HRF Statement for "Guatemala at a Crossroads" Congressional Hearing

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In relation to today’s hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, entitled “Guatemala at a Crossroads”, Human Rights First issued the following statement, which can be attributed to Senior Associate Andrew Hudson:

• US military assistance to Guatemala, and funds under the Merida Initiative, are conditioned on the Guatemalan government investigating current and retired members of the military forces who have been credibly alleged to have committed violations of human rights and on the release of military archives pertaining to the civil war. The US government should withhold military aid in recognition that the conditions are being violated. Instead, the US government should help fund a protection program for at-risk human rights activists, as it does in Colombia. Guatemalan human rights defenders continue to be threatened and killed at an alarming rate.

• Much of the continued lawlessness in Guatemala, including hundreds of attacks against human rights defenders each year, stems from a refusal to prosecute heinous crimes committed during Guatemala’s civil war. The U.S government should urge the Guatemalan Attorney-General to immediately act on the criminal petitions filed by victims almost a decade ago.

• Instead of dismissing the Chief of Police, Marlene Blanco Lapola, and important human rights advisers, who were making important progress in the professionalization of the police force, the Interior Minister, Salvador Gándara, should focus on combating impunity and restoring the rule of law in Guatemala.

• The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) is an innovative international criminal justice mechanism that has the potential to break the culture of impunity in Guatemala. The U.S. government should continue its financial support for CICIG but ramp up diplomatic efforts to secure adequate cooperation for CICIG from the police, the courts and the prosecutor’s office.

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