Jennifer Harbury letter: URGENT ACTION: BAMACA WITNESS RECEIVES THREATS IN US


See Amnesty International Urgent Action regarding Otoniel De La Roca Mendoza

See previous letter from Jennifer Harbury regarding Bámaca family

URGENT ACTION : BAMACA WITNESS RECEIVES THREATS IN US

January 13, 2003

Dear Friends,

Let me start this letter by thanking everyone for the incredible number of phone calls and messages that went to the both Guatemalan and US officials over the attack on my sister in law in Guatemala. I was able to go down there and work things through, and for the time being , the three sisters appear to be safe. The Inter-American Court has also issued protective orders. Unfortunately, one of the key witnesses, Otoniel De La Roca Mendoza, has been receiving threats against both himself and his family up here in the United States. We need your help once again, and urgently.

I know that many of you will remember Otoniel's case from our urgent actions in years past. His wife, mother, father and sister were all "disappeared" by the Guatemalan army in the 1980s, and he himself was seized and badly tortured. His torture included electrical shocks, drownings, beatings with a bat, and "hoodings" with a rubber hood filled with pesticides. While he was being detained, his two small toddlers were dragged from a Church sanctuary and held on the base with him as a form of additional pressure. Needless to say, he is very, very protective of all of his surviving family members. Despite the trauma he has endured, he had the strength and courage to step forward and testify to the OAS about seeing Everardo in army captivity in 1992. Not surprisingly, this forced him into exile together with his family. They have been sticking together and supporting each other in a remarkable way, and have really built a new lives for themselves here.

Over a year ago, Otoniel began receiving frightening calls from Guatemalans, telling him that he had talked too much, and that he should have been killed when they had the chance. He was also told that he and his children would be killed. The threats continued for some time, and worse yet, there were several very disturbing incidents of strange cars cruising slowly by their home, and at one point, a car with darkened windows following Otoniel home from work. In the end, they were forced to move. Thanks to everyone's calls then, the threats came to an end, and the family began to feel safe.

Over the holidays, however, just as I reached Guatemala to assist my sisters, Otoniel's family began to receive strange calls, from persons who would not speak, but only asked for Otoniel. The operator told them calls were coming from outside the United States. His child took one such call and reported that there was an "hombre bravo" (angry man), asking for his father. Otoniel took the next call and was screamed at by a Guatemalan man who told Otoniel that they had been looking for him, and that he didn't seem to care that he and his family would be killed. With that, Otoniel hung up and had his phone disconnected. That slowed the calls for the time being, but we are all extremely concerned that the cars with black glass windows will once again show up, or that worse will happen. I note that a nephew of Otoniel's has recently been tortured and murdered in Guatemala.

In short, the Guatemalan death squads still feel quite free to terrorize people legally living here in the United States. We need your calls once again!

PLEASE CALL THE GUATEMALAN EMBASSY!

The telephone number is 202-745-4952 and the fax is 202-745-1908

Please tell them that:

We will not tolerate Guatemalan military acts of terror within the United States.

That if this is how the Guatemalan army respect international court decisions, then we will begin a campaign to have Guatemala expelled from the OAS.

If there are any more threats we will ask Congress to extradite the Guatemalan military officials known to be involved in drug trafficking.


If you wish to inform your Congresspersons of this situation, and ask them to contact the Guatemalan Embassy as well to voice their concerns, please do so. The Congressional switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

Thank you to everyone for all of the calls made last December. The response was really extraordinary and it did a great deal of good. The reaction of both US and Guatemalan officials was very telling. I know the calls may seem tedious, but they do work, and work very well.

Abrazos, Jennifer

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