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  • Guatemala's security has been neglected for eight years

    Guatemala's security has been neglected for eight years
    Wednesday, 05 November 2008 11:47 Barbara Schieber
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    security cabinet guatemala

    Guatemala - At the fourth event "Governing with the people" that includes a security cabinet meeting in Salamá, Baja Verapaz, President President Alvaro Colom acknowledged that the country had inherited a debt of eight years on the issue of security. "Crime is increasing, when you look at the statistics it is evident that crime increased steadily until 2007. This is an inheritance of eight years of turmoil in terms of security."

    According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, in the past 11 years more than 16 thousand 811 people have been killed by firearms, while organized crime is growing in strength in national territories.

    "There is no ill will".
    President Alvaro Colom spoke yesterday about the Army's refusal to hand over the military archives. Alvaro Colom had promised in February 2008 that these sensitive archives would be handed over to the civil government.

    He asserted that "there is no ill will." He said he personally is working on this matter with Defense Minister Marco Tulio Garcia Franco. He said that the delay in delivery of the files is due to the legal issues of the past, and assured that "it's going to be ready when it is ready." He guaranteed that the documents "are well protected and there is no risk that the information will be lost."

    All four security cabinets carried out in different Guatemalan departments so far, concluded with a common demand: security for the population. Local authorities have highlighted, that rather than economic problems, the biggest concerns are about the high rates of violence.
    With the fourth event "Governing with the people" yesterday in Salamá, the Executive has carried out four of these events: Totonicapan, Izabal and Coban, Alta Verapaz.

    The demand from the eight mayors in Salamá, Baja Verapaz, was greater presence of the National Civil Police and the army in the municipalities. The request was made to President Alvaro Colom, who led the meeting. Baja Verapaz has the second lowest crime rate of the country.

    President Colom acknowledged that his offer to improve security in only eight months was a mistake, a mistake based on lack of information. "Being the opposition party, we did not know the true status of the security situation and the lack of available quality security forces."

    "We received 3,249 police officers per shift, and we want to have at least 15, 000. We know that the country needs 30,000 police officers. The next government will have to continue with this effort and the subsequent government too, to be able to reach the necessary numbers of police and security personnel to keep the nation safe.
    “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

  • #2
    GUATEMALA: Army Losing Fight Against Crime
    By Alberto Mendoza

    GUATEMALA CITY, Sep 27 (IPS) - Although the military has not returned to power in Guatemala, it has returned to the streets.

    But five months after 2,400 soldiers began to patrol the streets of Guatemala's main cities, the number of murders continues to rise, while activists warn that the military presence could revive bad memories of the 1960-1996 civil war, when the army was blamed for the lion's share of the atrocities committed.

    Down the sidewalk of Seventh Avenue, which cuts across bustling downtown Guatemala City, marches a line of troops in olive green fatigues, carrying canteens and heavy assault rifles. They are led by a National Civil Police (PNC) agent.

    The troops reinforcing the PNC since April do not have the authority to make arrests, but are designed to be a dissuasive presence aimed at curbing the epidemic of violence sweeping Guatemala. According to the Interior Ministry, 3,404 people were murdered between Jan. 1 and Jul. 31.

    The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported last year that Guatemala had the highest murder rate in all of Latin America, with 70 homicides per 100,000 population.

    But the involvement of the military in civil policing has not brought the hoped-for results, given that July became the second bloodiest month of the year, with 499 homicides, only surpassed by January, when 550 people were killed.

    The use of troops to act as back-up for the PNC is nothing new. They have been deployed intermittently in previous years. But as Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann has stated, the so-called "combined forces" are a reflection of "deeper cooperation" between the armed forces and the police.

    Vielmann predicted that no future government would hesitate to call on the troops to assist in domestic law enforcement, given the shortage of police officers and the lengthy training process that new police recruits must undergo.

    "If the United Nations needs Guatemalan soldiers (in peacekeeping operations) abroad, we should also use them," he argued. There are currently 80 Guatemalan troops taking part in the U.N. stabilisation mission in Haiti.

    Nor is the practice exclusive to Guatemala. The Honduran government announced on Aug. 31 that 2,000 soldiers would help patrol the streets, while in El Salvador, 700 troops were added in late August to the 1,300 already providing back-up to the national police.

