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guatemala
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240 total results foundAuthor: Briscoe, Ivan Title: A Criminal Bargain: The State and Security in Guatemala Summary: This report seeks to dissect the multiple manifestations of the security crisis in Guatemala, and the ways in which the financial, political and criminal aspects of state fragility combine and reinforce one another. Based on numerous interviews and field research, it argues that the withering of public authority can be understood as the effect of a proliferation and fragmentation of business transactions between non-state groups, factions within the state and political leaders. Details: Madrid: FRIDE, 2009. 24p. Source: Working Paper 88 Year: 2009 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Criminal Violence Shelf Number: 116503 |
Author: Berlin, Daniel Title: Between the Border and the Street: A Comparative Look at Gang Reduction Policies and Migration in the United States and Guatemala Summary: This report examines the rise of gangs in Guatemala and the United States, compares the anti-gang strategies in each country, discusses relative successes and failures, and offers recommendations for more sensible, humane, and effective policies to reduce youth violence. Details: Washington, DC: Human Rights Institute, Georgetown University Law Center, 2007. 63p. Source: HRI Papers & Reports Year: 2007 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Human Rights Shelf Number: 117589 |
Author: ECPAT International Guatemala Title: Sexual Commercial Exploitation of Girls, Boys and Adolescents in Guatemala Summary: This report presents a profile of how the issue of illegal trafficking in persons is a growing problem in Guatemala. Details: Guatemala City, Guatemala: ECPAT International Guatemala, International Organization for Migration, & Casa Alianza, 2002. 48p. Source: Working Notebooks on Migration, No. 8 Year: 2002 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Child Prostitution Shelf Number: 117868 |
Author: Brands, Hal Title: Crime, Violence, and the Crisis in Guatemala: A Case Study in the Erosion of the State Summary: In numerous Latin American countries, organized crime and violence are corroding governance and imperiling democratic legitimacy. This phenomenon is most severe in Guatemala, which is currently experiencing a full-blown crisis of the democratic state. An unholy trinity of criminal elements - international drug traffickers, domestically based organized crime syndicates, and youth gangs - have dramatically expanded their operations since the 1990s, and are effectively waging a form of irregular warfare against government institutions. The effects of this campaign have been dramatic. The police, the judiciary, and entire local and departmental governments are rife with criminal infiltrators; murder statistics have surpassed civil-war levels in recent years; criminal operatives brazenly assassinate government officials and troublesome members of the political class; and broad swaths of territory are now effectively under the control of criminal groups. Guatemala's weak institutions have been unable to contain this violence, leading to growing civic disillusion and causing marked erosion in the authority and legitimacy of the state. This problem cannot be addressed through police measures alone; combating it will require a holistic strategy that combines robust enforcement and security measures with sustained efforts to broaden socio-economic oppportunities, combat corruption, and, above all, to build a stronger and more capable state. Details: Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2010. 63p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2010 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Criminal Activity (Guatemala) Shelf Number: 118749 |
Author: International Crisis Group Title: Guatemala: Squeezed Between Crime and Impunity Summary: In recent years, Guatemala has been crippled by soaring levels of violent crime and impunity, which threaten the security of population and seriously undermine the country's institutions and state authority. While an outright return of civil war is not expected, the government of President Alvaro Colom has been unable to reduce violent crime. The widespread perception of a lack of government capacity to stem the violence has caused some communities to turn to brutal and extra-institutional vigilantism. This report is the first in a new series that will examine different aspects of the effort to recover the rule of law in Guatemala. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2010. 27p. Source: Internet Resource; Latin America Report No. 33 - 22 June 2010 Year: 2010 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Rule of Law Shelf Number: 119138 |
Author: United Nations Development Program Title: Informe Estadistico de la Violencia en Guatemala. (Statistical Report on Violence in Guatemala) Summary: This report, available in Spanish only, shows how over the last seven years homicidal violence in Guatemala has increased more than 120%, from 2655 homicides in 1999 to 5885 in 2006. In 2006, the country had a national homicide rate of 47 per 100,000 inhabitants, rising to 108 per 100,000 in Guatemala City - rates that position Guatemala as one of the world's most violent countries. The report highlights the fact that official police and justice statistics identify only a fraction of all victims of violence, and that for a more comprehensive picture data from mortuaries, hospitals and emergency departments are essential. Probable underlying causes and risk factors are identified, and set of prevention recommendations are provided. Details: Guatemala: Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Dessarrollo, 2007. 79p. Source: Internet Resource; Accessed August 17, 2010 at: http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/national_activities/gtm/en/index.html Year: 2007 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Homicide (Guatemala) Shelf Number: 107153 |
Author: Briscoe, Ivan Title: A State of Siege: Elites, Criminal Networks and Institutional Reform in Guatemala Summary: The scale and severity of the challenges facing the Guatemala state have been underlined by events over the past year. Humanitarian crises and a continuing wave of violent crime, exacerbated by the penetration in Guatemalan territory of Mexican cartels, have multiplied the demands on public authorities. The government of President Alvara Colom, a self-declared social democrat, has vowed to fight poverty and clean up the security and judicial systems. To a significant extent, the country is still locked into the terms of the informal political and economic settlement that lay beneath the formal peace process ending the country's civil war in 1996. Whereas the peace accords promised rural development, a stronger and wealthier public sector, and a dismantling of the structures of counter-insurgency, the post-conflict reality fell under a different paradigm. Criminal groups, involving former military officers, acting state officials, criminal entrepreneurs and gang members, extended their influence. This paper, which forms part of the broader Clingendael research programme into post-conflict and fragile states, aims to unpick these constrains on governance in Guatemala, and also points to the emerging trends that are now altering the country's internal balance of power. In particular, the election of Colom in 2007 and the creation in the same year of the UN Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) are landmark events that appear to have undermined the post-conflict settlement. However, recent setbacks, including the paralysis of key policy initiatives - such as tax reform - and repeated acts of corruption in the security forces and the judicial system have raised questions over whether reform of the state is possible, and how it is to be carried out. Details: The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael', 2010. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 6, 2010 at: http://www.clingendael.nl/publications/2010/20100913_cru_publication_ibriscoe.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Corruption Shelf Number: 119873 |
Author: Sagant, Valerie Title: Violence Prevention in Guatemala Summary: The report presents the findings of a mission to Guatemala. The aim was to conduct an assessment of violence in Guatemala to help OSI identify the main lines of action to confront the problem strategically. This report for Open Society Institute presents the main conclusions of the mission, and emphasizes the following: - Elements that could reinforce the actions of OSI and Fundacion Soros-Guatemala in the field of violence prevention; - Identification of actors who are well-positioned to pilot actions; and - Coordination methods that are considered pertinent. This report does not aim to describe the situation and the causes of violence in the country, but aims rather to propose courses of action for defining the future violence prevention strategies of OSI and Fundacion Soros-Guatemala. Details: Montreal: International Centre for the Prevention of Crime, 2009. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 1, 2010 at: http://www.crime-prevention-intl.org/uploads/media/Guatemala_Report.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Crime Prevention Shelf Number: 120326 |
Author: International Crisis Group Title: Learning to Walk without a Crutch: The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala Summary: Since it began operations in September 2007, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala, CICIG) has brought a degree of hope to a country deeply scarred by post-conflict violence and entrenched impunity. As homicide rates sky-rocketed and criminals fought for territorial control and dominated or corrupted multiple levels of state agencies, the novel independent investigating entity created by agreement between the government and the UN Secretary-General responded to fear that illegal armed groups had become a threat to the state itself. Much remains to be done, however. During the next years the commission should establish the strategic basis for dismantling the illegal security forces and clandestine security organisations (Cuerpos Ilegales y Aparatos Clandestinos de Seguridad, CIACS) over the long term and building Guatemalan justice capacity, including by supporting national ownership of the commission’s functions and embedding them within the judicial system. CICIG’s formal mandate is to support and assist domestic justice institutions in the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed by CIACS, to identify their structures, operations and financing and ultimately to dismantle them. At the same time, CICIG has sought to strengthen the weak judicial system in order to put an end to impunity, a task made infinitely more difficult by the complex relationship between elements of state institutions, political parties, the private sector and the CIACS. On 13 January 2011, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon confirmed a second two-year extension of CICIG’s original mandate, to 4 September 2013. The commission has achieved notable and unprecedented short-term successes, evidenced by positive outcomes in a series of high-impact legal cases, dismissal and prosecution of several senior officials, removal of a compromised attorney general and the selection of a respected successor. It has encouraged the adoption of norms for election of Supreme Court judges and helped generate public awareness about impunity, CIACS and organised crime. It contributed directly to the creation of a Special Prosecutor’s Office that assists its work (Unidad Especial de la Fiscalía de Apoyo a la CICIG, UEFAC) and has supported greater professionalism in the Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministerio Público, MP), the institution charged with the investigation and prosecution of crimes in Guatemala. It has also pushed through a limited number of important legal reforms. However, the core elements of the mandate – dismantling the CIACS and consolidating sustainable institutional transformation – remain unmet, and it is uncertain whether sufficient progress has been achieved or at least the foundations have been laid to guarantee those goals will be accomplished. Severe structural constraints and the resistance of diverse spoilers, as well as limitations imposed by the commission’s own mandate and strategies, have been restraining factors. Such institutional transformation as there has been will remain isolated exceptions, unless further legislative reforms are adopted to extend them throughout state institutions. Moreover, there is a serious question about the degree to which the Guatemalan state and broader society are prepared to exercise ownership of CICIG and sustain its achievements. Clear measures need to be taken to reduce the possibility that continuation of the mandate will only make the justice system more dependent on external mechanisms. National ownership of the commission’s functions and objectives is crucial to guaranteeing its long-term impact. Assuring a sustainable legacy through the transfer of technical capacities from CICIG to national institutions should be a priority during the next two years. CICIG has provided a crutch. The justice system must now learn to walk on its own and increasingly assume the responsibilities with which CICIG has been charged. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2011. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Report No. 36: Accessed June 29, 2011 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/36%20Learning%20to%20Walk%20without%20a%20Crutch%20---%20The%20International%20Commission%20Against%20Impunity%20in%20Guatemala.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Criminal Justice Systems(Guatemala) Shelf Number: 121886 |
Author: Dudley, Steven Title: The Zetas in Guatemala Summary: The Zetas, Mexico's most feared and violent criminal organization, has moved operations to Guatemala. In the process, they have shifted the balance of power in the region, undermining and overwhelming Guatemala's government and putting its neighbors in El Salvador and Honduras on high alert. They have also introduced a new way of operating. The Zetas are focused on controlling territory. In this they are the experts, creating a ruthless and intimidating force that is willing to take the fight to a new, often macabre level. Whoever becomes Guatemala's new president will face this challenge with little resources and government institutions that have a history of working for criminal organizations of all types. In sum, the Zetas are a test for Guatemala and the rest of the region: fail this test, and Central America sinks deeper into the abyss. Details: Washington, DC: Center for Latin American and Latino Studies "InSight Project", 2011. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 10, 2011 at: http://insightcrime.org/specials/zetas-in-guatemala/item/1526-part-1-the-incursion Year: 2011 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Organized Crime (Guatemala) Shelf Number: 122682 |
