International human rights groups are hoping that Pope John Paul II, who arrives in Guatemala Monday, will use the occasion to draw the world's attention to the resumption of death-squad activity directed against domestic rights groups and the Roman Catholic Church itself.
Groups monitoring a series of actions against rights workers and religious figures in the Central American country are lobbying the Pontiff to "sound the alarm" over a "catastrophic slide" in Guatemala's human rights protections.
"In the first half of 2002 alone, Guatemalan human rights organizations reported 125 cases of threats, attacks and intimidation against those engaged in the defense of human rights," Amnesty International noted last week. "However, to date, not one single case of threat or attack on a human rights defender has been resolved."
Last week, the headquarters of the National Coordinating Office for Human Rights in Guatemala was broken into and its computers and research files stolen.
The burglary followed similar incidents around the country in the past few months, as well as repeated death threats phoned and faxed to activists, including a Catholic bishop and at least six priests and other officials in the Church's main human rights office within the past month.
Groups monitoring a series of actions against rights workers and religious figures in the Central American country are lobbying the Pontiff to "sound the alarm" over a "catastrophic slide" in Guatemala's human rights protections.
"In the first half of 2002 alone, Guatemalan human rights organizations reported 125 cases of threats, attacks and intimidation against those engaged in the defense of human rights," Amnesty International noted last week. "However, to date, not one single case of threat or attack on a human rights defender has been resolved."
Last week, the headquarters of the National Coordinating Office for Human Rights in Guatemala was broken into and its computers and research files stolen.
The burglary followed similar incidents around the country in the past few months, as well as repeated death threats phoned and faxed to activists, including a Catholic bishop and at least six priests and other officials in the Church's main human rights office within the past month.