cemetery.105 Furthermore, on October 9 and 10, 2006, the prosecutor's office asked the Ministry of Defense for
additional information relating to the personnel file and certificates of Colonel Eliú Cabrera, 106 as well as
applying for authorization from San Benito Criminal Court of First Instance to request general information from
said Colonel to other state entities.107 On October 23, 2006, the Ministry of Defense turned down the request
for information for lack of judicial authorization and said that the proceeding for which that information was
being sought had not been indicated.108 On November 30, 2006, the record was transmitted to the Prosecution
Unit for Special Cases and Human Rights Violations. 109 In January 23, 2007, the Unit applied for judicial
authorization to request a variety of information from the Ministry of Defense regarding the zone, military
detachments, troops, commanders, officers, and chain of command for the months of March to May 1982,110
which was authorized four days later by the San Benito Court of First Instance.111
42.
On April 17, 2007, by which time several deadlines and extensions granted had expired, the Ministry
of Defense filed a series of petitions against the court ruling ordering it to release information, arguing that the
information was confidential and concerned military matters classified as secret. 112 After the petitions and
their reiterations were refused, 113 on October 2, 2007, the Ministry of Defense sent an official letter to the
prosecutor's office, saying that there were no records of the troops and officers assigned to Military Zone No.
23 in 1982. However, it enclosed the service certificates of several servicemen stationed in that zone between
March and May that year and provided information about the military ranks in the chain of command at the
time.114 In addition, on that same date the Ministry of Defense requested the Petén Court of First Instance for a
hearing at the Santa Elena First Infantry Brigade in order to enable the judge to see the related information, so
that he might determine whether or not the documents were of use to the investigation, while at the same time
protecting their confidentiality, given that the records on posts occupied by the chain of command were
classified as “secret.”115 The hearing was held on December 20, 2007, at the location requested by the Ministry
of Defense, and no one from the Public Prosecution Service or the Public Defender's Office was allowed to
attend.116 On January 23, 2008, the San Benito Criminal Court decided not to include the record of the hearing
in the proceeding, as it considered that it did not contain elements relevant to the investigation.117 However,
the court ordered the Ministry of Defense to convey the requested information on January 23, 2007, to the
Public Prosecution Service, except for the servicemen's personnel records and the names of the places where
the operational units and military detachments were located in the Department of Petén, other than those near
the village of Los Josefinos.118
43.
The Ministry of Defense forwarded a range of information on May 8, 2008,119 and August 4, 2008.120
Between June 23 and 25, 2009, a second exhumation of the remains of the 19 people originally buried in the
mass grave was carried out to obtain DNA samples and compare them with the genetic samples provided by
the victims' relatives.121 The results of the DNA tests, presented on December 6, 2010, only identified one of the
victims with a high degree of certainty.122 Finally, in 2007 and 2008,123 the prosecutor's office collected a series
Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, pp. 224-236, 334-410.
Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, p. 98.
107 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, p. 100.
108 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, p. 111.
109 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, p. 102.
110 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, pp. 108-110.
111 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, pp. 113-115 (verso).
112 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, pp. 144-147 (verso).
113 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, pp. 153, 165-165 (verso).
114 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, pp. 272-279.
115 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, p. 183.
116 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, p. 205.
117 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, pp. 208-210 (verso).
118 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, pp. 210-210 (verso).
119 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, Volume II, pp. 577-581.
120 Annex 05, Criminal case file, Volume II, C-805-96, p. 582.
121 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, pp. 283-303.
122 Annex 11, Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala, Anthropological investigation report, December 6, 2010.
123 Annex 05, Criminal case file C-805-96, pp. 237, 238.
105
106
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