{"code":"27740","sect":"Central America","sect_slug":"central-america","hits":"311","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/en\/202502\/centroamerica\/27740","link_edit":"","name":"When Guatemalan Justice Learned the Word Exile","slug":"when-guatemalan-justice-learned-the-word-exile","info":"Claudia Paz y Paz fled Guatemala in 2014, the night she stepped down as attorney general, under harassment from adversaries calling for justice for all but themselves. Some 300 kilometers from Guatemala City, ignored by infighting elites, victims of the Ixil genocide held out hope that Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt, one year after his conviction was annulled, would stand trial once more.","mtag":"Impunity","noun":{"html":"\u003Cspan class='tint-text--dark' data_href='\/user\/profile\/jlsanz'\u003E Jos\u00e9 Luis Sanz\u003C\/span\u003E","data":{"jose-luis-sanz":{"sort":"jlsanz","slug":"jose-luis-sanz","path":"jose_luis_sanz","name":"Jos\u00e9 Luis Sanz","edge":"0","init":"0"}}},"view":"311","pict":{"cms-image-000041383-jpg":{"feat":"1","sort":"41383","name":"cms-image-000041383.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000041383.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000041383.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000041383-jpg","text":"<p>Claudia Paz y Paz. Photo Sandra Sebasti\u00e1n\/Plaza P\u00fablica<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EClaudia Paz y Paz. Photo Sandra Sebasti\u00e1n\/Plaza P\u00fablica\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000041589-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"41589","name":"cms-image-000041589.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000041589.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000041589.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000041589-jpg","text":"<p>On Jan. 31, 2013, former Guatemalan dictator and retired General Jos\u00e9 Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt attends a court hearing in Guatemala City. R\u00edos Montt, a former military dictator who ruled Guatemala between 1982 and 1983 and who was facing retrial on genocide charges, died on Apr. 1, 2018 aged 91. One of his lawyers said that he died of heart failure in his home. Photo Johan Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez\/AFP<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EOn Jan. 31, 2013, former Guatemalan dictator and retired General Jos\u00e9 Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt attends a court hearing in Guatemala City. R\u00edos Montt, a former military dictator who ruled Guatemala between 1982 and 1983 and who was facing retrial on genocide charges, died on Apr. 1, 2018 aged 91. One of his lawyers said that he died of heart failure in his home. Photo Johan Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez\/AFP\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000041591-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"41591","name":"cms-image-000041591.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000041591.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000041591.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000041591-jpg","text":"<p>On Mar. 26, 2007, Erwin Sperisen, then-police chief of the Guatemalan National Civil Police (PNC), announces his resignation in a press conference in Guatemala City. An arrest warrant was later issued in Guatemala for Sperisen, who holds both Swiss and Guatemalan nationalities, in the 2005 killing of seven detainees and three other prisoners who had fled the prison. In September 2024 a Swiss appeals court confirmed his 14-year sentence in the case. Sperisen announced he would seek to raise his case to the European Court of Human Rights. Photo AFP<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EOn Mar. 26, 2007, Erwin Sperisen, then-police chief of the Guatemalan National Civil Police (PNC), announces his resignation in a press conference in Guatemala City. An arrest warrant was later issued in Guatemala for Sperisen, who holds both Swiss and Guatemalan nationalities, in the 2005 killing of seven detainees and three other prisoners who had fled the prison. In September 2024 a Swiss appeals court confirmed his 14-year sentence in the case. Sperisen announced he would seek to raise his case to the European Court of Human Rights. Photo AFP\u003C\/p\u003E"}},"pict_main__sort":41383,"date":{"live":"2025\/02\/25"},"data_post_dateLive_YY":"2025","data_post_dateLive_MM":"02","data_post_dateLive_DD":"25","text":"\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #888888;\"\u003EThis is chapter two of a chronicle first published by El Faro\u003C\/span\u003E \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/salanegra.elfaro.net\/es\/201408\/cronicas\/15755\/El-regreso-de-los-viejos-due%C3%B1os.htm\"\u003Ein Spanish\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #888888;\"\u003E in August 2014. It has now been translated amid the ongoing trial of Benedicto Lucas Garc\u00eda on the charge of genocide against the Maya Ixil people. Read chapter one \u003Ca href=\"\/en\/202502\/centroamerica\/27748\/the-genocide-trial-and-the-tightrope\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/em\u003EClaudia Paz y Paz\u2019s son was sitting in his mother\u2019s office, reading patiently, bored, waiting for us to finish the interview. I also wanted it to end, in a sense. Or to start over again. I\u2019d traveled all the way from San Salvador in the hopes of hearing the attorney general articulate a deep and dissecting analysis, one that might help me understand her conflict with the country\u2019s conservative forces, that might sketch out the future. Instead, all I got were the predictable institutional answers, some of them cut out of a press release.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThe court overturned R\u00edos Montt\u2019s [2013 genocide] conviction. Are we at a point of progress or regression?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI think it\u2019s a step forward. The victims had an opportunity to testify in front of the perpetrator, in a situation of equality before the law\u2026 According to the victims, for them, this was an act of reparation. Now, given the court\u2019s ruling, we\u2019ll need to repeat the trial.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIn recent years it seems like there have been moments when the Constitutional Court is open to remaking institutions anew, and then moments when it isn\u2019t.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIn the Attorney General\u2019s Office, there are decisions that we agree with and decisions that we don\u2019t agree with, but we respect them either way.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cAnd do you believe that these decisions are the result of a process of honest judicial reflection, or are they influenced by other interests?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThey\u2019re legal arguments on which we take a different view. At the time we challenged them, and the court ruled\u2026 well, how it ruled\u2026\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWould you say the judiciary in Guatemala is generally independent? Is the case of [High-Stakes Tribunal Judge] Yassm\u00edn Barrios [who handed down the conviction of former de-facto president Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt] typical of the system as a whole?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThere are very good judges, and there are judges who don\u2019t act independently.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ESomething didn\u2019t add up. Earlier, I had read an unpublished article by Francisco Goldman, author of \u201cThe Art of Political Murder,\u201d the seminal book for understanding the assassination of Bishop Juan Gerardi and how power operates in Guatemala. The article featured an intense interview with Attorney General Paz y Paz, along with two of her associates, Arturo Aguilar and Mynor Melgar. Their candidness in the interview, and the accusations leveled against the people who had boycotted the trial of R\u00edos Montt, were extraordinary \u2014 a far cry from the usual tone taken by the mild-mannered Paz y Paz, and light years away from the interview she was giving me now. Speaking to Goldman, the attorney general referred to \u201cthem\u201d \u2014 to the \u201centrenched interests\u201d that during the ex-dictator\u2019s trial had appeared in court \u201cwithout concealing their identity or doing anything at all\u201d to safeguard their impunity. Among these \u201cinterests,\u201d Aguilar and Melgar identified the Association of Guatemalan Military Veterans (AVEMILGUA), \u201cthe ideologues of the private sector,\u201d President Otto P\u00e9rez Molina, the organization of Guatemalan business elites known as CACIF, and more.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIt was the genocide case that united this country\u2019s most conservative sectors,\u201d Aguilar says in the interview.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThem,\u201d Paz y Paz emphasizes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAnd when Goldman asks her, not mincing words: \u201cWere \u2018they\u2019 accomplices to the genocide?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EShe responds: \u201cWell, I imagine so, given how afraid they were.