US embassy cable - 05GUATEMALA1890

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GUATEMALA 001890 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, ASEC, ELAB, EAID, SNAR, GT 
SUBJECT: GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT DENOUNCES ALLEGED THREATS 
AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS 
 
 
1.  Summary.  The Guatemalan Government recently denounced 
threats and intimidation against human rights defenders, 
apparently in response to the widespread but unconfirmed 
impression that such incidents rose dramatically in the first 
half of 2005.  If the self-reported statistics are reliable, 
threats and burglaries have occurred in noticeably higher 
numbers than reported last year.  Nevertheless, many of the 
incidents appear to be common crime to which the victims have 
ascribed political motives without providing evidence of such 
or a plausible rationale.  Some skeptics have suggested that 
NGOs deliberately exaggerate or even stage incidents to draw 
attention to their causes and/or undermine confidence in the 
Guatemalan Government.  End summary. 
 
More Break-ins in 2005? 
----------------------- 
 
2.  Guatemala's National Movement for Human Rights received 
15 reports of burglaries in human rights NGO offices in the 
first half of 2005, compared with the 12 reports it received 
during all of 2004.  Most other organizations quote those 
statistics.  The Mutual Support Group (GAM) claims it 
received 45 reports of illegal burglaries during the first 
half of 2005, "the majority of them to social organizations," 
but has not provided details.  According to Frank La Rue of 
the Presidential Commission for Human Rights (COPREDEH), 
civil society has reported 45 break-ins so far in 2005, but 
only 15 have been reported by the media. 
 
3.  Of the 15 burglaries cited by the National Movement for 
Human Rights, more than half were never registered with the 
special prosecutor for human rights defenders.  The Embassy 
was able to confirm that formal complaints were filed in only 
7 of the 15 cases.  Of those that are reported, most are 
never investigated, so there is no way to gauge how many are 
legitimate.  GAM had promised the Embassy a detailed report 
of its independent investigations into the 45 break-ins it 
has documented; however, during a July 29 breakfast meeting, 
GAM's Mario Polanco and Carlos Say delivered a vaguely 
written report, its few details quoted from the media.  Say 
had previously told the Embassy that most of the 45 
victimized NGOs had filed complaints and that the GOG had 
failed to investigate them.  When asked directly why the 
special prosecutor could confirm fewer than ten complaints 
filed, Polanco and Say redirected their argument against the 
government, claiming that most NGOs do not file official 
complaints for fear or lack of confidence in the system. 
 
An enemy with no clear membership, patterns, or goals 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
4.  Human rights defenders report hundreds of threats or 
attacks each year.  They believe the break-ins and threats to 
be the work of amorphous "clandestine security 
organizations," which disguise themselves as common criminals 
but leave behind tell-tale signs of their political motives. 
The NGOs allege that burglars remove hard drives and paper 
files while leaving behind cash and other valuable equipment, 
and have concluded that the burglars are after data, not the 
equipment itself. 
 
5.  In a May 24 joint letter to VP Stein, 21 organizations 
asserted that clandestine groups are linked to "security 
forces, especially military intelligence, organized crime, 
and certain business sectors," and that such groups have 
"diverse forms and motives."  They believed there were 
"structures that, with time, have perfected the use of 
methods of intelligence, which operate using a complex 
division of labor, which possess resources and usually 
impunity."  Regarding links with the government, they wrote, 
"It would be difficult for such structures to be separate 
from the state apparatus, to compete against it, or to be 
completely unknown to it." 
 
6.  In a June 24 meeting with the Ambassador, human rights 
leaders agreed that recent attacks showed patterns 
reminiscent of the civil conflict and clearly pointed to 
involvement by current or former members of state security 
forces.  In a July 18 conversation with poloff, GAM,s Carlos 
Say reiterated that position.  However, in a May 16 press 
release, GAM stated "We are seeing patterns of attacks that 
we have never seen before ... similar organizations receive 
different kinds of attacks." 
 
7.  Also during the June 24 meeting, human rights leaders 
expressed particular concern that the Center for Legal Action 
for Human Rights (CALDH) had repeatedly been threatened and 
victimized.  In a June 22 letter to President Berger, CALDH 
cited four incidents that occurred in June that they 
interpreted as acts of political intimidation:  a CALDH 
vehicle was stolen in Guatemala city; the unattended car of 
another CALDH worker was broken into and the radio and some 
tools stolen while, on the same day, a man sharpened a 
machete outside his small town home; another CALDH worker was 
robbed on a bus; finally, the parents of a CALDH worker 
called the telephone company to report phone problems and 
were told their line had a "special intervention," which 
could not be explained.  In no case did the criminals refer 
to CALDH's mission or cases and, with the exception of the 
last incident, all are crimes committed regularly in 
Guatemala. 
 
GOG: Culpable or Incompetent? 
----------------------------- 
 
8.  No organization has accused the Guatemalan Government 
directly of burglarizing offices or otherwise intimidating 
human rights defenders; rather, they talk of "infiltration," 
"acquiescence" and, in nearly every case, "incompetence." 
 
9.  In a July 22 conversation with poloff, Maria Eugenia de 
Sierra, Deputy Director of the Office of the Human Rights 
Ombudsman (PDH), said the PDH sees evidence that threats are 
on the rise and are having the effect of repressing the 
activity of human rights organizations.  However, the PDH 
does not believe they reflect a government policy of 
repression. 
 