Author: International Crisis Group Title: Guatemala: Drug Trafficking and Violence Summary: The bloody eruption of Mexican-led cartels into Guatemala is the latest chapter in a vicious cycle of violence and institutional failure. Geography has placed the country – midway between Colombia and the U.S. – at one of the world’s busiest intersections for illegal drugs. Cocaine (and now ingredients for synthetic drugs) flows in by air, land and sea and from there into Mexico en route to the U.S. Cool highlands are an ideal climate for poppy cultivation. Weapons, given lenient gun laws and a long history of arms smuggling, are plentiful. An impoverished, underemployed population is a ready source of recruits. The winner of November’s presidential election will need to address endemic social and economic inequities while confronting the violence and corruption associated with drug trafficking. Decisive support from the international community is needed to assure these challenges do not overwhelm a democracy still recovering from decades of political violence and military rule. Gangs and common criminals flourish under the same conditions that allow drug traffickers to operate with brazen impunity: demoralised police forces, an often intimidated or corrupted judicial system and a population so distrustful of law enforcement that the rich depend on private security forces while the poor arm themselves in local vigilante squads. Over the past decade, the homicide rate has doubled, from twenty to more than 40 per 100,000 inhabitants. While traffickers contribute to the crime wave in border regions and along drug corridors, youth gangs terrorise neighbourhoods in Guatemala City. The outrages perpetrated by the most violent Mexican gang, the Zetas – who decapitate and dismember their victims for maximum impact – generate the most headlines. Violent drug cartels, however, are only one manifestation of the gangs and clandestine associations that have long dominated Guatemalan society and crippled its institutions. How to change this dynamic will be one of the most difficult challenges facing the winner of November’s presidential election. Both Otto Pérez Molina and Manuel Baldizón have promised to get tough on criminals, but a hardline approach that fails to include a strategy to foster rule of law is unlikely to yield anything more than sporadic, short-term gains. For decades, the state itself was the most prolific violator of human rights. During the 36-year conflict that ended with the peace accords of 1996, the armed forces murdered dissidents in urban areas and razed villages suspected of harbouring guerrilla forces. Just as Guatemala was recovering from years of political violence, control of the South American drug trade was shifting from Colombia to Mexico. Increased interdiction in the Caribbean, plus the arrest of Colombian cartel leaders, allowed Mexican traffickers to begin taking over drug distribution in the late 1990s. Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s crackdown after 2006 forced traffickers to import increasing amounts of contraband into Central America and then move it north over land. The shipment of more drugs through Central America has had a multiplier effect on illegal activities. Violence is especially intense in coastal and border departments, where traffickers and gangs have diversified into other activities, such as local drug dealing, prostitution, extortion and kidnapping. In some regions, narcotics traffickers have become prominent entrepreneurs, with both licit and illicit businesses. They participate in community events, distribute gifts to the needy and finance political campaigns. Their well-armed henchmen offer protection from other gangs and common criminals. Those who finance opium poppy cultivation provide impoverished indigenous communities with greater monetary income than they have ever known. But these domestic trafficking groups also operate with impunity to seize land and intimidate or eliminate competitors. Local police and judicial authorities, under-resourced and widely mistrusted, offer little opposition. There are signs of progress. The attorney general is reviving long-stalled investigations into past human rights abuses while aggressively pursuing the current threat posed by organised crime. A veteran human rights activist was tapped by the outgoing government to reform the police. The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a UN-Guatemalan initiative, is pursuing high-profile criminal cases. Donors are financing vetted units, providing new investigative tools and building new judicial facilities. Moreover, over the past year, Central American authorities, with international help, have arrested half a dozen high-level Guatemalan traffickers who are awaiting extradition to the U.S. But ending the impunity that has allowed trafficking networks and other illegal organisations to flourish will require a long-term, multi-dimensional effort. To shore up recent gains and lay the ground work for sustainable reform it is urgent that: •the new president allow Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz to complete her four-year term, fully support Police Reform Commissioner Helen Mack and encourage CICIG’s efforts to pursue high profile cases and build prosecutorial capacity; •political and business leaders work together both to increase government revenues for crime-fighting and social programs and to devise anti-corruption initiatives that will hold officials responsible for their use of public funds; •regional leaders increase cooperation to interdict illegal narcotics shipments and to break up transnational criminal groups through entities such as the Central American Integration System (SICA); •the U.S. and other consuming countries provide financial aid commensurate with their national interest in stopping the drug trade and aimed not just at arresting traffickers but also at building strong, democratically accountable institutions; and •international leaders open a serious debate on counter-narcotics policies, including strategies designed to curtail both production and consumption; it is past time to re-evaluate policies that have failed either to alleviate the suffering caused by drug addiction or to reduce the corruption and violence associated with drug production and trafficking. Details: Bogota; Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2011. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Report No. 39: Accessed October 18, 2011 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/39%20Guatemala%20--%20Drug%20Trafficking%20and%20Violence.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Drug Cartels Shelf Number: 123052 |
Author: Caumartin, Corinne Title: Racism, Violence, and Inequality: An Overview of the Guatemalan Case Summary: This working paper was written for the first CRISE Latin American team meeting held in Lima in June 2004. The meeting provided an arena for presenting our case studies (Guatemala, Peru and Bolivia) and setting up our research agendas. This paper was designed as a broad general introduction to the ‘Guatemalan case’ for the purpose of research on ethnicity, horizontal inequalities and conflict. This ‘background paper’ attempts to provide a general overview of the issues of conflict and ethnicity in Guatemala. CRISE research in Peru, Bolivia and Guatemala, focuses primarily on the indigenous/non-indigenous divide. In a first instance, this paper sets out to examine the emergence and evolution of Guatemala’s key ethnic categories, highlighting a much greater ethnic diversity than a simple binary (indigenous/non indigenous) approach would suggest in a first place. Yet, whilst acknowledging Guatemala’s ethnic diversity, pertaining to an indigenous or non-indigenous group in Guatemala remains an important phenomenon with important social, economic, political and cultural consequences. In a second instance, this paper traces out the general history and nature of inter-actions between indigenous and Ladino groups. Furthermore, this paper introduces some of the key debates surrounding the question of ethnicity and inter-ethnic relations in Guatemala, notably those regarding the definitions and evaluations of the various populations which constitute Guatemala. The latter sections of the paper provide a general review of Guatemala’s armed conflict (1960-1996) examining its emergence, resolution and aftermath. Providing a general overview of the conflict allows us to map out the nature of violence and repression in Guatemala. This paper identifies the 1976-1985 period as being of particular relevance for CRISE research. Most of the conflict’s casualties occurred during this period with indigenous people accounting for over 80% of the victims of violence. This paper summarises and reviews the main forms of violence and repression that were perpetrated against the indigenous victims of the conflict, leading to the conclusion that there was an ‘ethnicisation’ of violence in Guatemala. Finally, to conclude our general overview of the Guatemalan case, the last sections of this paper review and evaluate the Guatemalan peace accords, paying particular attention to the agreement on indigenous rights. Details: London: Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE), 2005. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: CRISE Working Paper No. 11: Accessed November 9, 2011 at: http://www.crise.ox.ac.uk/pubs/workingpaper11.pdf Year: 2005 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Ethnic Groups Shelf Number: 123277 |
Author: Zander, Markus Title: Dynamic in land tenure, local power and the peasant economy: the case of Peten, Guatemala Summary: This article analyses the ongoing process of land grabbing by cattle farmers and drug traffickers in south-eastern Petén, Guatemala and its socio-economic consequences. In the last decade, this process has strongly accelerated due to several factors, which made investment in land more attractive and resulted in sharply increasing land prices. In the 236 communities included in the field study, 30% of all peasant families have already sold their land, some of them hoping to escape poverty, others under often violent pressure from buyers mostly related to the drug trade, who are securing control over large territories. For lack of economic alternatives the landless families end up leasing plots for cultivation from their neighbours, working as day labourers on big cattle ranches or occupying land in the protected areas in northern Petén, with poverty and conflicts about resources on a steady rise. Value chain analysis shows that the conversion from small scale peasant agriculture to extensive livestock production reduces land productivity and diminishes local added value and employment, thus providing further arguments for changes in agricultural politics to halt or reverse the process. Details: Land Deals Politics Initiative (LDPI) Source: Paper presented at the International Conference on Global Land Grabbing: Internet Resource: Accessed February 21, 2012 at http://www.future-agricultures.org/papers-and-presentations/doc_download/1095-dynamics-in-land-tenure-local-power-and-the-peasant-economy-the-case-of-peten-guatemala Year: 0 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Drug Trafficking Shelf Number: 124219 |
Author: Espach, Ralph Title: Criminal Organizations and Illicit Trafficking in Guatemala’s Border Communities Summary: Contraband routes in Guatemala traditionally controlled by local groups are coming ever more under the control of the Mexican cartels. Around half of the nation’s territory is believed to be under the control of criminal organizations. Local criminal organizations have long penetrated the Guatemalan police, army, courts and government, and Guatemala’s gangs are extremely violent. However, the Mexican cartels with their financial resources, military grade weapons, and reputation for indiscriminate killing and brutality have elevated these threats. Today Guatemala and its neighbors Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador, have homicide rates among the highest in the world. Guatemala’s murder rate is as high as those during the worst years of the civil wars in the 1980’s. Impunity for traffickers and murderers is the rule, not the exception. Drug trafficking networks operate most intensely in communities along or near smuggling routes, many of which are located in border regions. Guatemala has more than 800 miles of borders which cross forests and mountain ranges and are seldom monitored or even marked. The communities close to the borders tend to be rural and engaged in subsistence farming often with little or no government presence in the form of clinics, schools, or police. Without the presence of state institutions, these communities are left vulnerable to exploitation at the hands of criminal groups which use a variety of tactics, including not only threats and violence but also the distribution of money, public services, and other benefits to obtain compliance, acceptance, and even the support of local residents. Details: Alexandria, VA: CNA Analysis & Solutions, 2011. 96p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 27, 2012 at: http://www.cna.org/sites/default/files/research/IPR%2015225.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Border Security Shelf Number: 124277 |
Author: Hernandez, Iduvina Title: A Long Road: Progress and Challenges in Guatemala's Intelligence Reform Summary: High levels of crime in Guatemala — including common crime, organized crime, drug trafficking, and youth gang violence — have once again brought debates over intelligence and security issues to the front page. Controlling crime and violence will require effective, strategic policies. Within the conceptual framework of a model of “democratic security,” Guatemala’s 1996 Peace Accords sought to implement more effective ways of combating and preventing crime and violence. At the same time, the Accords sought to establish mechanisms that would transform the security and intelligence apparatus to ensure that security demands would not threaten human rights and/or individual freedoms. This report describes the current state of intelligence system reform nine years after the signing of the Peace Accords and argues that the process of reforming the old intelligence structures has produced mixed results. Since the ceasefire almost a decade ago, successive governments have taken steps to dismantle the old security structures and establish new ones. The Óscar Berger Administration (2004–present) has made significant progress toward shrinking the size of the military. However, other important steps must still be taken to fully comply with the spirit of the Peace Accords and carry out a complete restructuring of the intelligence system. The absence of checks and balances, transparency, and an agreed upon set of norms has allowed the various intelligence entities to continue operating under only rudimentary legal controls, which do not necessarily guarantee that they will operate within the rule of law. Furthermore, the fact that intelligence operations are not fully regulated leaves citizens vulnerable to having their rights and liberties violated. Before this report went to press, two competing legislative initiatives on the Intelligence Framework Law were presented in the Guatemalan Congress. One of them represents a serious challenge to the consolidation of a democratic security system. The legal framework and restructuring of intelligence services proposed by the initiative not only violate commitments made in the Peace Accords but also give excessive power and a disturbing degree of autonomy to intelligence structures. Details: Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America, 2005. 16p. Source: WOLA Special Report: Internet Resource: Accessed March 10, 2012 at http://www.wola.org/publications/a_long_road_progress_and_challenges_in_guatemala_s_intelligence_reform Year: 2005 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Criminal Justice Reform (Guatemala) Shelf Number: 124415 |
Author: Briscoe, Ivan Title: Breaking the wave: critical steps in the fight against crime in Guatemala Summary: The new government led by retired General Otto Pérez Molina that is to take office in Guatemala on January 14, 2012 will encounter a familiar set of torments in its in-tray. Whether measured in terms of murder rate, possession of firearms, or the extent of territory under the supposed control of armed criminal groups, this Central American nation stands at the forefront of a crisis of insecurity, in a region that is one of the most violent and lawless in the world. But the portrayal of a country that is a victim to the intrusion of Mexican cartels and is unable to provide basic justice to its citizens no longer represents the whole picture. For over four years, the Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a UN body, has spurred a series of criminal investigations compromising some of the country’s most powerful figures – despite occasional setbacks. A new head of the national prosecution service has managed to shape an extraordinary turnaround, ordering the arrest of several ‘untouchable’ druglords, as well as a former president and general accused of atrocities during the civil war. Drug interdictions have soared; the murder rate has fallen, albeit slightly; even impunity rates for serious crimes are down. This progress cannot hide the dilapidation of the country’s security and justice institutions, notably its police and prisons, nor the acute fear of crime that is felt by many Guatemalans. But in combination with the Central American region’s determination to address its vulnerabilities to transnational crime, it does offer some reason to believe that the crisis may be contained. Pérez Molina, head of the right-wing Patriotic Party, has also made security the overriding imperative for his government. For the moment, however, both Guatemalan civil society and foreign governments are waiting to see how this veteran of military intelligence and the 1980s counter-insurgency – a particularly brutal period of the country’s 36-year civil war – will behave once in power. He pledged repeatedly during the campaign to assign inter-institutional ‘task forces’ to combat major criminal phenomena. His concern over territory that is under the control of drug traffickers may also see much deeper involvement of the armed forces in crimefighting operations. At the same time, there is uncertainty as to whether the new president will respect recent reforms in the police and prosecution service, honour the mandate of the CICIG, or reappoint veterans of the counter-insurgency to key posts in the security apparatus. Even if the president avoids militarizing the country’s security strategy, he will still have to deal with the chronic flaws in the country’s criminal justice system – weaknesses that have emerged time and again since the 1996 peace accords, and have scuppered previous efforts at reform and modernization funded by the donor community. Part of this vulnerability can be attributed to the character of Guatemala’s political system, which has proved extremely permeable to business and criminal interests. Even the outgoing president, Álvaro Colom, failed on several occasions to live up to his commitments to a stronger security system, either by appointing shady operators, cutting security budgets, or by ignoring the CICIG. In addition to political issues, this paper discusses in depth three chronic weaknesses in the criminal justice system that together pose major obstacles to successful reform. Efforts to strengthen criminal justice have so far failed to keep up with the rapid evolution of criminal behaviour, particularly in narco-trafficking and in the composition of local protection rackets. • Reforms have not managed to introduce effective systems of internal discipline and oversight in security and justice institutions, which have been repeatedly infiltrated by criminal activity. • They have not latched on to a credible approach towards ensuring they are sustainable over the long term – either through proper donor coordination, tax reform, constitutional change or genuine public support. On the basis of these three major flaws, the report ends by outlining a comprehensive strategy for security and justice reform that would incorporate each of these issues by stressing the need for greater investigative sophistication, tighter internal controls, and, over the longer term, a route-map towards fiscal, constitutional and social change. The proposal is also grounded in a pragmatic understanding of Guatemalan institutions, emphasizing the need to support bodies that perform well, thereby spreading good practice by example rather than by rhetoric. These recommendations acknowledge, however, that in the short term the priority will be to preserve the modest and fragile progress made in the last few years. For the CICIG, the United Nations and other leading donors, the immediate concern will be to resist excessive dependence on the military, continue to undermine clandestine groups in the state, and build up the capacity of criminal justice institutions. At a crucial time for Guatemala, they will be anxious to see whether the new president serves these goals or imperils them. Details: The Hague: Clingendael Institute/Impunity Watch, 2012. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 10, 2012 at http://www.clingendael.nl/publications/2012/20120100_briscoe_breaking.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Corruption (Guatemala) Shelf Number: 124416 |
