Guatemalans To Know Sentence Against Military Who Murdered Belgian Priests
Walter Voordeckers (L), Sergio Berten (C), and Eduardo Capiau (R). X/ @PrensaComunitar
September 17, 2024 Hour: 2:02 pm
In 1999, the U.S. revealed the ‘Military Diary’ that recorded extrajudicial executions committed between 1983 and 1985.
On Tuesday, the Mission of Solidarity from Belgium began a visit to Guatemala to deliver the life sentences handed down by a court in Leuven against five high-ranking former military officers for the murder, disappearance, and torture of three Belgian priests in 1980 during the civil war (1960-1996).
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The delegation, composed of six representatives from the mission known as Guatebelga, seeks to publicize the verdict and “provide the judicial and political follow-up it deserves to strengthen the fight for human rights and against impunity.” Between September 11 and 22, the Belgian human rights defenders will meet with social organizations, universities, and state entities.
In December 2023, a criminal court in the city of Leuven found former Chief of the Army General Staff Benedicto Lucas, former Defense Minister Angel Cabrera, former Interior Minister Donaldo Ruiz, former intelligence chief Manuel Callejas, and former Police Chief Pedro Garcia guilty of the murder and other crimes committed against four priests of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
According to testimonies, Father Walter Vordeckeres was killed by the armed forces on May 12, 1980, in front of the parish in the town of Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, in the department of Escuintla. Father Ward Capiu was killed on October 22, 1981, in the Indigenous town of San Lucas Sacatepequez, where he worked as a missionary.
In January 1982, Guatemalan soldiers kidnapped Serge Berte on a street in Guatemala City and took him to a clandestine detention center where he was killed. His body has not been found to date. Father Paul Schildermans was arbitrarily detained on January 4, 1982, in the same province. He was tortured in a clandestine prison in the region.
In 2001, the families of the murdered missionaries initiated a criminal case in Belgium against the Guatemalan military high command, invoking the law on the Repression of Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, which allows crimes committed against Belgian citizens anywhere in the world to be prosecuted.
The trial held in 2023 did not include the presence of the accused, as they are currently imprisoned in Guatemala for other crimes against humanity. Some, like Gen. Lucas, still face pending trials for crimes such as genocide committed against Indigenous peoples.
The Guatebelga organization expressed gratitude to the Guatemalans who chose to testify in the trial before a jury of 12 Belgian citizens.
Between 1970 and 1990, Guatemala had secret state-run paramilitary structures that operated covertly, managing espionage networks and coordinating the kidnapping, torture, and murder of people suspected of belonging to the insurgency, according to the report “Guatemala: Never Again” by the Interdiocesan Project for the Recovery of Historical Memory (REMHI).
In 1999, the United States revealed a document called the “Military Diary,” which contained records of extrajudicial executions committed between 1983 and 1985 in Guatemala.
Currently, there is an ongoing criminal case against nine individuals implicated in the murder and disappearance of more than 199 people, but it is advancing slowly in Guatemalan courts.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
