Guatemala: Six Months to Examine the Past and Define the Future http://www.lawg.org/action-center/lawg-blog/69-general/847-guatemala-six-months-to-examine-the-past-and-define-the-future

As Guatemalan political parties gear up for the 2011 presidential elections in September, human rights organizations are preparing for some of the most important war crimes trials in the country’s history. With a leading presidential candidate linked to one of the nation’s most high-profile and controversial human rights cases, the way events play out in the next six months will be indicative of Guatemala’s ability to confront the entrenched impunity from the internal conflict. 

The case of Everardo Bámaca (born Efrain Bámaca Velazquez) has become an emblematic example of the ties between perpetrators of past violence and the current political and economic elite. Everardo, an indigenous guerilla leader from San Marcos, was captured on March 12, 1992. He was held and tortured for over a year by the Guatemalan military before being killed. His wife, American lawyer Jennifer Harbury, worked for two decades to piece together the complex series of events that occurred while Everardo was in captivity. She amassed a large body of evidence that implicates a CIA asset and many high-ranking members of the Guatemalan military.