Guatemala: What happened at Dos Erres?

30 May 2012 | Americas

This week, a remarkable six-month investigation into a Guatemalan tragedy which took place 30 years ago was published and aired by ProPublica, Fundacion MEPI and This American Life.  Finding Oscar: Massacre, Memory and Justice in Guatemala, dealt with violence and redemption in ways most stories cannot.

In 1982, a squad of army commanders stormed the tiny north Guatemalan village of Dos Erres and brutally massacred more than 250 men, women and children. Thirty years later a family torn apart by the horrific ordeal were reunited.

My organisation, Fundacion MEPI heard about the story first. But our partnership with larger organisations such as ProPublica and This American Life radio programme ensured this dramatic story reached a huge audience and had a huge impact on the small republic of Guatemala. We chose to tell the story in collaboration because an investigation on a Guatemalan massacre, reported and written by an investigative journalism project such as ours would not have received the amount of attention it deserved. We felt that only a multi-nation journalistic endeavor would do the story justice.

We were lucky that one of the people in the story, Oscar Alfredo Ramirez Castañeda, was an undocumented immigrant living in the United States, and his dramatic story would appeal to US news outlets. We were also lucky that unlike other stories about Guatemalan atrocities, there is a happy ending. Oscar, who was abducted and raised by a soldier who took part in the massacre, has now been reunited with his real father, Tranquilino Castañeda.

A key part of the story was the emphasis how today’s organised crime networks in Guatemala grew strong during the lawless 1980s, when anti-communist military officers discovered illicit ways of making money to fund their brutality. The truth is that even the recent arrival of the vicious Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas, was probably orchestrated by retired military officers. The story of Dos Erres links the carnage of the past with the impunity of the present, as even now those involved in the events at Dos Erres are still afraid to speak out.

We could not have completed our investigation into the story without the help and advice of Jose Ruben Zamora, publisher of the Guatemalan daily El Periodico. An unabashed defender of his country, Zamora’s tough editorial columns have angered dark forces in Guatemala for the last 20 years. He has done something that many of his fellow citizens fear to do — he has spoken out. He has paid dearly for his criticism: In 2003 his home was raided by armed men tied to active duty military officers, and his children and wife were tied up and harassed for several hours. In 2008, he was kidnapped and disappeared for a few days, found abandoned with signs of torture in a remote area.

Reporting on this story included delving into the heartbreaking memories of Don Tranquilino, and the dark secrets of two former ex Guatemala special military commandos known as Kaibiles, who confessed and are now protected witnesses. It was worth it.

Listen to the podcast of This American Life’s report.

Ana Arana is the head of Fundación de Periodismo de Investigación (MEPI), which was launched to promote investigations and work with journalists in the US, Mexico and Central America

 

More killings as Honduran journalists “preyed on” by criminal and political network

17 May 2012 | Americas

Honduran radio journalist Ángel Alfredo Villatoro was found dead on Tuesday, 15 May, six days after he was kidnapped on his way to work at HRN Radio in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. The murder was a low blow for freedom of expression in this Central American nation.  Just minutes before police reported locating a body dumped in a nearby neighbourhood, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo had raised hopes among media workers and family members, announcing government forces had received a video that showed the radio reporter was still alive. Villatoro was the last victim in a spiral of violence against media workers and institutions in Honduras. Twenty-two other journalists have been killed in Honduras in the last two years — four of them murdered in the last five months of this year.

Honduras is quickly becoming one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, up there with Mexico. The adverse conditions for the press in the country started in 2009 after a military coup against President Manuel Zelaya.

Two days ago, the National Commissioner for Human Rights Ramon Custodio, denounced what he claimed was an organised criminal and political network that preyed on the press and human rights defenders. A dozen journalists have also received death threats, according to Custodio.

The same day Villatoro was intercepted by gunmen, Erick Martinez Avila, another young reporter, was found killed.  He was a journalist and gay activist. Freedom House has criticised Honduras for not investigating attacks against media workers.

Three photographers found dismembered in Veracruz

4 May 2012 | Americas, Mexico

The bodies of three photographers from the city of Veracruz — Gabriel Huge, Gabriel Luna Varela, Guillermo Rodriguez— were found dismembered and dumped in local waterway as Mexicans celebrated World Press Freedom Day yesterday.  The bodies showed signs of torture.

The Attorney General’s Office for the State of Veracruz reported that both Huge and Varela, who were freelance photographers, had been reported missing by their families yesterday. According to Laura Angelina Borbolla Moreno,  Special Attorney General for crimes against freedom of expression, both Huge and Varela were among a list of eight journalists who had been identified as under threat from organised crime in Veracruz.

Just last weekend, neighbours discovered the body of Regina Martinez, a reporter for the political weekly magazine Proceso, in the Veracruz city of Xalapa. Martinez had been killed with heavy blows and strangulation. Days after her murder, the Mexican Congress passed a law protecting human rights workers and journalists.

An ongoing battle between the Zetas drug cartel and members of the Chapo Guzman Sinaloa Cartel has contributed to a spiral of violence and corruption: with the last three murders, eight reporters have been killed in the southern state of Veracruz since December 2010.

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