Guatemala: Former police chief convicted in 1980s disappearance

Justice at last, in one case from the US-backed 36-year civil war in Guatemala where some of the "harsh techniques" our military now uses in Iraq and Afghanistan and Gitmo were first perfected.

Three decades after Pedro Garcia Arredondo ordered the torture and "disappearance" of an agronomy student, the former chief detective of Guatemala's now-defunct National Police has been convicted and sentenced to 70 years in prison. From Amnesty International today:

Witnesses testified how [Édgar Enrique Sáenz Calito] was taken to “the little room” (“el cuartito”) where the Sixth Command typically interrogated guerrilla suspects.

The victim’s wife Violeta Ramírez Estrada told the court how she visited her husband in a prison hospital following his arrest and he bore signs of having been tortured – he had been subjected to beatings, water-boarding and cigarette burns, and electric shocks had been applied to his genitals.

(via @wolfe321)

• [EH]

  Well at least he kept the country safe. Any word on the treatments he’ll be subject to?

• [Conrad Constantine]

  Electrodes on the Genitals? for FREE?! you know how much good money you have to shell out to get that kinda service these days?

• [Evan Ravitz]

  1 case closed. 200,000 to go. 3 of my friends were killed by the Guate army in 1988. That changed my life and inspired my political work. The story, briefly: http://spryeye.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-ive-devoted-20-years-to-better-and.html