By: Sergio De Leon, Associated Press Writer (AP) Attorney General Adolfo Gonzalez said Wednesday that he was reopening the case of an outspoken journalist who vanished without a trace in 1980.
Irma Flaquer Azurdia, a columnist and assistant editor at the now-closed Guatemala City daily
La Nacion, was kidnapped on Oct. 16, 1980, reportedly by members of a right-wing paramilitary group. Her son was killed during the kidnapping.
She had drawn the ire of this country's military with her column "What Others Don't Say," in which she openly criticized the government and the army, accusing both of committing thousands of human rights violations.
"The attorney general has agreed to investigate the case and has assigned a person to be in charge of it," Marleny Fuentes, a spokeswoman for Gonzalez, said Wednesday.
Fuentes said Gonzalez decided to launch a new investigation after meeting with members of the Inter American Press Association, who traveled to Guatemala City on Tuesday. In a statement, the group said it has been investigating Flaquer Azurdia's disappearance since 1995.
"We know that this is a difficult case and that the new investigation could open some old wounds in the country, but we are also sure that it is the only way to really combat impunity," Robert Cox, association president and the assistant editor of
The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., said in the statement.
The Guatemalan daily newspaper
Prensa Libre quoted Gonzalez in its Wednesday editions as saying that he and other prosecutors would soon meet with members of Flaquer Azurdia's family.
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