Politics in Guatemala & Beyond

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Guatemala Police Archive under Threat

Washington, D.C., August 13, 2018—Guatemala’s renowned Historical Archive of the National Police (AHPN) is in crisis after its director Gustavo Meoño Brenner was abruptly removed in one of a series of recent actions orchestrated by the Guatemalan government and a United Nations office. The actions also placed the AHPN’s remaining staff of more than fifty people on temporary contract, and transferred oversight for the repository from the country’s national archives, where it had functioned since 2009, to the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

Meoño learned of his removal on Friday, August 3, when a convoy of government vehicles pulled up in front of the Police Archive, and officials from the Culture Ministry and the Guatemalan office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) entered, demanding that he leave. “The operation was executed with all the characteristics of a commando strike,” one press account reported.

The unexpected move threatens to jeopardize the stability of the AHPN’s enormous collection of fragile National Police documents. Since their discovery in an abandoned and deteriorating state on a Guatemala City police base in 2005, hundreds of volunteers and paid employees have cycled through the AHPN under Meoño’s leadership to clean, organize, scan, and make public over twenty million pages of the estimated 8 linear kilometers of paper records. A UNDP employee with no experience in archival management has been named to replace Meoño as director.

Historically, the UNDP played an important role in the creation of the Police Archive. Its Guatemala office administered millions of dollars in donations granted to the AHPN by foreign governments and the United Nations. The office provided technical assistance, political advice, and administrative support. It was also a frequent ally to the AHPN during several difficult periods in the course of the archive’s growth and development.

Yet in a press release issued on the Sunday after Meoño’s ouster, the UNDP failed to explain its decision to push the long-time director out, beyond stating that his contract had ended and would not be renewed. The release is written in bland, bureaucratic language that provides no detailed plans for the future management of the Police Archive beyond ensuring that it is “strengthened in its institutionality and sustainability.”

For the National Security Archive, Meoño’s abrupt removal, the decision to shift oversight of the AHPN out from under the careful stewardship of Ana Carla Ericastillo – director of the national archives of Guatemala – to the untested Ministry of Culture and Sports, and the UNDP’s refusal to provide dozens of long-time staff members with reasonable working contracts are deeply troubling developments.

The National Security Archive has an association with the Historical Archive of the National Police that goes back to the AHPN’s beginning. The Archive’s Kate Doyle and Carlos Osorio had the privilege of visiting the site of the massive Police Archive just weeks after it was discovered in July 2005. They witnessed firsthand the awesome task that faced Meoño and his colleagues to rescue a treasure trove of historic documentation that was rotting with mold after years of neglect. Doyle went on to advise the AHPN project, bringing professional archivist Dr. Trudy Peterson conduct an initial assessment of the collection, and then worked with the AHPN to develop investigative skills to identify evidence of human rights abuses. Today, Doyle serves on the AHPN’s International Advisory Board.

In 2010, Doyle participated as an expert witness in the first criminal human rights proceeding in Guatemala to draw on Police Archive records as legal evidence for the prosecution. The trial of two former police agents for the forced disappearance of labor leader Edgar Fernando García, and a second trial in 2013 of their superiors – including the former chief of the Guatemalan National Police, Col. Héctor Bol de la Cruz – represented a breakthrough in human rights justice in Guatemala. Led by Meoño, the extraordinary work of the Historical Archive of the National Police made those prosecutions – and the many others that followed – possible.

Indeed, it may be the Police Archive’s crucial contributions to human rights trials that caused the government of President Jimmy Morales to seek to control the repository and fire its director. Besides the Fernando García case, AHPN records played a central role in trials of former army and police officers for the 1980 deadly burning of the Spanish Embassy, and the 1981 abduction, torture and rape of Emma Molina Theissen and forced disappearance of her 14-year-old brother Marco Antonio, among others. AHPN documents also form the heart of evidence in the as-yet-untried “Death Squad Dossier” investigation, concerning the mass forced disappearance of almost 200 citizens over the course of 18 months at the height of the country’s internal conflict.

Those cases, along with the 2013 genocide trial of ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, enraged powerful military intelligence and operational officers who were behind the scorched earth counterinsurgency campaigns of the 1980s. They have sought to harass, intimidate, and shut down the human rights and justice organizations contributing to the prosecutions ever since. President Morales himself has also attacked the international investigative body that helped strengthen human rights prosecutions and fight corruption, known as CICIG. Since taking power, Morales’ government and the Congress his party controls have tried to shut down CICIG and kick out its commissioner, Iván Velásquez, without success.

