PBI-Guatemala accompanies FAMDEGUA and Jennifer Harbury at hearing on death of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez

Published by Brent Patterson on July 16, 2024July 16, 2024

On July 15, PBI-Guatemala posted: “Tomorrow #PBIaccompanies Jennifer Harbury and [the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala] FAMDEGUA Guatemala in the #Bámaca case.”

The Bámaca case refers to Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, an Indigenous Maya-Mam man. In 1990, Bámaca had risen to the rank of commander of the “Luis Ixmata” front of the Revolutionary Organization of People in Arms (ORPA).

He was known as Commandante Everardo.

ORPA along with the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), and the National Directing Nucleus of PGT (PGT-NDN) formed the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) during the armed conflict in Guatemala.

Jennifer Harbury refers to the U.S. lawyer who Bamaca met in Guatemala in 1990. They married in September 1991.

On March 12, 1992, Bamaca disappeared after an armed encounter between the ORPA and the Guatemalan military. He was 35-years-old at the time.

Bamaca was tortured for more than a year before he was murdered in September 1993.

Although the U.S. State Department claimed it had no knowledge of Bamaca’s disappearance, documents released in 1995 showed the U.S. government knew he had been taken alive by the Guatemalan army.

In December 2000, after Harbury had launched a case with them, the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) found the Guatemalan military guilty of the disappearance, torture, and execution of Bamaca.

In October 2006, the government of Guatemala apologized for the murder of Bamaca but took no further action.

Harbury has been seeking justice for past 32 years.

On Tuesday July 16 at 8:30 am (Guatemala time) she will testify before a Guatemalan court in what is known now as the Bamaca case.

PBI-Guatemala accompanied FAMDEGUA from 1992 to 1999 and renewed that accompaniment in April 2024.

For more, watch the video Dirty Secrets: Jennifer, Everardo & the CIA in Guatemala. You can also read Bamaca Velásquez v. Guatemala: An Expansion of the Inter-American System’s Jurisprudence on Reparations, History of Guatemala (Impunity Watch) and Everado Bamaca Case (Guatemalan Human Rights Commission).

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