46
1998, but by that time the functions of Attorney General and Head of the Public
Ministry had been separated.
In 1994, he proposed a series of recourses to determine the whereabouts of Bámaca
Velásquez. In October that year, considering that Bámaca Velásquez might possibly
be detained, he began a special pre-trial investigation procedure before the Supreme
Court of Justice, a procedure that had been introduced during the reform of the
Criminal Procedural Code. He also filed a criminal complaint, in order to determine
the whereabouts of Bámaca Velásquez. The then Ombudsman, Jorge Mario García
Laguardia, was appointed executor in the first proceeding, and statements were
received from the father of Bámaca Velásquez, José León Bámaca Hernández, and
his sister, Egidia Gebia Bámaca Velásquez, in order to try and gather further
information.
He did not remember that, during the judicial proceedings that had been instituted,
and during Jennifer Harbury's hunger strike, the US Government had confirmed that
the Army had captured Bámaca Velásquez alive and had addressed a formal
diplomatic note to the Guatemalan Government on this subject. He knew that
Harbury had made statements that criminal proceedings would be instituted against
the military officers involved in the death of Bámaca Velásquez.
As Attorney General, he opposed the registration of Jennifer Harbury's marriage to
Bámaca Velásquez, because “it [did] not comply with Guatemalan legal
requirements”. In November 1994, he filed a civil suit for jactitation against
Harbury, strictly with regard to the economic aspects of her pretensions, and not in
relation to the case of human rights violations, due to the possibility of financial
fraud, of trying to make money at the cost of the Guatemalan State. He recognized
that Jennifer Harbury “had always declared that she did not want any money and
that she was not seeking money”. The Sixth Judge of the Civil Trial Court rejected
the action for jactitation, because he considered that Harbury was referring to filing
criminal suits and not civil suits. Owing to the action for jactitation, Jennifer Harbury
was obliged to remain in Guatemala under ne exeat, which could have been avoided,
since “the proceeding for a [civil] ne exeat to be lifted takes less than 24 hours.”
The various investigations that he instituted did not permit the facts related to the
disappearance of Bámaca Velásquez to be clarified, and no military officer was
convicted in relation to the instant case.
He denied having received information from Colonel Julio Roberto Alpírez indicating
that the Army had kept Bámaca Velásquez detained secretly in order to obtain
“intelligence information”, and that it had then decided to execute him.
Owing to the prolonged internal conflict that Guatemala experienced, “it was not
always easy [...] to obtain precise information about many things that were
happening, so as to be able to clearly establish what had occurred in each case”.
Because of his position, he knew about acts of State authorities that involved
tortures and extrajudicial executions.
k.
Testimony of Ismael Salvatierra Arroyo, former member of the
Guatemalan Armed Forces
He worked with the armed forces from November 1979 to September 1997, as First
Class Sergeant in the Defense Staff's transport team. The National Palace team of
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