POLITICAL KILLINGS IN GUATEMALA In the years between 1978 and 1981 nearly 5,000 Guatemalans were seized without warrant and killed. Several hundred others were assassinated after being denounced as 'subversives'. Over 600 who had reportedly been seized by the security services 'disappeared'. The Guatemalan Government laid the blame for these murders and 'disappearances' on independent anti-communist 'death squads'. The 1981 Amnesty International report 'Guatemala: A Government Program of Political Murder' added new evidence that these abuses were in fact carried out by units of the army and the police. Reproduced here are the introduction and the transcript of an interview with a conscript soldier who had served as a member of a plainclothes army unit in Guatemala City.
The human rights issue that dominates all others in the Republic of Guatemala is that people who oppose or are imagined to oppose the government are systematically seized without warrant, tortured and murdered, and that these tortures and murders are part of a deliberate and long-standing program of the Guatemalan Government.
This report contains information, published for the first time, which shows how the selection of targets for detention and murder, and the deployment of official forces for extra-legal operations, can be pin-pointed to secret offices in an annex of Guatemala's National Palace, under the direct control of the President of the Republic.
The report also includes transcripts of two unique interviews; the first is with a peasant who, as far as Amnesty International knows, is the sole survivor of political imprisonment in Guatemala in 1980; the second is with a former conscript soldier who served as a member of a plainclothes army unit and who described the abduction of civilians who were later tortured and murdered.
Between January and November in 1980 alone some 3,000 people described by government representatives as 'subversives' and 'criminals' were either shot on the spot in political assassinations or seized and murdered later; at least 364 others seized in this period have not yet been accounted for.
The Government of Guatemala denies having made a single political arrest or holding a single political prisoner since President Romeo Lucas Garcia took office in July 1978. All abuses are attributed to 'independent' paramilitary groups beyond official control. This report adds to previously available evidence that these actions are carried out by units of the regular security services. No convincing evidence has been produced that the groups described by the authorities do in fact exist.
In the final section of the report, Amnesty International reproduces the interviews, transcribed from tape recordings, with two Guatemalans who have had personal experience with the torture and murder of political suspects by the Guatemalan army.
The former prisoner was abducted on 15 February 1980 by a plainclothes army squad in a village in northern Guatemala. He escaped from Huehuetenango army base in western Guatemala after being held for 11 days.
He gives details of his place of detention -- in the base slaughterhouse -- and of how he was interrogated under torture by Guatemalan army officers.
He describes the execution of three other prisoners in his presence, strangled with a garrotte -- a technique cited as the cause of death in hundreds of killings in 1980, including those of 37 people found in a mass grave in San Juan Comalapa, near Guatemala City, in March 1980.
Guatemalan police arrest demonstrators. Guatemala City, March 1982. The former conscript soldier, of Kekchi Indian origin, gives an account of his second year of military service, when he served as a member of a plainclothes army unit in Guatemala City. He describes the surveillance of civilians under political suspicion, and the abduction of civilians for interrogation under torture, and then murder, at the Guatemalan army base of the Brigada Militar Mariscal Zavala on the outskirts of Guatemala City.
His testimony is of particular significance as a document of record. Political killings and 'disappearances' involving government forces are not new in Guatemala: in 1976 Amnesty International estimated that about 20,000 people had been victims of these abuses since 1966, when they first began to occur regularly. But although in the past other members of the security services have told of their participation in abductions and killings -- for instance, Lauro Alvarado y Alvarado, a National Police officer, who was later killed in 1975 (see Guatemala: Amnesty International Briefing, 1976, page 15) -- this former conscript's testimony is the most extensive and detailed of its kind and the first by a conscript soldier describing the routine extra-legal security measures of regular army units.
Although the two interviews transcribed in part here were not conducted directly by Amnesty International, they are published as illustrations of the nature of political imprisonment and murder in Guatemala.
The interviews were conducted in February 1980. The transcripts have been edited for length and the names of those involved removed. Their publication was decided only after their authenticity and accuracy had been determined by exhaustive analysis of the two tapes and extensive cross-checking of information. Only indirect communication was possible with the interviewer of the escaped prisoner but the former soldier was interviewed by a journalist from Europe now in close contact with Amnesty International.
The interviewers agreed to the tape transcripts being published by Amnesty International provided that they were edited so that no one could be endangered by their release. Although the escaped prisoner, whose identity is known to the Government of Guatemala, and the former soldier are now reported to be safe outside Guatemala, there is still fear of reprisals by the Government of Guatemala if their identities are publicized.
• A number of anti-government guerilla groups have been operating in Guatemala since 1966 and Amnesty International is aware that there continue to be armed confrontations between government and guerrilla forces, with lives lost on both sides. However, Amnesty International does not accept government assertions that all or most killings of the sort described in this report are the result of armed conflict or are the work of agents operating independently and out of the government's control.
