Left-wing NGOs circle the wagons around a rogue U.N.
commission, by Mary Anastasia O’Grady, 5/6/18, WSJ
The “caravan” of Central
Americans at the southern U.S. border seeking asylum has some conservatives
wringing their hands about a Hispanic invasion. They should instead be asking
what’s behind the destabilization of the countries these desperate migrants
have fled.
Central American
corruption, statism and crony capitalism have led to poverty and exclusion. The
region’s classical liberals understand this connection and have fought to
strengthen the rule of law. But their efforts have been undermined by the drug
trade financing criminal networks that overwhelm institutions.
Now there is substantial
evidence that a U.S.-funded fix for the problem in Guatemala, using a United
Nations prosecutor, has itself been corrupted by unscrupulous actors and
left-wing U.N. ideology.
As I wrote last month, the U.N.
body is the International Commission on Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG by its
Spanish initials. It was established in 2006 with the best intentions to
investigate the crimes of underworld networks.
But the U.S. Helsinki
Commission hearing on Capitol Hill last week revealed vile human-rights abuses
by CICIG prosecutors in a case involving a family of Russian migrants—the
Bitkovs. The case raises questions about whether CICIG has gone rogue.
That is unless you are one
of many nongovernmental organizations and media operations working in Guatemala that
are funded by George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and fellow travelers.
In that case your
instructions are to circle the wagons to defend CICIG prosecutor Iván Velásquez
and destroy those who dare suggest that the case be judged on its merits.
This rush to dismiss
flagrant violations of the law heightens concerns in Guatemala that CICIG has
become a political tool of the NGO left. Americans are rightly asking why the
U.S. finances this U.N. operation devoid of accountability and transparency.
The Helsinki Commission
hearing on April 27 illuminated the case of Igor and Irina Bitkov and their
daughter Anastasia. They fled persecution in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and landed
in Guatemala where they became victims of a human-trafficking scam. CICIG
prosecuted the family as criminals, in cooperation with a Kremlin-owned bank,
and put them in jail, flouting a constitutional court ruling.
Bitkov lawyer Victoria
Sandoval recalled how CICIG and local prosecutors raided the family home with
overwhelming force in January 2015. The three were detained in cages in the
courthouse basement. Despite a 24-hour legal limit on such confinement, Irina
and Anastasia spent five days there; Igor nine.
The couple named a
guardian for their 3-year-old son, Vladimir. But officials instead sent him to
an orphanage where he suffered physical and psychological abuse. Harold Augusto
Flores Valenzuela, the government official in charge of child welfare at the time,
told Igor later that a CICIG official had instructed him to do whatever
necessary to put the child in the orphanage. Mr. Bitkov signed an affidavit
swearing to this conversation with Mr. Flores and it was entered into the
record at the Helsinki hearing.
CICIG, the Guatemalan
prosecutor, and the Russian bank VTB took the family to court for using fake
documents that the Bitkovs thought were real. Igor was sentenced to 19 years in
jail; Irina and Anastasia 14 years each. A month later the same judge reviewing
the same offenses by two members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, handed down
five-year suspended sentences and released the defendants.
CICIG’s violations of
civil liberties and its Russian collusion have been public for weeks. Yet an
NGO letter-writing campaign aimed at defending the U.N. body at the Helsinki
hearing refused to acknowledge the horror. The letters, posted on the
commission’s website—along with the Bitkov
lawyers’ testimony—are notable for their similarity and their callousness
toward the Russian family, who are still in jail despite a constitutional court
ruling 10 day ago to release them.
Such contradictions can
only be explained by following the dollars spread around to so-called
human-rights groups by those who share the politics of the unelected Mr.
Velásquez. One goal of these moneyed elites was to end international adoptions,
and he has used his authority to influence judicial rulings to do just that.
His arbitrary rule with no oversight has put fear into the hearts of
law-abiding Guatemalans; he has a reputation for pressuring judges, which has
increased investor uncertainty in a country that already has trouble attracting
capital. He has even tried to change the constitution.
In a statement made to the
Helsinki Commission hearing, Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) noted that while CICIG
was “created to root-out corruption and uphold the rule of law” it “has become
an extrajudicial, partial and unfair arbiter.” Its politicization, he wrote, is
“unfair to all who seek a free and prosperous Guatemala.” Something to think
about as those busloads of refugees arrive at the border.
Write to O’Grady@wsj.com.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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