Jo-Marie Burt and Paulo Estrada write in El Faro English on the resignation of Miguél Ángel Gálvez as Guatemalan High-Risk Judge, and his announcement of exile. Corrupt officials and war criminals sought to make an example out of Gálvez, as they wished to do to former High-Risk Judge Érika Aifán and other independent members of the judiciary. It looks like they will tolerate no obstacles in their efforts to restore total impunity in Guatemala.
This Tuesday, Miguél Ángel Gálvez resigned as Guatemalan High-Risk Judge and announced his exile. He left the country on November 4, planning to return to challenge efforts to lift his judicial immunity promoted by the Foundation Against Terrorism with the complicity of the Attorney General’s Office and powerful members of the Guatemalan judiciary. But in the end, he became convinced that it was a trap. The process slowed down in the last few days, in the hope that Gálvez would return to Guatemalan soil and that he could be imprisoned.
Corrupt officials and war criminals alike seek to make an example out of Gálvez, as they wanted to do to former High-Risk Judge Érika Aifán and others. They tolerate no obstacles in their efforts to restore total impunity in the Central American country.
Last Wednesday, a Guatemalan Court of Appeals granted an injunction to Jacobo Esdras Salán Sánchez against Gálvez’s resolution in May that ordered him and eight other retired military and police officers to trial on charges of forming the clandestine and illegal intelligence system responsible for the forced disappearance and execution of nearly two hundred political dissidents from 1982 to 1985.
The injunction alleges that in his order in the case, known as the “Death Squad Dossier,” Gálvez did not respond to all of the allegations of Salán Sánchez’s defense attorney, Eddy Herrera. Even though prosecutors have presented abundant official documents and testimonies as proof of the crimes, Herrera called on the judge to dismiss the charges against his client, and accuses Gálvez of not individualizing the crimes allegedly committed by each of the nine defendants, and claims that during the hearings the judge offered his own opinions and evaluated evidence, even stating on several occasions that he had hatred toward the military. This, according to Herrera, was evidence of the judge’s left-wing ideological bias.
You can read the full piece, including links, here, Clandestine Structures in Guatemala Consummate Witch Hunt against Judge of “Death Squad Dossier” Case. There is also a link to the Spanish version.
Previous to this announcement, El País published a piece by Carlos Salinas Maldonado, entitled ‘Miguel Ángel Gálvez: “Los militares quieren imponer el terror en Guatemala” – (Miguel Ángel Gálvez: “The military wants to impose terror in Guatemala”).
Any errors in translation are mine.
Categories: Corruption, Criminalisation, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Justice, Military, Solidarity in Action/Guatemala, Violence
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