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThis is why I had expected her to be more candid in our conversation, more outspoken, and had even interpreted it as a good sign, as a sign of trust, that she had invited me to her office on a Saturday. Instead, I found her reserved, cautious. When I mentioned Goldman\u2019s article, and quoted her own words back to her, she was surprised and said she didn\u2019t remember saying them. There was an awkward silence. Our conversation continued, but the interview ended in a cloud of bewilderment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAfterwards, as we descended to the ground floor in a private elevator, used by the attorney general for reasons of security, Claudia Paz y Paz asked if I could get her a copy of the article I had quoted. I explained that it was part of the book \u003Cem\u003ECrecer a Golpes\u003C\/em\u003E, which would be out in a few weeks. Again, she looked surprised. As we said our goodbyes, I handed her my copy of the piece, Xeroxed and covered in my notes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThat meeting took place on January 25. A week later, on Friday, January 31, the magazine Contrapoder published a six-page excerpt of Goldman\u2019s interview. To this day, Claudia Paz y Paz believes that it was this article, in Contrapoder, that cost her her job.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E* * *\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ERicardo Sagastume is late to our meeting at his office, so I have some time to kill. This serves me in two respects: One, I can watch the first half of Spain\u2019s last and ultimately inconsequential soccer match at the World Cup, in Brazil; two, I can look at all the law degrees of his father, Ricardo Sagastume Vidaurre, which hang on the wooden walls of the waiting room. Later, with an obvious air of pride, he\u2019ll show me a photograph of his father from 1982, when he served as president of Guatemala\u2019s Supreme Court of Justice, shortly after being appointed to the position by Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAs head of a compromised Judiciary controlled by the dictator, Ricardo Sagastume Sr. had supported the suspension of \u003Cem\u003Ehabeas corpus\u003C\/em\u003E and \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.plazapublica.com.gt\/content\/la-justicia-que-fue-de-los-generales\"\u003Elegitimized the special courts\u003C\/a\u003E that fed on confessions made under torture, and whose faceless judges had ordered at least 15 executions in one single year. Some thirty years later, the man who filed the injunction before the Constitutional Court that succeeded \u2014just as CACIF had hoped it would\u2014 in shortening Claudia Paz y Paz\u2019s mandate by seven months, seems proud of this legacy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ERicardo Sagastume Jr., also a lawyer, has his own high-profile career in Guatemala. Before the Constitutional Court ruled that Paz y Paz\u2019s term was a continuation of Conrado Reyes\u2019, and should therefore end exactly four years after the latter\u2019s election in May, Sagastume was a professional soccer player. He also ran for president in 2011 with the backing of AVEMILGUA, whose leaders testified in favor of R\u00edos Montt during his trial. And he served as executive director of Guatemala\u2019s Chamber of Industry, one of the most influential unions in CACIF. His attorney\u2019s office is even located on the fourth floor of the Chamber\u2019s headquarters. Clearly Sagastume has no interest in hiding his ideas or affiliations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHe is, in fact, a man of unusual transparency. \u201cFor those of us with some level of influence in the country, institutionality is of little or no importance,\u201d he says at one point during our conversation. He criticizes the myopia of the powerful from the position he reserves for himself among Guatemala\u2019s enlightened right-wing elites. Sagastume is one of those people who, despite being part of a world that thrives on secrets \u2014the world of Guatemala\u2019s business elite\u2014 he prides himself on intellectual honesty and tries to lie or conceal as little as possible. He sees himself as a good man. Perhaps deep down he is.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cYou did what CACIF didn\u2019t dare to do\u2026\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWhat nobody dared to do. And I\u2019ll keep on doing it. The constitution had to be respected.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cBut you\u2019re also one of the people who thought that the best thing for the country was for Claudia Paz y Paz to step down as attorney general as soon as possible.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cYes. If she had stayed on, it would have been a disaster. We would have lost the ability to govern the country. If we\u2019re experiencing this level of polarization without Dr. Paz y Paz, imagine how terrible things would be \u003Cem\u003Ewith\u003C\/em\u003E her. Furthermore, the trial of Mr. Sperisen has created an additional element. With or without Claudia Paz y Paz, the situation is a powder keg.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESagastume isn\u2019t the first to mention the extrajudicial execution case against former top policeman Erwin Sperisen, though I was surprised to hear about it from him. Human rights defenders and journalists warned me in recent weeks that the same far-right columnists who in 2013 were the first to promote the line \u201cif they condemn R\u00edos Montt, they condemn all of Guatemala\u201d have now started arguing that the series of trials taking place in Europe for the Pav\u00f3n Penitentiary Farm executions case are an offense to Guatemala\u2019s sovereignty and to all decent Guatemalans; that the international left is trying to stain the Guatemalan flag, just as it did with the genocide trial; that exemplary officials, honest men, patriots are being lynched, first in Austria, now in Switzerland and Spain.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe matter might be of some interest were it not so clear what had happened at Pav\u00f3n on the outskirts of Guatemala City, on Sep. 25, 2006.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThat day, under the pretext of regaining control of the country\u2019s main prison, which for years had been ruled by gangs of prisoners working in collusion with the authorities, those same authorities entered the prison accompanied by an army of police, arrested more than 1,700 prisoners, and executed seven of their leaders. The official version of events attributed the deaths to a confrontation. Even if there had been a lack of evidence, or a lack of witnesses testifying to the contrary, the fact that the victims were shot point blank would have been enough to expose the lie.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn 2013, the Guatemalan justice system convicted several of the perpetrators of these killings, but by that point, the officials from the \u00d3scar Berger administration responsible for the operation had already escaped to Europe. The deputy director of police investigations, Javier Figueroa, sought refuge in Austria. Erwin Sperisen, the chubby, blonde-haired director of the National Civil Police, and Carlos Vielman, the interior minister, fled to Switzerland and Spain respectively, taking advantage of their dual nationalities. In Central America generally, but especially in racist Guatemala, the elite of the elite love to boast about their European origins and, if possible, their European nationalities, to distinguish themselves from all other Guatemalans.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFigueroa was acquitted in Austrian court of all responsibility for the Pav\u00f3n executions, but Sperisen, the leader of the operation and, according to the CICIG, one of the men responsible for the death squads that operated in the country between 2004 and 2005, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Switzerland on June 5, 2014, for those seven extrajudicial executions. Vielman is in a Spanish prison, awaiting trial.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWhy do you say that the Sperisen and Vielman trial is a powder keg?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cBecause the wounds of ideologization that we thought had been healed have been reopened,\u201d replies Sagastume.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cBut one of the trials was in Switzerland and the other will be in Spain.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cYes, but they involve issues that we experience as Guatemalan citizens. We have to admit that justice hasn\u2019t lived up to our expectations. And when the justice in a country works for some and not others, people get frustrated, and it doesn\u2019t matter anymore who gets put on trial, because someone has to pay. The issue of genocide, and now the Sperisen case, pit a small socioeconomic elite against a large majority who think someone has to pay for what\u2019s been happening in the country.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=4000&ImageHeight=2663&ImageId=41591 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"On Mar. 26, 2007, Erwin Sperisen, then-police chief of the Guatemalan National Civil Police (PNC), announces his resignation in a press conference in Guatemala City. An arrest warrant was later issued in Guatemala for Sperisen, who holds both Swiss and Guatemalan nationalities, in the 2005 killing of seven detainees and three other prisoners who had fled the prison. In September 2024 a Swiss appeals court confirmed his 14-year sentence in the case. Sperisen announced he would seek to raise his case to the European Court of Human Rights. Photo AFP\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E On Mar. 26, 2007, Erwin Sperisen, then-police chief of the Guatemalan National Civil Police (PNC), announces his resignation in a press conference in Guatemala City. An arrest warrant was later issued in Guatemala for Sperisen, who holds both Swiss and Guatemalan nationalities, in the 2005 killing of seven detainees and three other prisoners who had fled the prison. In September 2024 a Swiss appeals court confirmed his 14-year sentence in the case. Sperisen announced he would seek to raise his case to the European Court of Human Rights. Photo AFP \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cAre you implying that this is a revolt against the elites? Don\u2019t you think you\u2019re exaggerating?