Zarate

MEMORANDUM

Demetrio Felix Zarate petitions for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), denying him asylum, withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture. We deny the petition for review.

The BIA’s decision must be upheld if “supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole.” 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a)(4). The BIA’s ruling may be reversed only if the evidence presented by petitioner not only supports the opposite conclusion, but compels it. INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478 , 481 n. 1, 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992).

Zarate’s service in the Guatemalan civil patrol at the time that he was recruited and attacked by guerrillas does not compel the conclusion that he was persecuted on the basis of a political opinion. Id. at 481-82 , 112 S.Ct. 812 (forced recruitment by a political faction is not sufficient to show an imputed political opinion); Arriaga-Barrientos v. INS, 937 F.2d 411, 414 (9th Cir.1991) (mandatory service in the Guatemalan civil patrol is not sufficient to show an imputed political opinion).

An imputed political opinion must be proven through facts in evidence…