For the past 12 years, the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG in Spanish) has been working to locate and exhume mass graves of political vicitims from Guatemala's 36-year civil war. The group documents evidence of human rights abuses for trials and returns victims' bodies to their families for burial. As a testament to the climate of fear in which they operate, the FAFG has been subject to repeated threats of violent retribution for their work.    

To address this concern, the AAA Committee on Human Rights has issued the following letter to the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala. The human rights committee hopes this letter will encourage an investigation into the threats against the FAFG employees and their families and help to foster a safer work environment for the FAFG as they continue their brave attempts to bring truth and justice to Guatemalan society. 

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Dr. Carlos Castresana
International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala
Apartado Postal 934 "A"
Ciudad de Guatemala,
Guatemala
Correo-e: sosa1@un.org (Margarita Sosa)

Dear Dr. Castresana:

The Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation ("FAFG") has informed the American Anthropological Association Committee for Human Rights that FAFG's Executive Director, Mr. Fredy Peccerelli, members of his immediate family, and a number of FAFG employees have received threats of violent retribution for their tireless work to document past and present human rights abuses by illegal armed groups in Guatemala.  The threats of dismemberment and death arrive via email and the most recent threats occurred on 19 May 2008.  We are also aware that the threats against Mr. Peccerrelli, the Peccerelli family, and FAFG employees extend as far back as 20 May 2002.  Printed copies of the relevant e-mails are enclosed with this correspondence for your review.

We formally bring our démarche to the attention of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala ("CICIG") because FAFG's past efforts to address the danger posed by these threats through the Guatemalan Ministerio Público have been unsuccessful.  Under these circumstances there is no defensible reason that the state should not be held accountable for the following requests:

1)   The civil police should not only continue, but improve, their efforts concerning the security of the FAFG workplace, its employees, and the Peccerrelli family.  We also request that the security plan be put into a confidential, written statement that references the security improvement and termination timeline, standard operating procedures, and numbers of civil police that will be tasked with this security operation.

2)   The Ministerio Público should provide a written explanation regarding why the threat investigation which began in 2002 has not been completed and deliver information on the current status of the case to the relevant parties.  We also request that a new investigation be opened regarding the most recent threats and that this investigation include cyber crime analysis to identify the originator of the death and dismemberment threats. 

3)   A statement from the government expressly supporting the involvement of the CICIG in this investigation.  We also request, consistent with the agreement establishing the CICIG as an independent investigative commission, that the CICIG be allowed free access to the state’s documents and the records of the civil police in order to conduct a thorough, independent investigation of the past and current threats. 

Our hope is that the CICIG can bring the specter of unbiased accountability to these circumstances and help the state to identify and prosecute the perpetrators of these threats.  If that can be accomplished, then FAFG can continue its work unimpeded by considerable security concerns and expand its efforts to decrease the persistence of violent behaviors that are severely damaging Guatemalan society and its fledgling democratic institutions.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of these very important matters.

American Anthropological Association

Committee for Human Rights

Learn more about the AAA Committee for Human Rights

View a PDF version of the Guatemala letter