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

The recent closure of the Peace Archives, an agency established under the Alvaro Colom administration (2008-2012) dedicated to advancing understanding of the 1960-1996 civil war, is one of various developments that have aroused civil society concerns in recent weeks regarding the right-wing government of a former general, President Otto Pérez Molina.

The closure of the Archives, which employed 17 workers, took effect on 29 June but was announced a month earlier by Antonio Arenales Forno, the head of the presidential peace secretariat (Sepaz). Arenales was cited in the local press as saying that “the decision was made to eliminate the Directorate, cancelling contracts for which I find no justification and the functioning of an office I find makes no sense”. He also said that more than a hundred “unnecessary” positions in the Sepaz, which was set up in 1997 to supervise the fulfilment of the peace accords, could face the axe. Pérez Molina’s insistence that the Peace Archive would be redistributed among various government institutions has yet to pacify his detractors (see sidebar).

Fears regarding the future of the UN-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig) and attorney general Claudia Paz y Paz, a well-respected human rights activist, under a Pérez Molina government have yet to be borne out [RC-11-12]. However, some grounds are starting to emerge for concerns regarding the continuation of efforts to bring former military officials to justice – a process begun under Colom. On 26 June, an appeals court suspended the trial, which involves the former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983), looking into the Las Dos Erres massacre, one of the most brutal civil war atrocities. The charges against Ríos Montt, announced in May last, were the second ones filed against him, following the historic announcement in January that there was “sufficient evidence” to try him for genocide and war crimes in relation to 72 incidents involving an estimated 1,771 deaths and the displacement of nearly 30,000 Guatemalans [RC-12-01].

In a move slammed by human rights groups as a major setback in efforts to address past impunity, the court admitted the appeal presented by Ríos Montt’s lawyers, which is based on a decree (8/86) passed under the Oscar Mejía Víctores regime (1983-1986) that established a general amnesty for all those who fought between 1982 and 1986. On 27 June the attorney general’s office and the Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos de Guatemala, which represents families of those disappeared during the civil war, presented an appeal before the constitutional court against the appeals court ruling.

New human rights ombudsman

The recent election by congress of the new human rights ombudsman, a government post responsible for monitoring human rights as outlined in the constitution, also came under criticism from prominent civil society activists such as Iduvina Hernández of the Centro de Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos (CALDH) as well as some 15 human rights organisations.

     On 31 May, Jorge de León Duque, a lawyer and deputy for the right-wing Compromiso, Renovación y Orden (Creo), led by the academic Eduardo Suger (who came third in September’s presidential election), was overwhelmingly chosen by the 158-member unicameral congress with 142 votes in favour.

     De León Duque is the son of the late Ramiro de León Carpio, a human rights ombudsman (1989-1993) and former President (1993-1996) under whose administration Pérez Molina headed up the notorious presidential general staff (EMP). As well as criticising the lack of transparency surrounding the process of De León’s appointment, which she dubbed a “show”, Hernández also denounced the “interference” of Pérez Molina, who publicly backed the new ombudsman.

• Peace Archives

Since its establishment under the Alvaro Colom administration (2008-2012), the Peace Archives has digitalised some two million government documents relating to the civil war. The agency has provided expert testimonies for the attorney general’s office in several key human rights cases as well as publishing nine reports on issues such as forced disappearance, child trafficking, the presidential general staff (EMP) and the national police archives.