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cBut these events are of tremendous significance. Mr. Sperisen and Mr. Vielman were part of a government that the entire business sector supported. It openly supported [2003 presidential] candidate \u00d3scar Berger and ultimately joined his government.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWhat you\u2019re saying is that Sperisen and Vielman, whether or not they\u2019re guilty, are being tried with the intention of doing damage to powerful groups?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThat\u2019s the perception. If we wanted to be objective, we would be prosecuting former interior ministers, prison system directors, and even former presidents of the country. But these were the men they chose.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWhen Sagastume speaks of \u201cGuatemalan citizens\u201d it\u2019s clear that he\u2019s referring to traditional elites, industrialists, landowners, big businessmen, and investors who, as it happens, financed and even participated in some of the military operations carried out by the R\u00edos Montt government in the 80s, and who, during the Berger government, openly integrated themselves into the Executive to the point of almost taking over the cabinet. Foreign Minister Jorge Briz served as chair of Guatemala\u2019s Chamber of Commerce. The country\u2019s top factory owner, Miguel Fern\u00e1ndez, was appointed commissioner of investment and competition. That Vielman, a member of a prominent family of businessmen and the former president of the Guatemalan Chamber of Industry, would be appointed minister of the interior was not an isolated decision. Accordingly, the reaction to his prosecution is a group reaction.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EA group that, according to the ever-candid Sagastume, feels that their grip on the justice system is slipping.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThe elites have lost the control they once had over the processes for nominating public officials in the justice system. Twenty years ago, participating in the process and getting elected was easy, because there were fewer lawyers and there was more control. Now they don\u2019t have that control.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIs that why the country\u2019s business elites were afraid of how far Paz y Paz might take certain cases?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThere was a series of events designed, firstly, to prosecute actors from the Guatemalan Army during the armed conflict, and next to prosecute other actors who collaborated or contributed to the Guatemalan state winning the war militarily. There was a subsequent phase that, whether it was justified or not, would take a toll on the business sector. That\u2019s what\u2019s happening with the Vielman case. Regardless of the fairness or unfairness of the process, there\u2019s a witch hunt happening in Guatemala.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cAnd the people who felt that they were victims of this witch hunt reacted and stopped Paz y Paz.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cNo, I think that, I think that\u2026 he\u2026\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIt\u2019s amazing to hear this man, who speaks so confidently, suddenly stutter. He continues:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI don\u2019t think this was the work of the private sector. I\u2019d like to think that they didn\u2019t do anything to obstruct her work... My issue was an interpersonal one, a completely independent matter. The business sector is concerned with production, competition, markets... in short, the things they know how to do.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ESagastume says that being the way he is and saying the things he says has caused problems \u201cwith them,\u201d as he gestures to the ceiling, to the highest floors of the building, to the offices of the Chamber of Industry to which he belongs. It\u2019s easy to believe. He makes one last comment, which sounds like a confession.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cYou know, we\u2019re afraid of being called members of a specific elite. But so what? We\u2019re citizens like everyone else! The thing is, we\u2019re not used to participating, because whenever we need something to go a certain way, we\u2019ve always just slammed our fist down on the table\u201d \u2014he makes the gesture, pounding his fist on the table\u2014 \u201cand everything gets sorted out. But of course, in the long run, that hurts us as a country\u2026\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E* * *\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIt was with a slamming of a fist on a table that Guatemala\u2019s Congress \u2014already in the process of electing a new attorney general, and with Paz y Paz already registered for re-election\u2014 approved, on May 13, 2014, a document stating that there had never been a genocide in Guatemala. \u201cThe elements that make up the aforementioned criminal offenses make it legally unfeasible for them to have occurred in Guatemala, principally in terms of the commission of genocide on our national soil,\u201d the text reads. There were some who reacted with indignation, insisting that only a judge could make such a determination. Others, as a joke, asked the congressional deputies to likewise decree that Guatemala had won a World Cup, despite having never qualified for one.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThat document has no legal value. The crime of genocide still exists in the Guatemalan Penal Code, and a judge can apply it if they consider that sufficient evidence exists to do so. In addition, in 1951, Guatemala ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by signing the Rome Statute. But that legislative agreement, technically a mere \u201cresolution item,\u201d sent an aggressive political message.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe man responsible for securing enough votes to pass the resolution was Luis Jos\u00e9 Fern\u00e1ndez Chenal, vice chair of the Patriot Party. The proposal was introduced by two deputies from the Institutional Republican Party (PRI), the last remnants of what was once, the decade prior, a powerful political force known as the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), a party founded by R\u00edos Montt that was key to his political resurrection and his rise to become president of Congress in 2009. It makes sense. Two representatives of a party in decline, honoring that party\u2019s history and its former leader. The question is why Fern\u00e1ndez Chenal, a 33-year-old with a meteoric career in the ruling party, the political godson of Otto P\u00e9rez Molina, a legislative shark who boasts about growing up after the war and considers his lack of ideology to be a merit, maneuvered to push through a resolution as controversial as it was useless.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cAt the end of the day, as the leader of my party\u2019s congressional bloc says, a resolution item is a political love poem. It has no connection to the law whatsoever,\u201d Sagastume says, sitting in an office as luxurious as it is empty, a few meters from the halls of Congress. \u201cToday, for example, we\u2019re going to try to pass a resolution item for the 40th anniversary of the death of Miguel \u00c1ngel Asturias.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cAnd the poem about the genocide? Where did that come from?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWell, as the ruling coalition in Congress, you have to agree to issues that aren\u2019t yours. We say, \u2018We want to include a loan,\u2019 and the other side says, \u2018That\u2019s fine, just let me include this certain issue.\u2019 That\u2019s what happened. The PRI said, \u2018I\u2019ll give you the two votes and you give me the resolution item in return.\u2019\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cJust like that.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cJust like that. To be clear, we never knew exactly what the text would say. \u2018Let\u2019s make a final point about national reconciliation,\u2019 they said. The resolution was proposed by a deputy who had been in office for four or five legislative sessions, so nobody thought he\u2019d write up some bullshit.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe resolution was processed through Congress like a bank transaction. Nobody read the text beforehand. Almost nobody paid attention to its contents while it was being read out in the plenary session. It barely passed, with 87 votes out of 158. A narrow margin. 47 deputies were not present.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI told the folks with URNG, who are left-wing: \u2018Have you read the resolution? Go and read it, don\u2019t act like sheep and just vote for it. Because we\u2019re over there talking about the trial of the century and so on, and I don\u2019t know what else\u2026\u2019\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez says, giving no indication he\u2019s joking.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe votes from LIDER, the main opposition party, were easy to get. Days before, one of its founders, Edgar Ajcip, had resigned from the party, accusing its deputies of illegal business dealings and abuse of power. In exchange for votes in favor of the resolution item, the Patriot Party ensured that the legislative commission that would be tasked with investigating these crimes was never approved.