Author: Lopez, Julie Title: Guatemala's Crossroads: Democratization of Violence and Second Chances Summary: This paper is part of the ongoing work of the Latin American Program on citizen security and organized crime in the region and their effects on democratic governance, human rights, and economic development. This work is carried out in collaboration with the Mexico Institute, which has worked extensively on security and rule of law issues in Mexico. Our goal is to understand the sub-regional dimension of organized crime, focusing on the ways in which the countries of the Andean region, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the United States, and Canada play central and inter-connected roles. This essay represents one of three papers commissioned by the Woodrow Wilson Center on the nature and dynamics of organized crime in Central America and its connections to broader criminal networks in Mexico and the Andean region. This paper, along with the others in this series, is a working draft. The State of Guatemala is embarked in two wars. On the one hand, it’s fighting organized crime; on the other, it’s at war with itself. While significant portions of its resources are used to fight drug trafficking and extortions, and an explosion of other organized crime activities, the State seems to be imploding from corruption and insufficient professional personnel in the public sector. After a 36-year internal conflict, this stage in Guatemala’s history is often desceribed as the key time to decipher the origin of the country’s current maladies. But the answer is not so clear cut. Security and political analysts attribute the proliferation of organized crime to the Intelligence Structures and Clandestine Security Apparatuses (CIACS, their acronym in Spanish) that were not dismantled after the peace accords were signed. They also attribute it to scores of men left unemployed after the end of the conflict, whose main skill was knowing how to fire a gun. The origin of organized crime and the elements contributing to its growth are broad and complex. Criminal structures can be seen as a three-legged stool, where the three legs are the local crime lords or capos, foreign criminal networks, and local corrupt authorities—which, throughout history, have involved civilians and the military. Some analysts trace the first signs of these structures back to the 1940s, beginning with the strengthening of local criminal networks that worked with foreign contacts on a regional level. Other origins are traced backed to contraband networks dating back to colonial times and the 18th century. Details: Latin American Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2010. 59p. Source: Working Paper Series on Organized Crime in Central America: Internet Resource: Accessed March 13, 2012 at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Lopez.Guatemala.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Corruption (Guatemala) Shelf Number: 124470 |
Author: The Netherlands. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Title: An Integrated Strategy to Combat Insecurity in Guatemala Summary: Fifteen years after the formal end of its civil war, Guatemala is now one of the most violent countries on the planet. Alongside its neighbours in the “northern triangle” of Central America, Honduras and El Salvador, the end of war has not brought the onset of civil peace. Murder rates in Guatemala are extraordinarily high, reaching approximately 50 times that of the Netherlands, and even higher in particularly violent regions such as the Atlantic coast or the capital city. Surveys repeatedly reveal the intensity of public anxiety over insecurity, while the effects of this crime wave on the stability of the democratic system and on economic growth are becoming increasingly evident. Tackling this explosion in violence is by no means an easy task. In the case of Guatemala, it is now widely accepted that a history of inequality, authoritarianism, civil war and weak state institutions have provided the fertile ground for impunity. But the sheer complexity of the current crime wave also points to the influence of numerous recent trends. Gang violence has afflicted the big cities since the mid-1990s. Former military officers have been involved in major rackets that profited from links with the state. More recently, and most notoriously, drug-trafficking has penetrated the country, first through a number of local mafia, and nowadays in the shape of major Mexican cartels. With them has come the horrors of the “theatre of violence”: bombings, carjackings and mutilations. Guatemalan society, however, cannot be considered an innocent victim of these developments. Prominent cases have shown the ease with which hit-men can be employed, or criminal goods purchased. Lynching is still practiced in certain communities, though many citizens simply find it easier to retreat from public space and ignore the violence in their midst. No constituency, and least of all the business community, seems eager to increase the extremely low tax rates so as to fund better, more efficient security forces and a functioning judicial system. Numerous international efforts are now underway to support the fight against insecurity in Guatemala. The insignia effort of the United Nations, the Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), will celebrate its fourth year of existence in September this year. A recent visit to Guatemala City by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, meanwhile, marked the start of a programme of support for the country under the UN Peacebuilding Fund, with a first tranche of funding worth 10 million US dollars. The United States is supporting the fight against crime through the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), while the EU has unveiled a new four-year programme for institution-building in security and justice worth a total of 20 million euros. A major conference on regional security, organized by the System of Central American Integration (SICA), took place in June in Guatemala, and was attended by representatives from the US, the EU and a host of multilateral organizations. Other countries, particularly Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands, run intense bilateral support programmes in this field. In order to frame a structured policy for the reform of Guatemala’s security and justice institutions, the research team1, under assignment from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, carried out an extensive desk review and conducted two weeks’ of fieldwork in February 2011 in Guatemala (in the capital, Quetzaltenango and San Marcos). Interviews were carried out with embassies and UN agencies, heads of key institutions in the country’s judicial system, leading figures in the security forces, analysts of criminal trends, NGO and human rights experts, and officials in the prosecution service and police forces. Throughout this research, an emphasis was placed on three issues that should guide future Dutch policy in the country. These are: Analysis of the impact of the CICIG, and its possible future strategy ahead of a phased withdrawal; Assessment of how the capacities and effectiveness of Guatemalan institutions of security and justice can best be strengthened, and the role that the international community should play in this process; Exploration of the emerging trends of criminality in Guatemala, and the effectiveness of current and future responses to these dynamics. Our aim in developing this paper has also been to explore more broadly how, through its cooperation, the international community as a whole can contribute to improving the delivery of security and justice in Guatemala. Having noted a lack of coordination among international actors, we hope that this document can serve as a tool for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to encourage a more integrated, focused and coherent approach. To this end, initial consultations with diplomatic representatives in Guatemala have shown that considerable interest in such an initiative exists. Details: The Netherlands: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, 2011. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 22, 2012 at Year: 2011 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Human Rights (Guatemala) Shelf Number: 127262 |
Author: Verité Title: Research on Indicators of Forced Labor in the Supply Chain of Coffee in Guatemala Summary: Verité carried out research on the presence of indicators of forced labor in the production of goods in seven countries from 2009 through 2011. Research was carried out on the production of shrimp in Bangladesh; Brazil-nuts, cattle, corn, and peanuts in Bolivia; sugar in the Dominican Republic; coffee in Guatemala; fish in Indonesia; rubber in Liberia; and tuna in the Philippines. The following report is based on research on the presence of indicators of forced labor in the Guatemalan coffee sector. This research was not intended to determine the existence or scale of forced labor in the countries and sectors under study, but rather to identify the presence of indicators of forced labor and factors that increased workers‟ vulnerability to labor exploitation. Objectives The primary objectives of the project were to: obtain background information on Guatemala (place, people, product, policies), and programs); create a methodology to study the presence of indicators of forced labor in the Guatemalan coffee sector; identify and document indicators of forced labor among workers in the coffee sector of Guatemala; document the broader working and living conditions that coffee sector workers experience; and determine the risk factors for vulnerability to forced labor and other forms of exploitation in the coffee sector. Details: Amherst, MA: Verite, 2012(?). 124p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 22, 2013 at: http://www.verite.org/sites/default/files/images/Research%20on%20Indicators%20of%20Forced%20Labor%20in%20the%20Guatemala%20Coffee%20Sector__9.16.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Coffee Industry Shelf Number: 128089 |
Author: Taft-Morales, Maureen Title: Guatemala: Political, Security, and Socio- Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations Summary: Since the 1980s, Guatemala, the most populous country in Central America with a population just over 14 million, has continued its transition from a centuries-long tradition of mostly autocratic rule toward representative government. A democratic constitution was adopted in 1985, and a democratically elected government was inaugurated in 1986. A 36-year civil war that ravaged Guatemala ended in 1996. This report provides an overview of Guatemala’s current political and economic conditions, relations with the United States, and several issues likely to figure in future decisions by Congress and the Administration regarding Guatemala. With respect to continued cooperation and foreign assistance, these issues include security and governance; protection of human rights and human rights conditions on some U.S. military aid to Guatemala; support for the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala; combating narcotics trafficking and organized crime; trade relations; and intercountry adoption. In November 2011, Otto Pérez Molina won the second-round presidential election run-off with 53.8% of the vote. He took office, along with the 158-member Congress, in January 2012. A former military commander who served during the civil war period, Pérez Molina faces concerns from some regarding his role in the human rights abuses committed during that period. In a landmark case, a Guatemalan court found former dictator Efrain Rios Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity on May 10, 2013. Appeals have been filed. Guatemala continues to be plagued by security issues related to narcotics trafficking and the rise of organized crime, social inequality, and poverty. Upon taking office Pérez Molina announced a controversial position to decriminalize drugs as one policy initiative to address Guatemala’s many problems. Pérez Molina's proposal has failed to garner the support of other Central American leaders, but he seems willing to continue pushing the debate forward. In his view, decriminalization has to be gradual and strongly regulated, and it has to take place in the whole region, including producer and consumer countries. In the meantime, Pérez Molina vows to continue prosecuting and jailing drug-traffickers. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2013. 21p. Source: Internet Resource: R42580: Accessed June 18, 2013 at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R42580.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Criminal Justice Shelf Number: 129017 |
Author: Ugarte, Rachel Meyn Title: Perception of Violence and Development in Guatemala Summary: More than 87% of Guatemala’s population fears becoming a victim of a violent act, found through Latinobarometro’s public opinion surveys in 2008. When such an overwhelming number of individuals fear their well-being, what implications does this have on their levels of confidence in the Guatemala governmental system to develop? This paper investigates whether there is a correlation between perceptions of violence and levels of confidence in the government, controlling for demographic variables such as: socioeconomic status, gender, age and education. It is found through bivariate analysis and probit regression models that socioeconomic status and age do play a part in how individuals perceive violence. Further research needs to be conducted regarding the correlation between perceptions of violence and levels of confidence in the government to develop the country, since in this study, there was no statistical significance between the two. This study does provide a first step for policy makers to target both lower socioeconomic groups and younger populations, who are most vulnerable to violence, based on these research findings. Details: Washington, DC: American University, 2012. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: accessed July 1, 2013 at: eagle1.american.edu/~rm1021a/rp.docx Year: 2012 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Socioeconomic Conditions and Crime Shelf Number: 129223 |
Author: Van Luijk, Kim Title: Who is Who in Mano Dura? Rethinking the Actor/Audience Nexus in the Securitization of Organized Crime in Contemporary Guatemala Summary: The manifestation of mano dura in contemporary Guatemala demonstrates that the actor-audience nexus, as envisioned by the Copenhagen School of security studies, is too simplistic. In this thesis, traditional concepts of audience and securitizing actors are re-conceptualized to demonstrate that the relationship between actor and audience is not one-way but an a dynamic interplay in which dominant securitizing actors are subjected to the influence of other securitizing actors- and vice versa. Details: Utrecht: Utrecht University, 2012. 82p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed April 9, 2014 at: http://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/254169/Kim%20van%20Luijk_3372987_MA%20Thesis.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2012 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Gangs Shelf Number: 132056 |
