Guatemalan hit squads come to the U.S.A.

It ended up being 4:30 A.M. in Friday, January 5, 1996. The Particular Washington Submit carrierhas been generating his rounds down Irving Street throughout Brookland, any suburb regardingWashington, D.C. Phil Mayo, a new bus driver, had gotten up a few minutes earlier, and the manrecalls hearing your newspaper hit his pavement--the reassuring begin to the normal day.

Mayo walked over to his window. Outside, the sun had even now not really risen, and thetemperature has been falling. Your street was empty. He glanced over the street at the yellowVictorian house of his neighbors, your Pertierras, noticing their recently leased Acura inside thedriveway. A New couple of minutes later, Mayo only agreed to end up being able to be opening hisdoor to depart regarding work when a tremendous explosion ripped via the particular neighborhood.Across the actual street, fifteen-foot-high flames had been engulfing the actual Pertierras' car.

Jose Pertierra didn't listen to your explosion. He usually slept soundly. However he ended up beingawakened simply by his Guatemalan wife, America, shaking him and shouting, terrified, "Jose! Jose,a new bomb!" Your forty-four-year-old Cuban-American lawyer leapt from bed and also randownstairs, considering his house had been about fire. "Then I noticed massive flames coming fromthe yard," he says. "It was incredible. The Particular flames had been really high and extremely hot.My car had been somewhere within the center involving them."

At which moment, two images flashed via Pertierra's mind. The initial was involving OrlandoLetelier, the actual former left-leaning Chilean foreign minister who died throughout 1976 when hiscar ended up being blown up from Sheridan Circle, in downtown Washington. Agents doing work forChile's ultrarightist military had planted the particular bomb. The Actual 2nd ended up being in theGuatemalan army.

Pertierra had valid reason to suspect the particular Guatemalan military. He represents JenniferHarbury, the actual Harvard-educated lawyer whose Guatemalan guerrilla husband, Efrain Bamaca,had been killed from the army, allegedly beneath orders from a paid out CIA informant. Since 1992,Harbury has been waging a relentless, high-profile campaign, such as 2 hunger strikes, to learn thetruth with regards to the woman's husband's capture, torture, and murder.

"The just controversial case I possess is actually Harbury's," says Pertierra, an immigration lawyer."And everyone connected with Jennifer provides felt threatened."

Pertierra called 911. Inside a few minutes, fire engines arrived as well as doused the flames. TheParticular automobile would be a total write-off. Hefty h2o damage caused it for you to beimpossible, authorities said, to determine what sort involving incendiary device has been used.Nevertheless FBI investigators concluded that the fire bomb contained an "accelerant" to augmentthe particular explosion. the bomb "appeared never to have been the work associated with childrenor even vandals," mentioned FBI spokeswoman Susan Lloyd. "They're pros," concluded yet anotheragent.

The Guatemalan army reacted rapidly towards the fire-bombing. "We believe that the bombing wasdone by the lawyer himself and Jennifer Harbury, his client. It was a self-attack, intended to getpublicity," asserted military spokesman Colonel Julio Caal.

Four days following your bombing, Pertierra was at his downtown Washington office when the faxdevice suddenly came alive. The Actual message ended up being marked CONFIDENTIAL. The ideacontained names associated with "two achievable suspects": Colonel Jose Luis Fernandez Ligorriaand Federico Baechli.

The fax has been signed by a high-ranking Guatemalan official that may be critical regarding human-rights abuses. While asked to elaborate in his fax, he said: "Who in addition in D.C. dislikes Harburythus intensely? Ligorria along with Baechli are extremely close. they perform together. These Peoplediscuss things. they share the identical line of thinking. Baechli is truly a mechanic and knows aboutcars. I can't observe other people performing it."

