AMBASSADOR MEETS WITH GUATEMALAN HUMAN RIGHTS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 003246

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV ASEC MASS SNAR GT UN
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR MEETS WITH GUATEMALAN HUMAN RIGHTS
ACTIVISTS

REF: A. GUATEMALA 2985


B. GUATEMALA 2804

C. GUATEMALA 2845


1. (U) Summary: The Ambassador met on December 14 with
Guatemala's Human Rights Coalition Against Clandestine
Structures (CDHCEC, formerly known as "Coalition for
CICIACS") to discuss the general human rights situation. The
CDHCEC harshly criticized what they viewed as the low
priority the Berger Administration gives human rights issues.
On CICIACS, they argued that the GOG should have pushed the
original agreement forward despite two negative Congressional
Committee reports and the Constitutional Court's ruling
against it. On the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) office, they were encouraged (albeit skeptical) to
hear that the GOG was close to signing an agreement. End
Summary.

General Perspective on the GOG
--------------


2. (U) On December 14, Helen Mack (Myrna Mack Foundation),
Iduvina Hernandez (Security and Democracy),and Orlando
Blanco (COS) told the Ambassador, the DCM, and poloffs they
believed that, in the first year of the Berger
administration, the GOG had focused its efforts on
prosecuting corruption cases of former government officials
to the exclusion of other important topics (i.e., human
rights). The leaders claimed that prosecutors were employing
a double standard. They claimed the prosecutors in the Peten
had arrested ten peasant leaders and charged them with
terrorism for their roles in leading social protests.
Fourteen leaders of demonstrations by former paramilitary
("ex-Pacs"),however, had only been charged with disrupting
public order -- and only one of them had been arrested. The
Ambassador requested details on the cases of those arrested
in the Peten, and the CDHCEC leaders agreed to provide the
information, so the Ambassador could raise the alleged double
standard with Chief prosecutor Juan Luis Florido. (Comment:
When poloff tried to obtain this information from CDHCEC
members the following day, she was told the information was
not yet ready.)

CICIACS
--------------


3. (U) Mack reviewed the CDHCEC's concerns that Vice
President Edward Stein's recent letter to the UN SYG on
CICIACS had dropped any references to a mandate for CICIACS
to investigate attacks against human rights defenders. If
CICIACS was going to focus exclusively on organized crime and
no longer had an explicit human rights angle in its mandate,
then CDHCEC members saw no reason to continue lobbying for
the initiative themselves. They complained bitterly that the
GOG was not doing enough to investigate anonymous threats
made against human rights defenders. The Ambassador noted
the difficulty of investigating threats even under the best
of circumstances, and they acknowledged that impunity was a
widespread problem, with the government unable to make
inroads on all sorts of crime. The Ambassador noted that
Stein's letter may have omitted an explicit reference to
human rights in deference to the Constitutional Court's
ruling that CICIACS was not a human rights agreement. The
Ambassador noted that CICIACS, if successful in prosecuting
and dismantling organized crime, would undeniably have
positive human rights implications and therefore merited the
active support of the human rights community.


4. (U) When the Ambassador asked what additional actions the
CDHCEC thought the GOG could or should have taken to push
forward CICIACS following the Constitutional Court's August
ruling, Mack said the Court's ruling was not binding and the
GOG could have maintained and defended the original CICIACS
agreement. The Ambassador reminded Mack that, in the
immediate aftermath of the Court decision, she and her
coalition had privately acknowledged that the original
CICIACS proposal was legally and politically unviable.

OHCHR
--------------


5. (U) The CDHCEC conveyed frustration with the GOG's delay
in renegotiating its agreement with the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights to open an office in Guatemala. They were
encouraged (albeit skeptical) to hear from the Ambassador
that the GOG and OHCHR had drawn very close to agreement on a
new text. Mack said she believed the OHCHR could play a key
role in lobbying for implementation of GOG commitments in the
UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (ratified
by Guatemala in April 2004).

The CC motion against the Ex-Pac Payments
--------------


6. (U) On December 8, the Constitutional Court issued
another provisional decision suspending payments to the
ex-Pacs (Ref B),based on the injunction filed by human
rights activists. The Ambassador asked Mack, Hernandez, and
Blanco about their security, as the ex-Pacs have threatened
those who have opposed the payments. They said that the GOG
had provided 1-2 police officers to protect their offices
during business hours. Ex-Pac leaders had visited several of
the organizations. CDHCEC members met with the ex-Pacs and
explained their reasons for opposing payments to the ex-Pacs
for their paramilitary service during Guatemala's internal
armed conflict. At the end of these meetings, however, the
ex-Pac leaders threatened the CDHCEC members, noting that
"they could not be responsible for what happened to them" if
they continued to oppose the payoffs.

TIP & Article 98
--------------


7. (U) The Ambassador enlisted the collaboration of the
CDHCEC groups in lobbying for improved legislation on TIP
(Ref C). According to Mack, they had supported existing
proposals for TIP, as well as improved legislation on
international adoptions. Mack asked if the Embassy would
encourage the GOG to send the Rome Statute to Congress and
lobby for its ratification. The Ambassador explained that we
were not in a position to do since we ourselves had serious
objections to ICC jurisdiction and withdrew our signature
from the Rome Statute. He reviewed our efforts to reach
Article 98 agreements with countries all over the world.

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


8. (SBU) The CDHCEC members are frustrated by their lack of
access to the GOG. Mack noted that Presidential Human Rights
Commissioner Frank LaRue had not returned several of her
phone calls. Far from pandering to the human rights
community, the beleagured Berger administration had not even
met with the CDHCEC or the office of the Human Rights
Ombudsman (PDH) about CICIACS (or the OHCHR) to consult on
CICIACS strategy following the Constitutional Court's
decision in August. That may change -- after this meeting
with CDHCEC, the Ambassador encouraged VP Stein and LaRue to
reach out to them, and we understand a reunion is in the
works.


9. (SBU) As Orlando Blanco was leaving the Embassy, he
apologized to the DCM for the CDHCEC presentation being so
"negative" but attributed it to "frustration." The Berger
Administration's honeymoon is certainly long over for the
human rights groups. However, their criticism of the Berger
team was distinct from that made against the previous
administration. They criticize the present government for
not being sufficiently proactive on human rights issues.
They made no allegations, however, as they had against the
Portillo kleptocracy, that senior members of the current
Cabinet are linked to the "clandestine groups" that they are
dedicating to combating.
HAMILTON