DEPUTY MAYOR CONVICTED OF MURDERING COMMUNITY LEADER OF EL TAMBO

Guatemala, August 3, 2012. On July 26, the Court for Criminal Sentencing, Drug Trafficking and Crimes against the Environment, of the department of Petén, sentenced Tomás Pérez Genis (Deputy Mayor of the El Tambo community) and Miguel Ángel Cu Tiul to 30 years in prison for the murder of community leader Ramiro Chon.

The investigation conducted by the Special Anti-impunity Prosecutor's Bureau (FECI) of the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) identified and linked the two accused parties to proceedings as the alleged principal offenders in relation to the death of Chon. The pair, abusing their position, and with the aid of others, were responsible for a series of violent acts perpetrated against the residents of the El Tambo community. They presumably did so in order to take possession of the residents land.

This was denounced by leaders of the community, located eight hours from La Libertad, in a western region of the department of Petén.

BACKGROUND FACTS:
Chon was murdered, shot 16 times outside El Tambo's Centro de Convergencia, a community center, on a December evening in 2010. Witnesses saw Pérez Genis and Cu Tiul—along with other accomplices who are currently absconding—running from the scene after allegedly murdering the community leader.

CICIG supports the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) in the investigation of this case.