Ligorria and also Baechli are an odd couple. Fred Baechli, the naturalized U.S. citizen whom leftGuatemala thirty years ago, owns an auto-repair shop along with used-car showroom about East-West Highway throughout Silver Spring, Maryland. He not too long ago worked like a Washingtonlobbyist for that Guatemalan army as well as government. His auto showroom serves because theheadquarters regarding the Fraternity, any Guatemalan social club whose members are usuallystaunch supporters of the military. "I provide them with the actual shop to get their particularmeetings," Baechli informed us. "I help them in each and also every way."

Fernandez Ligorria, former chief regarding Guatemala's notorious intelligence branch, G-2, endedup being accused in Guatemala within early 1995 involving involvement throughout cocainetrafficking plus a car-theft ring. He additionally has been associated with death-squad activities.Ligorria has denied all regarding the charges, and also criminal proceedings against him throughoutGuatemala had been rapidly dismissed. Ligorria now attends the actual Inter-American defenseHigher Education from Fort McNair, inside Washington, D.C. He refused numerous requests to beinterviewed regarding this article.

Baechli denies being concerned within the bombing of Pertierra's car. "I would enjoy to discover outwhom would it," Baechli says, laughing. "We Guatemalans are not that dumb." He adds that hethinks your bombing was carried out in the "sloppy" manner. Just Like the particular Guatemalanmilitary, Baechli suggests that activists opposed to the Guatemalan government might get done itpertaining to "publicity."

Baechli does not hide his distaste pertaining to Harbury and also Pertierra. "She's harming thenation involving Guatemala. people don't take treatment of Harbury, nor the girl lawyer. so I docertainly not know which would it, however, if at virtually any time I find out I'll give you a call."

Neither Baechli nor Ligorria has been charged in connection with the bombing. Your FBI continuesto be investigating it, along with Baechli confirms that the FBI offers spoken in order to him withregards to it. Nevertheless no suspects have been named and no arrests made. Your Ligorria/Baechlitrail, however, reveals evidence of your campaign regarding low-intensity warfare being waged byGuatemala's military here throughout Washington, D.C. This particular marketing campaign will bedirected at silencing your military's critics, also as winning your hearts and minds regarding U.S.government officials and Guatemalans living in the Washington area.

The Pertierra car bombing is not an isolated incident. The Particular Guatemalan military may besending G-2 hit-squads into the United States Associated With America to be able to intimidate aswell as remove its opponents, based on former Guatemalan intelligence as well as military officers,human-rights activists, along with a former Drug Enforcement Agency agent. "Absolutely, withoutany doubt, these people function in the U.S.," says Celerino Castillo, who labored as a DEA agentbased in the U.S. embassy within Guatemala from 1985 to end up being able to 1990.

Castillo says he 1st became mindful of these G-2 operations when throughout concerning 1987 theCIA agent in the embassy "asked if I knew anybody inside the Palace from whom they can obtain 5blank Guatemalan passports. He informed me these folks were sending a quantity of G-2 guys inorder to California for you to go hit somebody through G-2 who has been simply seeking politicalasylum as well as was testifying," Castillo says. He says one of his informants got the actual blankpassports. a hit team, built with false identities, was dispatched. Castillo says he later heardsomebody ended up "bumped off."

Castillo says which CIA officials throughout Guatemala "signed off on" as well as "financed" thisoperation. "I strongly believe that with regard to a lengthy period they have been associated withcoming more than towards the States and also killing folks and then returning to Guatemala," saysCastillo.

Danilo Rodriguez, any former guerrilla which is now a lawyer along with political analyst throughoutGuatemala, additionally says the G-2 "has completed this kind of operation" within the United StatesRegarding America and also Mexico. "G-2 can not have agents permanently located in othercountries. Rather they have informants whom do the groundwork. Then that they submit operationalteams in order to rapidly carry out certain missions and come again to Guatemala," Rodriguez says.

In interviews, a couple of former G-2 members and 2 former soldiers furthermore said they areusually fully aware G-2 can be operating operations inside the United States. "Of course thesepeople are. When they wish to get rid of someone, they truly do it. They Will have internationaloperations," says any former G-2 officer now living in Washington, D.C. Inside addition, theseresources and human-rights activists say G-2 agents along with informants get often been seen usingpictures involving protesters at demonstrations throughout Washington, D.C.