Amnesty International opposes the torture and execution of prisoners in all cases, whether by government forces or opposition groups. It believes that confrontation between government and violent opposition groups cannot be held to justify these human rights violations.
Testimony of a conscript How long did you serve in the army?
Well, when I joined, well they didn't tell us anything but, when they seized us, they just seized us without letting us, well, talk to our families -- what did it matter to them? That's what they told us then, but when they got us there they said that it was three years, because that's the service that you have to do.
So you have been in the army three years?
Only two years; I was in the army two years.
It is the military commissioners (comisionados militares), isn't it, men in plain clothes but armed, who hunt down the men for the army?
Yes, well, here the commissioners are like that, civilians, they don't carry weapons, just their machetes, but actually clubs too -- big ones.
Does this military commissioner do his work alone, or helped by other soldiers or civilians?
Yes, well before they used to seize people, well more peacefully. They didn't beat them, not a lot that is, but now they do.
Why now?
Because now, now they aren't the only ones who seize the young men for the barracks; the military police do too. They go around with a truck, and anyone they find ... they don't tell them even where they are being taken, if you are carrying some of your things, something like a pack or something, they don't care, if there is room in the truck then they take it in. If they don't like you, they throw it in the' street ...
So, now it isn't just the military commissioners but also the military itself?
Yes. What happens now is that the military commissioners are afraid because really the peasants now know what's going on and what they do now is get together in crowds and if the commissioner dares to seize one of their group, what they do is beat them up, so now this means the commissioners are afraid.
The boys attack the military commissioners?
Yes, this is happening, because as they already know -- just as we do who have already left -- we tell them that the army isn't any good because, because, well, because I've finally discovered the army is nothing, nothing but a school of murderers, so that's what you are dragged into, nothing better than that.
... [a long section concerning recruitment procedures and basic training methods has been eliminated from this transcript for reasons of space.]
... then after we'd gone through all this, we, as soldiers, then we became regular soldiers and we did our service, then they gave us arms, because we could use them, and we went to the firing range to shoot, and so on. By then they were sure that we wouldn't run away ... They sent us to watch banks, plantations, different zones in the capital, at night. Even if it was raining, we went out in the back of a pick-up truck with our machine-guns, we went out to keep an eye on everything, at midnight.
Weren't you afraid that one day an officer might have ordered you to kill someone?
I wasn't afraid. At that time I was full of the ideas they filled me with. I wasn't afraid they might tell me to kill someone. I used to do it because my mentality by then had changed completely -- that's what had happened to me.
You could kill people without any problems?
Yes, without problems. Once they saw that I was really keen and understood the things they had taught me, they took me out of my unit with two others. Afterwards, we didn't stay in the same unit but were instructed separately. They didn't discipline us much then; we had already suffered enough, so they didn't discipline us so much, although the men in the unit did get disciplined.
Then they gave us a little black 'galil' that had only just arrived.
Is that a weapon?
Yes, 'galil'.
It's very sophisticated isn't it?
Army identity check of bus passengers on the Pan American Highway, Guatemala. Buses are frequently checked in this way and suspects taken away by the army. Yes, it's very new. They said Israel sent them to Guatemala, because it owed Guatemala something and other arms arrived. This one can fire a maximum of 350 shots a minute.
So they gave us this weapon and we were happier because we were better equipped. When these weapons arrived they gave us one each, then stopped giving us the M-l rifles. They collected these and stored them. When they gave us this weapon, they took me out of the unit but the others stayed on.
Then they sent the three of us to the office of the S-2, where we met officers. They stopped cropping our hair, instead they let us look really good. They told us: 'Now you have been selected; you were chosen; you aren't just simple soldiers any more, like those in the unit. If you've got guts you might even become officers', they told us.
They told you that you were better than the others?
Yes, better than the others.
Then, they had already brainwashed you?
Yes, that's what I'm saying, they had already brainwashed me; they had already filled my head with their own ideology, so r felt superior to my fellow soldiers ... What I thought then was that I was superior to everyone because I had managed to reach this position. They gave us separate training and each of us was given a .45 and left full of enthusiasm.
.45, what's that?
It's a weapon only officers use, with eight shots. They gave us one and we went out in civilian clothes. They told us: 'You are going to get orders. You are going out now.' They sent us out on the street in an army car.
That's how we used to go out, as civilians, but to keep an eye on things, especially to control the students, because there [in S-2] we went to different classes where they told us that the students could be guerrillas and that they were the people who cause the disorder on the streets, and that according to the law in the army's constitution, you've got to kill all of these people.
That's what they told us, then we went out in twos and threes to drive around the capital and control things.
Did you have permission to kill anyone?
Only suspicious characters. And they gave us orders of the day. And we also had classes -- we were students just like the suspects! And we could kill them.
