(APG/IFEX) – The following is a 3 February 2006 APG press release: APG repudiates Ministry of the Attorney General’s negligence and condemns judicial ruling on the “Black Thursday” case The APG today repudiates the Ministry of the Attorney General’s negligence and condemns the ruling by Víctor Hugo Herrera Ríos, Fifth Judge of the First Appellate […]
(APG/IFEX) – The following is a 3 February 2006 APG press release:
APG repudiates Ministry of the Attorney General’s negligence and condemns judicial ruling on the “Black Thursday” case
The APG today repudiates the Ministry of the Attorney General’s negligence and condemns the ruling by Víctor Hugo Herrera Ríos, Fifth Judge of the First Appellate Court on Criminal Matters, Drug Activities and Crimes Against the Environment, (Juez Quinto de Primera Instancia Penal, Narcoactividad y Delitos Contra el Ambiente), who definitively stayed the criminal proceedings against ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt and officials of the Guatemalan Republican Front (Frente Republicano Guatemalteco, FRG) political party, for acts of vandalism, violence and sedition on “Black Thursday” and “Friday of Mourning” in July 2003.
Journalist Héctor Ramírez, at the time 60 years old and a reporter for the television news programme Noti-7, died of a heart attack while trying to flee from the Ríos Montt “troops” who were armed with guns, machetes and garrottes, rampaging under cover of the violent actions then taking place in the business centre in sector 10 of the capital. Other reporters from the local media, being younger, were able to flee the assailants, who were trying to douse the journalists with gasoline and set them on fire, according to the televised news footage.
The APG believes that the decisions of Judge Herrera and Attorney General Ministry Prosecutor Alba Gudiel embody the judicial incompetence and political chicanery so characteristic of the reigning culture of impunity and represent a slap in the face of the Guatemalan people, who long to live in a country where the rule of law applies.
Judge Herrera – who granted a 31 January 2006 hearing to the accused, Ríos Montt, as well as to former governance minister Adolfo Reyes Calderón, former congressman Jorge Arévalo and prosecutor Gudiel – decided, before the Supreme Court’s hearings bench (sala de vistas), to stay the proceedings before the trial had even opened.
To the surprise of many social and professional organisations, Gudiel, after more than two years of alleged investigations, concluded that there was no evidence to justify the charges against Ríos Montt, ruler of Guatemala from 1982 to 1983, for acts of sedition, coercion and threats during the July 2003 violence in Guatemala City. During those riots, thousands of sympathizers of the former ruler and supporters of the FRG stormed the Supreme Court building and the business area, demanding that Ríos Montt be registered as a candidate for the presidency, despite the fact that he was still a Congressional representative [and therefore ineligible]. From the Congress itself, Ríos Montt incited his “troops” to do so.
The APG is saddened by Judge Herrera’s judicial “murder” of Ramírez (“Reporter X”), as the press is describing the ruling. The APG also condemns the failure to deliver justice in the case of Ramirez’s death and urges Ramírez’s family to seek justice from the Inter American Court on Human Rights.
Ramírez, a journalist for over 30 years, began as a reporter with local radio station La Voz de Las Américas and later worked on the now defunct “Aquí el Mundo” television news programme. His family considers Ríos Montt responsible for his death.
Journalists from various media outlets attempted to interview Ríos Montt when he left the Supreme Court building after Judge Herrera’s ruling, but met with a threatening attitude from Montt’s bodyguards and the FRG leaders present.
