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Guatemala

No progress on bishop’s death
Investigators’ report satisfies few

A presidential report on the murder of a Catholic bishop in 1998 offered no new information, and human-rights groups promptly rejected it.

Auxiliary Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi Conedera of Guatemala City, the head of the Church’s human-rights office in Guatemala, was bludgeoned to death on April 26, 1998, two days after he released a report that blamed the Guatemalan military for most of the deaths in the country’s 36-year civil war which ended in 1996.

President Alfonso Portillo had mentioned the murder frequently during his campaign for office last year, vowing to find the killers if elected; he repeated that vow in his inauguration speech on January 14. So expectations were high when the newspaper Prensa Libre said it obtained a copy of the report prepared by a presidential commission—a report which to date has not been released to the public. Those expectations were shattered when the paper reported that the document is just two pages long, and appears to contain no new information on the case.

Nery Rodenas, head of the Catholic human-rights office which Bishop Gerardi once directed, said he was personally offended by the perfunctory report. “We see a lack of political will to get to the bottom of this case,” Rodenas said. “This government offered a report that does nothing more than complete its promise to compile a report.”

Three men with ties to the military are in prison as suspects in the murder, while the bishop’s former assistant, Father Mario Orantes is under house arrest as he undergoes medical treatments. He was imprisoned in 1998 for seven months, released, and arrested again in March. Two former prosecutors in the case and a judge overseeing the investigation have resigned, alleging they had received threats against themselves and their families.

Another voice against Halloween
Children seen particularly vulnerable

Guatemalan Catholic leaders said that families should not celebrate Halloween because it threatens the souls of children.

Alejandra Vazquez, Family and Childhood Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Guatemala City, said ghoulish and frightening aspects of Halloween are particularly inappropriate for Guatemalan children as the country continues to recover from decades of violence from a civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. “It really worries us to see a child of seven dressed as the grim reaper,” Vazquez said. “We’re trying to create a culture of peace here, not more violence.”

Vazquez recommended that parents instead concentrate on traditional “Day of the Dead” activities that coincide with the Catholic holy days of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day on November 1 and 2. Halloween, which was once an exclusively North American holiday, has become an increasingly common event in Central and South American countries.