Guatemala marks anniversary of bishop's murder

[struggle4progress]

In 1998, Bishop Gerardi had published a bombshell study on the involvement of Guatemala's military in thousands of murders and tortures. Two days later he was bludgeoned to death. Francisco Goldman's book on the murder has now been published in Spanish.

Sunday, April 26, 2009
by Martin Barillas

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Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño of Guatemala City said that he is assured that, eleven years after the still unresolved murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi, there are still unhealed wounds in his church and Guatemalan society as a whole. In his homily during a Mass on Sunday April 26 marking the anniversary at the captial's Catholic cathedral, the cardinal recalled Bishop Gerardi as a “notable promoter of peace and human rights and an exemplary pastor of the poorest and most needy.” The bishop’s victimizers, said the cardinal, cannot have the interior peace that is enjoyed by Guatemala’s bishops. Bishop Gerardi’s murder, despite investigations conducted in cooperation with European and U.S. experts, has not yet been clarified.

Bishop Juan Gerardi was murdered on the night of April 26, 1998 at his residence in Guatemala City only 300 yards from the presidential palace. He was bludgeoned to death by as yet unknown assailants in his garage. The prelate’s assailants used a concrete slab to smash his head to the extent that his face was unrecognizable. His remains were identified by the episcopal ring on his finger.

Three persons were convicted and sentenced to thirty years’ imprisonment for participating in the crime: Colonel Byron Disrael Lima and his son, Captain Byron Lima, and José Obdulio Villanueva. Rev. Mario Orantes was sentenced to twenty years. Villanueva was murdered and decapitated in prison in 2003. The possible role that the priest Orantes played in the murder, who also resided at the bishop’s residence, remains controversial.

Said the cardinal during the homily on the anniversary, “It seems that the process and trial to determine the responsibilities has been characterized more by hampering the investigation rather than seeking the truth” about the murder of Guatemala’s champion of human rights. Cardinal Quezada Toruño recalled that just days before his murder, Bishop Gerardi had published the results of the Catholic Church’s study of officially-sanctioned murders during Guatemala’s decades-long civil war “Guatemala: Never Again”, which detailed the Guatemalan military’s extrajudicial murder and torture of thousands of Guatemalans. The report documented more than 54,000 incidents of human rights violations that occurred from 1960-1996. During that time, it is estimated that 200,000 persons lost their lives in the conflict between the Guatemalan security apparatus and the citizenry ... http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=19061

[dcsmart]

1. K & R

great post.