So it is possible that the government crackdown on the Historical Archive of the National Police is another effort to halt the process of human rights justice in Guatemala and punish its defenders. What is still utterly unclear is why an agency of the United Nations is joining in that effort.

Since Gustavo Meoño’s dismissal, friends of the Police Archive – among them, civil society groups, human rights defenders, academics, lawyers, religious organizations, and international supporters – have come together to demand an explanation for the hasty and still unjustified actions taken by the UNDP and the Guatemalan government. Last week, they issued a statement calling for answers from those two entities and demanding that the AHPN’s documents be safeguarded, its investigative work continue, and its Advisory Boards be reactivated to help guide the Police Archive in the coming period.

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Ada Morales, a Guatemalan native who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1995, was first held overnight in a county jail in 2004 when authorities mistakenly identified her as living in the country illegally. Five years later, she came under ICE scrutiny again when police in Rhode Island arrested her on a welfare fraud warrant.

An immigration agent checking federal databases failed to run her Social Security number or her maiden name, which would have confirmed her citizenship, according to court records. When the state court judge handling Morales’ case issued an order that would have allowed her to go home, ICE detained her.

The mother of five, who cleaned houses and offices for a living, was strip-searched and her anxiety medications were confiscated. The following day, an ICE agent drove Morales to the federal agency’s offices for questioning. Met there by her husband with her passport, the agent realized the error and freed Morales.

Nearly nine years later, Morales, 54, still sobs recalling her night in prison, where she said she suffered panic attacks and guards accused her of lying about her citizenship.

“Nobody wanted to listen to anything,” she said.

In the seven and a half years ending in February, ICE reviewed 8,043 citizenship claims of people in custody, according to figures provided by the Department of Homeland Security. In 1,488 — nearly a fifth of those cases — ICE lawyers concluded the evidence “tended to show that the individual may, in fact, be a U.S. citizen,” a DHS spokeswoman said.

The largest number of those arrests occurred in 2012 and 2013 — at the height of an aggressive push by the Obama administration to deport unauthorized immigrants. When Obama reversed course and took a more selective approach, the number of citizenship cases dropped significantly.

Department of Justice records show that hundreds more people fighting deportation in immigration court have argued they are citizens. From 2008 to the start of 2018, judges terminated or suspended removal proceedings against 880 people whose citizenship claims warranted investigation. Immigration court files are confidential, and the DOJ does not track whether the defendants prevailed on citizenship claims or other points of law.

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Natural Disaster Alert Update - U. S. Embassy Guatemala City, Guatemala - (June 12, 2018)

Location: Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango, Escuintla

Event: Fuego Volcano continues to emit currents of hot gas and volcanic matter towards the Chimaltenango area based on the direction of winds as of June 12 at 7:35 a.m.

Guatemalan authorities discourage visiting closed areas.  Avalanches have produced ash columns, which may result in ash fall in affected areas over the next several days.

The following roads remain closed to all Embassy personnel for both personal and official travel:

·        CA-2 between Escuintla and Cocales. Traveling on rivers and bridges along this particular route is very hazardous.  The link below shows the current flow for Rio Pantaleon, located near CA-2:

https://twitter.com/EmisorasUnidas/status/1006321096222797824?s=19

·        RN-14 (between Escuintla and Antigua) remains permanently closed by the Guatemalan Government

·        CA-1 is closed at Km 240, traveling between Cuatro Caminos and Huehuetenango, due to a collapsed bridge.

 Actions to Take: CONRED recommendations in case of falling ashes

·        Cover your eyes, mouth and nose

·        Cover food and potable water storage containers

·        If you have respiratory problems seek medical attention

·        Once the ashes stop falling, clean your rooftops to avoid additional damage

·        Follow the instructions of local authorities

 Actualización - Alerta de desastre natural – Embajada de Estados Unidos en la Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala – (12 de junio 2018)

Ubicación: Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango y Escuintla

Situación: hasta el 12 de junio a las 7:35 a.m. el Volcán de Fuego continúa emitiendo flujos piroclásticos con dirección hacia el área de Chimaltenango, de acuerdo con la dirección del viento.

Las autoridades guatemaltecas no recomiendan visitar las áreas cercanas.  Las avalanchas han producido columnas de ceniza, las cuales puede resultar en caída de ceniza en las áreas afectadas durante los siguientes días.