In early April 1995, two FBI agents known as Jennifer Harbury with your ex house in Texas and,although it was near midnight, insisted they will urgently needed to see her. Harbury says the actualagents shared using her they had learned which "a team of [Guatemalan military] officials" hadcompensated somebody "to assassinate your `gringa' in the hunger strikes." the FBI sent guards toHarbury's house, but absolutely no arrests were at virtually any time made.

In late 1994, Harbury's identify appeared from the top of the death list of eight folks the GuatemalanAnti-Communist Unit distributed to the press inside Guatemala. Pertierra says he lately received areliable suggestion that will he, too, may be targeted by way of a death squad.

In early 1995, Peter Kerndt received the death threat at his office, one day right after speaking at apublic event inside Los Angeles using Harbury. Your caller warned, "Peter, I am planning to killyou." Kerndt's sister, Ann Kerndt, together with Bill Woods, a Mary-knoll priest, and also 4 otherAmericans were killed inside a suspicious plane crash inside Guatemala inside 1976. the Kerndtloved ones and also human-rights teams think the Guatemalan military shot down the plane.

Since February 1995, the particular Guatemalan Human rights Commission within Washingtonprovides received anonymous telephone as well as e-mail threats. 1 known as Harbury "a communistwhore" as well as an additional accused commission members regarding being "idiot, lying,communist bastards." An e-mail message received February 11, 1996, declared, throughout Spanish,"Thank God for your Guatemalan army ... the least corrupt institution throughout Guatemala." Thisdenounced the particular commission with regard to its "retrograde ideas."

Commission staff member Sister Dianna Ortiz, a survivor of rape as well as torture by Guatemalansafety forces (see page 27), features received numerous telephone threats since returning through

Guatemala within 1989. Numerous threatening calls had been made for you to the girl Washingtonresidence over the past year. 2 times before she began your ex vigil before the actual White House,the lady located a bundle addressed in order to her lying in her yard. This has been full of shit.Similar To Harbury, Ortiz had been demanding the Clinton Administration launch all information it'sgot on her case along with investigate the evidence that an American was involved in your ex ownabduction.

Last July, your Commission's office, situated inside a residence in Brookland, had been broken in tobelow peculiar circumstances. The Actual iron safety door has been ripped from its hinges,apparently after becoming hooked approximately a new truck. The Actual thieves took only a pair oftelephones as well as an answering device containing an update upon Harbury's case; they willdidn't bother to consider the actual cameras, computers, or perhaps cash furthermore insidestraightforward reach.

During this exact same period, your Guatemalan prosecutor within Harbury's case, Julio Arango,found Washington to take any deposition from your important witness, a former Guatemalanguerrilla prisoner associated with war, who had seen Bamaca throughout his captivity as well as hadmanaged to escape. at his downtown hotel, the prosecutor received an anonymous phone contact inwhich sounded just like a bomb ticking. back throughout Guatemala, he and members with thefamily received several comparable threatening calls. His car continues to be able to be followed indifferent occasions, and he has been shot with although working in his office inside the PublicMinistry. The Actual bullet lodged throughout his desk. Numerous weeks later, he resigned from theHarbury case.

At 1:30 A.M. on January 6, 1996, the evening right after Pertierra's car ended up being firebombed,a shot was fired into Harbury's Washington residence, lodging just four feet from her housemate'sbed. Harbury is at Guatemala in the time, trying to key in an army base within an effort to end upbeing able to find her husband's body. Absolutely No one has been injured within this shooting, andalso both your FBI as well as residents of your own home remain uncertain whether it had beenmerely a neighborhood gang shoot-out or even a note sent through the Guatemalan military.

Gilson Urizar, any former Guatemalan policeman now in exile in Washington, advised the particularFBI which on four separate occasions he may be followed, as well as as quickly as an American whospoke perfect Spanish took his photo. "I'm absolutely positive a minimum of certainly one of theparticular men has been G-2. He had the typical military-style haircut and also carried a woven bagemployed by G-2 in order to hide their own machine guns."

