GUATEMALA:
New Commission to
Investigate Prisons,
Police
By
Inés Benítez
GUATEMALA CITY, (IPS)
- The Guatemalan
national police and the
prison and customs
systems will be the
first to be investigated
by a joint Guatemalan -
United Nations
Commission against
Impunity (CICIG)
designed to shore up the
justice system in this
Central American country
plagued by high levels
of violent crime, human
rights violations and
corruption.
In an interview with a
local radio station
Thursday, Guatemalan
Vice President Eduardo
Stein acknowledged that
there were "clear signs"
of irregularities in the
National Civil Police
and the penitentiary and
customs systems, which
is why they would be the
initial focus of the new
commission, whose
creation was approved by
Congress Wednesday.
"I am absolutely
convinced that Guatemala
needs (CICIG) due to the
weakness of the police,
the Public Ministry
(attorney-general’s
office) and court
system," said Stein.
Human rights groups
demonstrated outside
Congress Wednesday to
press it to urgently
approve the decree
creating the commission,
aimed at bringing down
crime rates,
strengthening
investigation processes,
and contributing to the
dismantling of illegal,
clandestine security
organisations.
"Approval of this
commission sets a
precedent in the fight
against impunity," a
spokesperson for the
Centre for Legal Action
on Human Rights (CALDH)
told IPS Thursday.
According to a report by
Congress, illegal and
clandestine security
bodies severely
undermine human rights
through their criminal
actions, and foment
impunity in Guatemalan
society.
Although the creation of
CICIG was ratified by a
majority of lawmakers,
the rightwing Guatemalan
Republican Front (FRG),
Unionist Party (PU) and
Reform Movement (MR)
voted against it.
However, spokespersons
for the FRG, the
second-largest party in
Congress, told a local
radio station Thursday
that although it is
"openly and clearly
opposed" to the
commission, it will not
take any legal action
against the legislative
decision.
Those who are against
the creation of the
commission, which will
assist the Guatemalan
Public Ministry, Supreme
Court and National
Civilian Police in
investigating the
criminal activities of
illegal and clandestine
armed security groups,
argue that foreign
interference in internal
affairs is a violation
of the constitution.
"The constitution has
been violated," said
Arnoldo López, who took
part in drafting the
Guatemalan constitution.
"National sovereignty is
being sold off. There is
no need for foreign
forces."
By contrast,
spokespersons for the
U.S. Embassy in
Guatemala welcomed the
commission and said it
would help strengthen
the country’s
institutions.
Former Christian
Democratic president
Marco Vinicio Cerezo
(1986-1990) told IPS
that CICIG was
"conceptually
necessary," although he
added that the document
creating it contained
"errors" that brought it
into contradiction with
the constitution.
The commission’s tasks
will include an
investigation into the
existence of illegal
security organisations,
their structure, modus
operandi, sources of
financing and possible
links to state bodies or
agents and other sectors
that undermine civil and
political rights in
Guatemala.
Another of its missions
will be to promote
prosecution, although it
cannot itself initiate
prosecutions.
Threats against and
murders of human rights
defenders as well as
judges, prosecutors,
journalists, activists,
and union and political
leaders, have been
linked to these
clandestine groups, most
of which are a holdover
from the country's
36-year brutal civil
war, Adriana Beltran of
the Washington Office on
Latin America (WOLA)
told IPS when the
agreement for the new
commission was signed by
the United Nations and
the Guatemalan
government last
December.
"They have managed to
infiltrate state
institutions, with ties
to state officials and
the police," she said at
the time, referring to
the organised network of
illegal groups. "You
might say they have
established a parallel
state."
In early 2006, special
rapporteur for the U.N.
Office of the High
Commissioner for Human
Rights Philip Alston, on
a visit to Guatemala,
expressed concern for
murders of women,
selective killings by
members of the police
and the military,
gang-related killings
and social cleansing,
which he said had given
rise to a widespread
sense of insecurity
among Guatemalans.
The Inter-American
Commission on Human
Rights reported in 2005
that Guatemala had the
highest murder rate in
all of Latin America,
with 70 homicides per
100,000 population.
The head of CICIG will
be appointed by U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The new commission,
which will have a
renewable two-year
mandate, will consist of
prosecutors, judges, and
law enforcement
officials familiar with
human rights, criminal
and international law.
Maureen Byrnes, head of
the New York-based Human
Rights First, one of the
groups that lobbied for
approval of the new
commission, said in a
statement that "This
unique Commission is a
vital tool to break the
culture of impunity in
Guatemala and reduce
levels of violence."
"In particular, we hope
that the Commission will
create a safer
environment for human
rights defenders.
Ninety-eight percent of
the nearly 300 attacks
each year against human
rights defenders are not
investigated and only a
handful of cases have
resulted in
convictions."
According to the
international human
rights group,
"Guatemala's 36-year
civil war ended in 1996,
but some of those
responsible for
committing the worst
atrocities during that
period formed illegal
security organisations.
These groups now rival
the State in power and
are involved in
organised crime, drug
trafficking, violence,
and attacks against
human rights defenders."
In one high-profile
incident that
highlighted the level of
impunity in the country,
four police officers
accused of killing two
members of the Central
American Parliament (Parlacen)
were murdered last
February in a maximum
security prison in
Guatemala. The case has
not yet been resolved.
|