10.  Congressional deputy Victor Montejo, former Presidential 
Secretary for Peace, told poloff on July 19, "it's difficult 
 
SIPDIS 
to believe that the government cannot exercise any control 
over these groups." 
 
11.  International NGOs have also been critical of the GOG. 
Amnesty International issued a statement suggesting that the 
current government at least tolerates, at worst sponsors, 
organized aggression against human rights defenders.  In its 
July 6 Defender Alert, Human Rights First accused the 
government of taking no action to investigate or protect 
vulnerable human rights activists.  In a May 19 letter to 
Guatemala,s Attorney General, the InterReligious Task Force 
on Central America wrote that it's well known that the 
Guatemalan Government is anxious to suppress opposition to 
CAFTA and reminded the GOG that it must allow human rights 
defenders to act without restrictions or fear of reprisals. 
 
Skeptics 
-------- 
 
12.  Guatemala is a critical crime threat post with an 
astonishingly high rate of violent crime.  Impunity is 
widespread.  The conviction rate for reported crimes is less 
than two percent.  Because so much crime goes unreported, it 
is impossible to determine whether human rights defenders are 
victimized at higher rates than the general population. 
Likewise, we cannot say that these crimes against human 
rights defenders are investigated or prosecuted at a lesser 
rate than crimes in general. 
 
13.  Too often, second-hand (and sometimes first-hand) 
accounts are exaggerated or misinformed.  The case of Sara 
Poroj, an employee of GAM, is illustrative.  In February, the 
U.S. NGO Human Rights First sent out an email report that 
while Poroj was working on an exhumation project, "an armed, 
unidentified man entered her hotel room and held a gun to her 
head, while others examined her work-related documents and 
stood watch outside her room."  Poloff contacted Poroj who 
said that one man alone had twice entered her room.  The 
first time he left without incident.  The second time he 
waved a gun and repeated "It's you" several times before 
leaving but did not touch her papers or other belongings. 
The same night, a television and radio were stolen from one 
of the hotel common rooms.  Human Rights First also reported 
that Poroj was "followed by a car for several hours... when 
they returned to their hotel, armed men emerged from the 
car."  Poroj told poloff she believed a car followed her from 
the work site to the hotel, but the men never left the car, 
so she didn,t know if they were armed. 
 
14.  Some suspect NGOs of staging or exaggerating burglaries 
and other crimes to dramatize their cause.  For example, in 
his June 24 column in Siglo XXI, Edgar Rosales accused human 
rights organizations of politicizing burglaries "no different 
than those perpetrated in any of our neighbors, houses," and 
of seeking to exploit their encounters with common crime to 
create the conditions necessary to justify the Office of the 
High Commissioner for Human Rights, which opened in Guatemala 
on July 1. 
 
The Government of Guatemala's Response 
-------------------------------------- 
 
15.  Human rights organizations have called on the government 
to investigate and to protect them against break-ins and 
other threats.  Vice President Stein in particular has 
expressed concern and support for human rights defenders, 
convened a meeting with leaders on the topic and, during a 
May 26 visit to the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights 
(IACHR), invited a representative to visit Guatemala.  In 
response to that invitation, OAS rapporteur Marisol Blanchard 
visited Guatemala to meet with affected organizations and 
left July 20.  Minister of Government Carlos Vielmann has 
also called on human rights leaders to meet with him to share 
details and theories but claims to have received no response. 
 Human rights leaders told Ambassador Hamilton in a June 24 
meeting that the GOG had provided perimeter security to 
organizations that requested it, but that it was spotty and 
ineffective. 
 
16.  The GOG has also taken steps to improve its image.  On 
July 17, it published a full-page communique in the leading 
newspapers.  In that message, written by COPREDEH and 
approved by the Vice President, the GOG denounced threats and 
violence, emphasized that the GOG is working to guarantee 
security for all citizens, offered its support in 
investigating all cases in which complaints have been filed, 
and reiterated its adherence to Commitment VII of the 
Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights in Guatemala. 
Finally, it called on human rights organizations to work 
together with the government to find concrete solutions. 
 
17.  In addition to the July 1 opening of an office of the 
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, VP Stein and others 
have begun to discuss how to revive the CICIACS initiative. 
 
18.  Comment:  While some human rights defenders may receive 
threats, the true scope of those threats as well as their 
sources remain unclear.  NGOs claim there is a well 
organized, well connected network of clandestine groups with 
the ability to mount coordinated attacks on human rights 
defenders.  However, after years of collecting statistics and 
conducting investigations, these organizations are no closer 
to forming a clear picture of the "clandestine security 
apparatus" that haunts them.  Likewise, some human rights 
groups that claim harassment have yet to demonstrate that 
they are currently working on anything that would provoke 
threats or intimidation.  Until human rights organizations 
are consistent in filing official complaints with the Public 
Ministry, and until the Public Ministry mounts effective 
investigations of those complaints, we're left speculating. 
Meanwhile, the GOG has begun to respond positively and 
publicly, demonstrating a willingness to hear and support 
human rights defenders--the challenge for the government will 
be to follow up on those commitments.  End comment. 
WHARTON