Commission members say various other Guatemalan exiles have got received threats, but arealready also reluctant for you to record these incidents to the authorities or maybe the press.

In February, Congresswoman Connie Morella associated with Maryland wrote Attorney GeneralJanet Reno stating the woman's concern regarding these incidents. "They strongly declare that theseattacks may are already instigated from outside the Usa by Guatemalan citizens, and also therebyconstitute acts involving international terrorism." Morella urged the Administration to become ableto "make distinct for you to Guatemalan officials that the Usa will not tolerate threats or attacks,become they official, unofficial, or even extra-official, against its citizens."

In her letter, Congresswoman Morella expressed one more concern: "There are numerous prominentGuatemalan safety along with intelligence officials of questionable reputation currently in the unitedStates serving throughout diplomatic posts or perhaps inter-American organizations." Morellaadditional which "it can not really be ruled out which they may get played several role over these

incidents."

Guatemala will become the scene in the Western Hemisphere's longest-running along with bloodiestcivil war. It turned in to a killing field next the particular CIA-engineered coup in 1954 that toppledPresident Jacobo Arbenz, a new democratically elected social reformer.

In the actual ensuing 4 decades, as the army battled guerrillas, Guatemalan civilians--some 55percent regarding whom tend to be regarding Mayan Indian descent--have paid out the price. Anestimated 200,000 civilians have been killed or disappeared, mostly in the hands with the army ormilitary-linked death squads. Much More as compared to one million Guatemalans are alreadyinstructed to flee his or her homes, half any million regarding whom get become refugeesthroughout southern Mexico.

During the last decade, the actual U.S. government did difficult to attempt to restore any facadeassociated with democracy via elections plus an often-shaky Guatemalan civilian government. Peacetalks between your Guatemalan government and additionally the leftwing guerrilla movement,URNG, following getting stalled pertaining to five years, have not too long ago demonstrated signsof forward movement. However energy continues to reside with the army, human-rights abusesremain rampant, and no official has actually been prosecuted for past crimes.

A February 1996 Amnesty International statement documents "a disturbing pattern regardinghuman-rights violations inside Guatemala. Extrajudicial executions, `disappearances,' torture, deaththreats, harassment, along with intimidation persist. The Actual violations are already directed inmany sectors of society" along with "those responsible ... always reap the actual rewards of almosttotal impunity," Amnesty reports.

With growing frequency, Guatemalans have been seeking safety and also economic safety within theUnited States, too as Mexico. Guatemala's exiles are victims regarding each war along with poverty.The Actual Us estimates 80 percent involving Guatemalans reside in extreme poverty and 2 out offive children die prior to reaching your ages of five. Many flee since these people have beenthreatened as well as tortured, or perhaps had loved ones killed or disappeared.

There tend to be an estimated 100,000 Guatemalans inside the Washington, D.C., area. Some Othercities--Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, along with New York--have more, nevertheless Washingtonwill become the hub of Guatemalan political actions in the United States.

"Here within Washington tend to be exactly the particular same divisions we've in Guatemala, theidentical problems, and in addition the identical dangers," says Gilson Urizar, the former soldieralong with policeman that says his "official duties" included kidnappings and also robberiesthroughout Guatemala. Urizar says he received death threats right after he described these criminalactions within the Guatemalan press.

With help from your Guatemalan Human rights Commission, Urizar fled for the United States, yet hesays he continues being followed and harassed throughout Washington. the Commission, whichmonitors as well as publicizes the particular human-rights circumstance inside Guatemala, may bedeeply involved with supporting Harbury. Its members have been harassed, as possess membersassociated with Coalition "Missing," which usually shares office space in Brookland using theCommission. The Particular Coalition represents U.S. citizens and their people who were victimsassociated with military and police violence throughout Guatemala.

Scattered around Capitol Hill as well as DuPont Circle are a dozen as well as thus other tiny

solidarity groups involved in Congressional lobbying, publicizing human-rights violations, andwaging legal actions. These types of organizations tend to be run by Guatemalan exiles as well asAmericans, many regarding whom furthermore received death threats although working inGuatemala as well as had been forced to flee.

