Saturday, March 26, 2005
Brig. Gen. Luis Felipe Miranda Trejo
Clandestine Powers: From 1979 through 1983 Luis Felipe Miranda Trejo served as a military intelligence officer in three different locations and headed the Center for Training and Special Operations of the Kaibiles (elite counter-insurgency forces). He later became the commander of various military zones, including Puerto Barrios, Escuintla, Playa Grande, and Huehuetenango. During the Serrano Elías administration he was commander of the Mobile Military Police (Policía Militar Ambulante, PMA).
During his tenure as commander of Military Zone No.19 in Huehuetenangoin 1994, Miranda Trejo was accused of forcibly recruiting young indigenous men into the military. As a result of the controversy that followed and a number of civil charges brought against him, he was dismissed from his post during Ramiro de León Carpio’s government.
After the signing of the Peace Accords in 1996, Miranda Trejo retired from the army. In November 1999, Trejo was elected in Huehuetenango as an FRG deputy to the Guatemalan Congress. As deputy, he served on the legislative Commission for National Defense where he argued for increased funding for the Guatemalan military. Miranda Trejo has been implicated in various human rights violations. He allegedly sought to block the investigation of the 1990 assassination of U.S. citizen Michael Devine. He commanded the military base from which Captain Hugo Contreras, who was implicated in Devine’s assassination, supposedly escaped.
In 1998, a court in Quetzaltenango opened proceedings against Miranda Trejo as the alleged intellectual author of the 1993 killing of activist Juan Pablo Chanay during a demonstration. He was commander of Military Zone No.19 at the time of Chanay’s murder. In 1998, eleven former members of the Civil Self-Defense Patrols (PACs) were convicted for their participation in the murder. Three months later, however, they were freed from a police station by an armed mob. At the time, the investigation against Miranda Trejo remained open. There still has been no progress in the investigation due inlarge part to the immunity that Trejo enjoyed as a deputy in the Congress.
On March 14, 2002, Miranda Trejo was appointed by President Alfonso Portillo to serve as director of the Guatemalan Institute for Tourism (INGUAT). Shortly thereafter, workers complained that he was “militarizing the institution.” They cited Miranda’s hiring of retired General Jorge Perussina as one of his chief advisors.
Miranda Trejo promoted the integration of ex-PAC members into local FRG chapters, and then later was on the governmental commission that negotiated with the former PACs regarding their demands for economic compensation. (SOURCE: Washington Office on Latin America)
During his tenure as commander of Military Zone No.19 in Huehuetenangoin 1994, Miranda Trejo was accused of forcibly recruiting young indigenous men into the military. As a result of the controversy that followed and a number of civil charges brought against him, he was dismissed from his post during Ramiro de León Carpio’s government.
After the signing of the Peace Accords in 1996, Miranda Trejo retired from the army. In November 1999, Trejo was elected in Huehuetenango as an FRG deputy to the Guatemalan Congress. As deputy, he served on the legislative Commission for National Defense where he argued for increased funding for the Guatemalan military. Miranda Trejo has been implicated in various human rights violations. He allegedly sought to block the investigation of the 1990 assassination of U.S. citizen Michael Devine. He commanded the military base from which Captain Hugo Contreras, who was implicated in Devine’s assassination, supposedly escaped.
In 1998, a court in Quetzaltenango opened proceedings against Miranda Trejo as the alleged intellectual author of the 1993 killing of activist Juan Pablo Chanay during a demonstration. He was commander of Military Zone No.19 at the time of Chanay’s murder. In 1998, eleven former members of the Civil Self-Defense Patrols (PACs) were convicted for their participation in the murder. Three months later, however, they were freed from a police station by an armed mob. At the time, the investigation against Miranda Trejo remained open. There still has been no progress in the investigation due inlarge part to the immunity that Trejo enjoyed as a deputy in the Congress.
On March 14, 2002, Miranda Trejo was appointed by President Alfonso Portillo to serve as director of the Guatemalan Institute for Tourism (INGUAT). Shortly thereafter, workers complained that he was “militarizing the institution.” They cited Miranda’s hiring of retired General Jorge Perussina as one of his chief advisors.
Miranda Trejo promoted the integration of ex-PAC members into local FRG chapters, and then later was on the governmental commission that negotiated with the former PACs regarding their demands for economic compensation. (SOURCE: Washington Office on Latin America)
# posted by Pad @ 9:59 AM 