    The Guatemalan constitution, which was amended in 1993, establishes that the army's role is to maintain the independence, sovereignty and honour of Guatemala, its territorial integrity, peace and internal and external security.

    But Marco Tulio Álvarez, assistant director of the analysis unit at the government office of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights, told IPS that the military's role in internal security was "intended to be on an emergency basis, but has practically become the rule."

    "The combined forces have become virtually a permanent fixture, and the aim outlined in the peace accords to strengthen and professionalise the PNC has been somewhat abandoned," he added.

    The peace agreement that put an end to 36 years of civil war between the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) and the armed forces was made up of 11 different accords, the last of which were signed in 1996.

    The armed conflict left 200,000 people -- mainly Mayan Indians -- dead (including 45,000 victims of forced disappearance). According to an independent truth commission, the army was responsible for over 90 percent of the human rights violations.

    The accord on the strengthening of civilian power and the role of the army in a democratic society strictly limits the army's role to the defence of the borders and of Guatemala's territorial integrity.

    The reduction in the size of the armed forces stipulated by the peace accords was carried out, as was the creation of the PNC, a new police body aimed at strengthening civilian power.

    But the PNC has only recruited 19,000 members -- equivalent to just one-third of the estimated number of private security guards in this country of 13 million.

    Human rights groups and social organisations are not pleased with the army's new role in civil policing, although they do not challenge its legality.

    Álvarez said that "the perception of insecurity still remains, but with the added element that the visible military presence brings to mind past eras, the years of militarisation that Guatemala experienced, and which people had seen as a thing of the past.."

    Mario Polanco, director of the Mutual Support Group (GAM), a local human rights organisation, said "the armed forces are turning out to be as ineffective as the PNC" in curtailing the rising crime rates, and added that in rural areas their presence "could revive bad memories from the past."

    Under the scorched earth counterinsurgency policy applied in the early 1980s, some 440 rural villages of indigenous people were completely destroyed in Guatemala, along with all of their inhabitants, by the security forces and the "civil defence patrols" armed by the military.

    Carmen de León-Escribano, director of the Institute of Teaching for Sustainable Development, said that putting the army on the streets is not a preventive measure. She advocated the creation, under the umbrella of the peace accords, of an intelligence centre commanded by civilians, to stop fighting "with our eyes closed."

    In her view, the government must design a comprehensive security policy that would not neglect the social and economic factors that drive young people into crime or youth gangs.

    According to official statistics, 56 percent of the Guatemalan population is poor, although independent groups put the proportion as high as 80 percent.

    Guido Albani, chair of the commission on human rights and security in the National Council on the Peace Accords, called for the re-launch of an advisory council for security made up of representatives of civil society. The council, created by the peace accords, was to support the government in designing security strategies.

    The police themselves also contribute to the sense of insecurity. Between May and August, eight complaints were filed with the office of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights -- six for abuse of authority and two for violations of personal integrity.

    These complaints involve procedures like forcing a suspect to strip in order to search for tattoos -- a frequent sign of gang affiliation -- searches of homes carried out at gunpoint, or mistreatment and insults of people who are stopped for a search.

    In response to a question from IPS regarding these complaints, PNC director Erwin Sperissen said "no criminal admits to being a delinquent when he is arrested. They all try to present themselves as victims." (END/2006)
    “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

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    • #3
      World: Latin America
      Guatemalan police missing automatic weapons
      Guatemala's national police chief faced the legislature and reported that more than 2000 police weapons are missing, including AK-47 and Uzi automatics. Little progress on hundreds of murder cases.
      Wednesday, December 10, 2008
      By Martin Barillas See all articles by this author
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      Guatemala’s director of the National Civilian Police force, Marlene Blanco Lapola, informed that nation’s Congress on December 9 that more than 2,000 automatic weapons have disappeared from her inventory, including AK-47 assault rifles and Israeli-made Uzi machine guns. Upon questioning from legislators, Director Blanco Lapola could not answer just how many weapons are missing and said that an inventory is ongoing. She affirmed, however, that some of the missing weapons have been used in crimes already.

      “We have received reports from commissariats that weapons are missing. In other cases, these have left our warehouses, but we do not know who took nor with whose permission, since the signatures left in the registers are illegible.” She added that a judge is known to bear a police-issued Uzi submachine gun, while it is not clear how he obtained it.

