Gonzalez-Hernandez

In this petition for review, we are once again asked to decide whether the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) rebutted the presumption of future persecution through the use of a State Department country report, thereby defeating the petitioners’ claims of asylum. Because the country report in this case indicates that only high-level political figures are now subject to persecution on account of political opinion in Guatemala, and that in any event such leaders can safely relocate within Guatemala, we hold that substantial evidence supports the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) decision to deny asylum to petitioners, 1 who were never party leaders nor high-level politicians. We therefore deny the petition.

I

Bernardo Gonzalez-Hernandez (Gonzalez) and his family claim they are entitled to asylum because they have a well-founded fear that they will be persecuted on account of their political opinions if deported to their native country of Guatemala. The facts giving rise to their claim of asylum start in early 1987. For approximately three months of that year, Bernardo Gonzalez actively participated in the Christian Democratic Party.

At some point, the…