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Three military officials, a priest and a cook are charged in connection with the murder, which has drawn worldwide publicity. But many Guatemalans doubt that those on trial are the only ones responsible for the killing. While defense lawyers are claiming a criminal gang carried out the murder, some Guatemalans suspect high-level military involvement.

"This was a well planned assassination," said Prospero Penados del Barrio, Archbishop of Guatemala City. "Everyone knows who it was, but you can't say because there are no witnesses."

The five people on trial are Colonel Disrael Lima Estrada, Captain Byron Lima Oliva, Sergeant Jose Villanueva, Father Mario Orantes, who shared with Juan Gerardi the parish house where the bishop was killed, and Margarita Lopez, their housekeeper.

The military officials are charged with extrajudicial execution, Orantes with murder, and Lopez with helping to cover up the crime.

Auxiliary bishop of Guatemala City and head of the archdiocese's human rights office, Juan Gerardi died on April 26, 1998, just two days after releasing a landmark report analyzing responsibility for violence during the country's lengthy civil war, which ended in December 1996. The report laid much of the blame on Guatemala's military.

Bishop Gerardi was attacked in the garage of the San Sebastian parish residence, just a block from the presidential palace. Investigators claim the killer or killers used a large block of concrete, striking Bishop Gerardi's head at least 14 times.

When the trial, which has been delayed a number of times, finally began on March 23, chief prosecutor Leopoldo Zeissig told the three-judge panel that he would argue that Bishop Gerardi's detailed report on war atrocities "directly caused his death."

Zeissig claimed that Lima Estrada had been particularly terrified that Bishop Gerardi might be called into court to testify about atrocities committed by the military.

Zeissig is joined at the prosecution table by lawyers from the archdiocesan human rights office who have been granted official standing in the case.

The prosecutors have no witness who actually saw the killing, and are relying on evidence found at the crime scene, as well as testimony of homeless people who slept in a park in front of the parish residence. One of them, Ruben Chanax Sontay, claims he saw Villanueva and Lima Oliva arrive in an official vehicle and run into the garage, where Father Orantes was waiting. After what Chanax says appeared to be a struggle, he saw Orantes emerge from the garage, look around, and then close the door.

Zeissig claimed in his opening address that Lima Estrada directed the killing from a nearby bar, where witnesses said it took him more than two hours to drink a beer because he was constantly talking on a cellular phone.

The testimony of Chanax Sontay was presented to the court in written form. He is one of eight people linked to the case—including judges, prosecutors, and witnesses—who have been forced to flee the country after being attacked or threatened. Another judge and prosecutor quit after accusations of bias towards the military.

Delayed for months by defense motions calling for the charges to be dismissed, the trial was to have begun on March 22. But the night before, unidentified attackers hurled explosives into the backyard of Iris Barrios, one of the three judges hearing the case. The explosion shattered windows and burst a water pipe, but the judge was unharmed. Barrios said she was undeterred by the attack. All three judges have been given police protection.

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April (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45