The Guatemala Committee of the Washington Area, for instance, offers staged protests before theGuatemalan embassy and the White Home as well as organized last year's effective boycottsassociated with Starbucks along with The Particular Gap, as well as other U.S. companies arrestedfor maintaining substandard circumstances in their Guatemalan plants. A Range Of protesters,which includes David Bryden as well as John Friedrich, say their actions have been observed alongwith photographed through Guatemalans inside dark suits as well as sunglasses whom that theysuspect function regarding G-2.

Besides these advocacy groups, you can find social-service organizations devoted to helpingGuatemalans obtain work, well being care, English lessons, housing, along with legal status. 1 withthe largest can be CASA associated with Maryland, which in turn operates out of a Takoma Parkchurch and a neighborhood house, helping immigrants discover employment.

"Now oahu is the duration of the actual Guatemalans. The Actual period of the particularSalvadorans is over," says Carlos Gutierrez, director associated with CASA's employment services.He explains that since the actual 1990 Salvadoran peace accord, many Salvadorans get gone home.Guatemalans now are your cause of the vast majority of the particular area's Latin-Americanimmigrant community.

"Our civil war is constantly on the propel individuals to leave," says Gutierrez, a former unionorganizer that fled Guatemala inside 1992 following narrowly escaping an attempt on his life. Manyof the Guatemalans he assists "don't want to chat in what they've lived through," he says, eachbecause they want to forget and since they continue to concern reprisals via Guatemalans linked forthe military.

Pitted contrary to the human-rights as well as social-service organizations can be a networkinvolving Guatemalan immigrants aligned using the army. over the final year, that they are alreadyloosely grouped within The Particular Fraternity. one of the oldest and also largest Guatemalanorganizations within the Washington area, The Actual Fraternity meets each as well as everyWednesday night throughout Fred Baechli's auto showroom.

Officials regarding The Particular Fraternity declare it's purely an apolitical, social club, howeverthe underlying mission regarding The Actual Fraternity's leadership is always to develop support forthe Guatemalan military. A New year in your past The Actual Fraternity, collectively using themilitary section regarding the Guatemalan embassy and in addition the Protection Ministry insideGuatemala, began a new marketing campaign in order to counter the actual avalanche involvingnegative publicity getting generated by simply Jennifer Harbury.

On March 23, 1995, Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli regarding new Jersey stepped priorto a bank of microphones and also dropped a bombshell. The Particular Congressman, who is aboutthe Residence Intelligence Committee, revealed that he had info which Harbury's husband, guerrillacommander Bamaca, ended up murdered on the orders involving Colonel Julio Alpirez, a newGuatemalan officer around the CIA's payroll. Alpirez has also been implicated within the 1990murder associated with Michael Devine, an American innkeeper in Guatemala. Alpirez deniesinvolvement in each crimes.

As Torricelli spoke, Harbury stood nearby, holding an eight-by-ten black-and-white photo associatedwith the girl dead husband. The Lady had just ended the twelve-day hunger strike in front of theWhite House, demanding the Clinton Administration tell exactly what it knew regarding your exhusband's disappearance. Torricelli's revelations were the extremely first official confirmationHarbury had that will the woman's husband was, with regard to certain, dead. she wept quietly.

"At least now I am aware they may possibly be no more making her suffer," the lady told the press."But I will not rest until these people produce our bodies involving my husband." she hasn't. over thelast year Harbury features devoted herself to always be able to attempting to locate and exhume herhusband's remains. the Guatemalan military offers sought to check the woman's every move.

