[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 49 (Tuesday, April 28, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3708-S3709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE MURDER OF BISHOP JUAN JOSE GERARDI

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, in one of the most outrageous, cold-blooded 
killings I can recall in a region where such despicable acts have been 
commonplace, Guatemalan Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi was murdered this past 
Sunday when his assailant crushed his skull with a cement block.
  The way he died is horrifying enough. But what senators should also 
be aware of is that Bishop Gerardi had just completed an 
extraordinarily courageous investigation of the thousands of atrocities 
committed against Guatemala

[[Page S3709]]

citizens during thirty years of civil war. He undertook his inquiry 
after it became clear that the Guatemalan Clarification Commission 
would not seek to identify those responsible for even the worst 
atrocities. Bishop Gerardi's investigation, not surprisingly, 
attributed the overwhelming majority of human rights violations to the 
military and the death squads and paramilitary groups allied with them.
  Mr. President, the United States bears more than a little 
responsibility for the slaughter in Guatemala that devastated that 
country in the years after the CIA-backed coup of 1954. Our government 
trained the Guatemalan armed forces, remained silent when they tortured 
and killed thousands of innocent people, withheld information about the 
atrocities, and justified our complicity as the necessary response to a 
guerrilla insurgency. In fact, during this period of political violence 
which is apparently not yet over, the principal victims were 
Guatemala's Mayan population of rural peasants who have been the target 
of discrimination and injustice for generations.
  According to a statement by the Guatemalan Embassy, the Guatemalan 
Government ``condemns and repudiates'' this crime and has opened an 
investigation. Let us hope that this investigation can withstand the 
inevitable pressure from the forces who would intimidate anyone who 
seeks real justice in Guatemala. The Arzu Government deserves 
considerable credit for bringing the peace negotiations to a successful 
conclusion. But few weeks pass that I do not receive a report of a 
political crime in Guatemala, most of which go unsolved. Justice 
remains elusive for those who need it most.
  How the Guatemalan government handles this investigation will either 
embolden or deter those who seek to undermine the peace accords, and, 
as the Ranking Member of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee I can say 
that as far as I am concerned it will also be important in determining 
our future assistance relationship with Guatemala.

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