Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03GUATEMALA2587
2003-10-07 17:15:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Guatemala
Cable title:  

GERARDI WITNESS MURDERED

Tags:  PHUM PGOV KCRM ASEC 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.
UNCLAS GUATEMALA 002587 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KCRM ASEC GT
SUBJECT: GERARDI WITNESS MURDERED


UNCLAS GUATEMALA 002587

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KCRM ASEC GT
SUBJECT: GERARDI WITNESS MURDERED



1. Press reported the murder on October 5 of Erick Urizar, a
defense witness in the murder case of Bishop Juan Gerardi.
Urizar was shot while exiting his gun shop in the capital
with his brother. He had provided an alibi for ex-Capitan
Byron Lima Oliva, convicted to 30 years imprisonment (since
appealed) as the intellectual author of the Gerardi murder,
which occurred April 26, 1998. Ivan Urizar, Erick's brother,
was wounded in the attack and is in serious condition in
hospital. There are no indications at this time that
Urizar's murder was politically motivated.


2. Comment: Several prosecution witnesses and one of the
three military agents convicted of the Gerardi murder have
been murdered since the start of the Gerardi investigation.
The murder of Urizar does not appear to be
politically-motivated, and may be attributable to spiraling
violent crime in the capital.
HAMILTON