The Torricelli press conference had been yet another black eye pertaining to both your Guatemalanmilitary and in addition the CIA. Inside the particular palace in Guatemala City, Fred Baechli, whomwas at city to find a graduation ceremony where one of his military buddies has been made ageneral, huddled together with defense Minister Mario Renee Enriquez. Baechli, the large, gray-haired man regarding Swiss-German descent whose family members owns plantations as well asproperties in Guatemala, boasts involving his extended as well as close associations with most thecountry's best military and also political elite. Baechli says he travels frequently to be able toGuatemala about business, and also diplomatic sources say he maintains shut hyperlinks using themilitary portion of the embassy within Washington.

"People are sick as well as sick and exhausted of Harbury throughout Guatemala," Baechli said in alatest interview at his Potomac home. Sitting throughout his spacious family room filled withmassive Chinese porcelain vases, mounted ivory tusks, carved wooden figurines, and other objetsd'art, Baechli lost his temper because he spoke associated with Harbury. "She's been carrying outextremely big damage throughout Guatemala. I consider the lady exceeds the rights an individualneeds to have in an additional country. and individuals in which I socialize together with withinGuatemala, they might be fed up with her."

Baechli contends that will "a lot of organizations want to destroy Guatemala's credibility along withimage, especially the relation using the U.S. Guatemala can be undergoing treatment extremelyunfairly," adding which he desired to lend a hand to demonstrate that "the civilians also as themilitary are already changing drastically in the most recent years."

Down within Guatemala throughout March 1995, Baechli,collectively together with Guatemala's leading militaryleaders, mapped out a new two-pronged strategy in order tocounter the particular negative publicity. Prong one hadbeen hiring lobbyists for you to polish your Guatemalanmilitary's image about Capitol Hill. One other had beenuniting the particular Guatemalan community as well asquelling dissent within Washington.

On April 7, 1995, Guatemala's protection minister, Mario Renee Enriquez, signed the $540,000contract together with among Baechli's buddies, D.C. lobbyist Robert Thompson's over the particularnext several months, Thompson's team--which included Baechli himself, who had been registered asa different agent and received $10,000 a month--wined as well as dined key Congressional and alsoClinton Administration contracts. the lobbyists additionally produced a twenty-four-page "whitepaper" attempting in order to burnish your army's human-rights record.

Baechli says Colonel Fernandez Ligorria "stopped by" when he and the top military leaders weresigning the particular lobbying contract. Yet Another part of the lobbying team remembers Ligorria'sactive involvement. "When we met the actual minister regarding protection and the president inGuatemala, Ligorria had been there. We planned the actual white paper. He was obviously aextremely active participant." This kind of supply adds that will Ligorria "came to become able tomany of your once a week meetings up here" throughout Washington, D.C., such as 1 on Capitol Hill.

The Guatemalan embassy, along with members involving The Particular Fraternity and otherorganizations, in addition made a determination to launch any weekly radio program, "Voice ofGuatemala," which finally went around the air final November. Your embassy's military sectionmaterials news studies concerning Guatemala, which usually are the "social works" completedthrough the army, as well as the Guatemalan military additionally reportedly pays for the radioprogram.

For many years it continues to be able to be widespread practice pertaining to effective Latin-American politicians along with military brass whom fall coming from favor or even are accusedregarding human-rights abuses or any kind of other crimes in order to obtain overseas posts in orderto get these people from his or her country along with keep these quiet. It's referred in order to as"the golden exile." Diplomatic along with human-rights resources say the State Department offersroutinely cooperated through issuing visas in order that embarrassing individuals could be tuckedaway inside embassies, the particular Organization associated with American States, Inter-AmericanDevelopment Bank, the particular world Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, too as theUnited Nations.

Last July, Colonel Jose Fernandez Ligorria won his golden exile. He received the scholarship toalways be able to go to an elite program in the Inter-American defense College, based from FortMcNair inside Washington, D.C. Your university is a component of your OAS, but the military areainvolving the Guatemalan embassy arranged Ligorria's posting. Your all-expenses-paid courseconsists of trips to become able to Latin America and across the United States, as well as lecturesupon hemispheric security, economic and military cooperation, philosophy and doctrine, and alsohuman rights.

At the time, Ligorria has been virtually unknown throughout Washington, however more than theactual prior year, he had received mountains regarding negative press in Guatemala.

