Jose Obdulio Villanueva

One of the three principal accused of the assassination of Monsignor Gerardi. Ex Army sergeant, was a specialist in security tasks for the Presidential General Staff. In January 1996 he was accused of murdering a milkman during a confusing incident, when he was protecting the then president Arzu. Two years later he was condemned to four jail years, but was set free after paying a fine.

The Court determined that Villanueva left jail the day on which Gerardi was brutally murdered, and together with Byron Lima Oliva altered the scene of the crime, moved the corpse of the bishop and filmed it with a video camera.

He died February 12, 2003, in a disturbance that broke out in the Prison for Preventative Prisoners of Zone 18 of the capital of Guatemala.