The people of Guatemala have suffered savage repression at the hands of security forces, civil patrols, and guerrillas waging a thirty-year civil war. Their villages were razed and tens of thousands disappeared — presumably murdered — their bodies occasionally discovered in clandestine graves throughout the highlands. This legacy of human rights abuses has terrorized many Guatemalans to such an extent that the few democratic institutions that developed since military rule ended in 1986 are woefully stunted. Astonishing political changes occurred in 1993, when elected President Jorge Serrano Elías briefly seized dictatorial powers (a la Fujimori of Peru), then was ousted by the army as national and international opinion turned against him. Into the presidency stepped a well-respected governmental human rights advocate, Ramiro de León Carpió. Unfortunately, his proposed reforms were soon overshadowed by a lack of political support, high-profile assassinations, and a recalcitrant military. One year later, with little else to show for its initial promise, the Guatemalan government has signed an accord with the guerrillas paving the way for a United Nations human rights monitoring team, which could restrain the security forces and civil patrols long used to operating without international scrutiny. Absent is an amnesty for human rights abuses, which many feared the military would demand as part of such an accord. However, without establishing a Truth Commission, reconciliation cannot begin, for the government of Guatemala owes the relatives of the disappeared answers as to the fate of their loved ones.
Human Rights in Guatemala During President De León Carpió’s First Year