Caribbean & Central America - March 2022

In January President Alejandro Giammattei marked the mid-way point of his four-year mandate. In his balance sheet he highlighted various security achievements. However, these have been subject to question. Meanwhile the resignation of interior minister Gendri Reyes, announced on 25 January, already his third interior minister since taking office, along with Giammattei’s choice of a replacement, have further renewed concerns about the direction of citizen security under his government.

In his balance sheet on 14 January President Giammattei trumpeted various security achievements. He said that Q12.9m (US$1.68m) had been seized in illicit activities and over Q2bn worth of drugs and Q628m worth of goods confiscated in anti-drug trafficking operations. He claimed that the homicide rate declined by 4.4% to 16 per 100,000 inhabitants compared with 2019, the year prior to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. However, this achievement was challenged by human rights groups, such as Grupo Apoyo Mutuo (GAM), which tallied 4,071 homicides in Guatemala in 2021, an increase of 17.25% on 2020, bringing the murder rate to 27 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Better ties with the US?

In his balance sheet President Giammattei also heralded strengthened relations with the US administration led by President Joe Biden with regard to security, combating transnational crime, narcotrafficking, and other issues. He cited the “historic” number (57) of arrests, trials, and extraditions of people linked to narcotrafficking in 2021. However, these claims similarly raised eyebrows given that the Biden administration has been vocal in its criticism of the Guatemalan government’s backsliding in anti-corruption efforts, at times backing this up with action. One example was the US decision last year to sanction the head of the attorney general’s office (AG), María Consuela Porras, for obstructing investigations into corruption following her dismissal of high-profile anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, the former head of the attorney general’s special anti-corruption unit (Feci) [SSR-21-09].

Porras has not only kept her job but has been accused of targeting other figures associated with the fight against corruption (see sidebar). One example is Erika Aifán, an internationally lauded judge in the high-risk criminal court. Since the start of 2022, the AG has announced four requests (at the time of writing) to strip Aifán of her immunity from prosecution for alleged abuse of authority, dereliction of duty, and malfeasance – a move which has already drawn a response from the US. Meanwhile on 9 February Guatemala’s supreme court (CSJ) announced that it had stripped Pablo Xitumul, another well respected high-risk court judge, of his immunity from prosecution. The CSJ’s move against him relates to a traffic-related incident dating back to 2019 (see sidebar). Xitumul has previously described threats to lift his immunity as retribution for his work.

New security minister

The resignation of interior minister Reyes on 25 January and appointment of his replacement has also sparked concerns about the direction of citizen security in Guatemala. Reyes had been in the post since November 2020, taking over from Oliverio García Rodas, who resigned over differences with Giammattei over the president’s vetoing of the interior ministry’s decision to allow Planned Parenthood, a US-based reproductive healthcare and family planning NGO, to establish operations in the country. García in turn was named to replace retired General Édgar Godoy, a former deputy chief of the presidential guard (1993-1995) and founder of the far-right lobby group Fundación Contra el Terrorismo (FCT), who stepped aside for health reasons in June 2020.

The departure of Reyes was not ill-received by human rights groups like Unidad de Protección a Defensores de los Derechos Humanos (Udefegua). These have accused him of responsibility for excessive police (PNC) force against protesters who took to the streets in November 2020 in opposition to congress’s approval of the controversial state budget, on which it was forced to backtrack.

However, Reyes’ replacement, David Napoléon Barrientos Girón, the former deputy chief of staff of disgraced former President Otto Pérez Molina (Partido Patriota, 2012-2015), has also provoked alarm among sectors like Asamblea Social y Popular de Guatemala (ASP), a collective of social organisations. In a statement dated 26 January, which accused Reyes of a leadership based on “violence, criminalisation, repression against indigenous people, human rights defenders” and others, ASP warned that Barrientos could well continue down this path. It flagged up his military background and previous posts. These also include his past as commander of the notorious Kaibiles special forces in Puerto Barrios city, Izabal department, a background which again reflects the military’s continued influence in citizen security efforts – as evidenced by Giammattei’s deployment of it in response to disputes, including one over a nickel mine in El Estor municipality, Izabal, which is rejected by indigenous groups [SSR-21-12].

• Homicides across the region

In 2021 homicides increased across Central America, with the apparent exception of El Salvador. Costa Rica registered 588 homicides in 2021, equivalent to 11.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, up from 570 homicides in 2020 (11.2 per 100,000). El Salvador’s police claims that the country registered 1,140 homicides in 2021, down from 1,341 in 2020, equivalent to 17.6 per 100,00 inhabitants. Yet doubts persist as to these claims of progress given question marks raised by ongoing reports of disappearances [SSR-21-12].

Honduras registered 3,651 homicides in 2021 (equivalent to a rate of 38.6 per 100,000 inhabitants), up from 3,599 in 2020 although less than the 4,094 in 2019. As regards Nicaragua, specialist website Insight Crime, which describes official data as “unreliable or non-existent”, cites security expert Elvira Cuadra, who tracks murders in Nicaragua through media reports and other independent sources, as tallying 189 people killed in the first six months of 2021. On Insight Crime’s calculations, this puts the country on track for a homicide rate of 5.7 per 100,00 in 2021. Finally, Panama also registered an increase in homicides in 2021 – to reach 554 (12.8 per 100,000 inhabitants), up 11% on 2020.

• Other anti-corruption figures targeted

On 10 February Leidy Indira Santizo Rodas, a lawyer who previously represented the now defunct United Nations-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig), and Eva Xiomara Sosa, a former Feci prosecutor, were arrested. On 16 February, the press reported that a further two Feci prosecutors had been arrested, with arrest warrants out for another two.

• itumul

According to a 10 February statement by a string of human rights groups including the US-based Washington Office on Latin America (Wola) rejecting the move against Xitumul, the complaint was filed against the judge by a police inspector during a vehicle inspection incident. Despite the existence of documentary evidence showing the police officer used “excessive force”, the latter filed a criminal complaint against Xitumul which received “full support” from the interior ministry. Xitumul was one of the judges who in 2013 convicted former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983) of genocide (a conviction that was subsequently overturned). Among other key verdicts, he also sentenced former Vice President Roxana Baldetti (2012-2015) in October 2018 to 15 years in prison for corruption.