Guatemalan government acknowledges responsibility for 1980 Spanish Embassy attack

Eduardo González The Guatemalan government has acknowledged “state responsibility” for the attack by security forces on the Spanish Embassy in 1980, which caused the death of 37 people in the context of the civil war that shook the country between 1960 and 1996. “This week we are joining a series of activities marked on the 45th anniversary of the burning of the Spanish embassy in Guatemala, which occurred on January 31, 1980,” declared the Presidential Commission for Peace, dependent on the government, in a press release on January 31. One of these activities, he continued, was the ceremony to unveil a green marble plaque at the site of the Embassy, “in order to remember this event in which 37 people died, including peasants, students and social activists who denounced the repression and persecution by the security forces of that time, for demanding respect for their human rights.” The text on the plaque, in gold letters, reads: “In memory of the victims and their dignity, the Government of Guatemala recognizes the state’s responsibility for this crime against humanity.” During the event, according to the Guatemalan newspaper ‘Prensa Libre’, a group of indigenous Mayans held an ancestral ceremony to honor the memory of the victims. On January 31, 1980, Guatemalan soldiers and police raided the Spanish Embassy, which had been occupied hours earlier by Mayan leaders and students who were denouncing abuses at the hands of the Army in the Quiché region, in the context of clashes with the guerrillas. At the time of the events, the Spanish ambassador, Máximo Cajal, the foreign minister, Adolfo Molina Orantes, the vice president of Guatemala, Eduardo Cáceres Lenhoff, and the USAC professor Mario Aguirre Godoy, were all gathered at the diplomatic headquarters. Máximo Cajal tried to negotiate for several hours with the Guatemalan authorities to avoid the tragedy, but received no response. Finally, several members of the heavily armed security forces broke into the Embassy, broke doors and windows and climbed the balconies until they reached the roof. Cajal insisted on convincing the police to desist from any action, but received no response. Shortly after the attack, a fire broke out in the building, killing 37 people, including the occupants, Spanish diplomats and workers. Among the victims of the attack were the then Spanish consul, Jaime Ruíz del Árbol, and two other Spaniards, Luis Felipe Sanz and María Teresa Villa, as well as Eduardo Cáceres Lehnhoff, Adolfo Molina Orantes and Vicente Menchú, leader of the Mayan ethnic group and father of activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner (1992) Rigoberta Menchú. Only three people survived the massacre: Cajal, Aguirre Godoy and the peasant Gregorio Yujá Xoná, who was kidnapped the next day at the Herrera Llerandi hospital and later murdered. Máximo Cajal As a result, Spain broke off diplomatic relations with Guatemala and did not reestablish them until 1984. Exactly five years ago, on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the massacre, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the attack was a “flagrant violation” of the diplomatic immunity of the Embassy and vindicated the figure of Máximo Cajal, who had an “impeccable and responsible” performance and was “unjustly wronged” for years. The events occurred during the regime of General Fernando Romeo Lucas García, who was accused of the massacre, as was the Minister of the Interior, Donaldo Álvarez Ruiz (who remains on the run from justice); the director of the now defunct National Police, Germán Chupina Barahona (now deceased); General Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores (who would become president of the country between 1983 and 1986) and Pedro Garcia Arredondo, head of the sixth police command and who was the only person prosecuted and sentenced to 90 years in prison for the burning of the Spanish Embassy. For his part, Máximo Cajal gave his own testimony in the Spanish National Court on April 25, 2012, transmitted by videoconference in a Guatemalan court. In his statement, the ambassador recounted his attempts to negotiate with the authorities, the police breaking into his own office armed “to the teeth,” the start of the fire and how he himself decided to leave the place and managed to “survive.” After saving his life, he was taken to a police van, where he was held for twenty minutes, during which time he could hear the screams of the people who were burning without anyone helping them, not even the firemen, who were not allowed to enter. Máximo Cajal died in Spain on April 3, 2014.

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