Arrest Warrants in Guatemalan Genocide Case

From the Center for Justice and Accountability

Dear CJA Supporters:

As many of you know, on July 7, in an extraordinary move, Spanish National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz issued arrest warrants for the eight defendants named in the Guatemalan Genocide case, including former president Efraín Rios Montt.  The judge also issued an order to freeze the defendants’ assets.  That order has now been transmitted internationally through INTERPOL. CJA is leading the effort to assure that the warrants are executed and that proper requests for extradition are filed. 

Although the judge’s move has received little attention in the U.S. media, it is a groundbreaking step in the fight against impunity and has been widely covered throughout Latin America.

The arrest warrants were issued in reaction to events that occurred in Guatemala City at the end of June.  Judge Pedraz, along with CJA attorney Almudena Bernabeu and public prosecutor Jesús Alonso, traveled to Guatemala City on June 24 to take testimony from the defendants.  Upon their arrival, lawyers for the defendants filed several appeals forcing the Guatemalan Constitutional Court to indefinitely suspend the proceedings.  Judge Pedraz returned to Spain where he issued the arrest warrants based on the “obstructionist attitude of the defendants and because there is sufficient evidence that the crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, murder and illegal detention were committed by the defendants.”

The eight defendants named in the arrest warrants are Ríos Montt, General Oscar Humberto Mejía Victores, General Ángel Aníbal Guevara Rodriguez, former Minister of the Interior Donaldo Álvarez Ruiz, Colonel German Chupina Barahona, former National Police director Pedro García Arredondo, General Benedicto Lucas García, and former president Romeo Lucas García, who reportedly died in May but remains a defendant until the judge receives official notification of his death.

In 1999 Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum and other victims filed a criminal complaint in the Spanish National Court against the senior Guatemalan government officials charging them with terrorism, genocide and systematic torture.  The case, known as the Guatemalan Genocide Case, is modeled on the Pinochet case. CJA, through Almudena Bernabeu, joined the case in 2004 and represents two torture survivors.

As always, thank you for supporting our mission and our work. 

Pamela Merchant
Executive Director

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