Guatemala Outside In

Clandestine Powers: Shortly after graduating from the military academy (Escuela Politécnica) in 1975, Guillermo Oliva Carrera was appointed squad commander of the Quetzaltenango Brigade. Two years later, he served as squad commander of the Military Zone in the Petén. Later that same year, Oliva Carrera became an instructor at the School of the Kaibiles (Escuela Kaibil), where elite counter-insurgency forces of the army were trained. In the early 80s, he served as a military intelligence officer in different locations. In 1986, he became an assistant at the Military High Command (Estado Mayor de la Defensa), and in1987 he joined the Army Intelligence Directorate (D-2). From 1988 to1991, he was appointed sub-director of the Archivo, the intelligence division of the EMP. The following year he returned to the D-2. In 1996, Oliva Carrera was dismissed from the army for his involvement in Alfredo Moreno’s contraband operations.

Oliva Carrera was indicted in 2002 and put on trial along with two other high-level military officers for masterminding the 1990 assassination of anthropologist Myrna Mack. In October 2002, he was acquitted after a three-judge panel found insufficient evidence of his direct involvement in the crime. His acquittal was upheld by an appeals court in May 2003.

In April 2002, the sister of Myrna, Helen Mack, obtained a document from an anonymous source that alleged possible links between Oliva Carrera and clandestine groups. In a private meeting Mack gave President Portillo the document and urged him to investigate the allegations and to bring those responsible for crimes to justice, including, possibly, Oliva Carrera. President Alfonso Portillo subsequently made this information public in a radio interview. Following the interview, Oliva Carrera brought a criminal defamation suit against Mack. Four months later, an appeals court annulled the suit on the grounds that there was no basis for the criminal complaint. (SOURCE: Washington Office on Latin America)