wfn.org | Lucio Martinez Dies of Stroke and Heart Failure in Guatemala

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30-August-1996 
 
 
96318    Lucio Martinez Dies of Stroke and Heart Failure  
                           in Guatemala 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--A Guatemalan pastor, threatened by death squads and 
accompanied much of last year by U.S. and Canadian Presbyterians, is dead 
of a cerebral hemorhrage and heart failure after what those who know him 
describe as a year of unrelenting stress. 
 
     The Rev. Lucio Martinez, 53, of Chimaltenango, died in a Guatemalan 
clinic Aug. 2. 
 
     "It's an unrecoupable loss," said Margarita Valiente de Similox, 
president of the much-beseiged Kaqchiquel Presbytery and one of the 
Presbyterians who, along with Martinez, has repeatedly received death 
threats for refusing to be quiet about the murders of two Presbyterian 
human rights workers in Chimaltenango just over one year ago and the 
government's failure to arrest the former military commissioner, Victor 
Roman, accused of killing them both. 
 
     Another threatened Guatemalan Presbyterian, Mar¡a Francesca Ventura de 
Saquic is still reportedly being stalked.  She is the widow of murdered 
Presbyterian pastor the Rev. Manuel Saquic. 
 
     "He [Martinez] ... led the fight for the presbytery," Similox told the 
Presbyterian News Service, adding that no one has yet been assigned to 
replace Martinez as the presbytery's administrator in Chimaltenango and as 
pastor to at least six outlying mountain communities.   
 
     "This is different from Manuel [Saquic]. ... He [Martinez] was killed 
by a psychological war." 
 
     Similox said that even Martinez' medical report describes the year's 
stress as the "final blow" to his health. 
 
     "It's odd," said Gary Guthrie of the Iowa Peace Network in Des Moines, 
who accompanied Martinez in September 1995 under the auspices of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). "All of us were expecting him to die 
violently from a bullet.  And we're grateful that wasn't the case. 
 
     "But you have to wonder about the stress." 
 
     Telephoned and written threats to Martinez and others began last 
summer shortly after Saquic's tortured body was found in an unmarked grave 
near Chimaltenango -- and after the presbytery began demanding that the 
case be prosecuted.  But despite heavy pressure from one international 
court and several international diplomatic, humanitarian and religious 
communities, Roman has not yet been arrested -- despite repeated 
reassurances from Guatemala's military, police and judicial authorities 
that he will be taken into custody. 
 
     Roman's whereabouts are unknown right now, though  according to 
numerous sources he has not been spotted in Chimaltenango for months. Some 
say that means he has secured some sort of military protection, while 
others interpret his disappearance more ominously.  Still others speculate 
that Roman may have left Guatemala illegally. 
 
     At press time, Similox and others were meeting with judicial 
authorities to continue to press for thorough investigations of the 
killings in Kaqchiquel Presbytery -- something Similox says has not yet 
happened. 
 
     But in the United States, Baltimore Presbytery's Guatemala Partnership 
Task Force is trying to figure out how to pastorally respond to the more 
immediate problem -- the loss of Martinez himself. 
 
     "I do worry about what's going to happen," said the task force's 
co-chair, the Rev. Gretchen Van Utt of Joppa, Md., who says she's well 
aware other leaders will emerge, but that it takes time. "They've lost 
Manuel.  Now they've lost Lucio ... two of the key people.   
 
     "It's got to be devastating for them emotionally. ... They'll be 
reeling for a while." 
 
     She said Baltimore Presbytery will consider sending someone to 
Guatemala to provide pastoral care and support for an extended period of 
time. 
 
     Presbyterian Marilee Robertson of Canoga Park, Calif., stayed with 
Martinez and his family for two months shortly after the death threats 
began. 
 
     "Lucio's churches grew from a handful to 1,800 people," said 
Robertson, remembering her days as an accompanier driving Martinez' beat-up 
yellow truck to isolated communities.  "They'd meet on somebody's porch ... 
and send a word out to people to come [since his visits were unscheduled 
after the death threats began].  They'd sit and visit, talk about problems, 
what was going on in everybody's famiy. Then Lucio would open the Bible, 
raise questions, talk a little bit, she said, adding that he would always 
open the floor up for the assembled people to reflect. 
 
      "Then they would close with prayer." 
 
     Robertson said Martinez' days began before 5 a.m., when he got up to 
sharpen blades to grind corn -- and Saturdays were spent working in his 
fields.  Weekdays were spent counseling parishioners and in meetings at the 
presbytery office.  "It was hard," she said, "for him not to work hard." 
 
     Martinez is survived by his wife, Josefina, and five daughters, four 
of whom still live at home. Donations to the family can be made through 
Extra Commitment Opportunity account #864600 at the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202-1396.  The account 
number is to be clearly specified on the check. 
 
     Letters to Martinez' widow -- who attended the Albuquerque Assembly -- 
may be faxed to the Kaqchiquel Presbytery Office (011-502-939-1503), to the 
Guatemalan Presbyterian Church Synod Office (011-502-253-8532), or to the 
Hermandad de Presbiterios Mayas (011-502-251-1262). 

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