And they gave us special identity cards so that if there were any police around, even if there were more of them than us and we did certain things we could just show them these, so they wouldn't seize us and we could get away. That's what they told us. They gave us cards, so that if we made some great mistake - we could kill someone, just like that, and then escape, and the police wouldn't have the power to seize us; we could just show them the cards.
And the police don't do anything?
They don't do anything, nothing. So I realized that the army is a school for murderers, it's as simple as that. They said to me, if you discover your father is in subversive movements -- I didn't understand the word -- 'subversive', they said, is whatever is against the government and is what causes disorder in Guatemala -- if your father is involved in groups like that, kill him, because if you don't he'll try and kill us ...
Could you kill your father or your mother or your sister?
The National Palace in Guatemala City ... Amnesty International's 1981 report published evidence showing that targets for political murder were selected in secret offices in an annex to the main building. Anyone who turned up, if we were ordered to. I could have done it then, that's how I used to feel, I'd do anything the army told me to. I remember how, when I was in it and we set off to bring in two students -- I say they were students -- I didn't think of fighting, or anything; there was nothing in my mind. So we went to get these students, and we went to get another man who was also a student, at about two in the morning.
And there were others as well as us; there were others who got the job of seeing what time they left school, what time they got back, where they ate, how they dressed and so on. That's what other people did.
But aren't there officers who tell you to investigate what these people do? Do you get the names from officers?
Yes, the officers give us this information - the names and the places.
And you have to check them out?
Yes, that was my job. We went out to find things out; we even talked to a lot of people.
To learn more?
Actually, to watch them; see who they were, and where they were. That was the job we had to do in the streets. We would stay there, and there were always officers travelling around in private cars too, with radios. There might be one in the central park in zone 1, another could be in zone 6, or in zone 7, who were in contact - they could talk directly to each other.
And they wore the uniforms of judicial police? G-2? -- all these people?
Well, they were in plain clothes; in civilian clothes or in actual army uniform. When they set out to attack that man I was telling you about, he said he was just out having a lemonade. I asked the boy about it; he was very young; they brought him in all tied up, they had him well and truly tied up and blindfolded. Only his mouth was uncovered so he could talk. His arms were tied. We were going to move him, they had him ...
You had to transfer him -- did you have to capture this boy?
We had our job to do, but there were other people who had to actually do that job. We just set out to move him from where they had him.
And where did you have to go to see these people?
We took him to the Brigada Mariscal Zavala to hand him over.
An army base [un cuartel]?
Yes, the base. But not actually the barracks; but in Guatemala City in the base there are cells; let's see, there's one cell they call 'the powder magazine' ['el polvorin'], there's another cell they call 'the olive' ['la aceituna], that is where we put him in a locked room. We arrived about two in the morning. They had him all tied up then; his mouth was gagged, and he had a bullet wound here -- he couldn't talk. Then they did whatever they wanted to with him, and later, when we arrived, we just picked him up as if he was an animal, then threw him into the car and that was that. We took him there, sat him down, untied his feet, sat him up again, and next day an officer arrived. He brought a tape-recorder and began to ask: 'What is your profession?'
'What work do you do?' 'Where do you work?' 'Where do you study?' and so on, questioning him.
Were you there all the time?
Yes, because it was my job to be. I was there and so I knew what they did.
Had they tortured this boy?
Well, yes.
Beaten him?
Yes, sure.
Was electrical apparatus also used?
Yes, it was.
You saw it?
Yes, I have seen it -- some things the Model Platoon [Pelotan Modelo] carry about with them which they call 'canes' ['bastones'], with electric batteries - no, they're called 'batons' ['batones] If they touch you with these things, you fall down, you're electrocuted, they, that's what they have.
I mean, I knew this man didn't want to say whether he belonged to a secret organization, or was 'subversive' as they put it, and they began to beat him savagely.
How did you feel then?
When I was there, I felt sorry when I watched them hitting him.
Did you think that boy was a guerrilla?
Yes, yes I did. But I felt sorry for him when they beat him, and he didn't want to say he was one. He said he was accused of being a guerrilla -- but no, what he said was: 'They have accused me of being a guerrilla, but why should they? -- if I was a guerrilla I wouldn't be here'. 'Talk', they said, and began to beat him.
Where did you have to beat this boy?
No, it wasn't me ...
You just watched?
Yes, I watched. They were from G-2; they were the people who beat him, plainclothes army agents.
Are they from the secret service of the army?
Yes, they were. I stood back when they were beating him, because I didn't want to be drawn into it -- I didn't want to join in beating him up. I kept out of the way when I saw they were beating him. Three more men arrived, all trussed up. They tape-recorded everything these men said and as there were a lot of names on that list -- there were countless names on the 'black list', that's what we call it. The people on the list are -- that's the order they gave us -- wherever we find them we just ask their names and if it's them, we kill them.
