But the Government version of the DeVine case is more complicated, said officials familiar with a Federal investigation nearing its completion. SOUNDBITE: (English), Sister Diana Ortiz, 16. And I feel I should do everything I can because I love Guatemala very much, to help the people. Allen C. Cornell, who was the military attache in Guatemala at the time, testified that it was inconceiveable that the soldiers had killed DeVine without orders from a superior. Mr. DeVine's widow, Carol DeVine, who continues to run their jungle inn, also questions the official version, said her lawyer, Monica Schurtman. They poured wine on me and used and abused my body in horrible ways. "We always thought the intellectual author was an officer called Mario Garcia Catalan, the commander up at Santa Elena," Thomas Stroock, the United States Ambassador in Guatemala from 1989 to 1992, said in an interview last year. From the "Introduction": "On March 30, 1995, the President directed the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) to conduct a government-wide review concerning allegations regarding the 1990 death of US citizen Michael DeVine, the 1992 disappearance of Guatemalan guerrilla leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, and related matters." Shot of area where Michael Devine's body was found. Last photograph taken of Michael Devine before he was killed. 5. Two Guatemalan Presidents, two Defense Ministers and high-ranking military officers paid by the Central Intelligence Agency helped cover up the facts of the killing of Michael DeVine, an American innkeeper in Guatemala, in 1990, United States officials have concluded. GUATEMALA: FBI INQUIRY INTO THE DEATH OF AMERICAN INNKEEPER. information on the killing, became involved in the cover-up, they said. The widow of the American innkeeper allegedly killed by a Guatemalan army colonel on the C-I-A payroll spoke exclusively to APTV. The C.I.A. And then they killed him, nearly decapitating his body with a machete. "They interrogated me and burnt my back with cigarettes 111 times. The alleged murderer of Devine, in fact, was Colonel Julio Roberto Alpirez, who attended the School of the America and was reportedly on the CIA’s payroll for many years. In July 1994, the Guatemalan government and the URNGsigned the Human Rights Accord establishing the Historical ClarificationCommission. The U.S. pressed the Guatemalan government to solve his murder; when that did not happen by the end of the year, Congress prohibited more … 9. On June 8 they waylaid Mr. DeVine in his van, loaded with supplies for his inn, including cases of beer. Ms. Harbury's public questioning created a problem: the Guatemalan Government asserted that Mr. Bamaca had been killed. involvement in Guatemala and the circumstances surrounding the death of a U.S. citizen. I've taken exceptional steps to make sure that there is a good investigation and to make sure that the records are secure.". dent of Guatemala, Michael Devine, who had been killed by a Guatemalan colonel on the U.S. payroll. In 1993, army intelligence officer Captain Hugo Contreras was tried and convicted of masterminding Devine's killing. In 1993, army intelligence officer Captain Hugo Contreras was tried. President Clinton has directed a government board to conduct an investigation into the allegations of C-I-A involvement and cover-up in the deaths and abuse of Americans in Guatemala. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Connecticut News . Several theories as to why Mr. DeVine was killed exist and were taken seriously by the United States Embassy, among them that Mr. DeVine had stumbled across some kind of smuggling operation by the Guatemalan military. [ Thomas F. Strook, the United States Ambassador in Guatemala from 1989 to 1992, said in a telephone interview from Houston that he made the Guatemalan Army's involvement in … The C.I.A. Committee members heard testimony concerning CIA involvement in Guatemala and the circumstances surrounding the deaths of a U.S. citizen and a Guatemalan rebel. "Colonel Alpirez was implicated in the cover-up and he could have stopped the killing and he didn't. In September 1990, faced with the cutoff of military aid, President Cerezo said that "people linked to the security forces could be responsible for the death" of Mr. DeVine, and pledged to "find those responsible.". Their truck pulled into a military base where Colonel Alpirez was a commander. Those ties date back to the C.I.A. Report Claims Guatemalan Army Did Not Kill American By Art Pine Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON. Close-up of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez's picture, PLEASE NOTE: APTV CLIENTS MAY WANT TO GET LEGAL ADVICE BEFORE. Allie Boy Persico was caught on tape in Michigan prison raging against his then-wife's liaison with Michael Devine.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was an open secret in 1992 that Michael Devine … But five years ago, Carole Devine's husband Michael disappeared from the inn they ran together. But he was alive. BACKGROUND Agency record has been found concerning MichaelU.S. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. disavowed the report as "seriously flawed" last year and dismissed Mr. Brugger. They drank his beer as they questioned him, becoming aggressive as the beer flowed. Federal investigators have spent months interviewing witnesses for the long-overdue report on the DeVine and Bamaca slayings and other allegations of Americans being tortured or killed in Guatemala. The two grown children--who were born in Guatemala and adopted as infants by the DeVines--recalled on Friday enjoying a lifestyle that was something akin to paradise. The press also picked up "Democracy" Comes to Guatemala 73. the stories of two other U.S. citizens mur-dered in Guatemala, possibly by security forces. Guatemala: Court Issues Sentences Against Army Members Convicted In Murder Of Michael Devine by Deborah Tyroler Category/Department: General Published: Friday, October 2, 1992 On Sept. 29, a military court issued sentences against six army soldiers implicated in the 1990 murder of US citizen Michael Devine. Rumsfeld’s repeated expressions of concern for Americans fighting in Iraq apparently doesn’t easily transfer to the fate of U.S. nationals Michael Devine in Guatemala or Lori Berenson in Peru. Ms. DeVine has said that if the Justice Department declines to prosecute anyone in her husband's murder -- which seems likely -- she would like the United States to condemn the officers who covered it up. 7. He moved outside of Poptun, Guatemala some 35 years ago and purchased the 400-acre Finca Ixobel. 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