GUATEMALA CITY–Guatemalan police arrested a military father and son Friday in
connection with the death of a prominent bishop in 1998 shortly after the
cleric published a report blaming the army for many war atrocities.
Deputy Constable Gerson Lopez said that police arrested Capt. Byron Lima
Oliva, 30, and his father, retired Col. Disrael Lima Estrada, 58, for
allegedly taking part in the slaying of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi. Lopez said
police had also arrested an elderly woman, Margarita Lopez, a cook in the
parish house where Gerardi lived. Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for two
other people–a military intelligence officer and a priest who was Gerardi's
aide–officials said.
Gerardi was killed April 26, 1998, two days after releasing a landmark report
that accused Guatemala's military of extensive atrocities during the 36-year
civil war that ended in 1996.
For Immediate Release
January 22, 2000
SOA Watch ~ PO Box 4566 ~ Washington DC 20017 ~ 202-234-3440
Contact: Carol Richardson, SOA Watch, (202) 234-3440
WASHINGTON, DC– SOA-trained Guatemalan Col. Byron Disrael Lima Estrada was
arrested, along with his son, January 21 for the 1998 murder of Roman
Catholic Bishop Juan Gerardi. According to a declassified US Defense
Intelligence Agency biographic sketch, Lima Estrada took Military Police
training at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) now located at Ft.
Benning, GA. Lima Estrada went on to head the infamous D-2 (G-2) Military
Intelligence agency at the height of the genocide campaign in Guatemala's
civil war.
Bishop Gerardi was bludgeoned to death in his home two days after he released
a human rights report that implicated the D-2 in human rights atrocities
committed during the war. The report, "Guatemala: Never Again," based on
thousands of testimonies collected by the archbishop's office, provided a
chilling catalog of the mechanisms of violence. In a chapter titled "D-2: The
Very Name of Fear," the report severely criticizes the military intelligence
agency headed by Lima Estrada from 1983-85. It cited the D-2 for playing a
"central role in the conduct of military operations, in massacres,
extra-judicial executions, forced disappearances and torture."
The arrest of Lima Estrada will add to the mounting evidence against the US
Army School of the Americas. The SOA has come under increasing criticism by
groups in the United States and Latin America who cite numerous human rights
and US State Department reports that link SOA graduates to atrocities in
Latin America. The 78,000-member Leadership Conference of Catholic nuns and
the 13-million member AFL-CIO are two of the spectrum of organizations that
have called for the closing of the infamous US Army school. In commemoration
of another SOA-linked assassination in El Salvador, over 10,000 human rights
activists gathered to protest the Ft. Benning combat training school last
November. Twenty-three now face six-month prison sentences for their
nonviolent protest.
In July 1999 the US Congress voted 230-197 to cut funds to the SOA. The
measure failed in the conference committee, but another vote is expected this
year. Rep. Joseph Moakley (MA) and Sen. Richard Durbin (IL) have introduced
companion bills calling for the SOA's closing. The arrest in Guatemala will
bolster their efforts and counter Pentagon and Congressional supporters who
argue that SOA atrocities are a thing of the past.