Spalte #col2
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Resources
National Legislation against Enforced Disappearances. Guatemala view details>>
UNWGEID. Mission to Guatemala view details>>
Violencia e impunindad en las comunidades Mayas de Guatemala view details>>
Desaparicion Forzada en Guatemala: desenterrando el olvido view details>>
Enforced disappearances Guatemala
| Numbers and Context |
|---|
| UNWGEID Cases |
| 3,155 cases reported, 156 clarified, 2,899 outstanding. |
| NGOs Numbers |
| The number of disappearances is in the region of 45,000 according to Projecto Desaparecidos or the family members organisation Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos de Guatemala |
| Context |
| The country has 3,155 cases reported to UNWGEID, 156 cases are clarified, 2,899 remain outstanding. The number of disappearances is in the region of 45,000 according to Projecto Desaparecidos or the family members’ organisation Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos de Guatemala. The majority of the cases reported to the UNWGEID occurred in the context of the military regime and Government's fight against the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) in between 1979 and 1986. According to familiy members organisations or human rights NGOs like GAM (Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo), tenths of thousands of people from different backgrouds (students, unionists, farmers,...) all generally involved in left wing political activities (according to the state) were victims of enforced disappearances. This form of violation of human rights reached its pick in between 1978 and 1984.
The Guatemalan Civil War ended in 1996 with a peace accord between the guerrillas and the government, negotiated by the United Nations through intense brokerage by nations such as Norway and Spain. Both sides made major concessions. The guerrilla fighters disarmed and received land to work. According to the U.N.-sponsored truth commission the ("Commission for Historical Clarification"), government forces and state-sponsored paramilitaries were responsible for over 93% of the human rights violations during the war. During the first 10 years, the victims of the state-sponsored terror were primarily students, workers, professionals, and opposition figures, but in the last years they were thousands of mostly rural Mayan farmers and non-combatants. More than 450 Mayan villages were destroyed and over 1 million people became internal and external refugees. Over 200,000 people, mostly Mayan, were killed during the civil war. In certain areas, such as Baja Verapaz, the Truth Commission considered that the Guatemalan state engaged in an intentional policy of genocide against particular ethnic groups in the Civil War. In 1999, U.S. president Bill Clinton stated that the United States was wrong to have provided support to Guatemalan military forces that took part in the brutal civilian killings. Since the peace accords, Guatemala has witnessed successive democratic elections, most recently in 2007. The past government has signed free trade agreements with the United States and the rest of Central America through CAFTA, and other agreements with Mexico. In 2007 elections were held in Guatemala. El Partido Nacional de la Esperanza and its president candidate Álvaro Colom won the presidency as well as the majority of the seats in congress. Sources of information
Victims: People associated with leftwing politics primarily students, workers, professionals, and opposition figures. Identifiers: Widespread and ethnic based targeting mostly rural Mayans. |
| Federations and Organisations | |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Asociación de Familares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos de Guatemala (FAMDEGUA) |
| Website | www.guate.net/famdegua |
| Contact | |
| Focus | Enforced Disappearances in Guatemala |
| Member of | Federación Latinoamericana de Asociaciones de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos (FEDEFAM) |
| Organisation | Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM) |
| Website | www.gam.org.gt |
| Contact | e-mail: calanchina(at)gmail.com |
| Focus | Human rights in Guatemala |
| Organisation | Liga de Higiene Mental |
| Website | |
| Contact | |
| Focus | Children of the disappeared and disappeared children in Guatemala |
| Organisation | Liga de Higiene Mental |
| Website | http://www.ligatpr.org/index.htm |
| Contact | 12 calle 9-35, zona 1 Edificio Ermita 4º nivel, Oficinas 41, 42, 43 y 45 Telefaxes: 2251 2625, 2232 6269, 2238 3739 e-mail: liga@ligatpr.org |
| Focus | Enforced Disappearances of Children in Guatemala |