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Action Alerts
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Take Action Now!

ACTION ALERT
Fear for Security of ECAP (Equipo de Estudios Comunitarios y Accion Psicosocial) Members:
Request that President Berger Offer Protection to ECAP Workers Today!

NISGUA is a member organization of the Coordination for International Accompaniment in Guatemala (CAIG), the group in charge of coordinating genocide case accompaniment. CAIG has asked all of its member organizations to respond to this Urgent Action as part of a coordinated effort to raise international attention around the violent aggressions that are taking place in response to the issuing of international warrants.

ECAP, the group under threat, is a Guatemalan organization that provides psychosocial support to massacre survivors and witnesses involved in various legal cases before both Guatemalan courts and the Inter-American system. Many of these individuals belong to the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), the witness association that we accompany that has filed charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the military high commands of Efraín Ríos Montt and Romeo Lucas García before Guatemalan courts. Since mid-2006, a number of organizations, including ECAP and the AJR, have supported a legal process initiated in Spain by the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation against Ríos Montt, Oscar Humberto Mejía Victores, German Chupina, Ángel Guevara, Pedro García Arredondo, Donaldo Álvarez Ruiz, Romeo Lucas García and Benedicto Lucas García for crimes against humanity and genocide.

At the request of ECAP, NISGUA urges you to read the below details of the attacks suffered and take the requested actions to secure the safety of those who work with the mental health organization.

THREATS

Since September 2006, ECAP has been subject to acts of violence and aggression apparently related to its work with AJR members who are survivors of the massacre in Plan de Sánchez, in the municipality of Rabinal in Alta Verapaz, as well as the advances in the Spanish genocide case, namely the issuing of international arrest warrants. These acts have included written threats, attempted kidnapping and the following and monitoring of various members of the ECAP team.

On September 13, an ECAP employee who works with the AJR survivors of the Plan de Sánchez massacre was assaulted and all of the documents related to ECAP’s work in that community stolen. On September 30, the same person was followed for several hours by an unmarked car. A few days later, at 3 am on October 2, a written threat was found at the ECAP office in Rabinal naming this ECAP individual as well as one other. At 9 am on November 21, on the road between Plan de Sánchez and the community of Concul, three men in military clothing with their faces covered attacked the same ECAP employee, attempting to knock him off the motorcycle he was riding. In another incident on Octbober 23, an ECAP psychologist who works in the Rabinal area was followed by an unmarked vehicle in the capital.

All of these incidents were denounced before the Ministerio Público (Attorney General’s Office). On October 20, the president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the State of Guatemala must provide protection to those working with ECAP, investigate the denounced attacks, identify those responsible and prosecute them accordingly.

ANALYSIS

It is clear that these attacks have been well planned and that their objectives are not completely known to us. The incidents have been carried out by an organization with the capacity to continuously monitor telephone calls and ECAP members. The organizations that are part of the coordinating committee "Nunca Mas" (a group of civil society human rights organization coordinating analysis and advocacy around the genocide cases) see a direct link between the attacks against the ECAP and the struggle against impunity. There are clear connections between ECAP, the Plan de Sánchez Inter-American case, and the recent request for the arrest and extradition of Ríos Montt, Benedicto Lucas García, etc. As such, the ECAP attacks are evidence of targeting the efforts to bring about justice for genocide, whether it is in Spain, Guatemala or through the Inter-American system.

SUGGESTED ACTIONS

-Request that the President of Guatemala offer protection to the workers of ECAP, as stipulated by Inter-American Human Rights Court on the 20th of October;

-Request that the President execute the arrest warrants ordered by the Spanish justice system and extradite those accused

Send your letters (SAMPLE AVAILABLE HERE!) to:

Presidente de la República de Guatemala
Licenciado Óscar Berger Perdomo
Casa Presidencial, 6 a. Avenida, 4-41 zona 1. Ciudad de Guatemala, GUATEMALA
Fax: +502 2239 0090
Address as: Excelentísimo Sr. Presidente

Send copy to:
Equipo de Estudios Comunitarios y Acción Psicosocial -ECAP-
2a. Avenida 1-11, zona 3 Colonia Bran
Telefax: +502 2232-1430 / 2253-6071
E-mail: ecap@itelgua.com y ecap@guate.net.gt www.ecapguatemala.org

NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala) aconisgua[AT]nisgua.org 

Coordinación del Acompañamiento Internacional en Guatemala acoguate[AT]gmx.net 

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