This is the final version of the sign-on letter to Guatemalan President Oscar Berger. It was hand-delivered to the Vice President on April 16, 2004. Feel free to distribute.

April 15, 2004

President Oscar Berger
6a Avenida, 4-18, Zona 1
Ciudad de Guatemala
Guatemala

Dear President Berger,

Please accept our warm congratulations upon your election as President of Guatemala. Your administration has a tremendous opportunity to set Guatemala upon a new and more hopeful course, building a society governed by the rule of law, with respect for human rights and equal justice for all.

As organizations concerned for many years about the situation of human rights and justice in Guatemala, we look with great anticipation towards your government’s accomplishments in its first year. We trust that you will use this year to put new vigor into the stalled reforms promised in the historic 1996 peace accords, including the accords on “Strengthening the Role of Civil Society and the Role of the Military in a Democratic Society” and “The Identity and Rights of the Indigenous Peoples,” as well as the recommendations of the Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico (CEH). We trust your administration will embrace specific measures to ensure civilian control over your nation’s security forces and improve the quality of justice. We are encouraged by your stated commitment on the anniversary of the CEH to advance the implementation of the peace accords.

We were also encouraged by the Guatemalan government's decision to put forward the proposal to establish the Comisión de Investigación de Cuerpos Ilegales y Aparatos Clandestinos de Seguridad en Guatemala (CICIACS) and to request the assistance of the international community in addressing the existence of these violent and powerful structures. We understand that the agreement signed between the Guatemalan government and the United Nations will need to be ratified by the Guatemalan Congress and may soon come before the Constitutional Court. We ask that you act decisively in support of CICIACS, making clear the executive branch’s backing for this initiative. We believe CICIACS would be an asset to your government, and would strengthen your hand in improving the rule of law. CICIACS also provides a new opportunity for your government to engage the international community in a positive and productive manner in Guatemala’s future.

We hope that you will vigorously push forward the judicial reforms anticipated in the agreement between the United Nations and your government. In addition to the structural judicial reforms required, specific progress on the landmark cases of the past is essential to establish confidence in Guatemala’s system of justice. Guatemala’s compliance with the friendly agreements established with the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights would also be viewed as a positive signal, as would prompt payments of reparations to victims. Payments to victims, rather than former members of the civil defense patrols (PACs), should be the priority. Finally, progress on more recent cases involving threats and attacks against human rights defenders, witnesses, and judicial personnel is essential to ensure a climate in which justice can begin to flourish. Equally important is government responsiveness to new situations involving threats against human rights defenders, judicial personnel, and social activists.

We believe it is important to act quickly to complete the dismantling of the Estado Mayor Presidencial (EMP) as called for in the peace accords. It is essential that Guatemala’s intelligence institutions, including the Secretaría de Asuntos Administrativos y de Seguridad (SAAS) and all military intelligence structures, be placed squarely under civilian control. While the Portillo Administration finally began to dismantle the EMP at the end of its term, completing this process rapidly is critical. This would entail ensuring that no EMP personnel remain involved in presidential and vice presidential security; and ensuring that security force officials from the EMP are not transferred to other positions within the security forces, intelligence, internal revenue, or other sensitive positions. We were concerned to learn from MINUGUA’s recent January 2004 report that 54% of personnel of the SAAS, intended to replace the security functions of the EMP, are ex-members of the EMP, 47% of whom work directly in security. We were also concerned about recent claims that SAAS personnel, who have met the adequate training requirements, were replaced by members of a private security force.

The disposition of intelligence files, however, is of equal importance as the transfer of personnel. We urge you to ensure that the intelligence files of the EMP in their entirety are permanently placed in the holdings of the governmental human rights ombudsman’s office (PDH). To break decisively from the past, it is essential for your government not only to establish mechanisms to ensure that these files are never again used to unfairly target Guatemalan citizens, but also to ensure that these files are accessible to judicial authorities, the CICIACS, human rights defenders, historians, and the public at large. There are international precedents for such transparency, such as the Mexican government’s historic decision in 2002 to transfer from Mexican security agencies all documents related to government involvement in repressive activities to the general archives of the nation, where they are now available to the public.

We hope that your administration will leave as one of its legacies the clear delineation of the role of the military and the police in a democratic society. For this to succeed, it is essential not to succumb to the temptation to use military forces for domestic law enforcement purposes. We were concerned to hear about joint military-police patrols. While these can seem like expedient measures to combat crime, separating police and military responsibilities is in the nation’s long-term interest. We were encouraged by the recent government accord which provided for the creation of the Consejo de Seguridad (CAS), a civil society body to provide monitoring of security policy, as stipulated in the peace accords. The establishment of the CAS is an important step in the consolidation of the rule of law in Guatemala. We hope that you act decisively to resolve the issues still pending with regards to the CAS's mandate, permitting it to conduct oversight and review budgets of army as well as police agencies. We were encouraged to hear about your administration’s plans to reduce the size of the army and cut the military budget.

Finally, we urge your administration to take action to follow through on recent governmental promises regarding agrarian issues. In particular, we look forward to the creation of a high-level commission to resolve ongoing agrarian conflicts and a continued open and ongoing dialogue with the Plataforma Agraria and similar groups regarding the development and implementation of a sustainable rural development strategy. We believe that to effectively address agrarian issues, it is more prudent to resolve land conflicts than resort to evictions. We also urge your administration to investigate and prosecute those responsible for threats and attacks against land activists.

Again, we would like to emphasize the opportunity your government has to steer a course towards a just society. We wish you every success in this endeavor.

Sincerely,

William F. Schulz
Executive Director
Amnesty International USA

Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory
Director, Washington office
Presbyterian Church (USA)

Joy Olson
Executive Director
Washington Office on Latin America

Adriana Beltrán
Associate for Guatemala
Washington Office on Latin America

Dr. Charlie Clements
President
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

Rev. Ruth Chavez Wallace
Program Associate, Latin America and the Caribbean
United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in
the United States and Canada

Emily S. Goldman
Program Officer
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights

Margaret Swedish
Director
Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico

Marie Dennis
Director
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Sarah Aird
Executive Director
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA)

Pat Davis
Interim Executive Director
Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA

Dave Schott
Washington Liaison
Sister Parish

Staff Collective
SOA Watch

Cristina Espinel and Barbara Gerlach
Co-Chairs
Colombia Human Rights Committee

Ted Lewis
Human Rights Department Director
Global Exchange

Bob Schwartz
Executive Director
Disarm Education Fund

John Lindsay-Poland
Coordinator
Fellowship of Reconciliation Task Force on Latin America and
the Caribbean

Phil Jones
Director Brethren Witness/Washington Office
Church of the Brethren

Stephen Coats
Executive Director
U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project

Patricia Burkhardt
Legislative Officer
Church Women United

To respond to this letter, send reply to: Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director, Latin America Working Group, 110 Maryland Avenue NE Box 15, Washington, DC 20002; fax 202.543.7647, tel. 202.546.7010.

Cc: Eduardo Stein, Vice President, Republic of Guatemala
H.E. Guillermo Castillo, Guatemalan Ambassador to the United States
Jorge Briz Abularach, Minister of Foreign Relations
Alvaro Aguilar Prado, Minister of Agriculture
Frank LaRue, Director, Presidential Commission on Human Rights (COPREDEH)