Did they kill that boy too?
Yes, what they said to him was, if you don't talk, we'll kill you.
But was he killed?
No, I didn't kill him.
No, but did the others kill this boy?
Oh yes, definitely; he confessed: 'I confess everything, everything' -- that he wasn't a guerrilla or anything, but, in any case, they began to beat him, that is to torture him, and they even tried to knock out one of his teeth like this, with a hammer. They hit him with a hammer like this. He screamed. They even smashed his finger. They put it on a piece of iron and hit it with the hammer to make him talk; but he didn't say anything; and so the next day, at about 12 o'clock at night -- though I'm not sure of this - if it was the judicial police, or the G-2 who turned up - there is such a bunch of them, so you couldn't figure out who was who -- who am I for example? If I'm from G-2, you wouldn't tell me anything and I wouldn't tell you anything because this is a security precaution to stop enemies getting control of us. They tell us not to identify ourselves but we have the same idea, the same work. Then at midnight they took those men who were there; they just went and grabbed them by the hair and feet and threw them into a car and took them away -- took them who knows where.
They went off to kill them and then leave them somewhere?
Must have. That's how it's done. Because at that time of the night ... if they were going to set them free they would have done it in the daytime. Why drag them out at that hour of night? So they would have killed them on the road and left them just thrown down anywhere.
Do they always take the people they capture out at night-time?
Yes, they go out ...
Always at night?
Yes.
Never in daylight?
No, only at night, at the quietest time of night.
In official or private cars?
Private ... what they use mostly are those cars -- vans -- like station-wagons, with darkened windows -- cars you'd never imagine had killers in them -- though they can be in any car.
But where do they capture and kill the people? In the countryside? In the towns?
In the towns. Like the students that 'disappear'. It's definitely them that do it and they come and take them away at night, they seize them at night and kill them just like that; then they turn up just dumped anywhere.
But what have you done in the little towns and in the countryside? Have you gone out in trucks? And did you have to do house-to-house searches, or what?
Yes, when we were there, it was pretty much like that. We'd go off in a truck; we'd get to the place we had to search, yes, search and so forth; I mean if there were any people there who were, well, suspicious characters. What we kept an eye on was mostly the organizations where a lot of people get together - and there are guerrillas there too. So that's what we would go off to deal with. They'd take us in a truck. In the villages which cars can't get to, we'd walk and then search the houses just like that. Simple.
You searched from house to house?
In ... where they killed ... where we went, about 20 of us went through all the houses to see if we couldn't find any papers, the ones they'd told us about.
When we found a paper in a house, we took the family out, and if there was just one person we killed him. And that's what happened. We arrived in a car, left it far away then walked on. And they told us not to be afraid and if we found the papers to kill those people, and that's the way it was -- but we didn't find any papers, so we didn't do anything ...
You could have killed anyone?
Anyone who was a suspicious character.
And has your unit killed too?
Well, yes -- the others did.
Yes, the people you find when you search like that you kill. And if they are not killed then, you just leave them and note things down. You get to know them really well, and in order not to commit these crimes at that moment, you jot down the name of the house and such like, so that they can secretly order another commission to 'bring them to justice', [ajusticiar]. That's what you do, that's what we all do -- I mean, get the name of the young man, the father and so on; find out what work he does, where he works etc. The reports these commissions make are sent into the offices, such and such an office, circulated in such and such a way. The people there are in charge of finding a commission and secretly giving it its orders. Only they know where it's gone and what it's going to do. This is all done by Army G-2 - that's the way they work.
And the reason I'm telling you this is because I was there. These killers come from the actual army. They told us I wasn't guilty of anything, because they told us: 'You yourselves are going out to kill and because you've got your cards, you can kill the people on your list. If a policeman turns up, show him your gun like this and your card in this hand, then they won't seize you' -- that's what they said.
So what I mean is, you kill, then you return; you get dressed. You've maybe committed these crimes in army uniform; if so, they tell you to get out of those clothes fast and put on civilian clothes or police clothes then go out and look for whoever killed the person.
But how are we supposed to find them if it was us that did it in the first place? How can we go out and find them? They have this fantastic idea [idea magical and -- this is what's going on right now today in Guatemala.'
They say 'unknown persons' killed the student and that today they are being sought by the police; but how can they find them if the people who did it are the people going out to do the searching? This is what the army is up to.
The soldiers can kill people when they have orders to, but can they kill people without orders, just because someone is a suspicious character?
Yes, certainly, any of us can be ordered to kill any man like that, who is a suspicious character. Yes, we have got the right to kill him, and even more so if we have been given strict orders to. Yes, we have the right to commit these offences.
What did the officers say?
Well, they say that if we don't carry out all the orders that they give us, if we disobey, instead of them dying, they will kill us, so you have to be very careful about all this.
Published February 1981