CAPITAL PUNISHMENT GIVEN TO FORMER CIVIL PATROL
La Prensa Libre/Spanish (Guatemala)
http://www.prensalibre.ocm
8 October 1999

by Elder Interiano

SALAMA, Baja Verapaz-Last night for the second consecutive time, the Court of Salamá, Baja Verapaz sentenced 3 former civil patrolmen to death, accused of committing 143 murders in 1982 in Río Negro, Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. Despite their defense efforts, Pedro González, Fermín Lajuj Xitimul, and Carlos Chen were sentenced to death after confessing to only the murders of Marta Julia Chen Osorio and Demetria Osorio Lajuj.

The Sentencing Court of Advancement, located in Salamá, deliberated for 19 hours in an atmosphere of tension, caused by the presence of hundreds of former civil patrol along with an equal number of family members who lost loved ones in those communities during the civil war. To prevent any misconduct, the National Civil Police sent 150 members to the court. The oral proceedings began on Sept. 7 with prosecutor Fredyn Fernández, who asked for the maximum sentence against the suspects, all of Achí origin, after having presented 18 witnesses who all were survivors of the massacre committed in that community. Among the chosen witnesses was Jesús Tecú Osorio, 27, who on the December 11, 1996 received the Reebok Prize for Human Rights in Boston.

He testified later about the massacre, stating that when he was 11-years-old, he was kidnapped by Pedro González, who sequestered him in his house for 24 months. During the sentencing, the accused reiterated their innocence and cried out for freedom. "I am not a criminal; I am a worker who owns his own land," swore Lajuj in his defense, which later could not be proved during the prosecution.

According to the findings of prosecutor Fernández, the this ruling will strengthen the laws, because "it punishes something that occurred in the most repressive time of the country." On November 30, 1998 the first death sentencing was issued against the accused. However, in January of this year, the 14th Court of Appeals of Cobán annulled the verdict due to the solicitations in defense of the offenders. Late Oct. 7, a group of policemen made threats to free the condemned, and seek revenge against the court authorities.

Some facts of the case are: The denunciation was given on September 6, 1993. The Río Negro massacre killing women, children, and elderly happened on March 13, 1982. The massacre is attributed to the army and to the police of the Civil Auto Defense, the last of a group of members combating guerrilla warfare in the 1980s. The arguments of the hearing established that the offenders had been part of the civil patrol, and since May 27, 1997 they claimed to be a part of an amnesty in the Court of Cobán, Alta Verapaz.