"Almost Three Years After Bishop's Death, Five Go on Trial"

Almost three years after the brutal murder of Catholic bishop Juan Gerardi, five people are on trial in a heavily-guarded courtroom here in the capital of Guatemala, in central America.

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.

On the morning of March 22, the accused military officials refused to leave their cells, claiming their lives were in danger. Lima Oliva was dragged into court shouting about communist conspiracies. After Lima Estrada was finally escorted into the courtroom, he claimed to be ill and fainted. A physician who examined him said he was only nervous. The judges ordered that the trial begin again the next day.

Testimony during the first week of the trial focused on the crime scene and traces of the bishop’s blood inside the residence.

Juan Gerardi’s successor as head of the human rights office took the stand on March 30. Bishop Mario Rios Montt, brother of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, told the court that the murder was “delicately prepared, technically executed, and had consequences that were well thought out beforehand.”

Bishop Rios suggested that those accused of the crime were not those who ordered the killing. “Yet the game of chess teaches us that in order to save the king, it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice the pawns,” he told the court.

Prompting shock in the courtroom, Rios added that after the murder he had been offered a “deal” by the brother of then President Alvaro Arzu. Rios said that Jose Antonio Arzu had told him that if the church signed a statement absolving the military from responsibility for Bishop Gerardi’s killing, the government would not prosecute Father Orantes for any involvement in the case. Bishop Rios said he had rejected the deal.

Orantes maintains that he does not know who killed Bishop Gerardi. “I am an innocent person accused of something I didn’t do,” he said.

Yet many observers are hoping that when called to testify before the court, Father Orantes will reveal more than he has until now.

“I hope that when he finally gives his declaration he will say all that he can,” said Alvaro Ramazzini, Catholic Bishop of San Marcos. “Until now, there has been no judicial obligation under which he could be punished for not telling the truth, so he’s had the right to withhold whatever he wanted.”

When the defendants in the case get a chance to present their version of events, the officers’ attorneys are expected to claim that the crime was committed by members of the Valle de Sol criminal gang, linked to drug trafficking, kidnapping, and the theft of ancient church artifacts.

Lima Oliva said that he and the other officers were scapegoats. “They look for military culprits as a way to maintain the funding of the church’s human rights office,” he said. “Along with other non-governmental organizations, rather than trying to project a dignified image of our country in the world, they want to denigrate it.”

The trial, which is being held in a large auditorium of the Guatemalan Supreme Court, is expected to last at least two months.