Guatemala Project
Overview
On the night of February 3, 2007, a computer was stolen when the offices of La Unidad were raided. A hangman's noose was left on the doorknob. Several days later, a message was sent through a relative of a member in one of the organizations of the building indicating that the army had conducted the raid. There are reasons to believe the information was accurate. It was at this point that the Unit for Protection of Human Rights Defenders of the National Movement of Human Rights of Guatemala (La Unidad) asked NP to deploy peacekeepers for protective accompaniment. A national election was coming in September and November of 2007, and violence was expected to increase as it approached.
In April 2007, we deployed three peacekeepers and a team coordinator to Guatemala—the first rapid deployment NP history! In addition to La Unidad, NP worked in partnership with Convergence of Human Rights, an organization that denounces the existence of clandestine groups, organized crime and social cleansing. Former NP IGC co-chair Claudia Samayoa is with an organization responsible for investigating these groups.
Therefore, her personal safety was significantly at risk in the months leading to the election.
Strategy
Nonviolent Peaceforce provided individual protective accompaniment to human rights defenders under threat in Guatemala.
Historically, the risk was perceived to be highest leading up to and immediately following the national elections on September 7 and November 9, 2007. The situation was expected to normalize by February 2008.
Based on this assessment, Nonviolent Peaceforce provided a team of four accompaniers, including a Team Coordinator, from April 2007 to February 2008. The other three accompaniers were volunteers who served an average for three months in Guatemala. Unlike field team members in full NP deployments, these volunteers did not receive an offshore salary.
The budget for the ten-month project totaled approximately US$95,000.
Field News
Click on the more link to read more of the field report.
February 2008 - Special Report
SPECIAL REPORT: GUATEMALA PROJECT
February 2008
Summary of the Findings of the Exit Evaluation
Guatemala Rapid Response Project
Two internal researchers and one external researcher conducted an exit evaluation shortly before the project was closed in February 2008*. It has been found that: Read more »
January 2008
Inauguration of Alvaro Colom and Rafael Espada* : On January 14 at 8:00 p.m. Alvaro Colom and his wife Sandra Torres walked the last few blocks into the Central Park of the capital, smiling and waving at the crowd through the tight circle of security personnel and photographers. In his address to the public Colom said his administration would focus on "those who have the least and those who are most abandoned". Read more »
December 2007
December 10, International Human Rights Day: Guatemala celebrates this day through the public events, exhibits, publications, and forums of many organizations including the government's own President's Commission on Human Rights (COPREDEH). This year COPREDEH presented the fruit of many years of consultation and advocacy in the form of "The National Action Plan for Human Rights". Read more »
November 2007
November 25, International Day of Nonviolence Against Women
The Consortium of Actors for Change*, together with other organizations of the "November 25 Collective", organized public programs of theatre, music, speeches, forums and a caravan through the center of the capital. The Consortium requested NPG accompaniment for some of these events because they had recently received threats both at the institutional and personal level. Read more »
October 2007
1. CICIG Opens Dialogue to Establish Its Priorities
The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) has announced it will begin its operations the first of January, 2008. CICIG is the result of a joint agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Guatemala to investigate and bring to light the identities of the illegal groups and parallel structures, their sources of financing, and their ties with agencies within the government. Read more »
February 2007
A new project proposal has reached Nonviolent Peaceforce in February: IGC member and former co-chair Claudia Samayoa and the Unit for Protection of Human Rights Defenders of the National Movement of Human Rights of Guatemala have asked for protective accompaniment. They have received many death threats for their courageous work of working with human rights defenders in Guatemala and believe that NP and international protective accompaniment could help protect their lives and enable them to continue their important work between now and February 15 of next year.
Read more
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March 2007
A request has come from Claudia Samayoa and the Unit for Protection of Human Rights Defenders of the National Movement of Human Rights of Guatemala for protective accompaniment. They have received many death threats for their courageous work of working with human rights defenders in Guatemala and believe that NP and international protective accompaniment could help protect their lives and enable them to continue their important work between April 2007 and February 15 2008.
Read more
Download pdf
April 2007
Media coverage of the election process has been distracted by the February 19 abduction, torture and murder of three Salvadoran officials and their driver who were in Guatemala for a meeting of the Central American Parliament. Four policemen were arrested for the crime and within days they were murdered in prison. This has blown up into scandal proportions leading to the resignations of the Minister of Government and the head of the Penal System, both of whom appeared implicated in the crime. The crimes have created heightened alarm in the international community as well.
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May 2007
Impunity and the National Civil Police: Human rights defenders, international bodies, government officials and the press continue to voice alarm about the impunity with which violent crimes are committed in Guatemala. Disagreements have arisen between the government and human rights groups about the actual numbers, but none dispute the fact that this is still the major problem facing the country.
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June 2007
La Unidad - Proactive with National Police: In spite of the criticism and distrust of the National Police, The Unit of Protection of Defenders of Human Rights (La Unidad) has taken a proactive step to protect human rights defenders. La Unidad has reached an agreement with the National Civil Police emergency service, 110, to respond to calls of human rights defenders who are being watched and/or followed by persons presumably gathering information. This emergency number has been used in the past following break-ins, car robberies or assassinations.
