SCIENTIFIC PROOF CONFIRMS RIVERA CASE HYPOTHESIS

Guatemala, April 27, 2011. The First High-Risk Trial Court heard a number of expert opinions on April 25 and 26, enabling the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) to use scientific evidence to continue demonstrating the hypothesis linking the 10 accused individuals to the murder of Víctor Rivera, a former advisor to the Ministry of the Interior. Rivera was murdered on April 7, 2008 in the Vista Hermosa area of Zone 15 (Guatemala City).

An anthropological analysis demonstrated the manner in which accused Rubén Estuardo Rosales Sánchez obstructed justice and impeded the clarification of the facts. An expert used graphics to demonstrate to the Court that when the MP was digging for human remains it discovered that someone had previously done the same at that very location and also at a clandestine cemetery.

Furthermore, ballistics evidence demonstrated that a 9 mm pistol (belonging to accused Juan Antonio Vásquez) was one of the weapons used to kill Rivera. By comparing prints and ballistics evidence from the crime scene it was possible to establish that the weapon used was 0.40 calibre and according to the ownership history it belonged to Jorge Mario Paredes, the alleged mastermind of the Rivera murder and a drug cartel head.

Furthermore, the ballistics reconstruction established the modus operandi of the Rivera attack, indicating the angle and trajectory of the gun shots as well as the characteristics of the vehicle used by the aggressors.

Contradictions were also identified between the witnesses offered by the defense counsel of accused Rubén Estuardo Rosales Sánchez, who said they did not know the accused party. The defense witnesses of César Augusto Paiz Córdova also tried to contradict the scientific evidence by stating before the Court that the telephone call intercepted by justice authorities had been a joke. In the call, the individuals said that Paiz Córdova was one of the people set to replace Jorge Mario Paredes as the head of the cartel.