Juan Chanay Pablo, anti-PAC demonstrator, killed in Colotenango in 1993[1]

Juan Chanay Pablo, a member of the Committee for Peasant Unity of Colotenango, was killed in August 1993 in Colotenango, Huehuetenango, by members of a local Civilian Defense Patrol (PAC). [2]After a peaceful protest against illegal PAC activities, PAC members fired on the dispersing crowd, killing Chanay and injuring several others. Shortly after, witnesses and others involved in the case were threatened with death and physically attacked.[3]

The prosecution of Chanay’s attackers has been continually marred by irregularities. The government initially issued fifteen arrest warrants, but only detained five people in 1994, who were subsequently released for lack of evidence or on personal bond. According to the United Nations Mission for the Verification of Human Rights in Guatemala (MINUGUA),[4] the initial judge handling the case treated defense witnesses more favorably than prosecution witnesses. By the end of 1995, eight PAC members were in jail; in 1996, they were all acquitted for lack of evidence. The public prosecutor’s office appealed the decision and in 1998 twelve[5] PAC members were sentenced to ten years in jail, a sentence that was extended in July of that year to 27 years each. Others remained at large and former Brigadier General Luis Felipe Miranda Trejo, suspected as the intellectual author of the crime and for attempting to cover it up, was not prosecuted.[6]

Meanwhile, Chanay’s family brought a complaint to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, which reached a “friendly settlement”[7]between the government and the family in February 1997. This was first time the Guatemalan government had settled a case of this type, and it has since done so in a number of other cases. The agreement reached stipulated that the state should provide financial reparation to the victims for PAC actions in Colotenango and continue criminal proceedings against those involved in the attack. The government made a payment to Chanay’s family and initiated public works projects in the area, per the agreement.

The convictions of twelve PAC members for Chanay’s killing were upheld in April 1999 by an appellate court, and their sentences adjusted to 25 years. A day later, 500 armed people stormed the police station in Huehuetenango, freeing the twelve prisoners. Arrest warrants were issued for the escapees but, although it was suspected that they returned to their hometown and were being protected by former PAC members, none of them were brought back into custody. According to the Campesino Unity Committee, security forces were aware of their location, but didn’t arrest them because there was “no operational plan to that effect.”[8] Subsequent to the jailbreak, threats against family members and witnesses in the case increased. MINUGUA reported that it was believed the military or former PAC members orchestrated the escape. In November 1999, Brigadier General Miranda Trejo was elected to Congress for the 2000-2004 period and thus received immunity from prosecution for any role in the killing that he may have had.

Endnotes

[1] Main sources: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Friendly Settlement, Case 11.212 Guatemala, Report No. 19/97 (March 1997); United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala, Third Report, (hereinafter “MINUGUA Report”), A/55/174 (July 2000); and U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Country Report on Human Rights Practices, Guatemala, (hereinafter “Country Reports”) 1993 to 2000.
[2] PACs were formed in the early 1980s throughout the country as party of the military government’s counter-insurgency policy. Membership was essentially compulsory and subject to army control. PACs, consisting of more than 300,000 armed men, were responsible for wide-spread human rights violations during the civil war. In 1994, the government renamed them Voluntary Civil Defense Committees (CVDCs) and in 1996 they were formally disbanded in line with the Peace Accords. They continue to operate informally, and human rights groups allege they are responsible for violence and rights violations.
[3] The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Guatemalan government to take precautionary measures to protect witnesses and family members in June 1994, after the IACHR requested similar measures in November 1993. The order of the Court was confirmed by resolutions in December 1994, September 1997, February 2000, and September 2001.
[4] MINUGUA was established in 1994, pursuant to a UN General Assembly resolution and during negotiations between the Government of Guatemala and the URNG, to verify compliance with and implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights, signed by both parties in March 1994. The Agreement requested the establishment of a UN mission to “receive, consider and follow up complaints of possible human rights violations; establish whether the competent national institutions had carried out the necessary investigations autonomously, effectively and in accordance with Guatemalan and international human rights norms; and determine whether or not a violation had occurred.” MINUGUA Report, A/49/856 (March 1995).
[5]  According to Country Reports 1998 and 1999, eleven former PAC members were sentenced in 1998, but the sentences for twelve former PAC members were confirmed in 1999. All other sources, regarding incidents in 1999, refer to twelve convicted individuals.
[6]Miranda was being investigated in the murder and is referred to in Country Reports as “the alleged intellectual author of the killing.” He was never charged.
[7]  Article 48 of the American Convention on Human Rights mandates the IACHR to pursue a friendly settlement between an individual making a complaint about the commission of human rights violations and the relevant state. Should such a settlement prove impossible, the Commission may make further investigations and reach a decision on state responsibility for the violations alleged.
[8]Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (GHRC)/USA, Guatemala Human Rights UPDATE, No. 9 & 10 (1999).

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