Human Rights in Guatemala During President De Leon Carpio's First Year

An agreement signed in March 1994 by the government and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) guerrillas regarding human rights holds the greatest promise of any of the government's achievements in human rights. The accord paves the way for installation of a United Nations human rights monitoring team, which could promote restraint on the part of security forces and civil patrols, particularly in rural areas where they are accustomed to operating without international scrutiny. Also significant, the government vows not to "promote the adoption of any measures, legislative or other, which would impede the trial and punishment of those responsible for human rights violations." This appears to rule out an amnesty for human rights abuses, which many feared the military would demand as part of a human rights accord. Our investigations in Guatemala show that prosecutions, even at their initial stages, prompt restraint on the part of those who violate human rights. Among the communities which have seen a lull in violent abuses since prosecutions were opened are San Pedro Jocopilas, Chunim·, and Joyabaj in the department of El QuichÈ and Colotenango in the department of Huehuetenango. The trial and punishment of human rights violators is, we believe, the only proven method for ending human rights violations; even though Guatemala has only achieved token prosecutions since the return to civilian government in 1986, those prosecutions have acted to restrain the army and its agents.

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The breathtaking political changes of 1993, which brought a well-respected governmental human rights advocate into the presidency of Guatemala, have one year later degenerated into turmoil and dashed hopes, with little to show for the promise that the new government appeared to bring. The reforms begun in the initial months of the government of former human rights ombudsman Ramiro de León Carpio now appear endangered by a lack of high-level support. At the same time, elements of the military and right-wing groups appear bent on destabilizing the government through such high-profile human rights violations as the assassination on April 1, 1994, of Epaminondas GonzálezDubón, the president of the Constitutional Court, and the March mob assaults against North American women rumored to be stealing Guatemalan children.
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