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Amnesty International Report 2005 - Guatemala

Covering events from January - December 2004

Forced violent evictions in rural areas increased sharply. Human rights defenders continued to suffer intimidation and persecution. Violence against women, in particular murders, increased. Impunity remained endemic, including for past human rights violations.

Background

Óscar Berger took office as President in January. In his inaugural speech he promised to strictly adhere to the 1996 Peace Accords. The Vice-President promised to prioritize the exhumation of massacre sites where hundreds of victims of past human rights violations were buried in clandestine graves during the internal armed conflict.

In February the UN Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) called on the government to reaffirm its commitment to implementing recommendations made in 1999 by the Historical Clarification Commission. The government subsequently took some positive measures including modernization of the army and establishing a National Reparations Commission. MINUGUA's mandate and presence in Guatemala ended in November.

Throughout the year former members of the Civil Defence Patrols pressured Congress, including by the use of threats, to pay them compensation for services rendered during the internal armed conflict. Congress agreed in August, despite a June ruling by the Constitutional Court that such payments would be unconstitutional. During the conflict, which ended in 1996, members of the Civil Defence Patrols were implicated in hundreds of cases of human rights violations. Very few have ever been brought to justice.

In August the Constitutional Court delivered its opinion on the creation of a UN-backed Commission for the Investigation of Illegal Bodies and Clandestine Security Apparatus, which had been approved by the previous government. It stated that significant parts of such a commission would be unconstitutional. The government announced it would present alternatives to carry the process forward. By the end of the year discussions were still ongoing.

A proposed Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was delayed due to the government's reluctance to allow it to submit a "detailed and analytical public report on the country's human rights situation". An agreement, which would still require ratification by Congress, was due to be signed by the government and the UN in January 2005.

Economic, social and cultural rights

According to the UN, 56 per cent of the population were living below the national poverty line.

MINUGUA's final report concluded that, despite advances in the political sphere, fundamental reforms envisaged in the 1996 Peace Accords had not been implemented. It noted the persistence of problems of severe racism and vast social inequality. It warned that if left unchecked, the problems could lead to social conflict, stunted economic development and the corrosion of democratic government.

An unofficial government policy of using forced evictions to resolve ongoing agrarian disputes was widely implemented. There were reportedly 31 forced evictions in the first six months of the year. Many were violent and contravened international norms on the use of force and guidelines for carrying out evictions. Following nationwide protests in June, the President promised to take specific action on the issue but in August another forced eviction cost the lives of four policemen and eight rural workers. According to the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office, the police allegedly extrajudicially executed five rural workers.

Violence against women

According to press reports, the national police recorded more than 527 women murdered in Guatemala, a significant increase from 2003. Many of those killed, mainly from the poorer sectors of society, were raped prior to death. Some were also mutilated.

The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women found that the Guatemalan government was failing in its international obligations to effectively prevent, investigate and prosecute violence against women. In March a special police unit was established to investigate and prevent crimes against women but was reportedly insufficiently resourced to deal with the scale of the problem.

Impunity

There was minor progress in trying past cases of genocide or crimes against humanity.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Guatemalan state to pay compensation to victims' relatives in a number of prominent cases of past human rights violations for which the state had recognized its responsibility. In a landmark ruling in April, the Court found the Guatemalan state responsible for the massacre of 268 people in Plan de Sánchez, Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, in 1982.

• In January, the Supreme Court confirmed a 30-year prison sentence imposed on Colonel Juan Valencia for ordering the murder of anthropologist Myrna Mack in 1990 and ordered his rearrest. He had been released in May 2003 after being acquitted on appeal and his whereabouts remained unknown.

• In July, an army lieutenant and 13 soldiers were sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment for the extrajudicial execution of 11 returned indigenous refugees in Xamán, Alta Verapaz, in 1995. They had been found guilty of manslaughter in 1999 but the lieutenant had been acquitted on appeal.

Both the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expressed concern about the state of the justice system and warned that if appropriate steps were not taken, the rule of law would be in danger.

Threats and intimidation

Human rights activists, witnesses and members of the judiciary involved in investigations of past human rights violations were subjected to persistent intimidation, death threats and attacks. Trade unionists and journalists were also targeted. Such attacks were frequently commissioned or perpetrated by quasi-official groups allegedly acting in collusion with members of the security forces.

• In July, a cousin of one of the key witnesses in the 1992 abduction and killing of guerrilla commander Efraín Bámaca Velasquez was killed in what appeared to be an attempt to intimidate the family.

• In December, Florentín Gudiel, auxiliary mayor of a small town in the south-east of the country, was shot dead. He had been campaigning against corruption and had previously been commended by the UN for his community work.

Death penalty

No executions took place but 34 people remained on death row.

AI country visits

AI delegates visited Guatemala in May and October.