rounds. It is possible that Sas Rompich was at least a little drunk. Earlier, heâd stopped at a small country store to drink a few beers to help lighten a hangover, and now he was on his way to the farm where he picked up his milk.Captain Byron Lima, of the EMP Presidential Guard, alertly rode his horse into the path of the oncoming pickup, holding out his hand for the driver to stop, but the pickup kept on coming forward, and the horse reared, throwing its rider, who broke his arm. The pickup then crashed into a parked car by the side of the road. Apparently confused and panicked, the milkman accelerated, then rocked into reverse, and another officer jumped onto the pickupâs running board and reached in for the ignition, trying to bring the vehicle under control. Someone else shot out the rear tires. A guardsman drove his car against the front of the pickup, blocking it, and someone went right up to the pickup with a nine-millimeter pistol in his hand, reached in through the window, and fired three bullets into the milkman, including one into his ear, killing him instantly.
The government subsequently announced that the presidentâs bodyguards had heroically prevented an attempted double assassination of President Arzú and his wife. No one could deny that the milkman had given the first couple a scare. The first lady had turned and galloped her horse into a nearby field, leaping a fence. In the past, the declaration of a threat to the president would have been enough to put an end to the matter. The legal system, the press, and all relevant actors would have asked no more questions. But in the new climate established by the Peace Accords people were willing to entertain the idea that the presidentâs security guards might have displayed a reckless disregard for human life, perhaps even committed murder.
ODHA lawyers represented the victimâs family at the trial of the guardsman, Sergeant Major Obdulio Villanueva, who was accused of having murdered the milkman. Mario Domingoâs account of the incident, which was also the prosecutionâs, as narrated above, was based on the testimony of the sole civilian witness: a youth who was out riding his bicycle when, as he was about to overtake the slow-moving presidential caravan, he was ordered to dismount and walk alongside.
At the trial, members of the EMP and other military types crowded the courtroom. The short, dark photographer that Nery Rodenas saw the night of Bishop Gerardiâs murder had turned up daily to focus his camera on the people from ODHA and others who had come to observe the unprecedented trial of a member of the presidentâs security force. He was also seen outside the courthouse photographing the license plates of automobiles. Suspecting that the photographer was not a journalist, Ronalth Ochaeta asked the judges at the trial to demand that he identify himself. The photographerâs identification card revealed that he was from the EMP. In the end, Obdulio Villanueva received a five-year sentence for the murder of the milkman. ODHA had asked for the maximum penalty under the circumstances, thirty years.
That night in the church of San Sebastián, Nery Rodenas sought out Ronalth Ochaeta and Fernando Penados and told them that there was a man from the EMP taking pictures inside the garage. When Jean Arnault, the head of MINUGUA, dispatched his investigators to look into the matter, the photographer identified himself as a member of the director of the National Policeâs advance security. By then, Nery Rodenas and some of the others had noticed that the photographer wasnât alone. A tall, thin man who wore a red baseball cap, with the bill pulled low over his face, accompanied him. Later the man was seen in the park, talking into a portable radio.
Ãngel Conte Cojulún, the director of the National Police, arrived at San Sebastián at three in the morning. When he was informed that his advance security