Lic. Rodolfo Mendoza
Ministro de Gobernación
Ministerio de Gobernación
Despacho Ministerial, Of. No. 8
Palacio Nacional, 6^a Calle y 7^a Avda, Zona 1
Cuidad de Guatemala, Guatemala

Sr. Ministro:

I am writing to express my concern regarding the 1995 massacre of Guatemalan refugees who had returned to their homeland after more than a decade in exile.

Both 8-year-old Santiago Coc Pop and 7-year-old Maurilia Coc Max were born in a Guatemalan refugee camp in Mexico to families who had fled their country following army counter-insurgency operations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1994, their families returned to Guatemala after an agreement was signed by the Guatemalan government which guaranteed their safety and promised land to returning refugees. The families settled on the Xamán farm, Chisec, in Alta Verapaz.

One year later, on October 5, 1995, members of a military patrol entered the farm and opened fire indiscriminately. Santiago and Maurilia were killed, along with nine other members of their community. A soldier shot Santiago in the wrist and then chased him before firing fatal shots into his head and chest. Maurilia was shot in the back. Thirty others, including three soldiers, were wounded by military gunfire.

A year and a half has passed since the massacre, and still no one has been brought to justice for this brutal attack, nor have the victims or their families received any compensation. I understand that judicial investigations have been thwarted by threats against witnesses and lawyers representing the victims, and by alleged tampering with the evidence.

I trust that you are as troubled as I am about the incident at Xamán. I urge you to call for a full and impartial judicial investigation into this massacre of eleven people, including two little children. Ensure that all necessary steps are taken to guarantee that the armed forces collaborate fully with such an investigation and that those found responsible are brought to justice. I also urge your government to guarantee the safety of the witnesses’ relatives, prosecutors, lawyers and all other persons taking part in these proceedings, and ensure that relatives and surviving victims are compensated.

Respectfully yours,