This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 001548 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/16/2013 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KJUS MOPS GT
SUBJECT: RIOS MONTT STONED BY MOURNERS IN RABINAL 
 
REF: A. GUATEMALA 1530 
 
     ¶B. GUATEMALA 1479 
     ¶C. GUATEMALA 962 
 
Classified By: Acting PolCouns Rob Copley, for reasons 1.5 (b and d) 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: During a poorly-timed campaign stop in the 
highland town of Rabinal on June 15, former General and FRG 
presidential candidate Rios Montt was greeted with stones and 
bottles thrown by a group of war victims participating in an 
inhumation of 67 community members killed by the army during 
the internal conflict.  The FRG rally coincided with the 
inhumation mass for victims of the Tres Cruces and Plan de 
Sanchez massacres of 1981 and 1982.  Rios Montt was not 
wounded in the fracas, though other members of his delegation 
were.  End Summary. 
 
Rumble in Rabinal 
----------------- 
¶2. (U) The FRG held a presidential campaign rally in Rabinal, 
Baja Verapaz on June 14, on the same day that residents from 
surrounding communities were holding an inhumation mass for 
the remains of loved ones killed in a series of army 
massacres during the conflict.  It appears that the FRG 
national leadership was unaware that the inhumation was to 
take place at the same time as the campaign rally.  Community 
members carrying the coffins of their loved ones coincided 
with the FRG rally in Rabinal's central square.  According to 
press accounts, inflammatory rhetoric by FRG Congressman from 
Baja Verapaz Juan Santa Cruz and other local FRG leaders 
raised tensions with the hostile mourners.  Insults were 
exchanged and the FRG leaders decided to move their rally to 
another location, away from the inhumation ceremony.  At that 
point Rios Montt, possibly unaware of the tension at the 
earlier rally where he was not present, appeared and began 
his speech.  Tensions boiled over when Santa Cruz (or his 
wife--accounts vary) pushed a journalist, causing him to fall 
from the podium.  People in the crowd, made up largely of 
hostile participants in the inhumations, began throwing 
rocks.  Rios Montt was only a few lines into his speech when 
he was forced to evacuate the stand.  Chaos reigned for 
several minutes while the FRG leaders retreated.  Several 
young women wearing FRG T-shirts were harassed by the crowd, 
which ripped their shirts off.  Numerous journalists and 10 
FRG loyalists reported minor injuries in the clash.  After 
burning what remained of the FRG banners, the crowd proceeded 
to El Calvario church for an emotional ceremony and the 
re-burial of the 67 massacre victims. 
 
¶3. (U) The FRG leadership, including Rios Montt, continued on 
to another smaller rally in nearby Cubulco, this one 
organized by former civil defense patrol members (ex-PAC). 
The meeting had been specially arranged for the ex-PACs, 
dozens of whom had traveled to Rabinal earlier, to respond 
directly to their concerns over delays in compensation for 
their war-time services promised by President Portillo. 
Press reports claim that many ex-PACs walked out of the 
meeting with the senior FRG leaders in frustration, and 
others chanting "liar" in response to the FRG leaders' 
efforts to lower the expectations of compensation of the 
former civil patrol members. 
 
¶4. (C) Zury Rios, who accompanied her father to the rally in 
Rabinal, told us that her father was unaware of the 
inhumation before arriving in Rabinal, and said the local 
organizers had moved the stage to another part of town when 
they realized that the two events would coincide.  Even so, 
she said that the victims' families, carrying the coffins of 
their loved ones, followed them to the new location, and that 
is when the confrontation took place.  She accused the police 
of not stepping in to calm the crowd.  Zury Rios said that, 
contrary to press accounts, her father was not injured in the 
melee, but said that a member of the entourage standing next 
to him was hit in the head by a rock, getting blood all over 
Rios Montt's collar (which led the press to speculate that he 
had been hit). 
 
Forensic Anthropologists Threatened Beforehand 
--------------------------------------------- - 
¶5. (SBU) The inhumation in Rabinal was organized by the 
Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG), which 
continues to receive death threats for their work in Rabinal 
and elsewhere.  On Friday, June 13, Fredy Peccerelli, 
Director of the FAFG notified HROff that members of his staff 
and family continue to receive threats from unidentified 
sources, and most are not receiving protection from the GOG. 
One member of his staff, Omar Bertoni Giron de Leon, received 
a letter that said while Peccerelli had full-time security, 
they knew Giron did not and that they would kill him if he 
went into the countryside to perform the inhumation that 
weekend (in Rabinal).  Peccerelli immediately contacted 
police, Public Ministry, and the President's Commission on 
Human Rights (COPREDEH) to obtain investigation of the threat 
and security for Giron.  RSO contacted police, inquired into 
their investigation of the Giron incident, and asked them to 
follow up with any requests from the Peccerelli family. 
 
Frank LaRue Describes Incident in Rabinal 
----------------------------------------- 
¶6. (C) On Saturday, June 14, Frank LaRue, Director of the 
Center for Legal Action in Human Rights, called HROff to 
share his concerns about the clash between FRG supporters and 
those participating in the inhumation.  LaRue said that an 
inhumation was an incredibly emotional event for the family 
members of the 67 people being buried.  The timing of a 
campaign rally for the retired General whose term as de facto 
President partly coincides with the massacres in which these 
individuals were killed could only be construed as 
disrespectful.  LaRue also said that he feared events such as 
this would further deepen the rift between the ex-PACS and 
human rights activists, since FRG mayors and governors in 
Quiche and Huehuetenango provinces have been blaming 
difficulties in ex-PAC compensation packages on CALDH and 
other human rights organizations associated with the victim's 
reparations programs. 
 
¶7. (C) LaRue predicted that the FRG would try to spin the 
stoning incident as a ploy of the political opposition.  He 
said that this was completely untrue and that all the members 
of his organization and other human rights organizations were 
not financially supported or motivated by opposition parties. 
 
Comment 
------- 
¶8. (C)  The violence that erupted in Rabinal appears to have 
been the result of poor planning by the local FRG campaign 
leadership, and not an intentional provocation by either FRG 
candidate Rios Montt or the families of the victims of army 
massacres in Baja Verapaz.  Getting back up on the horse, 
Rios Montt continued with scheduled campaign rallies in 
Eastern Guatemala the next day.  A recent poll shows Rios 
Montt has picked up some support since March, and currently 
has 15.5 percent of the vote, placing him a distant second 
behind Oscar Berger who has lost a couple points since March 
and now stands at 41.9 percent of the vote.  Rios Montt's 
negative vote (percentage of the populace who say they would 
never vote for Rios Montt) has also grown, according to this 
poll, from 51 to 53 percent in the same time period. 
 
¶9. (C) The incident in Rabinal illustrates that scars from 
the internal conflict remain close to the surface in 
Guatemala, and reminds us that electoral violence can not be 
ruled out.  The latest threats against FAFG members are 
worrisome as human rights workers continue to be targets in 
Guatemala, and few of their murders are ever prosecuted.  We 
continue to raise our concerns over the security of human 
rights workers with all senior GOG contacts, and have pressed 
the police, the Minister of Government and the Attorney 
General to ensure the safety of FAFG members in the wake of 
this latest series of threats. 
HAMILTON