not
immediately condemn the action, saying only that they had faith that Orantes
would be cleared.
Then, the day after the arrest, Ochaeta dropped a bombshell by
saying he was convinced that the evidence against Orantes was
overwhelming.
In an interview with the Prensa Libre, Guatemalas largest
newspaper, the director of the human rights office said that despite the
difficulty in acknowledging the possible guilt of a member of Bishop
Gerardis own ecclesiastical organization, what was most important
was to be faithful to the truth and demonstrate that the church does not
have [legal] impunity.
Making a statement that was immediately picked up by journalists
and other Guatemalan news publishers, Ochaeta said, The history of the
church, since the days of Jesus Christ, demonstrates that there will always be
a Judas.
The impact of Ochaetas statement in diminishing immediate
criticism of the government was profound. The human rights office, for which
Gerardi served as episcopal coordinator until he was murdered, is historically
Guatemalas most reliable and important human rights organization.
Guatemalan military leaders criticized the historic memory project
that Gerardi oversaw as counterproductive to the peace process. They reportedly
feared documentation of their roles in massacres during the violent years
between about 1978 and 1985. Gerardi was assassinated just two days after
publicly releasing the report of the project.
Because of the great credibility of the human rights office,
Ochaetas interview threw normally staunch critics of the government into
a tailspin.
A lonely protest was filed by the official human rights watchdog
for the Guatemalan government, Procurator General of Human Rights Julio Arango,
who immediately challenged Orantes arrest on technical grounds, asserting
that the evidence did not satisfy due process. But important human rights
groups issued statements reserving judgment in the case, while progressive
journalists complained not so much about the arrest itself as about a court-
imposed gag order that prevents investigators, witnesses and even lawyers from
commenting publicly on the case.
Orantes most visible support came from the family of Bishop
Gerardi, which has expressed absolute confidence in the priests
innocence.
The day after Ochaetas interview, Guatemalan dailies
proclaimed a 180 degree turnaround in the case. But several days
later, the turnaround began to look more like 360 degrees as editorialists
attacked Ochaeta for his comments, particularly the one comparing Orantes to
Judas. The comment was described variously as unfortunate,
indiscreet, and presumptuous. One critic said the human
rights worker had a long history of talking too much.
Archdiocesan officials declined to comment on Ochaeta, but on Aug.
2 a Guatemala City theologian, Jesuit Fr. Carlos Amann, said of the comment:
Many people believe it was a very grave error. Since the interview,
Ochaeta has been notably absent from the media.
Meanwhile, church leaders and human rights activists began
demanding that evidence against military officers be investigated. When
powerful members of the Guatemalan legislature took up the cause in early
August, the government finally capitulated and initiated the investigation.
Government investigators have acknowledged that the evidence
against six military officers is substantial enough to warrant investigation.
But spokesmen for the special investigators office continue to insist
that Orantes is guilty or was in some way connected to the plot against
Gerardi. Orantes remains in jail.
Margarita Lopez, the parish cook who was arrested along with
Orantes, was released on Aug. 31. Remarking to reporters that Orantes was not
guilty, she returned to her room in the San Sebastian parish residence. Within
minutes, police arrived to tell her the residence was to be sealed off for
collection of further evidence.
National Catholic Reporter, August 28,
1998
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