Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala
The Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala ( International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala , CICIG ) was a UN body that, by an agreement between Guatemala and the UN on December 12, 2006, was charged with prosecuting and prosecuting serious crimes in Guatemala To prevent impunity . She started working at the end of 2007. Its investigations into the country's political elite and its involvement in corruption and organized crime brought the CICIG harsh criticism from the start. There have been repeated attempts to end the Commission's mandate. She has also been the target of smear campaigns. Jimmy Morales ordered her expulsion from Guatemala, and the CICIG's mandate ended on September 3, 2019.
Employee
Until July 2010 the commission was headed by Carlos Castresana . He was followed by Francisco DallAnese (Attorney General of Costa Rica ). The Colombian Iván Vélasquez Gómez has been the director since 2013 . In October 2012 the Prosecutor of Palermo, Antonio Ingroia , took over the management of the Commission's search unit.
cases
Overview
| year | case | offense | Suspects / Defendants | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Pavón" prison and PARLACEN | Extrajudicial executions | Carlos Vielman , Erwin Sperisen , Javier Figueroa , Alejandro Giammattei and others. a. | s. u. |
| 2008-2009 | Alfonso Portillo | embezzlement | Alfonso Portillo | |
| 2008–2012 | Adolfo Vivar | Amounted to | Adolfo Vivar | |
| 2009 | Rodrigo Rosenberg | homicide | ||
| 2012 | Marlene Blanco Lapola | Extrajudicial executions | Marlene Blanco Lapola | |
| 2013 | General Directorate for Migration ( Dirección General de Migración ) | Illegal immigration and human trafficking | ||
| 2014 | "Los Mendoza" | Drug trafficking | ||
| Byron Lima Oliva | corruption | Byron Lima Oliva | s. u. | |
| 2015 | Case "La Línea" | Customs fraud | Otto Pérez Molina , Roxana Baldetti u. a. | s. u. |
| Case "IGSS-Pisa" | corruption | |||
| Case "Redes en Guatemala" | Fraud and abuse of office | |||
| Funding the 2015 elections | Illegal campaign funding | |||
| 2016 | Impunity and fraud on the "SAT" | Tax fraud | ||
| Cleansing Lake Amatitlán | Environmental crimes and fraud | Roxana Baldetti et al. a. | ||
| Case "Cooptación del Estado" | Corruption, embezzlement, organized crime | Otto Pérez Molina , Roxana Baldetti u. a. |
Investigations into executions
In August 2010 the commission issued arrest warrants for controlling a criminal organization, murder, drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and extortion against Carlos Vielman (former Minister of the Interior), Erwin Sperisen (police chief), Javier Figueroa (deputy police chief), Alejandro Giammattei (head of the national Prison system) and 14 other former government officials.
In various cases of extrajudicial executions are to be negotiated. In October 2005, prisoners who had escaped from El Infiernito prison were murdered . In addition, seven extrajudicial executions are being tried in El Pavón prison on the morning of September 25, 2006.
Parlacen affair
As a result of the murder of the Salvadoran Parlacen MPs and suspected drug and currency smugglers Eduardo d'Aubuisson, William Pichinte and José Ramón González, as well as their driver, near the Guatemalan town of El Jocotillo, four allegedly for the people were murdered shortly afterwards Acted responsible police officers and a suspect in the Home Office, Victor Rivera, who was also murdered a few months later. The CICIG spent eight years investigating the reasons for these extrajudicial executions, known as the Parlacen affair.
Carlos Vielman
Vielman was arrested in Madrid on October 13, 2010 and released in November. Extradition proceedings are pending against him. Erwin Sperisen is a Swiss-Guatemalan citizen and stayed in Switzerland in October 2010. Ex-prison director Alejandro Giammattei surrendered to the Guatemalan authorities.
Erwin Sperisen
The Swiss-Guatemalan dual citizen Erwin Sperisen fled to Switzerland in April 2007. The CICIG accused him of arranging extrajudicial executions and forming a criminal organization. As a dual citizen, he was not allowed to be extradited to Guatemala. However, he was arrested on August 31, 2012 in Geneva on the basis of mutual legal assistance proceedings. He was sentenced in April 2018 in Switzerland to a prison term of 15 years for aiding and abetting 7 murder in Guatemala. The judgment was confirmed by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in 2019 and is final.
