In the Presidential Palace’s operations room where President Arroyo and his staff were eting, there was a land-line speaker phone on the center of the eting table. As the group tried to coordinate the rapidly unfolding events in the country, it suddenly rang. Everyone froze. It was usually used for outgoing calls to conference soone in from a remote location. Receiving an unexpected call was almost unthinkable.
The n in the room exchanged glances. "Answer it," the President told his secretary.
His secretary, Javier de la Cruz, reached over and punched a button. "This is the President’s office, may I ask who’s calling?"
A strong male voice spoke through the speaker. "I am Rafael Camal de Leon."
There were gasps from several of the people around the table. The Minister of Defense’s face showed shock and alarm. It reddened with anger and maybe a little fear. "You are a dead man!" he yelled, "We will find you wherever you are. How dare you call this number. If you want to talk, turn yourself in as The President commanded!" He reached out as if to end the connection, President Arroyo grabbed his wrist before he reached the phone.
Arroyo held up one finger of his other hand in a wait a minute signal.
"This is President Arroyo, please excuse my excitable colleague. You can imagine we are all under so considerable stress at the mont. Are you calling to arrange your surrender or for so other purpose?"
Rafael’s voice chuckled softly. "I recognize the Minister of Defense Juan Soledad’s voice from a recording I recently made, although he used quieter tones in that discussion to prevent being overheard. Isn’t that right, Minister Soledad?"
The Minister of Defense grew even redder and sweat began forming on his brow. "This man is a criminal! A murderer! He is wasting our ti with this nonsense!" He reached out more quickly this ti and hit the disconnect button before anyone could react. He stood up abruptly, "I will have the military redouble efforts to find this lying piece of shit drug pusher!" He turned toward the door and took one step.
"Stop." President Arroyo said with a calm, but authoritative voice. Looking directly at the Presidential Honor Guards in the room, he continued, "No one is to leave this room. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Mr. President!" Both n replied in unison. One moved to stand in front of the door, his right hand on the handle of his holstered sidearm.
"Do you know what recording Mr. Camal de Leon was referring to Juan?" Arroyo asked, looking directly at his Minister of Defense. His eyebrows were raised, his voice and face calm as if asking if he preferred coffee or tea. There was a sharp focus in his gaze, however, that showed a very keen interest in the response.
"He is crazy! I have no idea. It’s criminal to listen in on governnt proceedings! More evidence that he should be captured or killed imdiately!"
"Why don’t you sit down, Juan? We’re going to be here for a while yet, I think."
Juan sat down again in the chair he had just abandoned. "Of course," he said, "I believe we were discussing how to defend the Chiapas border from the xican gangs gathering there before the interruption."
"Yes, we were. I am still curious, however, to know what conversat..." The phone on the center of the table rang again. The President locked eyes with his Minister of Defense. "Don’t." he said then reached out and hit the accept call button.
"Mr. Camal de Leon, I presu," he said, "I apologize for the unfortunate interruption, please continue. I believe you ntioned a recording?"
"I did. Perhaps it would be best if I just played it for you. I might suggest, however, that if the Minister of Defense is ard at the mont, you might ask one of your Honor Guards to relieve him of his weapon for a mont."
The Minister of Defense stood again, his panic clear. "This is preposterous!" He shouted.
President Arroyo, his penetrating stare never leaving the Juan Soledad’s eyes, said again, "Sit down, Juan. Please comport yourself with so dignity, this is an important eting to discuss matters of national defense." Turning his attention back to the phone, he continued, "No need to worry, Mr. Camal de Leon, I’m sure the loyal and competent Honor Guards I have in this room would be able to shoot and kill anyone before they could draw a weapon, but I’m sure that won’t be necessary. Still, Juan, perhaps you should just put both hands on the table, just in case my guards take Mr. Camal de Leon’s words too seriously, yes?" He nodded at the Honor Guards, both were behind him out of Juan’s range of vision as he faced the table.
Juan swallowed heavily and placed both hands flat on the table, exhaling deeply.
---
Dad and I watched with rapt attention back in our Status Room. We knew the words of Rafael’s speech, but not how people would respond. We were literally on the edge of our seats waiting to see how this played out.
---
President Arroyo smiled pleasantly, "please proceed Mr. Camal de Leon."
