In Lucía Tiu Tum and Miguel Us Mejía, community leaders, killed in 1996; José Sucunú Panjoj, member of the Maya organization CERJ, disappeared in 1994 [1]

In early January 1996, Mayan activists Lucía Tiu Tum and her husband, Miguel Us Mejía, were killed in Santa Lucía La Reforma, Totonicapán, while returning from a wedding. Tiu, who was eight months pregnant and a member of the Guatemalan Widows' Association (CONAVIGUA), was shot; her husband, a member of the Council of Ethnic Communities Runujel Junam (CERJ), was stabbed more than 20 times. Both victims were also members of the New Guatemalan Democratic Front (FDNG), a newly formed left-of-center political party, and were active in campaigns on security force reform and the disbanding of local PACs.

Human rights groups immediately accused local Civilian Defense Patrol (PAC) members or individuals with links to the army of murdering the couple for political reasons, but no one was arrested for the crime. In November 1996, the Second Criminal Court of First Instance closed the case at the request of the Public Prosecutor, for lack of evidence. The case remains unresolved.

Since CERJ was founded in 1988 to defend the rights of Maya communities, its members have been targeted by local PAC members and military officials. The group was active in opposing obligatory PAC service, and continues to work to preserve ethnic identity, promote land reform, and disseminate information on constitutional rights. By 1990, thirteen of its members had been killed or disappeared in various parts of the country. That number was estimated to have increased to 24 by 1995. In many of these cases, witnesses identified PAC members, uniformed soldiers, or members of the military as perpetrators of the crimes, but investigations were irregular, inconclusive, or never took place. Other CERJ members have been illegally detained by the police, harassed, threatened with death, and accused of belonging to the URNG guerrilla group.

One case of a CERJ member was brought to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights and resulted in a friendly settlement agreement in February 2000 between the Guatemalan government and the victim’s family. José Sucunú Panjoj disappeared on his way from Guatemala City to his home in Chichicastenango in 1994. Sucunú was involved in CERJ’s human rights and popular education programs, for which he allegedly had been persecuted, and he and his family were intimidated by PAC members and targeted. [2] After his disappearance, his family filed two habeas corpus petitions in November 1994 but received no information about his whereabouts. In the settlement reached through the Inter American Commission, the government agreed to give economic assistance to the Sucunú’s family and “to complete a thorough investigation and procedure to determine the identity of the material and intellectual authors” of the crime. Since 2000, no further information about the circumstances surrounding Sucunú’s disappearance have been provided by the government.

Endnotes

[1] Main sources: AI, AMR 34/02/98 (May 1998); Country Reports 1994 to 1999;
IACHR, Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 1990-1991, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.79.rev.1, Doc. 12 (February 1991); IACHR, Case 11.435 Guatemala, Report No. 21/98 (March 1998); IACHR, Case 11.435 Guatemala, Report No. 19/00 (February 2000); and UN Commission on Human Rights, Assistance to Guatemala in the field of human rights, E/CN.4/1997/90 (January 1997).
[2]According to IACHR Report 21/98 (citation above), Sucunú’s family alleged that former PAC member Sebastián Macario Ventura killed Sucunú and his son, who was hit by a car the same month as the disappearance. In 1993, Sucunú had led a group of parents trying to dismiss Macario, a teacher, after he allegedly raped a woman in front of about 100 students. Macario was detained in 1995 for the kidnapping of Sucunú, the killing of Sucunú’s son, as well as for rape and illegal detention, but the case was dismissed in July 1996 for lack of evidence.