U.S. church leaders appeal for Guatemalan bishop's safety

Published: 2005-02-08

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- U.S. church leaders, concerned over death threats directed against Guatemalan Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini Imeri, have appealed to U.S. and Guatemalan leaders to protect him. "For some time now, we have been receiving disturbing reports of attacks against church workers in migrant ministry, including break-ins of migrant centers and, more recently, of the death threats directed at some of these workers and at Bishop Ramazzini himself," said Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy. In a Feb. 7 letter, Bishop Ricard asked John R. Hamilton, U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, to tell Guatemalan authorities "the concerns these reports have raised with people in this country." Bishop Ramazzini, who heads the Diocese of San Marcos, has been an active advocate for Guatemala's indigenous people and for land reform. He also has opposed a Canadian-U.S. firm's creation of a gold mine where many indigenous people live in San Marcos. The World Bank's International Finance Corp. lent Glamis Gold $45 million to develop the mine. Guatemalan authorities killed two protesters during a Jan. 11 protest outside the proposed mine site, according to a Jan. 26 action alert issued by the Geneva-based Franciscans International. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger later said Bishop Ramazzini should have calmed the protesters. On Feb. 2, the Washington-based Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns said that earlier this year, the Guatemala Human Rights Ombudsman's Office released evidence of a plot to assassinate Bishop Ramazzini.

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