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ENobody realized the extent of the trickery until the next day, when they read the headlines: \u201cCongress declares there was no genocide.\u201d Now, suddenly, the issue was the subject of fierce debate. Fern\u00e1ndez Chenal says that in the subsequent plenary session seven deputies publicly apologized for having voted in favor: \u201cSorry, I made a mistake, I heard wrong,\u201d they said, according to Chenal.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThe only ones who seemed relatively happy about it all were the two deputies from the PRI. One came out of the FRG and the other is a lawyer for the Castillo family, which has close ties to the Chamber of Industry and CACIF.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cAnd what about you and your colleagues in the Patriot Party?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cDon\u2019t think we were throwing a big party about it. A lot of people, given President P\u00e9rez Molina\u2019s military status, probably viewed it in a positive light. But it\u2019s an issue that got blown out of proportion. The average Guatemalan is way more focused on being able to go out on the streets and not have their phone stolen than on finding out if there were clandestine graves in Chimaltenango 20 or 25 years ago. Look, in the Ixil area we won two mayoral seats and lost one. And in Quich\u00e9, we won by a huge margin. It\u2019s not as if the trial affected us electorally. As I said, it got blown out of proportion.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFern\u00e1ndez Chenal\u2019s cynicism is a perfect match for a congress like Guatemala\u2019s, where political parties get created and disappear with such frequency that the majority of deputies have belonged to at least two. Fourteen of the current deputies were active in the ranks of the FRG. The current congressional president, Ar\u00edstides Crespo, a member of the Patriot Party, is one of them. Another is the lead congressional representative of the TODOS party. And because interests take precedence over ideology, all the parties have at least one former member of R\u00edos Montt\u2019s party in their faction. That they would consider the issue of the genocide inconsequential, far removed from real politics, is all the more absurd when you consider that one of the Patriot Party deputies is the brother of Francisco Garc\u00eda Gudiel, R\u00edos Montt\u2019s histrionic defense attorney, responsible for the attempt to disqualify Yassm\u00edn Barrios. Guatemala is a tangled ball of yarn, its political elites a knot of personal connections at the top of the tangle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThat said, there\u2019s a second message contained in the resolution item,\u201d the vice chair of the Patriot Party says. \u201cCongress approves the budget for the MP [the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office], and Congress also approves the Judiciary\u2019s budget, so the message sent to the new attorney general was \u2018look, we don\u2019t want to hear any talk about investigating genocide.\u2019\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThat seems pretty clear.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWell yeah, you can read between the lines.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI ask Fern\u00e1ndez Chenal what issue his party so urgently needed to pass, and in exchange for what support was the resolution\u2019s approval negotiated.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI\u2019d have to... if you give me five minutes I\u2019ll remember. It had to be a major issue... I mean, you also wouldn\u2019t believe that\u2026\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFern\u00e1ndez\u2019s account adds to the uncertainty surrounding the role played by Otto P\u00e9rez Molina and his party in the changes made to the Guatemalan justice system over the past year. Representatives from multiple civil society organizations say that the president, because of his military ties, his history of campaigning in Quich\u00e9, and the pressures exerted by business groups, played a key role in the annulment of the trial and in putting an end to the Paz y Paz era. The former attorney general\u2019s inner circle is not unanimous in their assessment of the cause, but they all agree that without P\u00e9rez Molina\u2019s endorsement, or his refusal to intervene, neither of the two developments could have happened.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=4000&ImageHeight=2642&ImageId=41589 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"On Jan. 31, 2013, former Guatemalan dictator and retired General Jos\u00e9 Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt attends a court hearing in Guatemala City. R\u00edos Montt, a former military dictator who ruled Guatemala between 1982 and 1983 and who was facing retrial on genocide charges, died on Apr. 1, 2018 aged 91. One of his lawyers said that he died of heart failure in his home. Photo Johan Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez\/AFP\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E On Jan. 31, 2013, former Guatemalan dictator and retired General Jos\u00e9 Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt attends a court hearing in Guatemala City. R\u00edos Montt, a former military dictator who ruled Guatemala between 1982 and 1983 and who was facing retrial on genocide charges, died on Apr. 1, 2018 aged 91. One of his lawyers said that he died of heart failure in his home. Photo Johan Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez\/AFP \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFormer Minister of Governance Mauricio L\u00f3pez Bonilla, also an ex-military officer, and one of the officials closest to the president, disagrees with this hypothesis. I spoke to him over a long breakfast. He\u2019s a quick-witted, intelligent man who knows he has all the answers. He worked very closely with Paz y Paz, and sources with the MP along with several mid-level officials from the Executive confirmed that the level of inter-institutional coordination between them was extraordinary. A man like him, who aspires one day to be president, doesn\u2019t let ideological differences cloud his path to success.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cDid this administration celebrate Claudia Paz y Paz\u2019s departure from the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ENo. Our security team operated under the expectation that she would be able to continue in her position. Given the degree of precarity that often characterizes the country\u2019s institutions, individual people tend to stand out, but we believe in the processes.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cDoes that mean your team favored her, or that it doesn\u2019t matter to you who the person is?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWhat I mean is that it\u2019s traditional for every president to want their own attorney general. Colom did it, Berger did it, Portillo did it... All the presidents come in with a questionnaire designed for the attorney general not to be able to answer, then they dismiss him and appoint another one. Just like everyone wants to have their own president of the Bank of Guatemala and their own solicitor general. President Otto P\u00e9rez, despite all the pressures he faced as a result of the ideological struggle that persists in the country, kept Claudia Paz y Paz on, contrary to all the rumors that he would dismiss her.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWho pressured him to remove Paz y Paz?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThere\u2019s always been pressure from many groups. Pressure from right-wing groups, who thought that an attorney general with a background in human rights wasn\u2019t the best choice. But I\u2019d invite you to ask Claudia Paz y Paz if she ever received a single phone call from the president to ask her for a favor, to exert pressure, or to talk to her about a specific case. Never.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cSo why isn\u2019t she still the attorney general?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWhat the president decides, and what we in the government decide about handover in the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, doesn\u2019t guarantee any decision by the nominating commissions. But if Claudia Paz y Paz was among the group of six, there was a very high likelihood that she\u2019d be appointed by the president. That\u2019s something we knew.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ESources close to the nominating commissions, which serve as the preliminary filter in the selection process, suggest that this was precisely what prevented Claudia Paz y Paz from becoming one of the six final attorney general candidates on offer to the president. The nominating commission didn\u2019t want to risk a situation in which P\u00e9rez Molina, influenced by the attorney general\u2019s international image and the MP\u2019s impressive track record, might choose to re-elect her to the post. So, despite boasting the second-highest score of all the candidates, in terms of qualifications and experience, only four of the thirteen commissioners voted for her. Four.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThat day, the elites opposed to the prosecution of R\u00edos Montt \u2014the \u201cthey\u201d referenced by Claudia Paz in her interview with Goldman\u2014 breathed a sigh of relief. Ricardo Sagastume, the lawyer who cut the attorney general\u2019s term short, put it like this: \u201cWhen Paz y Paz failed to make the final cut of six nominees, it was like someone had been making a layer cake but suddenly stopped adding layers. The ideological issue was eliminated, and all that remained were special interests \u2014 the usual question of who was behind each of the six.