Priest charged again in bishop's death

Christian Century, April 12, 2000

After nearly two years of investigation, Guatemalan authorities have again charged a priest in the death of Bishop Juan Gerardi, the human rights crusader bludgeoned to death after releasing a report accusing the military of being responsible for gross human rights violations.

Although prosecutors had been looking into whether the military was involved in the slaying of the popular Gerardi, the rearrest of Mario Orantes suggests they have shifted their attention back to suspects within the Catholic Church. Orantes was Geradi's assistant and lived in the parish rectory with the bishop at the time of the murder. Gerardi was killed two days after releasing the church's human fights report implicating Guatemala's military in the overwhelming majority of the more than 200,000 deaths stemming from the country's 36-year-old civil war.

The rearrested priest had originally spent seven months in jail on murder charges but was released in February 1999, when Guatemalan and international human rights groups charged that prosecutors were overlooking the possibility of military involvement in the slaying. Two members of the military, Sergeant Byron Lima and his father, retired Colonel Disrael Lima, are also in custody, as is church cook Margarita Lopez. None of the three has been formally charged, unlike Orantes.