Francisco Goldman "The Bishop Gerardi Murder Case" February 23, 2004

Francisco Goldman spoke about the case in Guatemala surrounding the murder of Bishop Gerardi in Guatemala in 1998. The case, which has attracted international attention, captures the relationship between the military, church and human right organizations, and the powerful families in each.

Uncovering the Scandal of Impunity in Guatemala
Susie Hicks, Graduate Program in Latin American Studies

For Francisco Goldman, the most powerful memory of the murder trial was the voice of a young woman echoing “Culpable! Culpable!” (“Guilty! Guilty!”) at 7:00 a.m. in a packed courtroom in Guatemala City. After a long night of deliberation, three army officers and a priest had just been found guilty of the killing of Archbishop Juan Gerardi, one of Guatemala’s most prominent human rights activists. Despite the appeals that would follow, the conviction and sentencing of the four to jail terms of between 20 and 30 years was an almost unprecedented challenge to the impunity that has for decades shielded perpetrators of political violence in Guatemala.

In 1998, activists, human rights workers and students of recent Guatemalan history recognized the murder as a political assassination. Helen Mack, sister of the slain Guatemalan anthropologist Myrna Mack, believed that the same soldiers might be responsible for both killings. A small team of human rights investigators, knowing that the army was responsible and that a police investigation would fail, took on the enormous task of proving the army was behind the killing.

Archbishop Gerardi’s highly publicized murder in April 1998 occurred just two days after the Diocese’s release of an exhaustive report on human rights abuses. The content of the Recovery of Historical Memory Project (REMHI) study was powerful. It directly implicated the military in 90 percent of the civilian deaths during the Guatemalan civil war (the UN report, or CEH, would later raise this figure to 93 percent). 52,000 of the estimated 200,000 civilian victims of the violence were named in four exhaustively researched volumes. The REMHI report was the first to outline the structure, function and strategies of the military during the 1980s, the period of Guatemala’s most intense violence.

The publication of REMHI threatened the amnesty that both the armed forces and the guerrillas had given themselves in the 1996 Peace Accords that ended the civil war. Because the report incorporated thousands of interviews from witnesses and victims of the genocidal violence in the countryside during the civil war, it presented evidence of “crimes against humanity,” for which amnesty is not possible. Archbishop Gerardi, who had commissioned the project, represented the wing of the Catholic Church that sought to actively intervene in political violence and repression in Guatemala. The Church had worked to defend human rights in many areas during the conflict and facilitated organization against the military government.

Goldman, who has been covering the investigation of Gerardi’s murder since 1998, admits that as a journalist he was first drawn to the case by the scandal and sensationalism surrounding it. The slaying of the archbishop, just two days after the release of REMHI, was rumored to be the result of a lover’s dispute between Gerardi and another man. But despite the smears, Goldman would find himself writing not about a domestic row but about the structure of power and violence in post-war Guatemala and the ways in which individuals — homeless men and taxi drivers, human rights activists and military commanders — were drawn into a politically-charged murder case. It was “the old Guatemalan story, but this time I would be getting deeper into it than I ever had before,” said Goldman.

Reporting on the investigation, Goldman was amazed by the tenacity of the three students working on the case. These investigators from The Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHAG), despite scant resources and danger to their lives, were able to “single-handedly carry on the murder investigation against all odds.” He outlined three major barriers to the investigation: the lack of forensic evidence due to mishandling of the crime scene, rumors transmitted by the Guatemala City press and the constant threat of violence against witnesses, judges, prosecutors and investigators.

Because of the lack of forensic evidence, the prosecution was forced to rely almost entirely on personal testimony, and in Guatemala, witnesses in human rights cases are likely to be intimidated or killed before they can testify. This case was no different. Several potential witnesses were murdered and others were forced into exile during the trial.

In his talk Goldman connected military impunity, media sensationalism and political violence. “Impunity gives free run to the imagination,” Goldman said. He labeled the coverage of the murder an “extraordinary piece of political murder theater.” The military’s strategy, according to Goldman, was to create a circus after the report came out, distracting the spotlight from the powerful message of the human rights report.

The Church, in Goldman’s view, had made one big mistake: Archbishop Gerardi, the Church’s most important human rights activist in Guatemala, was allowed to live in a house with Father Orantes, a priest who in many ways embodied the reactionary wing of the Guatemalan Church. The Church had left him “incredibly exposed” by housing him with a conservative priest with ties to powerful gangs in Guatemala City.

A number of journalists continue to promote the rumor of a domestic dispute leading to murder. A Spanish forensic expert called in to examine photographs of the Archbishop’s battered skull testified that the cause of death was, in fact, Orantes’ dog. U.S. experts called in for the exhumation later concluded that the injuries were caused by a metal pipe. Despite the recent convictions, Goldman concluded, the majority of people in Guatemala City probably still believe the “dog bite” scenario. Part of the reason may be continuing public distrust of the judicial system in Guatemala and the work of the investigators and lawyers.

“So much of the work of the peace process is a set of ideals and laws, things that need to be put into practice. Unfortunately, they were unable to in a country so damaged by violence. The press and everyone else couldn’t let go of their cynicism,” Goldman concluded. The Gerardi ruling is still in jeopardy; the final appeal by the defendants is expected in March or April. If impunity is not firmly dismantled in Guatemala, it will continue to protect the guilty and promote an environment of frustration, fear and violence. Nevertheless, Goldman celebrated the Gerardi decision as an unlikely victory driven by a few dedicated individuals and vigorously supported by the work of the human rights community.

Francisco Goldman is a journalist who has been reporting on the Gerardi case since 1998 for publications including The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. He is finishing a book on the Gerardi case due out in 2005. He gave his CLAS presentation on February 23.

Francisco Goldman is the author of two award-winning novels: The Long Night of White Chickens and The Ordinary. His novels have been published in 10 languages. In 2005 will publish a book, also with Grove, on the Bishop Gerardi murder case in Guatemala.