Héctor Gramajo

Héctor Alejandro Gramajo Morales (11 August 1938 – 12 March 2004) was a general in the Guatemalan Army who served as Defense Minister from 1987 to 1990, during the long years of the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996). He ran unsuccessfully in 1995 elections as the presidential candidate for the Frente de Unidad Nacional.

Early life and education

Héctor Gramajo Morales was born in 1938 in San Juan Ostuncalco, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

Career

He entered the Army as a young man and rose in the ranks. He became a general in 19xx. In 1987 he was appointed as Defense Minister. He continued the fight against dissident elements, including the indigenous rural poor.

After finishing his term as Defense Minister, Gramajo entered the graduate program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he obtained a degree in public administration in 1991. That year he also served as commencement speaker at the US Army's School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia.

While in the United States, he was served in a combined suit under Alien Tort Claims Act by the Center for Constitutional Rights, representing eight Kanjobal Indians, who survived the destruction of their village in the early 1980s, and the American nun Dianna Ortiz, who had been abducted and tortured in Guatemala in 1989. They accused him of having command responsibility for the abuses that took place.

In 1995 Gramajo was judged civilly liable and ordered to pay a total of $47.5 million in damages: $1 to 9 million each to each of the Guatemalans, and $5 million to Sister Dianna. for having command responsibility under the Torture Victim Protection Act.

He did not contest the lawsuit or pay the damages. In 1995, the United States revoked his entry visa, barring him from the United States.

He died on 12 March 2004 at his ranch at Santa Lucía Milpas Altas, Sacatepéquez department. He and his son were attacked by a swarm of africanized bees and died from their many stings.

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