In late March 1995, when Torricelli fingered Colonel Alpirez as both the actual CIA agent and alsothe architect involving Bamaca's and Devine's murders, Alpirez's friend as well as colleague Ligorriaended up being already in deep trouble.

Attorney Danilo Rodriguez and also human-rights activist Jorge Recinos accused him involvingdirecting a drug-trafficking ring, dealing in stolen cars, and heading any death squad, just about allthroughout his tenure as chief involving G-2.

During the actual late 1960s, Ligorria, Alpirez, as well as embassy military attache Roberto LetonaHora had studied together in the Polytechnic School, Guatemala's elite military academy. twodecades later, throughout 1989, Ligorria and also Alpirez received scholarship grants to adopt anadvanced general staff along with command course at the Institution in the Americas from FortBenning, Georgia.

In the early 1980s, both officers took portion within the military's infamous "scorched-earth"marketing campaign against Indian villages by which tens regarding thousands of peasants had been

killed. A New defense Department document, recently launched for the Washington-based NationalSafety Archive, praises Alpirez as "excellent at this assignment" involving "eliminating insurgentsand also insurgent sympathizers." Based on Rodriguez, who was obviously a guerrilla fighting fromthe military, Ligorria taken part in massacres of civilian communities inside the northeast Ixcanregion.

In 1992, Ligorria was named second within cost of the National Police, a situation he allegedlyaccustomed to organize a new car-theft ring.

In early 1995, Recinos and Rodriguez visited court throughout Guatemala to accuse Ligorriaregarding drug trafficking as well as car smuggling.

The charges played big in the Guatemalan press, along with Ligorria denied everything. He knownas about the U.S. embassy, "a neutral body, to research me." Along With he warned these who getbeen spreading "falsehoods" in which however "exert my rights" against his accusers.

The fees were quickly trashed of court after the intervention with the military's lawyer, Julio Citron.(Citron has been the same lawyer which regarding a handful of months ended up blocking Harbury'stry to gain usage of a military base exactly where your woman believes the girl husband is actuallyburied.)

So, instead of going to jail, Ligorria found himself about a jet for you to Washington.

Ligorria's human-rights record had been not, apparently, regarding major concern towards the StateDepartment. "The embassy was aware of your allegations against him, so an intensive criminalhistory check was carried out and he was discovered being eligible to get a visa," says MaryGranfield, the Guatemala desk officer inside Washington.

Rodriguez as well as Recinos were shocked in which Ligorria received any U.S. visa. Starting within1993, they will fulfilled ten times using embassy officials, including Ambassador Marilyn MacAfee, toprovide details and also documents regarding Ligorria's human-rights violations as well as criminalactivities, these people say. "It seems which Ligorria has power and also great relations using theembassy along with had collaborated along with them in the past," says Rodriguez.

A State Department official familiar with almost all the subject confirmed that the embassy inGuatemala had "met or perhaps spoken about several occasions" using Rodriguez and also Recinos.Yet he explained that will although "Colonel Fernandez Ligorria's title may be linked publicly to endup being able to alleged criminal exercise or perhaps human-rights abuses," he was still being"found qualified with regard to issuance of the visa."

Coalition "Missing" offers demanded the U.S. government cancel the particular visas associated withLigorria as well as a quantity of additional high-ranking military officers within Washington whohave been accused of human-rights violations. Ligorria, pertaining to his part, is nearing the endassociated with his program and is scheduled to come back to become able to Guatemala in July.Human-rights activists in Guatemala are generally uncertain they desire him back.

Meanwhile, Pertierra and his wife, America, could will simply no longer sleep soundly from night."We get up a lot," Pertierra says. "Any noise that individuals hear causes us for you to be go for thewindow. As Well As each morning from 4:30, in the period of the bomb, we wake and we cannotsleep again."

The FBI nevertheless features a team operating about the case. and Pertierra says he is aware ofhe's "lucky." "In Guatemala you may find thousands of those who don't have got anyone to protectthese people coming from their own government."

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