Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03GUATEMALA1548
2003-06-17 14:35:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Guatemala
Cable title:  

RIOS MONTT STONED BY MOURNERS IN RABINAL

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KJUS MOPS GT 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 001548 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/16/2013
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KJUS MOPS GT
SUBJECT: RIOS MONTT STONED BY MOURNERS IN RABINAL

REF: A. GUATEMALA 1530


B. GUATEMALA 1479

C. GUATEMALA 962

Classified By: Acting PolCouns Rob Copley, for reasons 1.5 (b and d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 001548

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/16/2013
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KJUS MOPS GT
SUBJECT: RIOS MONTT STONED BY MOURNERS IN RABINAL

REF: A. GUATEMALA 1530


B. GUATEMALA 1479

C. GUATEMALA 962

Classified By: Acting PolCouns Rob Copley, for reasons 1.5 (b and d)


1. (U) Summary: During a poorly-timed campaign stop in the
highland town of Rabinal on June 15, former General and FRG
presidential candidate Rios Montt was greeted with stones and
bottles thrown by a group of war victims participating in an
inhumation of 67 community members killed by the army during
the internal conflict. The FRG rally coincided with the
inhumation mass for victims of the Tres Cruces and Plan de
Sanchez massacres of 1981 and 1982. Rios Montt was not
wounded in the fracas, though other members of his delegation
were. End Summary.

Rumble in Rabinal
--------------

2. (U) The FRG held a presidential campaign rally in Rabinal,
Baja Verapaz on June 14, on the same day that residents from
surrounding communities were holding an inhumation mass for
the remains of loved ones killed in a series of army
massacres during the conflict. It appears that the FRG
national leadership was unaware that the inhumation was to
take place at the same time as the campaign rally. Community
members carrying the coffins of their loved ones coincided
with the FRG rally in Rabinal's central square. According to
press accounts, inflammatory rhetoric by FRG Congressman from
Baja Verapaz Juan Santa Cruz and other local FRG leaders
raised tensions with the hostile mourners. Insults were
exchanged and the FRG leaders decided to move their rally to
another location, away from the inhumation ceremony. At that
point Rios Montt, possibly unaware of the tension at the
earlier rally where he was not present, appeared and began
his speech. Tensions boiled over when Santa Cruz (or his
wife--accounts vary) pushed a journalist, causing him to fall
from the podium. People in the crowd, made up largely of
hostile participants in the inhumations, began throwing
rocks. Rios Montt was only a few lines into his speech when
he was forced to evacuate the stand. Chaos reigned for
several minutes while the FRG leaders retreated. Several
young women wearing FRG T-shirts were harassed by the crowd,

which ripped their shirts off. Numerous journalists and 10
FRG loyalists reported minor injuries in the clash. After
burning what remained of the FRG banners, the crowd proceeded
to El Calvario church for an emotional ceremony and the
re-burial of the 67 massacre victims.


3. (U) The FRG leadership, including Rios Montt, continued on
to another smaller rally in nearby Cubulco, this one
organized by former civil defense patrol members (ex-PAC).
The meeting had been specially arranged for the ex-PACs,
dozens of whom had traveled to Rabinal earlier, to respond
directly to their concerns over delays in compensation for
their war-time services promised by President Portillo.
Press reports claim that many ex-PACs walked out of the
meeting with the senior FRG leaders in frustration, and
others chanting "liar" in response to the FRG leaders'
efforts to lower the expectations of compensation of the
former civil patrol members.


4. (C) Zury Rios, who accompanied her father to the rally in
Rabinal, told us that her father was unaware of the
inhumation before arriving in Rabinal, and said the local
organizers had moved the stage to another part of town when
they realized that the two events would coincide. Even so,
she said that the victims' families, carrying the coffins of
their loved ones, followed them to the new location, and that
is when the confrontation took place. She accused the police
of not stepping in to calm the crowd. Zury Rios said that,
contrary to press accounts, her father was not injured in the
melee, but said that a member of the entourage standing next
to him was hit in the head by a rock, getting blood all over
Rios Montt's collar (which led the press to speculate that he
had been hit).

Forensic Anthropologists Threatened Beforehand
-------------- -

5. (SBU) The inhumation in Rabinal was organized by the
Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG),which
continues to receive death threats for their work in Rabinal
and elsewhere. On Friday, June 13, Fredy Peccerelli,
Director of the FAFG notified HROff that members of his staff
and family continue to receive threats from unidentified
sources, and most are not receiving protection from the GOG.
One member of his staff, Omar Bertoni Giron de Leon, received
a letter that said while Peccerelli had full-time security,
they knew Giron did not and that they would kill him if he
went into the countryside to perform the inhumation that
weekend (in Rabinal). Peccerelli immediately contacted
police, Public Ministry, and the President's Commission on
Human Rights (COPREDEH) to obtain investigation of the threat
and security for Giron. RSO contacted police, inquired into
their investigation of the Giron incident, and asked them to
follow up with any requests from the Peccerelli family.

Frank LaRue Describes Incident in Rabinal
--------------

6. (C) On Saturday, June 14, Frank LaRue, Director of the
Center for Legal Action in Human Rights, called HROff to
share his concerns about the clash between FRG supporters and
those participating in the inhumation. LaRue said that an
inhumation was an incredibly emotional event for the family
members of the 67 people being buried. The timing of a
campaign rally for the retired General whose term as de facto
President partly coincides with the massacres in which these
individuals were killed could only be construed as
disrespectful. LaRue also said that he feared events such as
this would further deepen the rift between the ex-PACS and
human rights activists, since FRG mayors and governors in
Quiche and Huehuetenango provinces have been blaming
difficulties in ex-PAC compensation packages on CALDH and
other human rights organizations associated with the victim's
reparations programs.


7. (C) LaRue predicted that the FRG would try to spin the
stoning incident as a ploy of the political opposition. He
said that this was completely untrue and that all the members
of his organization and other human rights organizations were
not financially supported or motivated by opposition parties.

Comment
--------------

8. (C) The violence that erupted in Rabinal appears to have
been the result of poor planning by the local FRG campaign
leadership, and not an intentional provocation by either FRG
candidate Rios Montt or the families of the victims of army
massacres in Baja Verapaz. Getting back up on the horse,
Rios Montt continued with scheduled campaign rallies in
Eastern Guatemala the next day. A recent poll shows Rios
Montt has picked up some support since March, and currently
has 15.5 percent of the vote, placing him a distant second
behind Oscar Berger who has lost a couple points since March
and now stands at 41.9 percent of the vote. Rios Montt's
negative vote (percentage of the populace who say they would
never vote for Rios Montt) has also grown, according to this
poll, from 51 to 53 percent in the same time period.


9. (C) The incident in Rabinal illustrates that scars from
the internal conflict remain close to the surface in
Guatemala, and reminds us that electoral violence can not be
ruled out. The latest threats against FAFG members are
worrisome as human rights workers continue to be targets in
Guatemala, and few of their murders are ever prosecuted. We
continue to raise our concerns over the security of human
rights workers with all senior GOG contacts, and have pressed
the police, the Minister of Government and the Attorney
General to ensure the safety of FAFG members in the wake of
this latest series of threats.
HAMILTON