US embassy cable - 04GUATEMALA3246

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 003246 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, ASEC, MASS, SNAR, GT, UN 
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR MEETS WITH GUATEMALAN HUMAN RIGHTS 
ACTIVISTS 
 
REF: A. GUATEMALA 2985 
 
     B. GUATEMALA 2804 
     C. GUATEMALA 2845 
 
1.  (U) Summary:  The Ambassador met on December 14 with 
Guatemala's Human Rights Coalition Against Clandestine 
Structures (CDHCEC, formerly known as "Coalition for 
CICIACS") to discuss the general human rights situation.  The 
CDHCEC harshly criticized what they viewed as the low 
priority the Berger Administration gives human rights issues. 
 On CICIACS, they argued that the GOG should have pushed the 
original agreement forward despite two negative Congressional 
Committee reports and the Constitutional Court's ruling 
against it.  On the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 
(OHCHR) office, they were encouraged (albeit skeptical) to 
hear that the GOG was close to signing an agreement.  End 
Summary. 
 
General Perspective on the GOG 
------------------------------ 
 
2.  (U) On December 14, Helen Mack (Myrna Mack Foundation), 
Iduvina Hernandez (Security and Democracy), and Orlando 
Blanco (COS) told the Ambassador, the DCM, and poloffs they 
believed that, in the first year of the Berger 
administration, the GOG had focused its efforts on 
prosecuting corruption cases of former government officials 
to the exclusion of other important topics (i.e., human 
rights).  The leaders claimed that prosecutors were employing 
a double standard.  They claimed the prosecutors in the Peten 
had arrested ten peasant leaders and charged them with 
terrorism for their roles in leading social protests. 
Fourteen leaders of demonstrations by former paramilitary 
("ex-Pacs"), however, had only been charged with disrupting 
public order -- and only one of them had been arrested.  The 
Ambassador requested details on the cases of those arrested 
in the Peten, and the CDHCEC leaders agreed to provide the 
information, so the Ambassador could raise the alleged double 
standard with Chief prosecutor Juan Luis Florido.  (Comment: 
When poloff tried to obtain this information from CDHCEC 
members the following day, she was told the information was 
not yet ready.) 
 
CICIACS 
------- 
 
3.  (U) Mack reviewed the CDHCEC's concerns that Vice 
President Edward Stein's recent letter to the UN SYG on 
CICIACS had dropped any references to a mandate for CICIACS 
to investigate attacks against human rights defenders.  If 
CICIACS was going to focus exclusively on organized crime and 
no longer had an explicit human rights angle in its mandate, 
then CDHCEC members saw no reason to continue lobbying for 
the initiative themselves.  They complained bitterly that the 
GOG was not doing enough to investigate anonymous threats 
made against human rights defenders.  The Ambassador noted 
the difficulty of investigating threats even under the best 
of circumstances, and they acknowledged that impunity was a 
widespread problem, with the government unable to make 
inroads on all sorts of crime.  The Ambassador noted that 
Stein's letter may have omitted an explicit reference to 
human rights in deference to the Constitutional Court's 
ruling that CICIACS was not a human rights agreement.  The 
Ambassador noted that CICIACS, if successful in prosecuting 
and dismantling organized crime, would undeniably have 
positive human rights implications and therefore merited the 
active support of the human rights community. 
 
4.  (U) When the Ambassador asked what additional actions the 
CDHCEC thought the GOG could or should have taken to push 
forward CICIACS following the Constitutional Court's August 
ruling, Mack said the Court's ruling was not binding and the 
GOG could have maintained and defended the original CICIACS 
agreement.  The Ambassador reminded Mack that, in the 
immediate aftermath of the Court decision, she and her 
coalition had privately acknowledged that the original 
CICIACS proposal was legally and politically unviable. 
 
OHCHR 
----- 
 
5.  (U) The CDHCEC conveyed frustration with the GOG's delay 
in renegotiating its agreement with the UN High Commissioner 
for Human Rights to open an office in Guatemala.  They were 
encouraged (albeit skeptical) to hear from the Ambassador 
that the GOG and OHCHR had drawn very close to agreement on a 
new text.  Mack said she believed the OHCHR could play a key 
role in lobbying for implementation of GOG commitments in the 
UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (ratified 
by Guatemala in April 2004). 
 
The CC motion against the Ex-Pac Payments 
----------------------------------------- 
 
6.   (U) On December 8, the Constitutional Court issued 
another provisional decision suspending payments to the 
ex-Pacs (Ref B), based on the injunction filed by human 
rights activists.  The Ambassador asked Mack, Hernandez, and 
Blanco about their security, as the ex-Pacs have threatened 
those who have opposed the payments.  They said that the GOG 
had provided 1-2 police officers to protect their offices 
during business hours.  Ex-Pac leaders had visited several of 
the organizations.  CDHCEC members met with the ex-Pacs and 
explained their reasons for opposing payments to the ex-Pacs 
for their paramilitary service during Guatemala's internal 
armed conflict.  At the end of these meetings, however, the 
ex-Pac leaders threatened the CDHCEC members, noting that 
"they could not be responsible for what happened to them" if 
they continued to oppose the payoffs. 
 
TIP & Article 98 
---------------- 
 
7.  (U) The Ambassador enlisted the collaboration of the 
CDHCEC groups in lobbying for improved legislation on TIP 
(Ref C). According to Mack, they had supported existing 
proposals for TIP, as well as improved legislation on 
international adoptions.  Mack asked if the Embassy would 
encourage the GOG to send the Rome Statute to Congress and 
lobby for its ratification.  The Ambassador explained that we 
were not in a position to do since we ourselves had serious 
objections to ICC jurisdiction and withdrew our signature 
from the Rome Statute.  He reviewed our efforts to reach 
Article 98 agreements with countries all over the world. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
8.  (SBU) The CDHCEC members are frustrated by their lack of 
access to the GOG.  Mack noted that Presidential Human Rights 
Commissioner Frank LaRue had not returned several of her 
phone calls.  Far from pandering to the human rights 
community, the beleagured Berger administration had not even 
met with the CDHCEC or the office of the Human Rights 
Ombudsman (PDH) about CICIACS (or the OHCHR) to consult on 
CICIACS strategy following the Constitutional Court's 
decision in August.  That may change -- after this meeting 
with CDHCEC, the Ambassador encouraged VP Stein and LaRue to 
reach out to them, and we understand a reunion is in the 
works. 
 
9.  (SBU) As Orlando Blanco was leaving the Embassy, he 
apologized to the DCM for the CDHCEC presentation being so 
"negative" but attributed it to "frustration."  The Berger 
Administration's honeymoon is certainly long over for the 
human rights groups.  However, their criticism of the Berger 
team was distinct from that made against the previous 
administration.  They criticize the present government for 
not being sufficiently proactive on human rights issues. 
They made no allegations, however, as they had against the 
Portillo kleptocracy, that senior members of the current 
Cabinet are linked to the "clandestine groups" that they are 
dedicating to combating. 
HAMILTON