Author: Feilding, Amanda Title: Illicit Drugs Markets and Dimensions of Violence in Guatemala Summary: At this civil society meeting, Amanda Feilding presented the Beckley Foundation's latest report on the impact of the illegal drug trade in Guatemala. Titled 'Illicit Drug Markets and Dimensions of Violence in Guatemala', the report looks at socio-economic indicators while exploring Guatemala's illicit drugs market. It makes evidence-informed policy recommendations based on the Beckley Foundation Latin American Chapter's original research. The Beckley Foundation Latin American Chapter outlined reform and public engagement tactics that we hope will lead to public-health minded alternative approaches to the War on Drugs. Details: Oxford, UK: Beckley Foundation, 2013. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 14, 2014 at: http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/Illicit-Drug-Markets.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Drug Markets (Guatemala) Shelf Number: 132343 |
Author: Verite Title: Labor and Human Rights Risk Analysis of the Guatemalan Palm Oil Sector Summary: Fifty million tons of palm oil are produced each year, and that volume is growing exponentially. Demand for palm oil continues to rise across the globe, as an affordable cooking oil, an input to an estimated 50 percent of grocery products, and an emerging biofuel. But the production of palm oil has been linked to troubling social and environmental problems, including the presence of forced labor and human trafficking in its supply chain. Verite is combating these abuses, and promoting ethical labor practice in palm oil production, by helping companies and other stakeholders understand the problem, identify it in the supply chain, and build effective solutions. This primer explains forced labor and human trafficking as it relates to the palm oil industry and identifies common indicators of the abuse workers endure. It also sheds light on steps companies can take to combat these problems in their supply chains. Details: Amherst, MA: Verite, 2014 135p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 4, 2014 at: http://www.verite.org/sites/default/files/images/RiskAnalysisGuatemalanPalmOilSector_0.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Forced Labor Shelf Number: 132872 |
Author: Turner, Duilia Mora Title: Violent crime in post-civil war Guatemala: causes and policy implications Summary: Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in Latin America, and thus the world. The primary purpose of this thesis is to answer the following question: what factors explain the rise of violent crime in post-civil war Guatemala? The secondary focus of this thesis is to identify the transnational implications of Guatemala's violence for U.S. policy. Guatemala's critical security environment requires the identification of causal relationships and potential corrective actions. This thesis hypothesizes that the causes of violent crime in post-conflict Guatemala are the combination of weak institutional performance and social factors. Determining that Guatemala is not a consolidated democracy, this thesis concludes that a flawed judicial system, inadequate police reform, and weak civil control over the armed forces have a direct causal effect on violent crime in Guatemala. Furthermore, an analysis of social factors demonstrates that these are not causal in nature but rather influential elements in the occurrence of violence. Details: Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School, 2015. 131p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed September 9, 2015 at: https://calhoun.nps.edu/bitstream/handle/10945/45266/15Mar_Turner_Duilia.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2015 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Corruption Shelf Number: 136711 |
Author: Fontes, Anthony Wayne, IV Title: Of Maras and Mortal Doubt: Violence, Order, and Uncertainty in Guatemala City Summary: Everyday brutality in Guatemala City shocks and numbs a society that has suffered generations of war and bloodshed. Much of this violence is blamed on maras, gangs bearing transnational signs and symbols, that operate in prisons an poor urban communities. I will explore how the maras' evolution in post-war Guatemala has made them what they are today: victim-perpetrators of massive and horrifying violence, useful targets of societal rage, pivotal figures in a politics of death reigning over post-war society. However, while maras and mareros play starring roles in this account of extreme peacetime violence, they are not the problem. They are a hyper-visible expression of a problem no one can name, a deafening scream, a smokescreen obscuring innumerable and diffuse sources of everyday brutality. The maras will be my entry-point into a world defined by mortal doubt, and my guides as I navigate the rumors, fantasies, fears, and trauma swirling about criminal violence in post-war Guatemala City. The specter of violence has become so utterly entwined with the making of lived and symbolic landscapes that it cannot be extricated from the very fibers of everyday life. I will illuminate the myriad of spaces this violence infiltrates and reorders to expose the existential uncertainty haunting efforts to confront, contain, and overcome violence. In the process, I provide an alternative, intimate understanding of the violence and suffering for which maras speak, or are made to speak, and the ways this violence and suffering affects individual consciousness and communal life, orders urban space, and circulates in public discourse. Thus, I have arranged my arguments and stories in such a way as to capture the destabilizing psychological, affective, and visceral impact the conditions of extreme violation at work in post-war Guatemala City have on knowledge- and meaning-making. The veins of uncertainty fracturing this account are meant to rupture the pretense of knowing, and so break through into the treacherous and largely unmapped territory that is life lived in the shadow of constant violence. Details: Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley, 2015. 223p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed December, 2015 at: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/16c477pk Year: 2015 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Gang-Related Violence Shelf Number: 137426 |
Author: Dougherty, Michael L. Title: By the Gun or by the Bribe: Firm Size, Environmental Governance and Corruption Among Mining Companies in Guatemala Summary: This U4 Issue discusses the corruption risks faced by mining companies in Guatemala, with a particular focus on the risks faced by small, "junior" mining companies primarily engaged in exploration. Several factors make such companies highly prone to engaging in corrupt behavior, especially when operating in weak institutional contexts: the highly competitive nature of the mining industry, the risky dynamics of the exploration stage, and the specific characteristics of junior companies - their short operational timelines, low reputational risks, highly mobile and flexible nature, and reliance on fickle venture capital. Additionally, public environmental governance, and in particularly the approval of the environmental impact assessment, represents a moment of acute vulnerability to corruption, particularly for junior companies. In order to mitigate corruption risks among junior mining companies, donor agencies should help to build community capacity to monitor mining operations, build central state government capacity for environmental governance, work with countries to improve the rigor for environmental impact assessment processes, increase the visibility and reputational risks for junior companies, and build cultures of compliance in junior companies' countries of origin as well as within companies. Details: Bergen, Norway: Chr. Michelsen Institute, 2015. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Chr. Michelsen Institute, U4 Issue Paper 2015:17 : Accessed December 3, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2668030 Year: 2015 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Bribes Shelf Number: 137438 |
Author: Gutierrez, Luz Mendez Title: Clamor for Justice. Sexual Violence, Armed Conflict and Violent Land Dispossession Summary: Clamor for Justice: Sexual Violence, Armed Conflict and Violent Land Dispossession is grounded in the lives of Maya Q'eqchi women from the communities of Sepur Zarco and Lote Ocho, in the Polochic Valley of Guatemala. It is one of the book's many virtues that we encounter them not through the abstraction "women victims of sexual violence," but through the particularity of their own voices, their experiences, their ideas. Their ideas, the alliances they forge, their creative strategizing to wrest justice from legal systems that have never treated them or the crimes committed against them seriously: these are at the heart of Clamor for Justice. At a time when the international policy community calls for an "end to impunity," but lacks both adequate conceptions of how to achieve it and sufficient political will to transform rhetoric into institutional practice, this book opens our eyes and offers inspiration. The innovative legal strategies pioneered by the women of Sepur Zarco, Lote Ocho and their allies open new pathways to justice, not only for these Q'eqchi women, but potentially for women in many other parts of the world. We need these models, and Clamor for Justice importantly works to spread the word. Details: Guatemala: Equipo de Estudios Comunitarios y Accion Psicosocial, 2015. 176p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 3, 2016 at: http://genderandsecurity.org/sites/default/files/Clamor_for_Justice_Guatemala.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Conflict Related Violence Shelf Number: 137757 |
Author: International Crisis Group Title: Crutch to Catalyst? The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala Summary: Guatemala - one of Latin America's most violent, unequal and impoverished countries - is enjoying a rare moment of opportunity. A new president, Jimmy Morales, bolstered by a landslide victory, has taken office promising to end corruption. The old political elite is in disarray. Emboldened citizens are pressing for reforms to make justice more effective and government more transparent. Behind these changes is a unique multilateral experiment, the UN-sponsored International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), whose investigators work with national prosecutors to dismantle criminal networks within the state. CICIG is not a permanent fix, however. Guatemala will lose its opportunity unless national leaders assume the fight against impunity as their own, approve stalled justice and security sector reforms and muster the financial resources to strengthen domestic institutions. CICIG began operations in 2007 to investigate clandestine security groups that continued to operate within the state following the 1996 accords that ended 36 years of intermittent armed conflict. Such groups still undermine the state, though their main goal now is economic power, not elimination of political opponents. International support and financing guarantee the commission's independence, though it operates under Guatemalan laws. Unlike traditional capacity-building efforts, it not only trains, but also works side by side with national prosecutors and police, providing them with the necessary technical expertise and political autonomy to hold powerful suspects accountable before the law. CICIG has promoted and helped implement legislation to create a witness protection program, tighten gun controls, establish rules for court-ordered wiretaps and asset forfeiture and institute high-risk courts for the trial of particularly dangerous defendants. At the same time, it has carried out complex, high-profile probes that resulted in charges against a former president for embezzlement, an ex-minister and other top security officials for extrajudicial executions and dozens of additional officials and suspected drug traffickers for fraud, illicit association and homicide. The commission has faced significant setbacks and limitations, however. Some high-profile cases have ended in acquittal. Key reforms, such as a judicial career law, have stalled in Congress. While it has helped strengthen certain specialised prosecutorial units, the public prosecutor's office remains overstretched, even absent, in much of the country. Other institutions essential for combatting impunity - notably the civilian police and judiciary - are still weak, vulnerable to corruption and largely unaccountable. The most dramatic blows it has delivered against impunity came in 2015 with the arrest of almost 200 officials for corruption, including a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud customs. Working with national prosecutors, CICIG collected and analysed massive amounts of evidence. The evidentiary trail, according to prosecutors, led to President Otto Perez Molina, who resigned (though denying any criminal activity) and now awaits trial in a military prison. Much of CICIG's recent success is due to the determination and persistence of its current commissioner, Ivan Velasquez, a jurist known for uncovering the links between politicians and paramilitary structures in his native Colombia. CICIG cannot function, however, without the close collaboration and support of Guatemalan prosecutors. Very different attorneys general - Claudia Paz y Paz, a former human rights activist, and Thelma Aldana, a veteran jurist - have shown the independence and courage to pursue complex, controversial cases against powerful suspects. A crucial ingredient is popular support. Both the commission and public prosecutors enjoy wide approval among citizens exhausted by violent crime and corruption. The investigations spawned a broad civic movement for justice reform and government transparency. In a country long polarised by ideological, economic and ethnic differences, the anti-corruption crusade has at least temporarily united groups ranging from business associations to labour unions, urban professionals to indigenous leaders. Anger over government fraud holds this movement together, rather than any clear agenda for change. Elected leaders should channel discontent into positive action by initiating a national debate on the reforms needed to strengthen justice and encourage accountability. Morales, a former television comedian, campaigned as the anti-politician. He has yet to put forward a clear reform program, including new legislation to guarantee the independence of judges and prosecutors, toughen campaign-financing laws and create honest, professional civilian police. Moreover, a weak, underfunded state needs to enact fiscal and tax reforms so that its justice institutions have the resources needed to pay good salaries, provide decent working conditions and extend their coverage across the country. CICIG's mandate ends in September 2017, though the president wisely has proposed extending it. International assistance cannot last indefinitely, however. The commission is Guatemala's best opportunity for genuine justice reform, and it should not be wasted, but the government must start planning for its departure by fortifying its own capacity to fight crime and corruption. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2016. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Report No. 56: Accessed March 2, 2016 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/Guatemala/056-crutch-to-catalyst-the-international-commission-against-impunity-in-guatemala Year: 2016 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Corruption Shelf Number: 138031 |
Author: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Title: Situation of Human Rights in Guatemala: Siversity, Inequality and Exclusion Summary: The report "Situation of Human Rights in Guatemala: Diversity, Inequality and Exclusion," addresses structural challenges on public safety, access to justice and impunity, marginalization and discrimination that seriously affect the human rights of its inhabitants. The report particularly analyzes the system of administration of justice in Guatemala and the need for appropriate, efficient, independent and impartial, in order to respond to structural impunity for several past and present human rights violations. Also, the report especially addresses the situation of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala, whose rights to their ancestral lands and territories have been affected, and suffer exclusion, inequality and malnutrition as a result of racism and structural discrimination. The report analyzes the situation of human rights of human rights defenders, journalists, women, children and adolescents, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and intersex persons and migrants. "We have noticed changes in Guatemala in favor of a society that is more respectful of human rights," said the IACHR Rapporteur for Guatemala, Commissioner Enrique Gil Botero. "These advances have been promoted and triggered by the efforts of public officials committed to justice, as well as human rights defenders and social leaders. Their work, which often endangers their life and integrity, has been and continues to be essential. " Among the improvements, the IACHR highlights the reduction in the homicide rate and the September 2015 Constitutional Court's decision, which for the first time ordered the implementation of a prior and informed consultation with the indigenous communities affected by an investment project. Furthermore, also regarding administration of justice, the Commission highlights the efforts of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and the Public Ministry in their work dismantling criminal networks and fighting against corruption. The IACHR also appreciates the efforts taken by the State in order to create a program to protect journalists, prevent and combat human trafficking, as well as to register differentiated statistics on violence against women to feed the design of public policies, among others. The IACHR also applauds the decision taken by the government to extend the mandate of the CICIG in 2015, whose work has been crucial. Details: Washington, DC: IACHR, 2015. 221p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 26, 2016 at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Guatemala2016-en.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Crime Rates Shelf Number: 138418 |
