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Convicted Perpetrator Apprehended, Jailed in Guatemala Rape Case
Wednesday, 14 May 2008

GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA – A 64-year-old man convicted of violently sexually assaulting the six-year-old child of one of his tenants has been apprehended after hiding for several months in an attempt to escape his sentence.

In January of 2007, IJM Guatemala’s legal team presented evidence in court of perpetrator Hugo Carranza’s abuse of Nina,* a child who lived with her family in property he owned. When Nina’s mother had asked Carranza to padlock the door in the wall that separated his portion of the property from her family’s home, he did not. It was this door that allowed Carranza to gain access to Nina on the day that he violently assaulted her. Carranza was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to seven years in jail.

The legal victory IJM staff fought for seemed lost when the perpetrator went into hiding in an attempt to escape serving his sentence.
Despite the strength of evidence against him, Carranza appealed his sentence. As a man of relatively considerable financial means, he was able to provide bail to secure his release during the appeals process.

In September of 2007, Carranza’s appeal was denied and his sentence was made final. But the legal victory seemed lost when Carranza went into hiding in an attempt to escape serving time in jail.

IJM Guatemala staff worked with police to re-secure an arrest warrant for the absconded perpetrator, and IJM Guatemala’s investigative team began working to determine his location. An IJM investigator established areas that Carranza would be likely to appear and developed a network of informants to relay information to him.

When Carranza recently appeared at a home he owned to check on the property, a neighbor who had been alerted by the investigator quickly called to inform IJM of Carranza’s whereabouts. The IJM investigator immediately notified local police and arrived on the scene himself.

The police were delayed in arriving, and the IJM investigator risked losing the trail on Carranza. Rather than allow the perpetrator to get away, the investigator was able to covertly alert a second group of police on patrol in the neighborhood to the situation. Carranza, unaware that he was being followed, was waiting at a bus stop when the IJM investigator brought the officers to him. The IJM investigator provided the warrant to the police, who took Carranza into custody.

Carranza’s financial resources no longer protect him from the just consequences of the law, and, because of local authorities’ cooperation with IJM Guatemala, he is now serving the sentence for his violent assault.