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Caribbean & Central America - February 2012 (ISSN 1741-4458)

GUATEMALA: Pérez Molina turns words into action

Less than a month into his mandate, President Otto Pérez Molina has already implemented two of his key electoral promises: the creation of inter-institutional security task forces to combat crime and a new ministry of social development to address the other priority awaiting his new Partido Patriota government, poverty (see next page). Prior to taking office, the right-wing former general – the first military man to lead the country since the end of the 1960-1996 civil war - also pledged not to interfere with the groundbreaking efforts to seek justice for civil war atrocities committed by the military, a process begun under his predecessor, Alvaro Colom (2008-2012) [RC-11-08]. While Pérez Molina continues to offer reassurances regarding his commitment to human rights, the first test of this pledge to redress past impunity might come sooner than anticipated, with the recent announcement of plans to bring former military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983) to trial for genocide and war crimes.

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