"Of course," Rafael’s voice answered from the speaker. Then another voice spoke in hushed but urgent tones. "We must make our move tonight. I will see that you are posted outside the President’s quarters tonight, at 11:45 exactly, knock on his door. He will either answer it or tell you to enter. You will have guns already drawn. You will enter his room, close the door and shoot him. Make sure he is dead. When it’s done, call imdiately. The Deputy Commander of the Civil Police will take control of the PNC, I will handle announcing the President’s assassination and assuming command of the country and the military. We will imdiately move to detain those whose loyalty cannot be counted upon in this ti of crisis. We have people ready to arrest or kill (if necessary) the Chief of the General Staff, The Vice President, General Gutierrez, General Perez, Commissioners Palanque, Ruiz, and a number of others. But everything hinges on the two of you succeeding tonight. We must have President Arroyo killed or we cannot bla his death on corrupt officials and move to purge our enemies." There was a slight pause, then the voice continued, "I have to get back to the crisis eting. Rember, your actions will be rewarded. You must succeed."
There was a stunned silence in the room. General Perez, General Gutierrez, Vice President Goncalves, Commissioner Palanque, and the Chief of the General Staff glared at the Minister of Defense, having just been nad as intended victims in his murder plot. President Arroyo was tapping a pen slowly on the table, seemingly concentrating on that.
Rafael’s voice interrupted the silence, "Well, I don’t hear any gunshots. So, I must assu everything there is under control. Let continue. President Arroyo, as evidenced by my unmasking of the traitor in your midst, I accept your offer to work together to combat organized cri. However, because your security at the Presidential Palace is suspect, I cannot unfortunately present myself there to cooperate in person. I’m sure you understand. To start, I wonder, do you know who your friends are, Mr. President? It seems that so of those close to you may be harboring secrets, like Mr. Soledad. Perhaps, I can help further in that regard. If your secretary will check your private email. You will see a ssage entitled "A comprehensive list of Guatemalan governnt and law enforcent personnel compromised by the cartels." In that email, you will find several clearly labelled attachnts. They contain the nas, titles, last known locations, and evidence against 412 individuals who have accepted remuneration in one form or another in exchange for aiding the cartels and gangs against governnt or civilian interference. So of them, such as the Attorney General, have already fled the country. We will keep an eye on those still in Guatemala in the event that you are unable to locate them. Just let know which ones have eluded you and I will provide you their current hiding place at the ti. You will note that I have a separate file for my own cris. It lacks my current whereabouts, of course. I am hoping that we can co to so sort of amnesty agreent for my extensive cooperation."
President Arroyo interrupted. "Mr. Camal de Leon, I thank you for your assistance and I do look forward to continuing this discussion, but if you don’t mind, I will need a few minutes here to attend to so pressing matters. Would you mind calling back in 10 minutes?"
A chuckle sounded from the speaker, "not at all, Mr. President. You will be relieved to know that the Presidential Honor Guards Martinez and Ruiz, in the room with you are not on our list. They appear to be, as you said, loyal n. However, you may wish to open the attachnt entitled Presidential Honor Guard imdiately, for a list of those who should be relieved of duty, including the two who agreed to kill you tonight. I will speak with you again in ten minutes." The line went dead.
One of the Honor Guard was standing directly behind the Minister of Defense. "Juan," Arroyo started in a conversational voice, "Since you were so reluctant to remain seated earlier, you may stand up now. Sergeant Martinez will take your weapon and your phone. Jorge, would you mind reviewing the Honor Guard attachnt and calling ten good n along with whatever police assistance Commissioner Palanque can imdiately send to begin arresting the others, one by one. And send four more Honor Guard here to this room, station two outside the door and two more inside. Please do it discretely, perhaps summoning them to various assignnts at so protected location within the Palace. Maybe the Minister of Defense’s office. If that’s ok with you, Juan?" President Arroyo smiled.
Sergeant Martinez had Juan’s handgun and carefully handed it over to Sergeant Ruiz. The Chief of the General Staff, Jorge Alvarado, moved over to the President’s secretary’s side to review the list of Honor Guard nas. Commissioner Palanque had his cell phone in hand to call in police support from Guatemala District. "Palanque," the President cautioned, "Please use care in selecting only officers you trust implicitly for this and swear them to secrecy. They are to tell no one where they are going or why. Yes?"
"Yes, Mr. President," Commissioner Palanque replied. He stepped away from the table and moved to the side before hitting one of the contacts to start things in motion.
"Juan," Arroyo said stepping around the table to face his forr Secretary of Defense, "I never liked you. I don’t think anyone did. You are under arrest for high treason against the people of Guatemala, for conspiracy to commit murder, for malfeasance of duty as a governnt official, and for aiding and abetting drug-trafficking. A more comprehensive list of charges will be forthcoming. You are to be held incommunicado until further notice. Sergeant Martinez, please keep an eye on him until we have the palace secured and can bring him safely to a detention cell."
The Vice President, Sofia Goncalves, was smiling broadly. When she caught the President’s gaze, she nodded. "Now," she said with the predatory look of a hungry tiger, "maybe we can get to work on so of those things we promised the people during our election campaign."
President Arroyo nodded back, a smile of his own growing on his face.
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