Last week the media reported that President Alvaro Colom has taken a bold and unexpected step in his housecleaning of the government's security apparatus with the firing of the high-ranking advisor Victor Rivera Azuejo -- a tremendously powerful former Venezuelan intelligence officer who has served as a top consultant to the Guatemalan police since 1996 on kidnapping cases and other specialist matters.
Rivera, who is also known by his alias "Zacarias," first came under public scrutiny following the brutal slayings of the three Parlacen Congressman from El Salvador in Guatemala. These murders, carried out by a suspicious organized "death squad" which was also believed to be involved in social cleansing operations, were linked directly to Rivera. Colom's opponent in the presidential campaign, Gen. Otto Perez Molina, and his chief deputy Roxana Baldetti of the Partido Patriota, filed a complaint before the attorney general, claiming they had proof of Rivera's involvement as a commander of the death squads and other links to organized crime. A congressional investigation was launched as a result, eventually leading to the resignation of Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann and Chief of Police Erwin Sperisen. Rivera, however, was able to keep his position thanks to protection from supporters among the elite, as well as Vielmann’s replacement, Adela de Torrebiarte.
Several investigative reports by Salvadoran media outlets such as El Faro discovered further evidence of Rivera's links to criminal groups. Incredibly, competing newspaper elPeriódico also published an opinion in defense of the alleged death squad operator.
Before coming to work in Guatemala in 1996, Rivera was a military intelligence adviser to the Duarte government of El Salvador, and was later an adviser to the National Civil Police. He was forced to flee the country after the Attorney General Manual Cordova Castellanos issued a warrant for his arrest for his alleged obstruction and interference of a murder investigation.
Rivera quickly found refuge in Guatemala, where several powerful business elites had invited him for his expertise in handling kidnappings. It is believed that these same relationships with Guatemala's most powerful oligarchs had protected him from investigation up until now -- for example, the newspaper Prensa Libre ran an editorial about the story not once mentioning any ties to death squads or social cleansing, but rather demanding that the government explain who will be in charge of handling kidnapping negotiations in his place.
For many observers, Colom's move to fire Rivera represents a courageous first step toward saving Guatemala from becoming a failed state.