Author: American Bar Association. Center for Human Rights Title: Tilted Scales: Social Conflict and Criminal Justice in Guatemala Summary: Guatemala has made progress in the last decade addressing the legacy of thirty-six years of internal armed conflict, including by holding key actors responsible for atrocities. However, the level of social conflict in Guatemala remains high in part because many of the issues that contributed to past discord remain unresolved. These issues include disputes over land titles and the exploitation of resources in historically indigenous territories. Social conflict has at times manifested in violence against both indigenous communities and individuals associated with business interests. In this setting, a wide variety of organizations - local and international, governmental and non-governmental - have reported a pattern of attacks, threats, and frivolous criminal charges against human rights defenders, specifically in the context of disputes over mega projects in indigenous lands. These reports prompted the American Bar Association's Center for Human Rights, Georgetown University Law Center's Human Rights Institute and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights to conduct a fact-finding mission in Guatemala to determine whether allegations of the misuse of the judicial system against human rights advocates were well founded. We interviewed government officials, civil society leaders, defense attorneys and community activists in Guatemala City from November 26-30, 2012. In addition, we reviewed court documents, official reports and press accounts concerning emblematic cases to evaluate the sufficiency of the evidence against defendants, the government's response to credible threats against activists and the conduct of business personnel. Details: Washington, DC: American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, 2013. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 4, 2016 at: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/academics/centers-institutes/human-rights-institute/opportunities/upload/Tilted-Scales-Social-Conflict-and-Criminal-Justice-in-Guatemala.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Criminal Justice Systems Shelf Number: 138558 |
Author: International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala Title: Human trafficking for sexual exploitation purposes in Guatemala Summary: Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is a human and social drama, a human rights violation and a criminal offense. It is an illegal practice that affects particularly girls, boys and adolescents, robbing them of their innocence and dignity. It is an unacceptable offense that violates basic rights, while perpetrators benefit, profit, torture and truncate the lives of persons by inflicting suffering on those who are more vulnerable. Trafficking in persons is a form of contemporary slavery that should compel society at large, and authorities, particularly, to reject and decisively eradicate it. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), present the report Sexual Trafficking in Persons in Guatemala within the framework of their mandates, sharing common goals in the area of human rights protection and the fight against impunity, which documents the significance and the consequences of this criminal phenomenon in the country. The objective of this effort is to provide guidance for public policy, budget and investigation strategies in order to identify and dismantle criminal structures, as well as to promote other efforts that ultimately help to prevent and fight the scourge, provide assistance to victims and impart justice to prevent offenses from remaining unpunished. The report includes extensive theoretical and field investigation that identifies Guatemala as a country of origin, transit and reception of trafficking victims. Universal consensus rates this crime as a grave human rights violation, made more serious by the ability of criminal structures to operate transnationally, which makes the problem more complex and imposes difficulties on States to identify, prosecute and dismantle criminal groups. According to the analysis and findings of the report, there are an estimated 48,500 direct victims of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation in Guatemala, and the illegal profits produced by this offense amount to 12.3 billion quetzales, equivalent to 2.7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), that is, more than the total budget to educate children and adolescents, estimated at 1.44% of the GDP in 2014. Details: Guatemala City: CICIG, 2016. 145p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 10, 2016 at: http://www.cicig.org/uploads/documents/2016/Trata_Ing_978_9929_40_829_6.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Child Sex Trafficking Shelf Number: 139363 |
Author: Zinecker, Heidrun Title: Violence in Peace: Forms and causes of postwar violence in Guatemala Summary: On 29 December, 1996 the conflict in Guatemala between the URNG, a leftist guerrilla organization, and the authoritarian state came to an end. With the implementation of the peace agreements and the completion of peace-building, Guatemala has without doubt taken an important step on the road to democracy. However, the country's regime does not guarantee a civilized life for its citizens. Even by Latin American standards, it permits an extremely high level of violence. This can be characterized as violence in peace. Although the rates of homicide conditioned by this violence are higher than those that prevailed during the civil war, there is no danger of a return to war. During the war political violence was the main cause of death, and violent crime has now taken its place. This report analyses three forms of postwar violence which are especially typical of Guatemala: political violence, the maras, and lynch law. It then goes on to examine their causes. In the course of this examination, a number of elements which are generally supposed to be causes of violence are excluded as causal factors: the perpetuation of a culture of violence or/and war-violence racism and ethnic exclusion, poverty, and inequality in the sense of a general distribution of income as measured by the Gini coefficient. In the next step, an alternative model of explanation is presented. This distinguishes between enabling structures which make violence possible and structures that might prevent it (with particular reference to the absence of preventive structures). The report identifies regime hybridity and a rent economy as structures that make violence possible, and investigates these structures in order to identify the concrete configurations which are immanent to the structures and cause violence. In the case of the rent economy, the specific structures identified are the especially pronounced bipolarity between the oligarchy and the lowest quintile of the population, new rents as outlets for oligarchical structures and catalysts of violence, low rates of investment, and a low level of empowerment of work. However, none of these structures is, on its own, a cause of the high intensity of violence; they form a complex system. The absence in Guatemala of a structure that could prevent violence can be identified in the poor performance of the security sector, i.e. the police and judiciary, and in the lack of democratic commitment on the part of civil society in this sector. This low level of performance is, in addition to political exclusion and the absence of the rule of law, a characteristic feature of regime hybridity. Although this report is a case study, it has an intrinsically comparative character. This is because the other Central American countries (El Salvador and Honduras with a higher, and Costa Rica and Nicaragua with a lower intensity of violence) form the matrix which renders visible the specificity of Guatemala. Nicaragua is of particular significance for this implicit comparison, because it is the only country in Central America that has experienced a civil war in the recent past but seen a low level of violence since the end of that war. The conclusion of the report identifies two ways in which violence, or the intensity of violence, can be limited in the long term. In the Costa Rican model, a low intensity of violence has been achieved directly, via a long historical path in which "Democracy - Performance + Democratic Content" is combined with "Social Market - Empowerment of Labour + Production of Investment Goods". In the Nicaraguan model, a low intensity of violence has been achieved indirectly but over a shorter period of time; here, there can be no doubt about the absence of democracy, and therefore the existence of regime hybridity, or the absence of a social market economy, and therefore the existence of a rent economy. The main finding of the report follows from the Nicaraguan model: the level of violence can be reduced even though ethnically based exclusion, poverty, and inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) are present, and even though a rent economy and regime hybridity are present as well. If violence is to be successfully reduced, it is necessary for the police and judiciary to be supported conceptually and practically in their efforts to prevent violence and to rehabilitate violent offenders, and to bring about improvements in criminal investigation practices, the support provided to victims, and consistent criminal justice policies. Development aid can help in all these areas. Simultaneously, measures must be taken to bring about the empowerment of civil society - which, however, should not mean the empowerment of vigilantism. In addition, the situation of the lowest quintile of the population should be improved in such a way that there is at least a prospect of relative socioeconomic egalitarianism. This can be done if smaller enterprises are strengthened so that they can serve as a counterweight to the ruling oligarchy, in the context of an improvement in the rate of investment in the production of investment goods. In this way it would be possible to reduce both the official level of unemployment and the concealed unemployment that exists in the informal sector, leading to the empowerment of work. These autochthonous policies are necessary for Guatemala, and they should be combined with the exertion of international political pressure on the USA's problematic policies on immigration, integration, and deportation. This should include the provision of support to Guatemala (as well as El Salvador and Honduras) for the integration of young people deported from the USA. This report presents the first systematic analysis of postwar violence in Guatemala. It is based on approximately 50 interviews with Guatemalan academics, politicians, police and judicial officers, Maya priests, and NGO activists, and also with violent offenders, all of whom were interviewed during a month-long period of field research in Guatemala in March 2006. Details: Frankfurt, Germany: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, 2006. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: PRIF Reports No. 76: Accessed June 13, 2016 at: mercury.ethz.ch Year: 2006 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Gangs Shelf Number: 139425 |
Author: InSight Crime Title: Guatemala Elites and Organized Crime Summary: Guatemala is Central America's most populous country and its largest economy. But an intransigent elite, an ambitious military and a weak state has opened the way for organized crime to flourish, especially since the return of democracy. During three decades of democratic rule since 1985, the longest such period in Guatemala's history, economic elites have sought to gain hegemonic control. In doing so they have tried to exercise power that is not sustained by military force, but rather by legitimacy and consensus, at least among the diverse group of elites who share power. Historically, there were two prominent power actors: ideologically conservative businessmen and high-ranking military officials from the middle classes who derived their influence by maintaining the army as an institution of social and political control. The political parties distinguished themselves between those that mobilized the social base to gain power and those who opposed them while at a disadvantage and under persecution. In contrast, almost all popular movements were opposed to the power groups, or openly challenged the established political system. Some of these popular movements eventually formed the core of insurgent groups which fought with the state between 1960 and 1996 in a brutal civil war that left more than 200,000 dead and 70,000 disappeared. Throughout, elites have remained central actors in Guatemalan politics, as their economic power is based on their influence within political circles. They employ diverse mechanisms -- formal and informal -- to influence public policy. They can differ in their interests, values and functions, and operate on an unequal plane of power relations, being simultaneously in conflict with and dependent on society. These actors exercise autonomy and can formulate as well as carry out projects at the local and national level. Details: InsightCrime.org, 2016. 112p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 19, 2016 at: http://www.insightcrime.org/images/PDFs/2016/Guatemala_Elites_Organized_Crime Year: 2016 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Criminal Networks Shelf Number: 140351 |
Author: Phillips, Nicholas Title: CARSI In Guatemala: Progress, Failure, and Uncertainty Summary: To the extent that the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) is a coherent policy, Guatemala is its centerpiece. This land of sultry jungles, volcanic highlands and buzzing cities boasts a population of nearly 16 million-the largest on the isthmus, with roughly 39 percent self-identifying as indigenous. During the first five years of CARSI, no country in Central America received more of the initiative's funds, or was allocated more non-CARSI security aid. Thus it would appear that the U.S. Congress is aware of Guatemala's problems: its weak institutions, drug smuggling, violence, gangs, poverty, inequality, impunity, corruption, and malnutrition. We may now add to this list the recent swell of Guatemalan youth who abandoned their homeland and were caught crossing illegally and unaccompanied onto American soil. But is CARSI a catalyst for adequate solutions? In some ways, yes. In others, no. And in some areas, it is hard to say for lack of performance evaluations. CARSI funds have bolstered the criminal courts and the police's anti-gang unit, for example, but have failed to produce an exemplary police precinct or eradicate poppy farms. Furthermore, some crime prevention efforts bankrolled by CARSI have never been audited, so their effectiveness is not clear. This chapter will shed some light on CARSI's successes, challenges, and unknowns in Guatemala. Details: Washington, DC: Wilson Center, Latin American Program, 2014. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 22, 2016 at: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CARSI%20in%20Guatemala_1.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Criminal Courts Shelf Number: 144860 |
Author: Danwatch Title: Bitter Coffee II -- Guatemala Summary: Guatemala grows some of the world's best coffee for quality-conscious consumers, but some of it is produced under conditions that contravene both international conventions and the country's own laws, according to the results of Danwatch's latest investigation into conditions among coffee workers. The investigation shows that illegal child labour and signs of forced labour are widespread. Furthermore, workers and union representatives who try to defend the rights of coffee workers risk not only being fired, but also threats and violence. Details: Copenhagen: Danwatch, 2016. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 13, 2017 at: https://www.danwatch.dk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Bitter-coffee-Guatemala-2016.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Child Labor Shelf Number: 145768 |
