PARLACEN MURDER UPDATE: 13 GANG MEMBERS ACQUITTED

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000890 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KCRM SNAR PGOV PHUM KJUS ASEC ES GT SUBJECT: PARLACEN MURDER UPDATE: 13 GANG MEMBERS ACQUITTED OF MURDERING POLICE REF: 2007 GUATEMALA 2121 AND PREVIOUS ¶1. (SBU) On July 10, a three-judge panel acquitted 13 gang members of charges relating to the February 2007 murder of four Guatemalan police officers accused of killing three El Salvadoran representatives to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) and their driver (reftel). The police officers had been transferred to the maximum security El Boqueron prison in Santa Rosa, and were shot to death in their prison cell. Authorities quickly charged 13 inmates with known gang affiliations for the murders, as well as 16 prison guards for criminal facilitation. The prison guards were released in October for insufficient evidence reportedly at the request of the Public Ministry, but the current acquittal was not supported by the Public Ministry officials in charge of the investigation. ¶2. (SBU) The chief justice in the case, Luis Fernando Gonzalez, cited contradictions in the testimony of the three witnesses; an inspection of the crime scene which led to doubts regarding witness testimony; penitentiary records that indicated that some of the accused were not incarcerated in El Boqueron prison the day of the crime; and the generally poor investigation performed by the Public Ministry. ¶3. (SBU) Alvaro Matus, Chief Prosecutor of the Public Ministry's homicide investigation unit, expressed disappointment with the ruling. He told Poloff that the evidence in the case was solid and that witness testimony was clear. He opined that the gang must have either bribed or intimidated the judges, and called the ruling "another example of impunity" in Guatemala. He stated that the Ministry had presented strong evidence, including that the weapons linked by ballistics to the killings were registered to family members of the accused and were found hidden in their cell. He also questioned the veracity of documents stating that some of the inmates were not incarcerated in El Boqueron the day of the crime. According to Matus, the Ministry plans to appeal the ruling, but the case will probably not be back in front of a judge for at least a year. He added that some of the accused may soon go free, but that the majority were already serving unrelated prison terms ranging between 40 and 75 years. ¶4. (SBU) COMMENT: The ongoing PARLACEN murder saga continues to grab local headlines, and serves as a reminder of the woeful state of the justice sector in Guatemala. Whether due to a lack of will or capability, the fact that the Public Ministry appears unable to resolve the murders of four suspects in a high-profile case being held in a maximum security prison speaks volumes regarding the lack of capacity of the Public Ministry and the justice sector in Guatemala. Derham