LAWG Initiatives

• Central America hurricane relief and TPS status: a letter to the Administration
  
• NGO sign on letter to President Oscar Berger
  
• Guatemalan Government Agrees to International Commission
  A LAWG memo on the Guatemalan Government’s agreement to an international investigation of resurging armed groups in Guatemala, posted March 2003.
  
• A Call to President Portillo to Establish an Investigative Commission
  A letter circulated by LAWG in March 2003 that urges the Guatemalan Administration not to take lightly the clandestine security apparatus suspected of perpetrating renewed human rights threats in Guatemala.
  
• NGO Sign-on Calls on Secretary Powell to Take Steps in Support of Human Rights in Guatemala
  Written in July 2002, this letter is still relevant for today in light of continued threats on Guatemalan human rights defenders.

Documents and Analyses

Human Rights

• Amnesty International 2004 Annual Report on Guatemala
  
• Nationwide Strike Forces Discussion of Agrarian Issues, from the GHRC, 2005.
  
• Guatemalan Government Admits Culpability in Myrna Mack Case, a Human Rights Watch Press Release.
  
• President Berger’s Response to CICIACS, an Amnesty International Press Release.
  
• Profunda consternación por el rechazo de CICIACS, de WOLA, Agosto 2004
  
• Amnesty International, Update on Estado Mayor Presidencial
  http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR340652003
  
• Hidden Powers: Illegal Armed Groups in Post-Conflict Guatemala and the
  Forces Behind Them (pdf format)
  An excellent October 2003 analysis by the Washington Office on Latin America on the shadowy groups involved in ongoing human rights abuses, corruption and drug trafficking.
• Reports of the UN Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA)
  • English Version

US Policy

• Just the Facts: U.S. Defense and Security Assistance to Guatemala
• Guatemala's Military Defies the DEA

Special MINUGUA Reports

• MINUGUA’s 9th and final report on the Implementation of the 1996 Peace Accords, October 2004
  • English:
    http://www.minugua.guate.net/Informes/INFOCRONOG/9thReport30Aug2004.pd
• Spanish:
  http://www.minugua.guate.net/Informes/INFOCRONOG/Discurso9InformeSG.doc
  
• Executive Summary MINUGUA Report to the Consultative Group Meeting for Guatemala (May 2003)
  In Spanish
  
• Towards a Secure Guatemala: Plan of Action for the Strengthening of Public Security (January 2003)
  
• Status of the Commitments of the Peace Agreements Relating to the Armed Forces (May 2002)
  
• The Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala: Overcoming Discrimination in the Framework of the Peace Agreements (September 2001)
  
• United Nations Report on Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala
  Report from the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders in Guatemala, released December 6, 2002.
  
• For the Record 2003: The UN Human Rights System in Guatemala, Thematic Reports
  
• State Department Guatemala Human Rights Report
  Released February 25, 2004, this report documents human rights conditions in Guatemala for 2003.
  
• Human Rights Watch Report on Guatemala 2003
  
• Amnesty International Report on Human Rights in Guatemala, 2004

CAFTA

• CAFTA fails standards of justice: NGO Sign-on
• What is CAFTA? An analysis by WOLA
• Bishops’ statement on CAFTA
• CAFTA’s Weak Labor Rights Protections from Human Rights Watch
  

Elections (November 2003)

• Guatemalan Elections 2003: NISGUA Press Release
  
• Election Update from NISGUA
  
• Election Delegation Report from the Washington Office on Latin America
  
• Amnesty International Backgrounder on Elections http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR340512003
  
• Guatemalan Civil Society Electoral Observation Project, Mirador Electoral
  http://www.miradorelectoral2003.org/
  
• English Version of Mirador Electoral Reports
  http://www.nisgua.org/articles/Mirador%20Electoral%20intro%20page.htm
  
• Guatemalan Presidential Candidate Rios Montt's Record on Human Rights
  A LAWG fact sheet on General Rios Montt's human rights abuses.

 Historical Documents

• Images from Guatemala's Secret Files of Repression
  
• The Guatemalan Police Archives
  Images from Guatemala's Secret Files of Repression
  
• Guatemalan Peace Accords of 1996
  • English Version
  • Spanish Version
    
• Historical Clarification Commission:
  The Full Text of the Historical Clarification Commission Report
  
• REHMI Report, Guatemala: Nunca Más (in Spanish)
  A report by The Recovery of Historical Memory Project, released by Guatemalan  Bishop Juan Gerardi just two days before his murder.
  
• The Death Squad Dossier, with an Explanatory Introduction from the National Security Archives
  
• More Declassified Documents: the National Security Archive Guatemala Page
  
  • The Guatemalan Military: What the US Files Reveal (June 2000)
    
  • Colonel Byron Disrael Lima Estrada
    Biographic reporting on the alleged mastermind behind the murder of Bishop Juán Gerardi.
    
  • CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents
    Documents reveal CIA role in the toppling of President Arbenz, and plans for the assassination of Guatemalan leftists.
    
  • US Policy in Guatemala, 1963-1993
    
• The Peace Negotiation Process in Guatemala, Since 1983 (in Spanish)