Author: Oak, Gillian S. Title: Building the Guatemalan Interagency Task Force Tecún Umán Lessons Identified Summary: Guatemala is a major transit point for drugs bound for the United States and the recipient of U.S. counternarcotics aid and technical assistance, much of which is provided through U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) and U.S. Army South. As a first step by Guatemala in putting this aid to work toward developing its own counternarcotics capacity, the president of Guatemala established the Interagency Task Force (IATF) Tecún Umán. USSOUTHCOM has expressed the intent to apply the IATF as a model to other similarly porous border regions in the area. Thus, documenting and using lessons from the IATF Tecún Umán will help in the development of new and similar units. This report is intended to support that lessons-learned function, demonstrate how these preliminary lessons are being applied to future IATF development, and provide recommendations on how to resolve remaining IATF challenges. Lessons learned include the importance of establishing the interagency legal framework early, clearly defining the interagency relationships, developing an intelligence capability organic to the task force, implementing police authority and leadership, identifying measures of success, communicating the IATF's purpose and success to the public, and maintaining equipment. Remaining tasks include resolving the duality-of-command issue, improving operational planning capability, addressing corruption problems, and addressing IATF Tecún Umán issues before refocusing efforts to IATF Chortí. The United States has played a key role in supporting Guatemala's efforts to overcome these challenges. By investing in the IATF and building capacity, the United States will contribute to the Guatemalans' ability to sustain the IATF themselves. Key Findings The legal framework and early definition of interagency relationships are vital to success. Creating a legal framework and documentation with support from all involved government agencies was crucial for gaining complete cooperation in establishing IATF Tecún Umán. However, the required legal documents were not issued until after the unit had been established and personnel had started working. Had the framework been documented first, many of the growing pains in the interagency relationships might have been avoided. IATF Tecún Umán lacks an organic intelligence capability. Most IATF personnel are capable of gathering their own tactical intelligence, but they have no place to feed it and no support or authority to plan or conduct autonomous operations, thus limiting their ability to react to any intelligence threats discovered. The military is still running the IATF at the tactical level. Although IATF Tecún Umán leadership at the operational level consists of military personnel, police are being trained to take over the leadership roles, as was intended. Operational effectiveness isn't consistently measured or communicated to the public. The office of the vice minister for counternarcotics and IATF leadership have made progress in collecting data and measures focused on the effects of the operations in which the IATF was involved, but assessment capability is still limited. Demonstrating the value of the IATF to the Guatemalan people, especially those nearby, is also important. Lack of logistical support jeopardizes equipment sustainment and maintenance. Recommendations Resolve the duality-of-command issue. Guatemalan leadership, with U.S. support, needs to ensure each level understands and commits to associated roles and responsibilities, from the most senior leader to the most junior soldier or police agent on the ground. To create operational planning capability, Guatemala and the United States should work together to set up an operational planning cell in the vice minister's office and establish an intelligence feedback loop to inform planning. Guatemala and the United States should collaborate in developing and executing train-the-trainer courses to develop organic training capability, allowing Guatemalans to train their own forces. The United States should continue to work with the Guatemalans on applying stringent vetting to police hires, investigating corruption charges, and ensuring that the police academies are closely complying with new regulations to prevent corruption problems. The Guatemalans should refocus on resolving the major problems that prevent IATF Tecún Umán from conducting autonomous operations. Having invested millions of dollars in IATF Tecún Umán, the United States should make clear that the development and success of the new IATF Chortí is tied to finishing the job at Tecún Umán. Details: Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2015. 77p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 17, 2017 at: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR885.html Year: 2015 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Border Security Shelf Number: 141071 |
Author: Dudley, Steven Title: Guatemala: The War of Paz y Paz Summary: Since taking over in 2010, Guatemala's Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz has waged a revolution from inside one of the country's most troubled institutions. She has submitted her name for another four-year term that would begin in May, but her enemies are strong and want to return to the status quo. The third of this three-part series looks at the challenges Paz y Paz faces as she applies for another term. Given her record fighting crime, Guatemala's Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz should be an obvious choice to retain her job. In addition to the high profile arrests of organized crime figures and her work improving access to justice for women, rates of impunity have dropped by 23 percent in the past six years, according to the United Nations-led judicial team the Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The Attorney General's Office, or Ministerio Publico (MP) as its known, is clearing more cases across the board. In 2013, there were 6,188 criminals sentenced, compared to just 2,884 in 2008. Judges have also issued more sentences for femicides every year since new mechanisms were put into place. Both international and inter-institutional cooperation has increased. However, Paz y Paz is considered a long shot to retain her position. She is criticized for not doing enough to fight common crime and corruption. The MP managed only 12 convictions for corruption in 2012, and 149 in 2013. There have also been complaints about her administrative abilities. For instance, she has split prosecutors into those that do strictly investigative work and those who are litigators. The litigators, however, complained to Contrapoder magazine recently that they do not have enough time to prepare for the cases that some say are being shoved haphazardly through the system. Without doubt, the loudest critics come from ex-military and conservative business and political circles, who say she has taken her leftist human rights agenda too far. They say the case against General Efrain Rios Montt -- in which the former military dictator was convicted for genocide before a high court reversed the decision 10 days later -- shows her partisan zeal. The lack of cases against former guerrillas, they add, illustrates her political agenda. Paz y Paz did not help her case for another term when a witness in the Rios Montt trial insisted President Otto Perez Molina was involved in massacres while he was in the military. (Perez Molina vehemently denied the accusations, and Paz y Paz told InSight Crime she and her team were surprised by the testimony.) In addition to former military members, the economic elites, and numerous political forces, there are also powerful business groups trying to stop Paz y Paz. Land tenure issues continue to plague Guatemala, and some mega-industrial and mining projects have stalled because of protests. Paz y Paz is seen as an ally of the protesters, adding these large business interests to the long list of detractors who are working behind the scenes to make sure she does not return as the attorney general. What's more, groups aligned with organized crime figures are maneuvering to ensure Paz y Paz does not get a second term at the MP. Her record illustrates clearly that she knows few bounds, and four more years of her leadership could prove devastating for more than one large criminal network. Perhaps the most notable of Paz y Paz's opponents, and a man who represents several of these special interests, is Gustavo Herrera. Herrera is a man of many faces. He is a businessman and campaign contributor with close ties to the Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG), the party that former General Rios Montt founded and nurtured for years. Herrera fits into this story because he is a broker for special interest groups. When his connections, be they in high political office or dodgy businesses, need something from the judicial system, it is Herrera they call. His ability to maneuver in this system has also helped him navigate stormy waters in his own life. Herrera was accused of moving drugs and laundering money in 2004, including by President Perez Molina, when he worked as a security commissioner for that administration. However, no charges were filed against Herrera. Herrera has also faced down accusations of stealing millions from the government's social security agency, the IGSS, getting a court to drop the charges in 2009. Details: s.l.: Insight Crime, 2014. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 24, 2017 at: http://www.insightcrime.org/investigations/the-war-for-guatemala-s-courts Year: 2014 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Criminal Networks Shelf Number: 144578 |
Author: Espach, Ralph Title: The Dilemma of Lawlessness: Organized Crime, Violence, Prosperity, and Security along Guatemala's Borders Summary: For centuries, the Central American region has been among the world's most important transit zones. The Spanish shuttled the gold, silver, and other valuables from Southeast Asia and from South America across the Panamanian isthmus. Later, the French and the Americans competed to control and improve that route with a water canal, either in Panama or Nicaragua. Since the emergence of the United States as a major economy and consumer market, the region has been a key zone for the northward flow of all kinds of products - legal and illegal. Economically, the countries of Central America, particularly northern Central America (including Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador), have traditionally been among the most unequal in the Americas. Throughout most of these countries' histories, political power and state resources were controlled by the same families and networks that owned most of the land and industries. Relatively few resources and little state attention were dedicated to improving the lives of the poor, especially in isolated rural areas. Except during infrequent instances of insurgency, civil war, or interstate conflict, border control or even preserving a state presence in rural areas in these regions was not an important concern. In practical terms, national territorial borders were unmarked and did not exist. What is today considered smuggling was a normal, everyday practice. Many border communities had closer economic ties to cities, agricultural zones, or economic infrastructure such as railroads or ports in countries across the border than they did to those within their own country. Moreover, most of the residents of these rural areas were indigenous and largely disconnected from the country in which they lived and the government that notionally had authority over them. In this way, most border zones in these countries have traditionally been "ungoverned," or "undergoverned," in terms of their relations with the national and provincial or departmental governments. Over the decades, numerous groups have taken advantage of the porousness of these borders, and the general lawlessness of these remote areas (many of which are heavily forested and/or mountainous), to elude governments or armed forces. In addition to the ever-present smugglers, armed insurgent groups from both the left and the right, as well as paramilitaries of all stripes, crossed borders to conduct their operations during the Cold War. The most recent, and by some accounts the most dangerous, type of actors to exploit these weakly governed, porous borders in northern Central America have been narcotics trafficking networks. Illegal drugs have been smuggled from the world's foremost coca production zone - the northern Andean foothills - to the world's richest and largest drug consumption market - the United States - since at least the 1980s. Beginning in the 1990s, however, an international crackdown on drug smuggling through the Caribbean region led Colombian cartels to favor overland routes through Central America and Mexico. The Colombians moved product through the region largely by buying the services of local trafficking networks. These networks were particularly well developed in Guatemala as a result of the intelligence and transport networks the military created during that country's civil war from the 1960s to the 1990s. Over time, Mexican trafficking networks grew into competitive cartels themselves and began to fight each other for control over valuable transport and smuggling routes. Mexico's largest cartels-including the Sinaloa Federation, the Gulf Cartel, and the Zeta-grew their operations from merely trafficking the product of others to buying the product upstream and controlling its transit in Central America. Traditionally, Colombian- or Mexican-run trafficking cartels operated in Guatemala by buying the services of local trafficking networks, but around 2008 they began to seek to control routes themselves. Many of these routes lie along the Guatemalan coast, where drugs are brought in by boat and then transferred onto land for transit into Mexico. Other routes enter from Honduras, with the drugs being flown in from Venezuela or brought in via boat. Recently, there has been evidence not only of a broad presence of Mexican drug-trafficking networks across Guatemala but also of the expansion of their operations there, particularly into drug processing. They also sell more of their product in local markets, rather than shipping it onward, fueling local gang activity and urban violence. Details: Arlington, CA: CNA; Quantico, VA: Marine Corps University Press, 2016. 102p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 17, 2017 at: https://www.cna.org/CNA_Files/PDF/TheDilemmaOfLawlessness.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Border Security Shelf Number: 144948 |
Author: Dudley, Steven Title: Homicides in Guatemala: The Challenge and Lessons of Disaggregating Gang-Related and Drug Trafficking-Related Murders Summary: Discerning the motives and actors behind the scourge of homicides in the Northern Triangle region is too often left to high level officials who routinely attribute the vast majority of homicides to drug trafficking organizations and street gangs without necessarily assessing the data. While that is the politically expedient answer, it seems to be too easily accepted. The reason this is important is that these classifications have wide-spread implications on local and international citizen security strategies and the distribution of resources in these countries. Denominating homicides as primarily "drug trafficking-related" or "gang-related" leads to an emphasis on bolstering security forces, frequently at the expense of other institutions and projects. A more nuanced understanding of homicide dynamics might open the door to softer approaches such as social programs aimed at lowering gender-based violence, or education and other youth-outreach projects. In order to test the hypothesis that drug trafficking organizations and street gangs are behind the vast majority of homicides in the region, InSight Crime took a more systematic approach. We attempted to disaggregate homicide motives and actors by analyzing, case by case, homicides over a two-year period in two areas in Guatemala: one area that government officials denominated a "drug trafficking corridor"; another denominated as a "gang area." The project also analyzed the way in which authorities collect data in Guatemala and offers some preliminary suggestions as to how this process can be improved. In this way, InSight Crime hopes to provide international donors and local authorities with a better understanding of where they can provide assistance to police and other agencies that are collecting and analyzing homicide data. It also hopes to get close to understanding who and what are behind the homicides, so that governments and multilaterals can better allocate their limited resources. Details: Washington, DC: United States Agency for International Development, 2016. 59p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 22, 2017 at: http://www.insightcrime.org/images/PDFs/2017/Gang-and-DTO-Homicides-in-Guatemala-Final-Report_CARSI-USAID-InSight-Crime Year: 2016 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Crime Statistics Shelf Number: 145167 |
