Arnoldo
Xi, land rights activist, disappeared in Purulha in 1995[1]
On March 23, 1995, Arnoldo Xi, a rights activist
and member of National Indigenous and Peasant Coordination (CONIC)
and the Committee for the Improvement of Tixila, was shot and wounded
in Matucay, Purulha, Baja Verapaz. The incident occurred in front
of a companion who reported that after the shooting Xi was dragged
into a car by armed men and driven away. Xi had been working with
peasants attempting to gain title over land in Tixila, Purulha,
that they had been farming for many years. An area landowner was
trying to evict the peasant communities. A witness to Xi’s
attack claimed that employees of the landowner were in the car with
the assailants, and local human rights groups accused the landowner’s
private security guards of abducting Xi. According to Amnesty International
(AI), private security guards like those suspected of Xi’s
disappearance often work with the cooperation of the official security
forces.
[2]
Two habeas corpus petitions were filed in Xi’s name in 1995,
but his whereabouts are still unknown. Despite the existence of
witnesses to the abduction and evidence at the scene of the crime,
only one man was detained in relation to the disappearance and he
was subsequently released. Two arrest warrants were issued in 1996
for employees of the nearby ranches, but they were not detained
and no one has been prosecuted for the disappearance.
Endnotes
[1 Main sources: AI, Guatemala: All the
truth, justice for all, AMR 34/02/98 (May 1998); Country Reports
1995 to 2001; and UN Commission on Human Rights, Assistance to Guatemala
in the field of human rights, E/CN.4/1996/15 (December 1995). [2] AI Appeal, The “disappearance”
of Arnoldo Xi, 1997.
HRF re CICIG on TV News (Español) (12/05/07)
HRF re CICIG on Radio News (Español) (12/05/07)
