RIOS MONTT STONED BY MOURNERS IN RABINAL

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