Author: Martinez, Denis Roberto Title: Youth under the Gun: Violence, Fear, and Resistance in Urban Guatemala Summary: This study examines how violence affects youth in marginalized urban communities, focusing on the experiences of three groups of young people: gang members, activists, and the "jovenes encerrados", youth who live confined to their homes due to fear. Based on 14 months of ethnographic research in El Mezquital, an extensive marginalized urban area in Guatemala City, I explore the socio-economic conditions that trigger violence in these communities, the responses of young people and the community to violence, and the State's role in exacerbating violence in impoverished neighborhoods. In this dissertation I argue that gang members and activists are expressing a deep-seated social discontent against the exclusion, humiliation, and social stigmatization faced by young people in marginalized urban neighborhoods. However, the two groups express their discontent in significantly different ways. Initially, gangs used violence to express their discontent, but they gradually resorted to a perverse game of crime, in complicity with the police, and they distanced themselves from their own communities; in this work I analyze gangs' process of transformation and the circumstances that led to this change. Activists express their discontent through community art and public protest, but their demonstrations have limited social impact, since public attention continues to focus on gangs; here I examine activists' motivations, struggles, and obstacles. However, the vast majority of young people live in a state of fear, preferring to keep quiet and withdraw into their homes; here I show how violence, fear, and distrust affect the generation born into postwar Guatemala. This study illustrates the perverse role of the State in impoverished urban neighborhoods and its responsibility for the escalation of urban violence in Guatemala. On the one hand, the State shuns residents from these neighborhoods and systematically denies them basic services; it criminalizes and abuses young people, even forming social cleansing groups to eliminate gang members. On the other hand, the State fosters crime in these communities and acts as gangs' accomplice in extortions, drug trade, and robberies. As in many other Latin American countries, the Guatemalan State penalizes crime, but simultaneously encourages and benefits from it; the State is complicit in crime. Details: Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin, 2014. 263p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 27, 2017 at: https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/28318/MARTINEZ-DISSERTATION-2014.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2014 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Fear of Crime Shelf Number: 145831 |
Author: Aguirre, Katherine Title: Disentangling violence after conflict: The case of Guatemala in a sub national analysis Summary: This article conceptualizes violence after the conflict, develop its definition, explanatory factors and typology. A central consideration of this analysis is that there are different levels of relationship between conflict and post-conflict violence, with some forms of violence completely related, other partially related and other completely independent of the conflict. While general aspects of the conditions of peace (i.e. political and economic instability) defines post-conflict violence in a weak sense, direct legacies of the war define post-conflict violence in a strong sense. The case analysis of Guatemala allows to identify patterns and factors related to each form of violence, in a sub national analysis. Details: Bogota, Colombia: Conflict Analysis Resource Center (CERAC), 2014. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Documentos de CERAC, no. 22: Accessed June 20, 2017 at: http://www.cerac.org.co/assets/pdf/Other%20publications/WP22_KatherineAguirre.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Conflict-Crime Nexus Shelf Number: 146306 |
Author: Verite Title: Risk Analysis of Labor Violations Among Farmworkers in the Guatemalan Sugar Sector: A Summary Report on Findings from Rapid Appraisal Research Summary: Guatemala plays a major role in the global sugar trade, as the world's fourth largest sugar exporter and the third leading exporter of sugar to the United States in 2015. Verite chose to carry out rapid appraisal research on labor conditions on Guatemalan sugarcane plantations due to Guatemala's important role in the global sugar trade and indications that workers employed on sugarcane plantations were vulnerable to exploitation. Past studies on labor conditions among Guatemalan and Central American agricultural workers, as well as Verite's past research in the Guatemalan coffee and palm oil sectors, indicated a high risk of labor violations. Rapid appraisal research was carried out by Verite and REACH (Research-Education Action-Change) on labor conditions in Guatemalan sugarcane production in late 2016. Researchers conducted a literature review, expert consultations, unstructured life story interviews with three workers, and in-depth survey interviews with 38 workers who performed a range of tasks on sugar plantations, including harvesting sugarcane. Verite's research builds from several earlier reports examining working conditions in the Guatemalan sugar industry and uses it to contextualize Verite's more recent findings. Researchers did not scientifically sample respondents, and thus the results of the study are not statistically representative and are not meant to be interpreted as such. However, using qualitative research methods, the researchers have been able to portray a rich description of the experiences of a group of Guatemalan sugarcane workers, some of whom endured highly concerning labor abuses. Verite's triangulation of these findings through review of relevant literature and interviews with local experts suggests that the experiences of workers interviewed were not isolated or unusual, but reflective of systemic issues within the industry. Additional in-depth research would be required to document the prevalence of the labor abuses found here in a more precise and conclusive manner. Verite found indicators of labor trafficking and evidence of recruitment abuses, child labor, restrictions on workers' right to freedom of association, gender-based discrimination, wage and hour violations, threats to workers' health and safety, inhumane living conditions, and negative impacts on communities surrounding sugar plantations. Issues uncovered by Verite that were especially concerning and had not been specifically analyzed by prior research included exploitative recruitment and hiring practices, indicators of labor trafficking, and severe health and safety violations. Verite research has consistently found that being hired through labor brokers increases workers' vulnerability to a range of labor abuses. Most of the workers interviewed by Verite for this study had been hired by labor brokers, none of whom showed their recruits a power of attorney letter, as required by law. Verite research found that workers hired through brokers were often charged recruitment fees and wage deductions, potentially heightening their vulnerability to debt bondage, and were deceived both about their terms of employment, in some cases even about the sector in which they would be working. Furthermore, researchers found that workers were not provided with written contracts or other documents detailing the terms of their employment, making them vulnerable to deception and changes in their conditions of work. Research on human trafficking was guided by the International Labor Organization's (ILO's) operational indicators of trafficking for labor exploitation, which are broken down into indicators of deceptive recruitment, coercive recruitment, recruitment by abuse of vulnerability, exploitation, and coercion at destination. Verite found evidence of the existence of many indicators of forced labor including the recruitment-related issues mentioned above, many of which are also indicators of trafficking. Other major trafficking-related risks identified by Verite included forced overtime, due in large part to quotas and a productivity-based payment system; restrictions on workers' freedom of movement, including through the retention of identity documents; indebtedness to labor brokers and company stores; and evidence of induced addiction to drugs, including opioids. Sugarcane production, by its nature, puts workers at risk, often requiring physically demanding labor with machetes and long hours of exposure to high temperatures, agrochemicals, and smoke from burning cane fields. Workers are vulnerable to heat exhaustion and dehydration, as well as workplace injuries and chronic kidney disease (CKD), an often fatal and poorly understood illness common among cane cutters. Findings that are of specific concern were serious injuries and pesticide exposure; a lack of access to potable water, breaks, and shade, which, combined with other factors are believed to cause CKD; and a lack of access to health care. Many workers interviewed reported that children worked on sugar plantations and often carried out hazardous tasks, such as applying pesticides and using machetes to harvest sugarcane. Workers reported that payment violations are common, including payments far below the minimum wage and gender-based wage discrimination. Researchers found that many workers lacked access to sufficient food and potable water in employer provided housing. Workers also lacked access to grievance mechanisms allowing them to report labor abuses and seek redress. Details: Amherst, MA: Verite, 2017. 13op. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 7, 2017 at: https://www.verite.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Verite_Guatemala_Sugar_Report_July_2017.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Forced Labor Shelf Number: 146756 |
Author: Berk-Seligson, Susan Title: Impact Evaluation: Guatemala County Report Summary: Guatemala, and its neighboring countries in Central America, El Salvador and Honduras, are among the most criminally violent nations in the world. The USAID Missions (specifically, the Democracy and Governance (DG) and other offices within the Missions) in five Central American countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) have administered and overseen the execution of the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) interventions - a set of programs having the objective of reducing crime rates and improving security in Central America by strengthening community capacity to combat crimes and to create educational and employment opportunities for at-risk youth. USAID Washington, via its Cooperative Agreement with the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) at Vanderbilt University, asked LAPOP to design and carry out an impact evaluation of the CARSI interventions in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama, as part of a broader effort to establish the effectiveness of USAID DG interventions through scientifically rigorous studies, such as, those recommended in the comprehensive study by the National Academy of Sciences (National Research Council 2008). In Guatemala, USAID has been working with one implementing organization: RTI/CECI, which has been working exclusively in partnership with Guatemalan institutions and in collaboration with community leaders on violence prevention projects in a variety of arenas. LAPOP carried out a community-level impact evaluation in Guatemala. While the evaluation has yielded, and continues to yield, a great deal of information about the conditions of violence and citizen security in the studied communities, the primary purpose of the evaluation from the outset has been to estimate the impact of the CARSI project at the level of the communities studied, by answering the central counterfactual question: "What would these communities look like, on average, in the absence of the treatment?" Two main approaches have been taken to reducing the levels of criminal violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The first and most widely used, has been to "get tough on crime," widely referred to in the region as mano dura and super mano dura. Since the application of this approach has been broad, while, for the most part criminal violence has either increased or not diminished, it is difficult to find hard empirical evidence that mano dura has worked. The second, newer and largely untested approach has been community-based violence prevention, of which the CARSI program in Guatemala is an example. This report presents the first systematic, longitudinal, treatment/control "gold standard" impact evaluation of the CARSI Guatemala community-based violence prevention program. Details: Nashville, TN: The Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP), Vanderbilt University , 2014. 78p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 6, 2017 at: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/carsi/CARSI_GUATEMALA_final_report_v8c_Shortversion_W_02.17.16.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Guatemala Keywords: At-Risk Youth Shelf Number: 147034 |
Author: Azpuru, Dinorah Title: Approval of Violence towards Women and Children in Guatemala Summary: Main Findings: - Ranking highest in the region on tolerance for domestic violence, 58% of Guatemalans indicate that to some degree (either approving or "understanding") they condone a husband hitting an unfaithful wife - There are no gender differences with regard to approving of or rejecting violence towards an unfaithful wife - Less than 5% of Guatemalans believe that physical punishment should always or very frequently be used against children who disobey their parents. Nonetheless, 40.5% consider that such punishment is sometimes necessary, while 27.3% believe that it is almost never necessary - Approximately 15% of Guatemalans report that their parents frequently resorted to physical punishment while 41.7% indicate that they suffered such forms of punishment sometimes Details: Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University, 2015. 9p. Source: Internet Resource: AmericasBarometer Insights: 2015 Number 123: Accessed March 20, 2018 at: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights/IO923en.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Domestic Violence Shelf Number: 149539 |
Author: Millard, Ananda S. Title: Cause or Consequence? Reframing violence and displacement in Guatemala Summary: Displacement has a long and distinctive history in Guatemala. The country's civil war, which lasted from 1960 until 1996, left between 500,000 and 1.5 million people internally displaced, many in the shanty towns of the capital Guatemala City. Most of those who fled their homes and land were indigenous people fleeing threats to their lives and wellbeing. Violence and displacement have continued despite the country's post-civil war period of political stabilisation and the establishment of a democratic process. Addressing internal displacement comprehensively and achieving durable solutions, however, is challenging. The phenomenon is not systematically documented and the government is still to officially recognise it, let alone collect data on it. IDMC's 2018 Global Report on Internal Displacement estimates that there were 242,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Guatemala as of the end of 2017, but the figure is based on severely outdated data that has not been updated since 1997. It also documented 1,200 new displacements of people evicted by the government during 2017, as well as 45,000 new disaster displacements. This lack of information helps to fuel a popular misconception that people from Central America who cross the border toward the US find it a simple and easy way to access "the American dream" on the other side of the Rio Grande, and are eagerly awaiting their chance to move. Patterns of population movement within Guatemala suggest the opposite. People generally prefer to remain in their home communities and make substantial efforts to mitigate factors such as violence in an effort to avoid having to leave. Displacement brings many challenges, including increased vulnerability to violence caused by the loss of social networks and structures. This study seeks to reframe internal displacement associated with crime and violence in an effort to establish a shared understanding of the phenomenon in Guatemala and the broader Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA). It is based on field research in Guatemala and an extensive desk review of relevant literature, both undertaken between February and May 2018. The research concludes that most displacement associated with direct violence is either caused by state agents' use of force against whole communities, in forced evictions for development projects for example, or by threats of violence from gangs and organised crime groups. Other cases include domestic violence and community threats and violence such as lynchings. People from minorities such as indigenous groups and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, who face discrimination, may also be displaced. In addition to categorising these triggers of displacement, the study also examines the effects of underlying economic, political, social and environmental drivers: how current and past politics and policies fuel the phenomena, the role of organised crime groups and gangs, and the impacts of targeted and general criminal violence. It concludes that most current population movements within Guatemala are the result not of direct forms of violence, but rather of "structural violence," a term used to describe social mechanisms, state institutions and cultural norms or practices that prevent people from meeting their basic needs. This latter type of movement tends to be categorised as voluntary migration, but this study argues that drawing a distinction between migration and displacement is artificial because the lines between the two phenomena are often blurred. They are perhaps best viewed as lying at two ends of a continuum with predominantly forced movement at one end and predominantly voluntary movement at the other. Any movement, be it largely voluntary or forced, is also influenced by subjective views of a situation, a personal threshold for risk, and access to information. With this in mind, the term "displacement" is used in this study to describe movements undertaken by individuals or groups who felt obliged to leave their homes either because of direct violence or structural violence. The link between violence and displacement does not end when people move. Guatemalans often leave areas where they experienced structural violence only to encounter direct and further structural violence in their new locations. If no clear efforts are made to support communities in their home areas, reduce internal displacement and prevent it happening in the future, continuing rapid and unplanned urbanisation is likely to lead to ever growing challenges in urban areas, including increasing levels of violence. Details: Geneva, SWIT: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2018. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Thematic Report: Accessed February 5, 2019 at: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/201809-guatemala-cause-or-consequence-en.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Displaced People Shelf Number: 154496 |
