Guatemala: Death squads and paramilitary groups since the signing of the peace accords in December 1996, including their activities and their targets

According to two sources, a new death squad group called Justice, Sentence and Execution (Justicia, Sentencia y Ejecución) emerged in late October 1997 warning that it would "eliminate kidnappers, rapists and drug traffickers" because of the police's lack of will to do so (Latin American Regional Reports 2 Dec. 1997; IPS 29 Oct. 1997). In a communiqué sent to the press, the death squad group stated that its objective was:

To put an end to the wicked criminals, whether or not they have been captured, tried or sentenced…The law clearly established in which cases the death penalty should be applied. Our group is based on that, not on bureaucracy, incapacity or complicity (IPS 29 Oct. 1997).

The communiqué also stated that membership within the group included "entrepreneurs from several branches of industry, farmers, merchandisers, professionals and former guerrillas belonging to the middle and upper socioeconomic sectors" (ibid.). According to the IPS report, the emergence of this armed group was not the first sign that death squad-type activity was resurfacing in 1997. Dozens of cases of young men with criminal backgrounds who had been extrajudicially executed "with hands and feet tied together and the shot in the temple," which was characteristic of death-squad type murders, were documented that year (ibid.). However, the Guatemalan authorities reportedly denied the existence of new death squads and attributed the blame of these young men deaths to "the settling of scores between criminal gangs" (ibid.).

In March 1998, the human rights group, Runujel Junam Council of Ethnic Communities (CERJ), attributed blame of the above-mentioned summary killings of young men in 1997 and mob lynchings of alleged criminals to the re-emergence of  death squads (IPS 31 Mar. 1998). CERJ and other human rights group accuse these death squads of carrying out a "social cleansing" campaign (ibid.). In this report, as in the earlier IPS report, government authorities have placed the responsibility of these crimes on warring gangs.

In June 1998, US lawyer Jennifer Harbury, widow of a slain guerrilla leader, alleged that the death squad Jaguar Justiciero (Jaguar Avengers) was responsible for the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi Conadera in April 1998 (CAR 10 July 1998; Latin American Regional Reports 21 July 1998; IPS 25 June 1998). Furthermore, she presented a list of 23 or 24 members of the Guatemalan army who allegedly belonged to the death squad (ibid.). However, two of the sources stated that there was no clear proof in Harbury's allegations that the mentioned military officials were involved in the Bishop's murder (CAR 10 July 1998; IPS 25 June 1998). An earlier Latin American Regional Reports: Caribbean and Central America stated that repeated death threats by Jaguar Justiciero had forced one politician of the Frente Democratico Nueva Guatemala (FDNG) to seek exile (10 June 1997).

In its report covering the period between June 1997 to March 1998 the UN Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) stated that over a 12 month period in 1997 and 1998, "120 lynchings took place in towns where the demobilized paramilitary 'civilian self-defence patrols' previously exercised strong social control. Former members of the groups have been identified as instigators in several lynchings" (IPS 23 June 1998). The Committee for Campesino Unity (CUC) accused the military of helping a mob to free 12 former members of the Civil Defense Patrols (PACs) from a jail in the Department of Huehuetenango (CAR 7 May 1999). CUC charges that the incident proved that the PACs still existed, despite the fact that they had been officially dismantled following the signing of the peace accords in December 1996 (ibid.).

Cerigua Weekly Briefs reported in May 1999 that, according to CERJ, the PACs operated under the new name of Community Security Committees (COSECOS) (26 May 1999). Miguel Tun of CERJ stated in the report that COSECOS that "operate in at least 38 rural villages in northwestern Guatemala are direct descendants of the civil patrols" (ibid.). The role of COSECOS is to rid their communities of crime and according to Tun, their leaders are the same ones who led the PACs (ibid.). Tun's suspicion reportedly is that the committees were formed by villagers themselves and that those who refuse to join them could be subjected to "punishment and threats" (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Central America Report (CAR) [Guatemala City]. 7 May 1999. "Angry Mob Frees Civil Patrol Convicts." (NEXIS)

_____. 10 July 1998. "Actions but No Answers in Gerardi Case." (NEXIS)

Cerigua Weekly Briefs [Guatemala City]. 26 May 1999. "Specter of PACS Remains" (Central America NewsPak [Austin], 24 May-6 June 1999, Vol. 14, No. 8, 7)

Inter Press Service (IPS). 25 June 1998. Celina Zubieta. "Rights-Guatemala: Army Accused of Involvement in Bishop's Murder." (NEXIS)

_____. 23 June 1998. Celina Zubieta. "Rights-Guatemala: U.N. Mission Warns Violence Has Not Disappeared." (NEXIS)

_____. 31 March 1998. Celina Zubieta. "Rights-Guatemala: Victims of Death Squads or Gang Warfare?" (NEXIS)

_____. 29 October 1997. Celina Zubieta. "New Death Squad a Setback in Democratic Process." (Central America NewsPak [Austin], 27 Oct.-9 Nov. 1997, Vol. 12, No. 20, 6)

Latin American Regional Reports: Caribbean and Central America Report [London]. 21 July 1998. "Army Accused." (NEXIS)

_____. 2 December 1997. "Lynch Law Sweeps Rural Areas; Police Blamed for Failure to Tackle Crime Wave." (NEXIS)

_____. 10 June 1997. "Politicians Targeted." (NEXIS)