\u201d Ideology was a problem, but interests, whether group or individual, are negotiable, and provided \u201cthem\u201d with the solution to the problem of justice.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cDid CACIF back Claudia Paz?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThat\u2019s entering the realm of speculation. CACIF isn\u2019t a completely homogenous body. There are different currents of thought.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cBut CACIF issued official statements critical of her performance as attorney general.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI don\u2019t remember... I don\u2019t remember any official pronouncement. And there was also so much noise coming from groups who supported Claudia. There were even people collecting statements from other countries. You know the old saying, \u2018Don\u2019t help me, friend.\u2019 Often if there\u2019s a lot of insistence, resistance also increases. And how militant your supporters are also raises the level of confrontation.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cAre you saying that whoever had the power to decide whether Claudia Paz would stay on felt threatened by the more radical wing of civil society?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cNo. I\u2019m saying there\u2019s a reason why Claudia Paz y Paz was \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.plazapublica.com.gt\/La%20defensa%20de%20Paz%20y%20Paz%20(o%20todos%20contra%20Claudia)\"\u003Ethe candidate with the highest number of objections\u003C\/a\u003E. It was a trial of strength, if we want to look at it that way.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E* * *\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe offices of the magazine Contrapoder are located on the top floor of a building in Guatemala City\u2019s Zone 9 \u2014 close, very close, to Zone 10, the iconic district of trendy hotels and bars, known for being the headquarters of the country\u2019s biggest corporations and their law firms. The three brains behind the magazine are sitting around a glass table: Director Juan Luis Font, Deputy Director Claudia M\u00e9ndez, and Editor-in-Chief Paola Hurtado.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EClaudia and Paola are investigative reporters with long and prestigious careers. Juan Luis directed the newspaper elPeri\u00f3dico at a time when it was a benchmark for journalistic independence in Guatemala, and his years in television have made him the main face of credible, no-frills journalism in the country. Juan Luis is respected by the Left and listened to attently by right-wing elites.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cFirst of all, I want to tell you what happened with Frank\u2019s interview,\u201d Claudia tells me. She\u2019s a long-time friend of Francisco Goldman and was the author\u2019s main accomplice in researching the material for his 2007 book, \u003Cem\u003EThe Art of Political Murder\u003C\/em\u003E. In fact, she was the one who helped him get the controversial interview with Paz y Paz.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThat\u2019s why I came,\u201d I say.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIt was probably the trust between the journalist and his source that led Claudia Paz and her associates to speak so openly to Goldman, and to assume, without asking, that the conversation was just a private chat between friends. The journalist recorded the conversation and, because he and the prosecutor never agreed that it would be off the record, he published it. Claudia M\u00e9ndez knew from the beginning that Goldman was planning to use the interview for a book, and she says that when she heard it was about to be released, she suggested to her culture editor that he purchase the reproduction rights, without even reading it. When the editor reviewed the galley and read its content, he apparently found it interesting, but not especially explosive. Clearly he was less sensitive to the accusations it contained than the members of CACIF.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI have a source who says that when they saw it, they said: \u2018That\u2019s it, enough is enough, we\u2019re done,\u2019\u201d Paola says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cNo, the decision to make her step down wasn\u2019t based on a news article,\u201d Claudia counters. \u201cIt had been in the works for a long time. In fact, we published the piece in December. I was in a meeting with some lawyers who told me: \u2018We\u2019re thinking of asking the Constitutional Court when Paz y Paz has to leave, whether it\u2019ll be in May or December.\u2019\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cOf course, but let\u2019s not be na\u00efve,\u201d Paola responds. \u201cThe article helped speed it along. It put a date on the decision. It had an impact. It had such an impact that when Claudia Paz came to do an interview on the channel, she was furious...\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EJuan Luis Font is the same age as Paz y Paz, and they have known each other since they were three years old. The world of Guatemala\u2019s well-to-do is a small one. They celebrated birthdays and the weddings of mutual friends together. He says that he never saw her so angry as the day that, shortly after the Constitutional Court cut her term short, she was invited on the television program hosted by the team at Contrapoder. He says that shortly before the show, the attorney general complained to him backstage, her eyes squinting in anger.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cYou knew what this would lead to,\u201d she told him.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Claudia, but all we did was print an interview you gave,\u201d Juan Luis responded. \u201cDo you think the article had an impact?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHer response was sharp. She was hurt. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the right time.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThrough their sources, all three journalists had come to realize \u2014just as Paz y Paz and her former private undersecretary Elvyn D\u00edaz at some point realized\u2014 that the genocide sentence had caused various businessmen and political operatives, people with diverse interests, who otherwise couldn\u2019t agree on anything, to say to each other, in the second half of 2013: \u201cIf we don\u2019t defend ourselves, if we don\u2019t close ranks, they\u2019ll string us up by our necks.\u201d There was a shared sense that the attorney general aimed to prosecute all of them for supporting R\u00edos Montt in the 1980s.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cBut Claudia Paz y Paz said to me at one point: \u2018Juan, considering everything it took to make this trial happen, do you think it would be possible to it again, to prosecute someone else?\u2019\u201d Juan Luis recalls. He says the right invented their own horror stories, that they frightened themselves.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EJuan Luis grew up in the small town of Retalhuleu, in southern Guatemala, among ranchers and businessmen sympathetic to R\u00edos Montt \u2014 some of whom had participated in counterinsurgency bombing operations. He knows the minds of the men who made and make decisions in the country. He has spoken thousands of times with many of these men. I ask him to what extent all of this, all the power struggles over the justice system, is ideological, or if, in reality, it\u2019s about the fear of losing the comfort of being above good and evil, of having no judge but your own conscience, if you have one.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s ideological,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it\u2019s more about group interests. But they interpret these group interests as ideology, and consider anyone who questions the group interests to be ideological enemies.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve never seen people here pull their hair out and violently attack their opponents for ideological reasons,\u201d Paola adds. \u201cThe fear is that the criminal prosecutions could expand the radius to include them.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThey benefited from the defeat of the guerrillas,\u201d Juan Luis says. \u201cThat\u2019s why they don\u2019t question the methods that were used. \u2018It\u2019s what needed to happen,\u2019 they say.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cBut when you paid Sperisen\u2019s or Figueroa\u2019s salary with private funds, or gave Vielman money to buy illegal weapons, when you know you were part of that, that\u2019s when the alarm bells start going off,\u201d adds Paola, speaking about the future, about what lies ahead.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIt strikes me that they\u2019ve been talking for a while now about \u201cthem,\u201d about unnamed elites, about the same \u201cthem\u201d that Aguilar, Melgar, and Claudia Paz y Paz referred to in their interview with Goldman. I point this out, and Juan Luis jumps up like a spring and grabs a recent edition of Contrapoder, from June, in which they had published an interview with Otto P\u00e9rez Molina.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThe president talks about \u2018them\u2019 too!\u201d he says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThen he points me to a part of the interview where P\u00e9rez Molina talks about his relationship with businessmen and the power struggles with CACIF over the regulation of hydroelectric and mining operations. He says, \u201cThey\u2019re afraid we\u2019ll keep going and start getting involved in other issues, like the state having a greater level of influence and involvement in these businesses.