Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Sun Nov 4, 2018, 07:02 PM Nov 2018

Accusations Against Guatemala Deputy Minister Open New Questions About President's Cabinet

Accusations Against Guatemala Deputy Minister Open New Questions About President’s Cabinet

ANALYSIS
Written by 
Héctor Silva Ávalos
 -
NOVEMBER 1, 2018
Elites and Organized Crime
Guatemala
Human Rights
Kamilo Rivera, Guatemala's deputy minister of the interior

The indictment of a senior Guatemalan government official concerning his alleged participation in police death squads has reopened deep questions about President Jimmy Morales’ security cabinet.

On October 29, the Attorney General’s Office of Guatemala accused Kamilo Rivera, the deputy minister of the interior and the president’s main connection to the National Civil Police (PNC), of forming death squads within the Guatemalan state over a decade ago. Rivera has now gone missing.

This accusation comes as part of a case by the Attorney General’s Office and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala – CICIG). The institutions accuse eight officials active during the management of former president Óscar Berger of being part of a death squad that committed at least seven extrajudicial executions. The officials include a former minister of the interior, Carlos Vielmann; the then director of the PNC, Erwin Sperisen; and Víctor Hugo Soto Diéguez, the former head of police investigations.

“This parallel body operated within … the Interior [Ministry] from 2004 to 2007, constituting an illegal body and clandestine security apparatus (cuerpo ilegal y aparato clandestino de seguridad – CIACS) in the most classic sense. This CIACS wielded real power and had the approval of the highest public security officials to operate with impunity every time it carried out an extrajudicial execution,” reads part of the indictment.

MORE:
https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/accusations-against-guatemala-deputy-minister-opens-new-questions-about-presidents-cabinet/



Kamilo Rivera



Óscar Berger, on the left side, with Erwin Sperisen, director of the National Civil Police.





Berger Wikipedia:

Early years and family
Of Belgian descent, Berger was born to an upper-class family with large sugar and coffee holdings.[1] He graduated in law from the private, Jesuit Rafael Landívar University.[2] In 1967 he married Wendy Widmann, also from a land-owning Guatemalan family. He had a son after and has a grandchild named Juan Pablo Berger.

. . .

Controversies
During the passage of Hurricane Stan in 2005 that left 1000 dead in Guatemala, he said "It's not so bad, poor people are used to live like this".

. . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Berger

~ ~ ~


4 Jailed Cops Killed in Guatemala Prison
By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 27, 2007; 4:42 AM

CUILAPA, Guatemala -- Gunmen stormed a Guatemalan prison and shot to death four jailed police officers in a mafia hit aimed at stopping investigators from finding out who ordered the slayings of three politicians from neighboring El Salvador, Guatemala's leader said Monday.

The four policemen killed Sunday included Luis Arturo Herrera, head of the Guatemalan National Police organized crime unit, and three of his officers. They were arrested Thursday in connection with the Feb. 19 killings of three Salvadoran representatives to the Central American Parliament, based in Guatemala City.

President Oscar Berger said "organized crime gangs" reached the officers' cell after getting past eight locked doors at the prison, and were responsible for the "violent deaths of four important witnesses who could have helped the investigation."

Berger said it wasn't clear whether drug trafficking or other organized crime was involved, but that officials determined other inmates weren't to blame. A major question is how the gunmen were able to get through the locked doors to reach the suspects, Berger said.

. . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/27/AR2007022700255_pf.html




Erwin Sperisen



Former Guatemala police chief Erwin Sperisen was rarely seen without being armed to the teeth

Q&A: Sperisen Trial “A Further Step in the Fight Against Impunity Across the Board”
By Isolda Agazzi
Reprint | | Print | Send by email |En español
Erwin Sperisen, a Swiss and Guatemalan citizen, is being tried in Geneva for the murder of ten prisoners in 2005 and 2006, when he was chief of the National Civil Police of Guatemala. Testimonies against him were brought mainly by a coalition led by TRIAL (Track Impunity Always), an NGO that brings international crimes to justice in Switzerland and before international institutions.

GENEVA, Jun 1 2014 (IPS) - Erwin Sperisen was chief of Guatemala’s National Civil Police from 2004 to 2007, when he left the country for Switzerland. In August 2010, the Guatemalan authorities issued an international arrest warrant, accusing him, among others, of extrajudicial executions in the prisons of Pavon and Infiernito.

The authorities of the canton of Geneva arrested him on August 31, 2012, but he could not be extradited to Guatemala because he also holds a Swiss passport. He is now standing trial in Switzerland and risks life imprisonment. The verdict in the trial, which started on May 15, is expected to be handed down on June 6.

Philip Grant

TRIAL (Track Impunity Always), an NGO that brings international crimes to justice in Switzerland and before international institutions, played a major role in bring Sperisen before the court. IPS talked to TRIAL director, Philip Grant.

IPS: What is at stake in this trial?

Philip Grant: The capacity of the Swiss judiciary to judge facts or crimes committed thousands of kilometres away, in a completely different context and culture. Switzerland has not held such a criminal trial since 2000, when a Rwandan mayor was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for his participation in genocide and crime against humanity.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/06/sperisen-trial-a-further-step-in-the-fight-against-impunity-across-the-board/

Latest Discussions»Region Forums»Latin America»Accusations Against Guate...