GUATEMALA CITY, MAY 18, 2001 (Zenit.org).- The telephone lines of Bishop Juan Gerardi and other Church leaders were tapped, and their contacts carefully monitored by the government and army, a former Intelligence Service agent says.
Testifying before the Third Court of Guatemala, where the trial for the 1998 murder of Bishop Gerardi is taking place, the former agent, Oscar Chex López, said that Bishop Rodolfo Quezada Toruño of Zacapa, Metropolitan Archbishop Próspero Penados del Barrio and Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini of Quiché were also watched.
The information gathered daily was incorporated in a «profile of suspects,» Chex said. The former agent worked for the Intelligence Services of the Defense Staff from 1992 to 1996, the year the nation´s 36-year civil war ended.
«The telephones were tapped of all those individuals who represented opposition to the government or the army,» Chex revealed.