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cBut \u2018them\u2019 in this case is a huge group that ultimately is made up of wide swaths of the middle class,\u201d explains Juan Luis. \u201cThat\u2019s why I also think that the Sperisen and Vielman case is going to provoke even more backlash than the genocide case, because in the genocide case the responsibility was more generalized, but in this case, well, imagine if someone actually started looking into the specific funding streams...\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ESilence falls over the room, an atmosphere almost of mourning, or of the exhaustion that builds before mustering some great effort.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cDo any of you think that \u2018they\u2019 will ever face justice in Guatemala?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cFor acts of violence committed during the war, no,\u201d says Juan Luis Font, pausing briefly to think, then adding: \u201cAnd for other kinds of acts, no.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E* * *\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWere you aware of the extent to which you would be testing the system?\u201d I ask Elvyn D\u00edaz, the attorney general\u2019s sarcastic former undersecretary. We\u2019re meeting in a bar with a bohemian vibe. One of the rooms features a conceptual art installation consisting of 200 knives hanging from the ceiling, and in the next room they serve gin and tonics, fries with bacon, and cheese croquettes. D\u00edaz says he\u2019s leaving the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office satisfied with everything they\u2019ve achieved, optimistic. Nevertheless, his comments exude a certain bitterness. He didn\u2019t like losing the battle. Deep down he feels that Claudia and her colleagues didn\u2019t deserve the blow.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI don\u2019t think so. Not me, personally. But we didn\u2019t adequately evaluate everyone involved in the system. We forgot the Constitutional Court was involved... and we\u2019ve already seen what they\u2019re made of.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHe tells me he\u2019s worried about the sense of despair sweeping over the human rights community. He thinks that he and the rest of Paz y Paz\u2019s team should talk to those organizations, explain what they\u2019ve achieved, all the precedents that were set in terms of procedures, transparency, cases closed. He wants to tell them that their project of reforming the justice system isn\u2019t over.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIf there\u2019s one thing Claudia did right, it\u2019s that she put her neck on the line for everything: for the successes and the failures,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was a whole team behind Claudia, but she took on all the administrative fallout that would have made us look like idiots, all the preliminary hearings were on her... She made sure of that. She avoided screwing over her younger colleagues, because she knew that one day we\u2019d have to stick our necks out too. And she did it all so well.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cShe has a clear long-term vision,\u201d I say.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWe always have.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ED\u00edaz tells me that he and many of his colleagues now consider it a mistake not to have nominated another candidate in addition to Claudia Paz, in the process of electing a new attorney general. He thinks that by not suggesting alternative candidates \u2014by not putting forward a plan B, even though they knew that Paz y Paz\u2019s candidacy had an army arrayed against it\u2014 they left the top prosecutor\u2019s office in the hands of other interests.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E* * *\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EToday is Claudia Paz y Paz\u2019s last day as attorney general. A handful of secretaries and prosecutors bid her a tearful farewell as she leaves the office. Outside, a group of about 70 people, including human rights defenders and relatives of victims, have laid down a carpet of flowers and pine needles for her to walk on as she exits the building and descends the steps to the street, where her car is waiting. As she walks down the floral carpet to the applause of her supporters, women come out to greet her, hugging her, handing her a flower or two and whispering words in her ears. After each embrace, Claudia\u2019s small eyes and round face fill with more and more emotion, until she drops her guard completely, bursts out of the cold armor she wore as attorney general, and cries too.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=4000&ImageHeight=2656&ImageId=41383 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Claudia Paz y Paz. Photo Sandra Sebasti\u00e1n\/Plaza P\u00fablica\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Claudia Paz y Paz. Photo Sandra Sebasti\u00e1n\/Plaza P\u00fablica \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBenjam\u00edn Manuel, one of the directors of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), the organization of war victims that brought charges against R\u00edos Montt, watches the scene from a few meters away, wearing the hard expression typical of the rural working poor. The look of someone with no emotions to hide. Manuel is short, closer to 70 than 60, and his shoes and pant legs are caked with mud. He traveled four hours from Baja Verapaz to be here, to stand in silence for these few minutes on Friday, May 16.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWalking one step behind her, Paz y Paz\u2019s sister collects the flowers from the ground, a huge bouquet already in her hand. The attorney general\u2019s family is there to support her. For Paz y Paz, leading the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, and especially leaving it, is much more than just a matter of employment. For her, and for the people showing up to support her, Claudia Paz\u2019s legacy is measured in much more than just statistics. She is the woman who toppled the symbolic barriers that insulated Guatemala\u2019s justice system. Even if, just ten days later, some of those barriers would be raised back up.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EPaz y Paz finally makes it to her vehicle. She waves goodbye, accepts one last hug, and disappears behind her tinted windows. The journey down the 80-foot-long staircase has taken her over 15 minutes. Her engine starts and the car leaves. Benjam\u00edn stays where he is, exchanges a few words with some acquaintances, people from the association, relatives of victims, and then sets off on his journey home.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E* * *\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe National Palace of Culture is the main symbol of political power in Guatemala. It is located in the capital\u2019s central square, next to the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Human Rights Office of the Archbishop (ODHA), where both Claudia Paz and the slain bishop and human rights defender Juan Jos\u00e9 Gerardi once worked, and on whose columns are carved the names of the victims \u2014the dead and the disappeared\u2014 collected by the Interdiocesan Project for the Recovery of Historical Memory (REHMI). Today, more than 200 guests have gathered in the National Palace\u2019s Room of the Flags and are seated in rows of chairs waiting for the ceremonies to start. Almost all are men dressed in dark suits. In the eighth row, there is a woman wearing traditional Quich\u00e9 clothing. She is a congresswoman, they tell me. Marimba music plays. A minute before the authorities enter the hall, former President Vinicio Cerezo arrives, smiling and greeting the guests as he walks in. The national anthem. Otto P\u00e9rez Molina swears in the new attorney general, Thelma Aldana. Speeches.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe new attorney general speaks about the quest for social harmony, affirms her \u201cunwavering commitment to the independence of the MP,\u201d and says that she will continue any \u201ccorrect actions\u201d that her predecessor may have taken. After Aldana, the president speaks about the magnificent work of the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office under the leadership of Claudia Paz y Paz. He insists three times that he has always respected the independence and autonomy of the attorney general, that the process of electing a new one was transparent, and that today is a great day for the country\u2019s institutional integrity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EPaz y Paz gets up from her chair at the main table just once, to hug Aldana and to shake hands with the president after everyone finishes speaking. She had prepared a farewell speech, but no one invited her to read it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E* * *\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAfter the event, I meet with Paz y Paz at the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office building. She has yet to complete the administrative process of handing over the office to her successor. The shelves are already empty. The outgoing attorney general is again accompanied by some of her family members. Four months have now passed since our previous meeting, and I\u2019m hoping to find her free from the constraints of her position, more relaxed, willing to speak more openly, especially after yesterday\u2019s emotional catharsis on the steps.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut no.