Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America

Progress on Human Rights!

by Melissa Johansen, CRLN intern, Loyola University graduate student 

About 97% of crimes in Guatemala have not been investigated and in the cases that are investigated very few people are held responsible for their crimes. This impunity has ruled Guatemala for most of its history permitting an increase and intensification of violence.  However, events in the past few years indicate that this tradition of impunity may be ending.

National Police archives from the Guatemalan civil war era (1960-1996) were discovered in 2005 and have since been analyzed for information about crimes committed during the armed conflict.  These documents open up the possibility for members of the National Police to be prosecuted for some of the 200,000 deaths and 40,000 disappearances during the civil war. 

In 2007, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) was created as a joint effort between the United Nations and the Guatemalan government to investigate cases of impunity and corruption in Guatemala.  Many groups have insisted that it is important that the crimes of the past be investigated and those responsible must be held accountable because the violence of today comes from the impunity of the past.

Both the opening of archives and the creation of CICIG have led to the investigation of crimes that that otherwise would have been left in impunity. For Guatemala, these are significant steps in ending the culture of impunity that has controlled the country for far too long.  Here are examples of the results of the efforts to end impunity:

Arrest of former president

On January 26, 2010, the president of Guatemala from 2000-2004, Alfonso Portillo, was arrested by Guatemalan police after the U.S. government charged him with laundering $1.5 million from funds from Libraries for Peace, an organization that donates children’s books. The charges also include allegations that Portillo embezzled millions from the government. 

Arrests in the case of the assassination of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg

The International Commission against Impunity (CICIG) played a prominent role in the prompt and thorough investigation of the murder of Rodrigo Rosenbergon on May 10, 2009.  After his death, a video recorded by Rosenberg was found that accused the Guatemalan president of being responsible for his death, but impartial investigations have cleared the president of any responsibility.  Guatemalan authorities have arrested 11 men in connection with the murder.  Many of those men were current or former police or military officers.

Human Rights Ombudsman demands search for those"disappeared" during the internal armed conflict

In June of 2009, the Human Rights Ombudsman in Guatemala remembered the victims of forced disappearances during the armed conflict and urged state officials to actively look for them. 

Former dictator and other officers are being tried for a massacre

Some of the recently released records from the National Police archives are being used for evidence in a trial in a Spanish court against General Efraín Ríos Montt, the former Guatemalan dictator, and seven other top military and civilian officers.  This trial began over ten years ago and has dragged on after numerous challenges and set backs.  The general and other officers are charged with deliberate massacre of thousands of Mayas. The records provide evidence of the massacre of innocent civilians in the region of El Quiché that occurred in the summer of 1982.

Members of the National Civil Police are held accountable

The director of National Civil Police, Porfirio Pérez Paniagua, the deputy director, Rolando Pérez Mendoza, the deputy director of operations, Victor de Jesus Lopez, and the assistant director of research, Hector Castellanos, were dismissed from their positions in August of 2009.  These men are accused of being responsible for the theft of at least 119 kilos of cocaine. Twenty-three policemen are also under investigation for being present in the place where the cocaine was discovered. The Guatemalan Criminal Court also banned five former chiefs of the National Civil Police from leaving the country.

Former paramilitary officer convicted

In September 2009, Felipe Cusanero was found guilty of 6 forced disappearances between 1982-1984 in the region of Chimaltenango.  He was sentenced to 150 years in prison, but will only serve 50 years.

Military officers sentenced for disappearances and illegal detention during the civil war

On December 3, 2009, a court in Guatemala sentenced retired colonel Marco Antonio Sanchez Samayoa and three former military commissioners, Jose Domingo Rios, Gabriel Alvarez Ramos and Salomon Maldonado Rios, to 40 years in prison for the crime of forced disappearance.  They received 13 years and 4 months for the crime of illegal detention of eight members of the community of El Jute, Chiquimula in 1981. 

US funding to protect human rights defenders in Guatemala

As a part of the 2010 Foreign Operations Appropriation Law, the US Congress approved $2 million for the Guatemalan police and interior ministry to fund specific protection programs for human rights defenders, officers within the criminal investigation division of the police, as well as the department for the protection of personalities of the police and its unit of risk analysis. This funding will help protect those who are working to end impunityin Guatemala.