[2138] in peace2
call to save Guatemalan family
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Julia Steinberger)
Tue Dec 17 17:50:57 2002
Message-Id: <200212172250.RAA00744@magic-pi-ball.mit.edu>
To: peace-announce@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 17:50:42 -0500
From: Julia Steinberger <julias@MIT.EDU>
Our tax dollars paid for the death squads,
making this phone call is the least we can do.
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: from Jennifer Harbury - EXTREMELY URGENT : ATTACK ON BAMACA FAMILY
>Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 20:42:53 -0500
>From: Denis <denis@riseup.net>
>To: denis@riseup.net
>
>PLEASE CALL OR WRITE THE GUATEMALAN EMBASSY AT ONCE.
>
>TELEPHONE : 202-745-4952
>
>ADDRESS : 2220 R St. NW Washington D.C. 20008
>EMAIL : ambassador@guatemala-embassy.org
>
>Fax: 1 202 745 1908
>
>
>MESSAGE :
>
>1. Please tell the Guatemalan government that we will not tolerate acts
>of state terrorism and reprisals against any persons seeking justice.
>2. We demand guarantees of safety for all members of the Bamaca family.
>3. We demand safe passage for Jennifer Harbury while she seeks to
>protect her family.
>4. Should there be further actions of this nature, we will ask our
>Congresspersons to move for the extradition of military officers
>implicated in the drug trade in Guatemala.
>5. If this is how Guatemala respects the international judicial system,
>we will start up a campaign to have Guatemala expelled from the OAS.
>
>IF YOU WISH TO MAKE CALLS TO CONGRESS TO ASK THEM TO CONTACT THE
>GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT , PLEASE DO SO. THE SWITCHBOARD NUMBER IS
>202-224-3121.
>
>
>Dear Friends...As you read this I am heading for guatemala. My family
>has been attacked there. We urgently need as many calls as you and your
>friends can possibly make to the Guatemalan embassy this week, starting
>Monday morning....
>THANKS....Jennifer Harbury
>
>December 12, 2002
>
>EXTREMELY URGENT : ATTACK ON BAMACA FAMILY
>
>
>Dear Friends,
>
>I am writing to ask you for your emergency calls for protection for my
>family down in Guatemala. All three of my sisters in law have been
>threatened and one was badly battered a few days ago in front of her
>small children. She is now in hiding with her entire family. I am
>leaving for Guatemala in a day or so to see work with the MINUGUA team
>and other human rights groups; and to lodge my formal protest with the
>government. The army knows everyone is getting ready to leave for the
>holidays, and they are testing the waters to see what they can get away
>with in terms of retaliation against my family. They also hope that
>given the Sept. 11 backlash, that they can do whatever they please
>nowadays. All this is happening because they are up against the deadline
>the Inter American Court gave them for complying with the reparations
>order in Everardos case, and they are very, very angry. I fear that
>someone is going to be killed or badly hurt if there is not an immediate
>and powerful response from all of us. Has not the Bamaca family suffered
>enough?
>
>Ironically, all of this started with what appeared to be a startling
>victory. A few weeks ago, Copredeh ,( the governments defense lawyers
>in the case), called us to say that the government was willing to pay
>the money damages award ordered by the Inter-American Court. We were all
>astounded by this news, needless to say. I have always assumed that it
>would take me twenty years to get this particular government to comply
>in this particular case. The Court, of course, had also ordered that
>Everardos body be returned to me, and that the Courts findings and
>fact and law about what really happened be published in the main
>Guatemalan newspapers. But when we asked about these portions of the
>order, we were told that there was no time for discussion about these
>issues. The Copredeh people also insisted that I arrive in Guatemala at
>once to sign the papers, and that there should be no publicity. This
>caused some obvious concern, but I did go down, and met with both the
>family and Copredeh lawyers. We decided that for the sake of the
>familys safety, we would keep all this secret until they could move to
>a more protected area. We were, frankly, all amazed when the funds were
>actually transferred later that week. The Guatemalan government has paid
>the damages in Everardos case.
>
>Unfortunately, they are evidently now bent on making us pay too. Some of
>the reprisals began even before we had heard from the government.
>
>Several months ago, my sister in law Alberta Velasquez, Efrains half
>sister, reported several disturbing incidents. She and her family had
>fled from the remote finca where they grew up as a result of the army
>repression in the area. They have lived quietly in a small barrio in the
>Capital until recently. Then the neighbors began to report that armed
>men were looking for her husband and asking where he lived. Friends told
>her son that he should hide, that a car with black glass windows was
>circling the area, and had asked where he lived. The car was full of
>armed men. Strangers she had never seen before began speaking loudly in
>the streets about the Bamaca case, swearing they would kill any
>relatives if they ever found them. She and her family once again fled
>their home, and are now in a new location.