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWith an ever-present smile, with diplomacy, Claudia Paz dodges all of my invitations to give some dimension to the year that has passed since R\u00edos Montt\u2019s conviction, and to the evidence that the sectors responsible for the subsequent annulment are still on a war path. I talk to her about congress\u2019s resolution item, and the attempt to disqualify Yassm\u00edn Barrios, which could be seen as a threat to whomever might preside over the second trial. But she stays firmly planted on the level of legal assessment and qualifies the former development as \u201csurprising\u201d and the attack on Barrios as \u201cextremely delicate.\u201d She views the sanctions by the Guatemalan Bar Association against the judge as a legal aberration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIf tomorrow the Supreme Court issues a ruling that this group of lawyers doesn\u2019t like, could the group really sanction them and assert that they\u2019re no longer Supreme Court justices?\u201d she says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EShe is especially taciturn when talking about her own situation, her implicit dismissal. She hides her frustration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cClaudia, what did you do to make these people so angry?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThat whole time, the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office was doing its job. It\u2019s a judicial process. Some people will feel like the rulings protect their interests and others will feel like they don\u2019t.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIt seems like the people who feel affected are the people with a lot of power in the country.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI believe that, yes, this was the first time that sectors with power, people with power, faced judgement.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cDo you think those sectors were more offended by the cases targeting corrupt politicians or by the trial of R\u00edos Montt?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that the groups close to R\u00edos Montt and Rodr\u00edguez S\u00e1nchez made sure his voice would be heard more than the victims... And there was a political reaction against me, that much is clear. They\u2019ve filed more lawsuits against me in these four months than in the previous three years.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cAnd ultimately they chose not to reelect you.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThe law obliged the commissioners to evaluate the academic, ethical, and professional values of the candidates, but after that, they can raise their hands to choose you or not. What are the reasons they decided not to raise their hands in my case? I can\u2019t say, I don\u2019t know.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cDo you think the president had something to do with it?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe president has always respected the autonomy of the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn our January interview, Paz y Paz had said that maintaining the transformations to the MP would depend on her successor, the next attorney general, having a commitment to the rule of law. She said that the important thing would be to choose a successor on merit. Thelma Aldana, in this respect, is a confusing figure with a mixed record. In 2009, she was one of the Supreme Court candidates that the CICIG accused of being controlled by a businessman known as \u201c\u003Cem\u003EEl Rey del Tenis\u003C\/em\u003E.\u201d The criticisms leveled against her by CICIG prosecutor Carlos Castresana were harsh: \u201cEven though [...] the grading process aims to select candidates with a high profile, in the case of the magistrate, the rating she obtained in the following areas is striking. Merits in the area of human development: ZERO; participation in civil organizations and associations: ZERO; defense of the rule of law: ZERO; promoting human rights: ZERO; defense and promotion of multiculturalism...\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EDespite this, Aldana was appointed to the Supreme Court and during her four years on the bench she never received a bad review. Claudia Paz thinks that she should be given the benefit of the doubt:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ll have to wait and see. She was president of the Supreme Court and did some very important work supporting women who were victims of violence. We\u2019ll have to wait and see.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHoping to get her to dispense with the formulaic responses, I remind Paz y Paz that she can say what she thinks now; she\u2019s no longer the Attorney General. \u201cActually I still am, until 4:00 in the afternoon,\u201d she says with a smile. \u201cOk then let\u2019s do the interview at 5:00,\u201d I joke.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EShe takes the joke in stride but doesn\u2019t give in. I manage to break through her armor just once, when I point out that two days ago, 48 hours before she left the MP, she oversaw the arrest of Jairo Orellana Morales, a powerful local drug lord from the Zacapa region who specializes in drug trafficking and, according to reports from the U.S. government, has ties to the Zetas. Now Claudia Paz is smiling from ear to ear, her face so stretched she almost shuts her eyes, and she lets herself open up about the case. During the rest of our interview, she responds with extraordinary prudence.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cDoes seeking justice in Guatemala continue to mean weighing the political consequences of every step?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cJustice must be done, because it\u2019s what the law demands and what the victims demand.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ELeaving office doesn\u2019t mean Paz y Paz is leaving the game. She plans to return to academia, to teach at a university in Washington, D.C., to try to make an impact from there, and maybe one day to return to Guatemala. That\u2019s why she\u2019s still so cautious about what she says. And it\u2019s not the only thing she\u2019s cautious about.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI won\u2019t learn about it for another two weeks, but tonight, Claudia Paz is leaving the country by plane. She and her team know that, once she\u2019s been stripped of her immunity, the pending requests for preliminary hearings against her will become formal complaints, and they\u2019re afraid of facing potential legal action. There are even rumors that the authorities intend to arrest her tomorrow, Sunday, or maybe Monday. This would be a major scandal, but her team isn\u2019t willing to take the risk. Once she\u2019s out of office, the attorney general who convicted Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt will be whisked out of the country in less than five hours.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E* * *\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOur car finally leaves the traffic of the capital behind and we make our way northeast, toward Nebaj. It\u2019s almost ten in the morning. Today, June 30, is Army Day in Guatemala, a holiday that used to be celebrated with a military parade through the city\u2019s main avenues. Used to. In 2008, the government yielded to pressure from organizations representing the children of the dead and disappeared, which boycotted the parades and succeeded in turning June 30 into a day of remembrance. Now the military commemorations are confined to the barracks, and the streets downtown are lined with murals and endless mosaics made from photos of the disappeared, which stay up all year round. On one wall in Zone 1, someone has graffitied: \u201cMemory, disputed territory.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EA little over a year had passed since the genocide ruling, issued on May 10, 2013. Despite the conviction\u2019s annulment, Guatemalans commemorated the anniversary in the capital and in several villages in the department of Quich\u00e9. In Chajul, one of the department\u2019s three municipalities, which together with Nebaj and Cotzal make up the Ixil area, a few hundred people from around the region gathered to eat, give testimony, and honor the day with flowers. If Guatemala was once considered a single nation, since the conviction it has become clearer than ever that it is, in debates over history and justice, at least two.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe urban landscape transforms into small villages that line the sides of the road for a few hours, then disappear, leaving fields and forests in every direction. Allen Gonz\u00e1lez, who worked alongside Bishop Juan Gerardi with the Diocesan Caritas in Santa Cruz del Quich\u00e9 in the late 1970s, is at the wheel. He had to leave the region when Gerardi, parishioners, and priests dying around him, and having escaped two attempts on his own life, decided to close the diocese. Not just to leave, but to close the diocese. In the 80s, Allen founded the Guatemalan Church in Exile. In the late 90s, he returned to the country to work on small-scale development projects with Ixil communities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAllen is pessimistic about the future. He views Claudia Paz\u2019s departure as a warning sign for those who continue to seek justice for crimes committed during the war. Even so, he says that the trial nevertheless served to demonstrate that it is not the people from the communities, from the Indigenous villages, who are evading justice; rather, it is the very powers that created the laws who now seek to avoid them \u2014 now that the justice system is no longer tailor-made to their interests.