Guatemala's New Government to Probe 'Loss' of File on Murdered Bishop

Information gathered by the Guatemalan government’s strategic analysis secretariat (SAE) about the murder of Roman Catholic Bishop Juan Gerardi is “missing,” according to the secretariat’s newly appointed director, Edgar Gutierrez. “The folder is there, but not the information,” Gutierrez, recently appointed as a key adviser to Guatemala’s new president, Alfonso Portillo, told a Christian news agency, ALC. He realized the information was missing when President Portillo asked for SAE’s file on the murder.

Bishop Gerardi was killed April 26, 1998, just two days after releasing an extensive report blaming the country’s military for thousands of deaths during the country’s civil war that ended in 1996. Gutierrez is the former director of the Catholic Church’s “historic memory” project, which took evidence from thousands of war victims and used it in the report. There have been persistent suggestions that Guatemala’s military may have been involved in the bishop’s death.

Gutierrez is to ask government officials to investigate the disappearance of the documents. He also wants investigators to check whether the disappearance is linked to officials of the government of the former president, Alvaro Arzu, who handed over power to President Portillo on January 14. There is already strong speculation that a former government official is responsible.Copyright © 2000 Ecumenical News International. Used with permission.