>
>When I was in Guatemala two weeks ago, I learned that my other sister in
>law, Josefina Bamaca Velasquez, had also fled her home as well, over a
>month ago. Armed men had broken into her small hut on the remote finca
>where she still lived, terrifying her, and searching everywhere, for
>what she did not know. Needless to say, a robbery by a large group of
>well armed men in a tiny and impoverished peasant community is very
>unusual, given that the residents would have virtually nothing to steal.
>Such assaults have traditionally been politically motivated and carried
>out by the army or other state security sectors.
>
>
>On Wednesday, December 11, my sister in law Egidia Bamaca Velasquez was
>attacked in her home in a small barrio just outside of Malacatan. Six
>well armed men wearing ski masks, and bearing guns and machetes entered
>her house and beat her in front of her children, threatening to kill
>her. This is a very tiny and frail woman who suffered from severe
>malnutrition for most of her life. The style of the attack is very much
>that of the military. Once again they tore up the house, searching for
>something, and lamenting that they had not found it. I presume they were
>searching for her bank book, intending to take away the very funds they
>had just been forced to pay in reparations.
>
>Obviously, the military is furious and also mortified by the payment of
>the reparation portion of the award and now intends to seek "vengeance".
>They know that the best way to hurt me is to hurt the family. They also
>wouldnt mind if a "common criminal" kidnapped someone to take the money
>back, or killed someone to "teach me a lesson". I have now met most of
>my 21 nieces and nephews, from baby Everardo, two years old, to the
>young adults. It would be difficult for me to imagine a brighter, more
>talented group of young Mayans, and I am so pleased to think that my
>share of the reparations award will send each and every one of them to
>the University. ( I signed years ago to give all of my share to the new
>generation and will honor that commitment.) If they live. I could , of
>course, try to bring them here, and will do so if they wish. But exile
>was not part of the Courts concept of justice in this case; and
>Guatemala has already lost three generations of its best and brightest,
>either to the death squads or as refugees. This has to end.
>
>I will, as I say, be leaving for Guatemala either Monday or Tuesday. I
>have notified some Congressional offices, but remain concerned that the
>army may try to arrest me or charge me with "illegal speech", as they
>have been doing with so many other human rights leaders recently. It is
>the new fashion to bring charges for criminal defamation, incitement to
>riot, or even treason.as we have seen in the cases of Rigoberta Menchu,
>Rosario Pu, Bruce Harris, and many others. We have already notified the
>Court that the family needs protection at once. However, your calls to
>the Guatemalan Embassy, as of early Monday morning and throughout this
>week, are the most important of all. The government needs to know that
>this case has not been forgotten, and that our own commitment to human
>rights for all people is as strong as ever. They are waiting to evaluate
>our response. Your calls will keep people alive over the Christmas
>holidays, quite literally.
>
>
>PLEASE CALL OR WRITE THE GUATEMALAN EMBASSY AT ONCE.
>
>TELEPHONE : 202-745-4952
>
>ADDRESS : 2220 R St. NW Washington D.C. 20008
>EMAIL : ambassador@guatemala-embassy.org
>
>Fax: 1 202 745 1908
>
>
>MESSAGE :
>
>1. Please tell the Guatemalan government that we will not tolerate acts
>of state terrorism and reprisals against any persons seeking justice.
>2. We demand guarantees of safety for all members of the Bamaca family.
>3. We demand safe passage for Jennifer Harbury while she seeks to
>protect her family.
>4. Should there be further actions of this nature, we will ask our
>Congresspersons to move for the extradition of military officers
>implicated in the drug trade in Guatemala.
>5. If this is how Guatemala respects the international judicial system,
>we will start up a campaign to have Guatemala expelled from the OAS.
>
>IF YOU WISH TO MAKE CALLS TO CONGRESS TO ASK THEM TO CONTACT THE
>GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT , PLEASE DO SO. THE SWITCHBOARD NUMBER IS
>202-224-3121.
>
>THANK YOU, EVERONE FOR YOUR MANY YEARS OF SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT.
>
>ABRAZOS JENNIFER
>
>Some background sites:
>http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~pavr/harbury/
>
>Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA:
>http://www.ghrc-usa.org/
>
>FBI and CIA target Harbury, July 2002:
>http://www.counterpunch.org/harbury0722.html
>
>Harbury sues CIA, State, argues before US Supreme Court:
>http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020422&s=alterman