Author: International Justice Mission Title: Guatemalan Criminal Justice System Performance Study, 2008-2012: Indicators of Practice, Process and Resolution within Cases of Child Sexual Assault Summary: This study analyzes the performance of Guatemala's criminal justice system (CJS) in cases of sexual assault. The main goal of this study is to contribute to the efforts of the CJS in improving the response of the system to cases of child sexual assault (CSA). This study uses database reports from the Public Ministry's (MP) Information Control System (SICOMP) from 2008 to 2012. These reports included information about complaints filed, accusations, sentences, pre-trial testimonies, victims, and the status of cases at the national level. Moreover, reports from the Judicial System's National Center of Analysis and Documentation (CENADOJ) of terminated processes during the years 2008-2010 were also used. The CENADOJ reports consisted of data pertaining to child sexual abuse crimes in the departments of Quezaltenango, Guatemala, and Alta Verapaz. These departments have the highest rates of child sexual abuse complaints in all of Guatemala. From this data, 182 records were selected and this information provided first-hand accounts of judicial practices. In addition to the quantitative data provided by SICOMP, such as the data collected from the judicial records with a final sentence between 2008 and 2010, 75 officials from the CJS who intervene in CSA cases and 22 officials from social agencies were interviewed. These interviews captured their perspective on the development of the Guatemalan CJS. 60 prosecutors and assistant prosecutors from the MP were also interviewed to capture their experience with procedural outcomes in the cases of sexual crimes committed against children. The methodology also was validated before a panel of experts and criminal law scholars. The majority of their contributions are included in this study's analysis. The data was discussed with MP officials from SICOMP, with whom the numbers and interpretation of data were clarified. Lastly, the report was presented to high-level officials from the MP and the Judicial Branch (OJ). All these activities allowed for a wide validation of, and transparency in this study. One of the main findings of the study was that Guatemala has adapted the internal regulations to international standards (2009), but the main problem lies in the effective implementation of the regulatory framework. However, the system has made significant progress as new best practices for the protection and holistic attention of children begin to be applied in cases of CSA. Despite changes in the law and the introduction of Decree 9-2009, the Law Against Sexual Violence, Exploitation, and Trafficking of Persons, Guatemala continues to have high numbers of complaints of sexual assault. In the last five years, 36,166 cases were reported, making it the seventh mostreported crime within the Public Ministry in 20144. Of these complaints, 44% of victims were minors and the majority, female. Based on the analysis of the sample, nearly 90% of the perpetrators were individuals known to the child. Nationally, the Public Prosecutor's Office reported 9.4% complaints of assault between 2008 and 2012. Of these complaints, only 5.86% ended in a verdict. Of these verdicts (182 cases), 80% resulted in a conviction and 20% ended in an acquittal. The study also found that child victims were required to recount their story to approximately eight different professionals, each from a different criminal justice system institution. The sample showed that the mechanisms to avoid the re-traumatization of minors in the criminal process are under-utilized. Only 1.52% of CSA cases between 2008 and 2012 applied pre-trial testimony procedures. In very few instances were adequate locations used to hear the testimonies of child victims, or screens used at trial to protect the victim from the view of the perpetrator. During the years of this study, training for CJS officials was insufficient and sporadic. Official training procedures lacked both consistency and the capacity to monitor the implementation of training content. The study makes it possible to examine the situation of child victims in cases of sexual assault and to establish a baseline of indicators in the attention, processing and resolution of these cases. The main recommendations of this study are: -Public policy should be designed to strengthen deterrence, in order to prevent minors from becoming victims of sexual crimes. -Policies that adopt mechanisms to provide proper treatment for minors who have been victims of sexual assault crimes should be implemented within the different institutions of the CJS, such as the Public Ministry's Model for Holistic Attention. -CJS institutions should develop reliable systems that permit the interconnection and exchange of information for strategic decision making, in order to avoid sub-records or inconsistent records. -There is an urgent need for the implementation of coordination mechanisms between the Public Ministry - as the directing unit of the investigation- and the National Civil Police, to conduct key investigations in the least amount of time possible. -The CJS should not support the application of alternative conclusions to the criminal process in cases of rape or other crimes of sexual assault against minors. -Inter-institutional coordination should be promoted within the CJS to avoid an excess of testimonies from the child. -Judges, prosecutors and other officials from the CJS should be aware of the traumatic effects of the criminal process and what methods they can use to reduce them. This includes the use of the pre-trial testimony in the case of minor victims of sexual crimes. Proper locations should be sought out to create better conditions for children to give their testimonies, and the recording of these testimonies should consistently apply the attention/care protocols. -The training units from the different institutions of the legal sector should develop and implement a training process on the issues of protection, investigation, sanction and restitution of damages for minors who have been victims of sexual assault crimes. This process should include methodology to evaluate the incorporation of the acquired knowledge when delivering services. Details: Guatemala City, Guatemala: International Justice Mission, 2013. 149p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 19, 2019 at: https://www.ijm.org/documents/studies/Guatemala-Public-Justice-System-Performance-Study.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Child Sexual Assault Shelf Number: 156546 |
Author: Grajeda, Luis David Title: Final Evaluation of Program to Combat Sexual Violence Against Children and Adolescents in Guatemala 2005-2017 Summary: Violence in Guatemala: Violence has been present in Guatemala throughout its history as a structural variable of state and societal behavior. Multi-causal systemic factors can be attributed to violence, among which equality, social exclusion and weakness of institutions in applying the law and punishing lawbreakers stand out. Caused by unresolved social factors, the armed internal conflict (1960-1996) left sequelae of violence, pain and suffering in the population, principally among indigenous communities. The report of the United Nations Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) reported more than 200,000 deaths, 200,000 orphaned children, 40,000 widows and more than 1 million displaced persons. Some 83% of the identified victims were Mayan. Crime and violence constitute threats to life and the physical and patrimonial integrity of the people. Nevertheless, they must be understood as distinct analytical categories given that not every crime is violent, and not every violent act is classified as a crime according to law. What's more, violence as a category of analysis allows us to clearly underscore a collection of motivations that are normally excluded when one thinks of the category of crime. While crime is commonly associated with economic motives, violence is recognized as a conduct that can be motivated by political and institutional interests as well as diverse forms of social discrimination and exclusion. Although no one escapes the negative impacts, violence in Guatemala mainly affects three population groups considered the most vulnerable: children, adolescents and women. This statistical trend coincides with the findings of the global study carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002, which also indicated that the effects of violence are varied, but particularly critical in each of these population groups. In the case of children and adolescents, their vulnerability is explained by different causes, among which poverty, social inequality, low levels of schooling and limited access to basic social services can be highlighted. The 2014 National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI) reported 68.2% of the population under 18 years of age living in poverty. Sexual Violence in Guatemala: Within the context of violence in general, sexual violence has a significant presence in the various aspects of social fabric: family, institutions, work, educational centers and the streets. However, until recently it was hidden due to the macho culture and largely due to the absence of a political-regulatory framework to deal with the problem. The approval of several laws, particularly Decree Number 9-2009, Law against Sexual Violence, Exploitation and Human Trafficking, and the creation of the Secretariat against Violence and Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking (SVET), were decisive in making the problem more visible and increasing complaints. Children and adolescents are the most vulnerable to sexual violence, as revealed by the baseline study conducted by International Justice Mission (IJM) in 2013. Close examination reveals the fact that for a high percentage of cases the victim's age, and therefore the age group to which it belongs, is not registered. This problem is especially sensitive in the provinces of the country due to two fundamental issues: 1) deficiencies in taking the victim's declaration and; 2) lack of confirmation by the victim of the complaint. It should be mentioned that prioritizing the wellbeing of the victim implies loosening administrative requirements at the time of filing the complaint, in the hope that in the future the information will be confirmed. Sexual violence, as a component of generalized violence, is deeply woven into the various sectors of Guatemala's social fabric, both privately and publicly. Although many cases of sexual violence go unreported. A study by the IJM Guatemala Program reported 47,678 complaints cases of sexual violence nationally within the period 2013-2017, representing a 56% increase when compared to the period 2008-2012. The IJM study also identified the geographical location of these crimes in four of the country's provinces within the two periods mentioned previously: Guatemala, Alta Verapaz, Quetzaltenango and Escuintla. Details: Washington, DC: International Justice Mission, 2018. 81p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 28, 2019 at: https://www.ijm.org/documents/studies/IJM-Guatemala-Impact-Evaluation-Report.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Armed Conflict Shelf Number: 156591 |
Author: Thoresen, Beate Title: Project: "Penal Justice and Gender" Instituto de Estudios Comparados en Ciencias Penales de Guatemala (ICCPG) (Institute of Comparative Studies in Criminal Sciences of Guatemala) Summary: Background: The Penal Justice and Gender project (JUSPEGUE) implemented by the Institute of Comparative Studies in Penal Science in Guatemala (ICCPG) started in 2003 and is still in progress in 2007. Based on the ICCPG experience in penal justice research and imprisonment issues, a study on women's situation was initiated because of lack of knowledge and attention to women who are deprived of their freedom. JURK (Legal Advice for Women) is the lead organisation for this project in Norway assisted by FOKUS. The starting point of this project was the lack of knowledge concerning the situation and the first step was to investigate the women's situation in order to be able to develop action strategies. Purpose/objective: The main purpose of this report is to present the results at the end of four years of project implementation. Moreover an assessment of the work efficiency, its relevance in the Guatemalan context and in relation to the FOKUS projects strategy is made. Methodology: This review of the results was developed on the basis of written information about the project and the collection of information through interviews and visits in Guatemala between October 15th and November 10th 2006. Key findings: An important result of this project is the existence of a watch dog for the rights of women deprived of their freedom by the penal system. This did not exist before; and the fact that this now exists puts more pressure on the authorities who are responsible to guarantee the respect for the women's human rights. To guarantee respect for women rights in this situation is a long-term task in a system such as the Guatemalan one and it is vital that such a watch dog function exists.This review concludes that the project has complied satisfactorily with its specific objectives; The conditions for incorporating a gender perspective in the penal justice system are better today than four years ago. Knowledge has been created; mass media pays attention; more actors include the issue of women and penal justice in their agenda; there is pressure towards the authorities to improve the situation and some of the proposals from ICCPG have been implemented by the authorities. Civil servants have access to tools for gender analysis within the penal system and in the application of the law, many have received training and there are examples of application of gender analysis in trials against women. Mechanisms and instruments for monitoring of the situation of women in prison have been created; the cases of strategic litigation are creating juridical precedents and ICCPG has contributed to the approval of a new law regulating the penal system. Details: S.L.: Forum for Women and Development (FOKUS), 2007. 21p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 16, 2019 at: https://norad.no/globalassets/import-2162015-80434-am/www.norad.no-ny/filarkiv/ngo-evaluations/review-of-results-project_-_penal-justice-and-gender_-instituto-de-estudios-comparados-en-cienci.pdf Year: 2007 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Gender Analysis Shelf Number: 156807 |
Author: Myrna Mack Foundation Title: Guatemala's Justice System: Evaluating Capacity Building and Judicial Independence Summary: A crisis of insecurity and impunity has deeply affected the people in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras over the past decade, making this region (known as the Central America Northern Triangle) one of the most violent corners of the world. High levels of violence, corruption, and impunity have eroded the capacity of the states to develop accessible and efficient institutions, and address the needs of their populations. The lack of an effective response has eroded the population's trust in state institutions, leading to an alarming number of people who have been internally displaced or forced to migrate to other countries to escape violence and lack of economic opportunities. In the face of this situation, the Washington Office on Latin American (WOLA), Guatemala's Myrna Mack Foundation (Fundacion Myrna Mack, FMM), the Honduran University Institute on Democracy, Peace and Security (Instituto Universitario en Democracia, Paz y Seguridad, IUDPAS), and El Salvador's University Institute on Public Opinion (Instituto Universitario de Opinion Publica, IUDOP), developed a tool for monitoring and evaluating policies and strategies currently being implemented in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to reduce insecurity and violence, strengthen the rule of law, improve transparency and accountability, protect human rights, and fight corruption. This initiative was made possible thanks to the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Tinker Foundation, the Seattle International Foundation, and the Moriah Fund. Details: Washington, DC: Washington Office for Latin America and the Myrna Mack Foundation, 2019. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 14, 2019 at: https://www.wola.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Informe_cam_english_final6.27.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Guatemala Keywords: Insecurity Shelf Number: 156979 |