Bishop Juan Gerardi Accused The Guatemalan Military Of Genocide -- And It May Have Cost Him His Life
By Natasha Ishak | Edited By John Kuroski
Published February 10, 2020
Updated February 12, 2020
Just two days after Juan Gerardi produced a massive report detailing his country's wartime atrocities, three members of the military killed him in his home. That's the official story, at least.
Bishop Juan Gerardi
HRD Memorial
Guatemalan bishop and indigenous rights advocate Juan Gerardi fought to give a voice to the indigenous Mayan peoples targeted by Guatemala’s military dictatorship during the country’s 36-year-long civil war.
On April 26, 1998, Bishop Juan Gerardi was bludgeoned to death with a concrete slab inside his home in Guatemala City so savagely that he could only be identified by the ring he wore to signify his position.
A prominent Catholic bishop and human rights advocate, Gerardi had spent his life advocating for others. But sadly, those demanding justice for his murder were unable to point to any clear villains; or, rather, there were simply too many to point to. As it turns out, standing up for indigenous rights in Guatemala in the 1990s made you more enemies than you might think.
This was especially true because the country was emerging from a brutal, decades-long civil war and this bothersome bishop was trying to hold a politically corrupt military junta accountable for genocide against those indigenous populations.
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Now, the controversy surrounding his murder is finally being reexamined, with the HBO documentary The Art Of Political Murder seeking to reopen wounds that have still barely healed in Guatemala. But what was it about Juan Gerardi’s work and his murder that makes it so contentious more than 20 years later?
More:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/bishop-juan-gerardi
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I watched the documentary tonight on HBO Max, and if you can see it, it will definitely give you some things to ponder, by all means. I had no idea from reading US corporate media sources the length to which local prosecutors went to conceal the identity of the assassins.
I remember very clearly when the story came out. It was the first time I had heard of an assassination using a piece of cement to beat someone to death. Becoming a priest in the Americas who cares for the poor, dispossessed, discriminated against indigenous people is a lifelong act of true courage.
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I don’t care what they call me - I have lived it and continue to live it. 
