death penalty news January 2, 2005
GUATEMALA: Guatemala's death penalty debate intensifies - Country clings steadfastly to its sentencing option as opponents see signs of change Audelio Diaz, 43, graduated from junior high school the other day. Diaz, who suspended his schooling at 12, smiled broadly as he accepted the diploma in a small ceremony held in a stuffy corridor with armed guards blocking the iron gates at either end. The ceremony took place in the maximum-security prison in Esquintla, where Diaz sits on death row. Two other graduates and two of their teachers also have been sentenced to die. Guatemala is one of two countries in Latin America that has retained the death penalty for ordinary crimes, according to Amnesty International. Cuba is the other. Despite a crime wave that has plagued Guatemala, pressure has been mounting from within the government, human rights activists and even from foreign diplomats to abolish capital punishment. President Oscar Berger's administration has been reviewing the possibility of sending a bill to Congress that would abolish capital punishment. Diaz ? who was extradited to Guatemala from South Texas and sentenced to die for the kidnapping of a wealthy farm owner's wife ? and others in the prison school hope that their education program will add a new dimension to the growing debate in the country. Guatemala has not executed a prisoner since 2000, but about 30 inmates live on death row, all of whom are men ? women cannot be sentenced to death. Despite a worldwide trend toward the abolition of capital punishment, Guatemala's Congress approved two measures to strengthen the penalty during the 1990s. But more recently, there have been signs that the tide, at least among policymakers, may be starting to shift. In 2002, then-President Alfonso Portillo called on Congress to abolish the penalty, but nothing came of it. Then, last year, the Supreme Court, which has the power to propose legislation, sent a bill for a new penal code. In stark contrast to the current code, the court's bill did not include a provision for capital punishment. Congress has not yet begun to debate the proposal. The movement toward abolition has progressed under President Berger, who has publicly stated his opposition to capital punishment. The country's human rights commissioner, Frank LaRue, said a legal team that works with the president is studying whether to ask Congress to abolish the punishment. But it is unclear whether Berger will introduce the bill. Recently, European diplomats joined a chorus of human rights activists in a call to Guatemalan authorities to abolish capital punishment. In addition to invoking arguments based on tenets of universal human rights, the activists cited some that are particular to Guatemala, which is recovering from a protracted civil war. Kristin Svendsen, a Norwegian researcher who works for a death-penalty abolition campaign at a think tank in Guatemala City, recently charged that some of the condemned men confessed during police torture. She said other death-penalty cases involved Maya Indians with limited Spanish-speaking ability whose trials were conducted entirely in Spanish. One of them, Svendsen said, did not appear to understand that he had been sentenced to death even months after his trial. Nonetheless, Rep. Otto P?rez Molina said Guatemala is not ready for abolition just yet and probably will not be for another five to 10 years. "It's not the right moment," said P?rez Molina, one of the country's most powerful politicians. "The crime problem affects many Guatemalans and has many of them quite indignant. To propose abolition now would be hurtful to them." During the past year, Guatemalan authorities have reported a surge in killings and robberies, with nearly 2,000 homicides recorded in the country of 14.2 million. Robberies of passenger buses seem to be on the increase. (source: Houston Chronicle)