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July 2007
Human Rights Defenders Report: NP’s partner organization La Unidad released its preliminary report on the first 6 months of 2007. The report indicates that attacks on human rights defenders continue to go down from a high in January. However, as compared with 2006 the numbers are somewhat higher. By the end of June of 2007 there had been 136 attacks. By this time in 2006 there were 121. La Unidad categorizes human rights activists as economic, social, community activists, as civil/political, and as other. Those in the first category have been the hardest hit.
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August 2007
The election related violence in Guatemala grabbed the attention of international news services this month. Reuters, The Economist (England), El País (Spain), The New York Times (U.S.) and others picked up different elements of the story. Some reported the three attacks on activists in Rigoberta Menchu’s party, including the murder of one candidate and an attempted murder of two daughters of another candidate.
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Guatemala Team Coordinator join Guatemalan elections as observer
The following letter was written by Guatemala Team Coordinator Betsy Crites. For the first round of elections, the team members decided to volunteer as election observers. This has not been part of their regular work for NP but an additional activity.
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September 2007
1. The Case of El Gallito and Implications for the National Police
On September 22 the National Civilian Police (PNC) received a denunciation about the kidnapping of five young people in the Barrio (neighborhood) El Gallito in the central zone of Guatemala City. A few days later they were found dead. Thanks to information given by a witness about the presence of a police car, the investigators discovered that the patrol car DG 002, assigned to members of the private security force of the Director of the PNC, was in the area the day of the crime.
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October 2007
CICIG Opens Dialogue to Establish Its Priorities
The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) has announced it will begin its operations the first of January, 2008. CICIG is the result of a joint agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Guatemala to investigate and bring to light the identities of the illegal groups and parallel structures, their sources of financing, and their ties with agencies within the government.
Read more
Download pdf
November 2007
November 25, International Day of Nonviolence Against Women
The Consortium of Actors for Change1, together with other organizations of the “November 25 Collective”, organized public programs of theatre, music, speeches, forums and a caravan through the center of the capital. The Consortium requested NPG accompaniment for some of these events because they had recently received threats both at the institutional and personal level.
Read More
Download PDF
December 2007
December 10, International Human Rights Day: Guatemala celebrates this day through the public events, exhibits, publications, and forums of many organizations including the government’s own President’s Commission on Human Rights (COPREDEH). This year COPREDEH presented the fruit of many years of consultation and advocacy in the form of “The National Action Plan for Human Rights”.
Read more
Download pdf
January 2008
Inauguration of Alvaro Colom and Rafael Espada1 : On January 14 at 8:00 p.m. Alvaro Colom and his wife Sandra Torres walked the last few blocks into the Central Park of the capital, smiling and waving at the crowd through the tight circle of security personnel and photographers. In his address to the public Colom said his administration would focus on “those who have the least and those who are most abandoned”. “Today begins the privilege of the poor, today begins the privilege of those without opportunity.”
Read more
Download pdf
February 2008
Guatemala Rapid Response Project Exit Evaluation: Summary
Two internal and one external researchers conducted an exit evaluation shortly before the project was closed in February 2008.
Read more
Download pdf
Background
From 1960 to 1996, the Republic of Guatemala endured the longest civil war in Latin American history. Over 200,000 people lost their lives.
More than a decade after the UN-brokered end of hostilities, a culture of violence and intimidation still plagues the country. Efforts to improve the situation have been seriously hindered by corruption in the government and police forces, including credible allegations of involvement of police officers in criminal activity such as rape, murder, and kidnapping.
In February of 2007, three Salvadoran officials who were in Guatemala for a meeting of the Central American Parliament were abducted, tortured and murdered along with their driver. Four policemen were arrested for the crime. Within days the policemen were murdered in prison. The resulting scandal led to the resignations of the Minister of Government and the head of the penal system, both of whom appeared implicated in the assassinations of the Salvadoran delegates.
The crimes, and the corruption that made them possible, sent a wave of alarm through the international community and heightened concern for the safety of human rights defenders in Guatemala. Over 120 attacks on Guatemalan human rights defenders were recorded in the first six months of 2006. Violence continued to rise, reaching a peak in January 2007.
Outcome
Two internal researchers (Phil Esmonde, Sri Lanka, and Alvaro Ramirez Durini, Ecuador) and one external researcher (Anantonia Reyes Prado, Guatemala) conducted an exit evaluation shortly before the Guatemala Rapid Response Project was closed in February 2008. In summary, the evaluation found that:
• The project has achieved its objective to widen the space for the human rights activists by improving their own perception of the safety of the environment in which they worked;
• Given the complexity of the situation, it is impossible to assess whether NP's accompaniment really deterred concrete threats since contrary to expectations there were relatively few threats and little violence against human rights groups in that period. There was considerable political violence in Guatemala during the election period, but it primarily targeted those directly involved with the elections.
• The ability of NP to widen the mandate of the team based on an independent analysis of the situation, risk and needs of partners three months into the project period is mentioned as something very positive;
• As a rapid response project, the evaluation shows that NP acted quickly and was able to send a qualified team in time, and to manage it. However, the evaluation also states very clearly that in the future an independent analysis of the context, conflict, partner and risk is needed and must not be skipped as it was in this case.