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThis is a long road, and we\u2019ve barely started,\u201d he says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWe pass through the canton of Santabal. Allen tells me that, a few kilometers from the road, there are two small communities home to more than 80 widows of people who were disappeared or killed in the 80s. A little farther down the road, he points out an enormous mansion surrounded by white walls.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThey turned this place into a torture house. In those days, masked soldiers would board the buses and take whoever they wanted and interrogate them for days.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cDo you think there will be a second trial for R\u00edos Montt?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cNo. I think they\u2019re going to drag their feet until that man dies. They\u2019re going to play that never-ending game they always play here. Not to mention there\u2019s the idea that putting him on trial is dividing the country.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201c(\u2026)\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s funny, you know. It seems like in Guatemala, injustice unites people more than justice.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWe arrive in Nebaj, a small town emblematic of the repression against the Ixil people. The central square, in front of the church, is where the executions took place. Nevertheless, the place was governed for years by the FRG, the party founded by R\u00edos Montt, and then later by the Patriot Party. During the trial, Otto P\u00e9rez Molina visited this town square wearing traditional Ixil clothing and handing out bags of food. The war divided the Ixil people between those who sought refuge in the town center, under protection of the Army, and those who fled to the mountains to die of hunger and be branded guerrillas. I see some Mara Salvatrucha graffiti painted on a wall behind the church. A few days ago, I learned that Nebaj is the municipality with the highest rate of adolescent suicides in Guatemala. If the Ixil past is terrifying, the future is also bleak.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E* * *\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEver since I met Gaspar Velasco in 2010, I\u2019ve heard him speak the names of his three sons dozens of times: Miguel Velasco Hermoso, Francisco Velasco Hermoso, and Juan Velasco Hermoso. All three were murdered during the Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt period, from March 1982 to August 1983. In total, he lost nine relatives during the war \u2014 fathers, brothers, sons. The Guatemalan state, in carrying out a policy of reconciliation and reparations, has compensated him for two of their deaths. That\u2019s the limit. You can claim ten or 20 deaths, but the state will only pay you for a maximum of two. He says he was given 44,000 quetzals, or about $6,000. He spent it on some land to grow crops. He lost the land he once owned when he left his village, Bijolom, to escape the army.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe home where he receives me was also built with his own hands, from concrete blocks and metal sheets provided in recent years by the government. The state has supplied victims whose homes were burned by the Army in the 80s with materials to build new ones \u2014 small shacks with dirt-floors and flimsy roofs, like the kind crammed together in the slums of any Central American city.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFour years ago the village of La Libertad, located 25 kilometers north of Nebaj, was built entirely of wood. Now it\u2019s full of those cinder block houses, although the community\u2019s younger residents \u2014those who thirty years ago were too young to have a home of their own to lose, and who have not received any help from the state\u2014 still live between the old wood planks. The young people who stayed, that is. In the center of town, a crew of workers is busy laying the foundation for what will be the biggest and most modern house in La Libertad, by far. Two floors, with a full electrical installation. The property belongs to a family whose daughter migrated to the United States.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EGaspar is an old jokester with a toothless smile. He\u2019s one of the few people who speak Spanish in La Libertad. He\u2019s a former director of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation, a role he delegated to a neighbor shortly before the trial. He also testified against R\u00edos Montt, attending the hearings day after day, week after week. On the day of the conviction, I watched him smile for hours on end. Not a euphoric smile, but the smile of someone satisfied with a job well done. I hadn\u2019t had a chance to talk to him since.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cDoes it make you feel defeated that the court overturned the conviction?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cHow could we be weak when we went through everything we went through, everything we suffered? They have money and they know we\u2019re poor. That\u2019s what happened. But the internationals know the facts now. Everyone knows what R\u00edos Montt did. How could we be weak when we\u2019ve already gone to court two times?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ESometimes it feels unreal to speak with the victims of the genocide, who continue to keep their cause alive so many years later. They have no room in their hearts for defeat. It\u2019s as if they measure success and its deadlines on a different scale. In the book \u003Cem\u003EGuatemala: las l\u00edneas de su mano\u003C\/em\u003E, Luis Cardoza y Arag\u00f3n writes that, for Indigenous Maya, time does not exist. On our way to Nebaj, Allen told me that the key to understanding the Ixil is that they don\u2019t live through themselves, they live through their community, so their focus isn\u2019t on their own personal futures, it\u2019s on the future of the community. I suppose that\u2019s what drives Gaspar, who at 70 years old is exploding with life.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThere are always people\u2026 people who get discouraged. But not everyone,\u201d Gaspar says. \u201cThose of us who bear witness and give testimony know that the time will come when we will change the law, when we will change Guatemala. Because even if they take my life, none of this is for me, it\u2019s for Guatemala.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cAnd what about the Ixil youth?\u201d I ask.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cBefore, they would say, \u2018We don\u2019t know what the war was like, we don\u2019t know what happened.\u2019 But now they\u2019re learning, because there\u2019s a book about the conviction. That has helped. Now the young people know that we weren\u2019t lying to them when we told them what happened.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EGaspar assures me that if there\u2019s a new trial, he\u2019ll testify again. Standing next to him is Tom\u00e1s Raimundo, who also testified before Judge Barrios. On his other side, looking like a skinny, dark-skinned Don Quixote, stands Francisco Matom. He only speaks Ixil, but with the help of an interpreter he once told me that he had watched his own brother\u2019s body burn on the side of a road in 1983. Like most of his neighbors, he survives off the crops he grows and never misses a meeting about the trial, about mobilizing against mining in the area, or about fixing the town spring. I know him as a man of sharp ideas, who doesn\u2019t beat around the bush:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cNow everyone knows what happened,\u201d he told me at the time. \u201cNow even our children know what happened. And you can\u2019t overturn what has happened.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cSo,\u201d I ask Don Gaspar again, \u201ceven though the conviction was overturned, the trial was still important, still meaningful?\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201c\u003Cem\u003EAy Dios\u003C\/em\u003E! The book spread the truth all over Guatemala, not just in Huehuetenango, not just in Quich\u00e9. Now everyone knows how it all happened, what the genocide was like.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cAnd if R\u00edos Montt dies before he\u2019s convicted?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIf he dies without facing judgement, the world already knows what happened, and all of Guatemala should feel judged.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFrancisco uses different words to express what remains \u2014 what nothing and no one, not the closing of the case in Guatemala City, not the dismissal of a judge or the removal of an attorney general, can change. Unconcerned with the push and pull of the powerful, with the elites and their fears of losing control of the country, Francisco leans against the wall and delivers his own judgement:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cWhether I die or R\u00edos Montt dies no longer matters, because he has his family, he has his past, and he has his conscience.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: right;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cem\u003E*With reporting from Valeria Guzm\u00e1n. Carlos Dada took part in preparing and conducting the two interviews with Claudia Paz y Paz. Translated by Max Granger. Read chapter one: \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\"\/en\/202502\/centroamerica\/27748\/The-Genocide-Trial-and-the-Tightrope.htm\"\u003EThe Genocide Trial and the Tightrope\u003C\/a\u003E. \u003Cem\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E"}