Javier Figueroa
An arrest warrant had been in place since 2007, an international arrest warrant since August 2010. In 2007 Figueroa fled to Austria, where he applied for asylum at the initial reception center in Thalham , which was approved. On May 23, 2011, Javier Figueroa, former Vice Police Chief of Guatemala, was arrested in Austria at the instigation of the CICIG and was arrested because of the risk of blackout. The Commission accuses him of participating in the killing of at least ten prisoners in 2005 and 2006. Guatemala waived the death penalty in advance to enable Austria to extradite.
Due to the unstable political situation in Guatemala, Austria decided against extradition and for a trial in Austria. Figueroa was charged with participating in the extrajudicial executions of seven prisoners on the morning of September 25, 2006. The trial began on September 10, 2013 in Ried im Innkreis . On October 10, 2013, Figueroa was acquitted by the jury.
Byron Lima
At the beginning of September 2014, the commission published the results of its investigation into Byron Lima . The former colonel in the Guatemalan army was involved in the 1998 murder of bishop and human rights activist Juan Gerardi . He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. While in custody, he built up an extensive criminal network, the activities of which the commission under Vélasquez Gómez uncovered.
Otto Pérez Molina
In early September 2015, the evidence presented by the CICIG forced the then President of the country, Otto Pérez Molina , to resign. Since then he has been in custody. Since August 2016 he has had to answer in court.
He was - together with Vice President Roxana Baldetti - involved in the corruption network "La Línea", which smuggled imported goods past customs on a large scale in exchange for bribes. A total of 60 million euros should have flowed. The investigators evaluated around 90,000 audio and 30,000 written documents.
further activities
On June 25, 2015, the CICIG, together with the Attorney General's Office, initiated preliminary proceedings against MP Pedro Muadi and had the Congress personnel office searched. On August 25, 2017, the public prosecutor, together with the CICIG, initiated proceedings against the UNE, Lider and FCN parties of the incumbent President Jimmy Morales for illegal campaign financing and requested that the immunity of the head of state be waived. On August 26, 2017, President Morales ordered the deportation of Chief Investigator Velásquez. Shortly before the end of the CICIG mandate, Sandra Torres was arrested in connection with irregularities in UNE's campaign funding.
Web links
- Toni Keppeler: Trial shows politics-drug symbiosis: MPs murder in Guatemala. In: The daily newspaper . December 2, 2010 : “Seven men in Guatemala have been sentenced to up to 210 years. The process shows how politicians and the drug mafias in Central America work together. "
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Toni Keppeler: Drug Mafia and Politics in Guatemala - The City of Criminals , in: Die Tageszeitung , Berlin August 25, 2010.
- ↑ Sandra Weiss: The brave of Guatemala. In: Le Monde diplomatique . February 2016, accessed February 1, 2016 .
- ↑ Sandra Weiss: Corruption = prison. In: ipg-journal.de. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung , August 28, 2015, accessed on August 27, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Clément Detry: No justice in Guatemala . In: Barbara Bauer, Anna Lerch (Ed.): Le Monde diplomatique . No. 4/25 . TAZ / WOZ , April 2019, ISSN 1434-2561 , p. 9 .
- ↑ a b Guatemala arrests former presidential candidate on eve of UN graft team exit. In: reuters.com . September 2, 2019, accessed on September 17, 2019.
- ↑ Dall'Anese: los jueces de Guatemala no son independientes de la política. In: cicig.org. August 18, 2011, accessed September 17, 2019 (Spanish).
- ↑ a b c d Knut Henkel: Combating Corruption in Guatemala - The Power of Justice. In: Die Tageszeitung , Berlin September 5, 2016.
- ↑ Constanze Reuscher: "Who likes to accuse a relative?" In: Die Welt , Berlin September 26, 2012.
- ↑ a b c Interportal.ch: Carlos Vielman arrested in Spain ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ a b c Kerstin Scheller: The Guatemalan death squad. In: derstandard.at . September 9, 2013, accessed September 17, 2019.
- ^ Carlos Vielman sale libre en España, justicia española lo deja en libertad. In: todanoticia.com , Guatemala.
- ↑ a b c Guatemalan ex-vice police chief arrested in Austria. In: nzz.ch . May 24, 2011, accessed May 24, 2011 .
- ^ Acquittal for ex-Kripo chief. In: wienerzeitung.at . October 10, 2013, accessed September 17, 2019.
- ↑ Austria Press Agency / Der Standard: House search in the Guatemalan Parliament , Vienna June 25, 2015.