      Blanco has been criticized by Guatemala’s congress and other observers for alleged corruption and mismanagement in her institution. Blanco recognized in her appearance before Congress that most of the 5,152 murders that have occurred so far in Guatemala in 2008 were committed with firearms. While there are 300,000 registered weapons in the country, some estimated the total number of weapons in the country at 1 million.

      Blanco recognized, much like her Mexican counterparts, that her agency is outgunned in the face of violence unleashed by narcotraffickers. Drug gangs have more weapons of greater firepower than her agency. “We do not have sufficient arms or agents,” said Blanco, who added that “To date, since September, eight agents have denied because they did not have bullet-resistant vests. This is part of the minimum equipment that they should have.” Blanco has been Guatemala’s top police official since the end of September 2008 and has introduced innovations such as telephone hotlines for citizens to denounce police corruption. However, since taking over, she has found faulty equipment, unpaid salaries, and upaid utility bills for her agency.

      Human rights activists in Guatemala worry that bumbling by the police force will only strengthen the hand of the country’s military, which has long been besmirched by findings of genocide, torture, murder, and other assaults on human rights throughout the country’s civil war that lasted from the late 1950s until the signing of peace accords in 1996. Another issue before the country’s law enforcement and judicial system is the apparent impunity of the perpetrators of violent tortures and murder of women and young people. Since the year 2000, more than 3000 Guatemalan women have been brutally murdered. Often their bodies show signs of torture and mutilation. Guatemalan authorities have apparently failed to respond to this crisis and fewer than 2% of such cases result in conviction.

      The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women declared in 2005 that “Violence against women is met with impunity as authorities fail to investigate cases, and
      prosecute and punish perpetrators. In this regard, the absence of a rule of law fosters a continuum of violent acts against women, including murder, rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment and commercial sexual exploitation. Security and justice institutions have not responded adequately, particularly by failing to solve a recent series of brutal murders of women.”
      “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

      Comment


      • #4
        I ran a boat down to Costa Rica a few years back. I kept pretty close to the beach (<50 nm) most of the time, but I gave Guatemala a wide berth.

        Not a nice place.
        "We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008

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        • #5
          Is there a link for this article, or is it only available thru email?

          Comment


          • #6
            Just Google the headline.

            http://www.guatemala-times.com/news/...ght-years.html

            http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34903

            http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=17067
            "We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008

            Comment


            • #7
              This is not unexpected as no one can trust the police.


              http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...1VF4gD951CBI00

              Guatemalan villagers kill 5 suspected of kidnap



              GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan official says a mob beat and then shot to death five men suspected of kidnapping a 15-year-old girl.

              Police spokesman Donald Gonzalez says hundreds of townspeople from San Pedro Soloma seized the men, beat them with rocks and then shot them in a soccer field.

              Gonzalez says authorities are still searching for the girl.

              Officials estimate more than 300 people have died in vigilante mobs in Guatemala since 1996.
              “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by xinhui View Post
                This is not unexpected as no one can trust the police.


                http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...1VF4gD951CBI00

                Guatemalan villagers kill 5 suspected of kidnap



                GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan official says a mob beat and then shot to death five men suspected of kidnapping a 15-year-old girl.

                Police spokesman Donald Gonzalez says hundreds of townspeople from San Pedro Soloma seized the men, beat them with rocks and then shot them in a soccer field.

                Gonzalez says authorities are still searching for the girl.

                Officials estimate more than 300 people have died in vigilante mobs in Guatemala since 1996.
                Common to all of Latin America.

                Even in "stable" Costa Rica the Guardia Civil (their national police/army merged in one) reportedly set up checkpoints in rural areas and demand bribes in exchange for being allowed to pass .... they charge double to foreign tourists.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by ChrisF202 View Post
                  Common to all of Latin America.

                  Even in "stable" Costa Rica the Guardia Civil (their national police/army merged in one) reportedly set up checkpoints in rural areas and demand bribes in exchange for being allowed to pass .... they charge double to foreign tourists.
                  I never experienced anything like that in Costa Rica, I traveled extensively around the country in taxis, buses, and ferries.

                  However, they did charge me to leave, lol. IIRC it was something like $40 at the airport for an "exit visa".
                  "We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008

                  Comment

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