Las siguientes rutas permanecen prohibidas para todo el personal de la embajada; tanto para viajes personales como oficiales:

·        CA-2 entre Escuintla y Cocales.  Es muy peligroso cruzar ríos y puentes, a lo largo de esta ruta en particular.  La siguiente página de internet muestra la corriente actual del Río Pantaleón, localizado en las cercanías de la Ruta CA-2: https://twitter.com/EmisorasUnidas/status/1006321096222797824?s=19

·        La Ruta RN-14 (Entre Escuinta y Antigua) continúa permanentemente cerrada por el Gobierno de Guatemala

·        La Ruta CA-1 está cerrada a la altura del kilómetro 240, entre Cuatro Caminos y Huehuetenango; debido a un puente que colapsó.

El personal de la embajada tiene autorizado, nuevamente, viajar por la Ruta CA-1 del oeste hasta el kilómetro 240; y por la ruta CA-9 desde la Ciudad de Guatemala hasta el Puerto de San José.

Acciones a tomar:  recomendaciones de CONRED en situaciones de caída de ceniza:

·        Cúbrase los ojos y las vías respiratorias

·        Cubra alimentos y recipientes para almacenar agua

·        En caso de problemas respiratorios busque ayuda médica

·        Una vez deje de caer ceniza; limpie el techo de su vivienda para evitar mayores daños

[guatepolitics]

La colonia La Trinidad 15 de Octubre es una comunidad nómada. En tres ocasiones han desmontado su vida y se han ido a otra parte. La primera, para escapar de la guerra y refugiarse en México. Fue en 1982, por miedo a la actividad del Ejército en la aldea de Buena Vista, municipio de Santa Ana Huista, en Huehuetenango, de donde son originarios muchos de sus vecinos. Eran los tiempos de Efraín Ríos Montt, acusado de genocidio y al que le llegó la muerte en medio del juicio. La segunda fue en 1998, dos años después de la firma de los Acuerdos de Paz, para volver, a un lugar distinto del que abandonaron. Una caravana de más de 25 autobuses llevó a 134 familias desde Comalapa, en Chiapas, hasta las faldas del volcán de Fuego, donde los retornados fundaron la aldea entre los municipios de El Rodeo y El Zapote. La tercera, el domingo 3 de junio de 2018, cuando la erupción forzó a una nueva evacuación: algunos vecinos se dirigieron hacia Escuintla, la cabecera departamental, mientras que otros recalaron en Lucerna, otra comunidad en la ladera de la montaña pero más alejada de la zona arrasada por la erupción.

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Willy Chávez y Marco Tulio Sánchez buscan por sí solos los restos de sus familiares en la zona cero, la antigua comunidad San Miguel Los Lotes, en las faldas del Volcán de Fuego, soterrada el domingo 3 de junio de 2018. 

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A disaster agency worker looks on as an ash plume rises from the volcano

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"The people ended up buried in nearly 3 meters of lava," Ortiz said. "Nobody is left there."

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Mapa aéreo del antes y después del Volcán de Fuego

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“Volcanology experts say they warned officials to evacuate the area around the Fuego volcano early on Sunday... but it is alleged that CONRED did not act immediately... the Guatemalan government should investigate whether there was criminal negligence.”

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Germany finally returns stolen Indigenous artifacts to Mexico

Germany has returned two 3,000-year-old pre-Hispanic wooden statues from the Olmec civilisation to the Mexican authorities. Mexico says the artefacts were taken illegally from an Olmec archaeological site in eastern Mexico. They were seized from controversial Costa Rican art collector Leonardo Patterson in southern Germany in 2008. In 2015, a court ruled that they belonged to Mexico and on Tuesday they were handed to the Mexican ambassador.

The statues had been kept in the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection after they were seized from Mr Patterson in Munich in 2008. They were part of a collection of more than 1,000 Aztec, Maya and Olmec artefacts which has been at the centre of an international art hunt for decades.

When Mr Patterson exhibited the collection in northern Spain in 1997, experts suggested that some of the pieces were fake and an investigation ensued. Mr Patterson put the collection into storage in Spain, where the artefacts stayed until 2008. Spain meanwhile found that he was not the rightful owner and offered to return the artefacts to the countries of origin which could prove a rightful claim. In 2008, Spain seized hundreds of the items and returned them to Peru. But Mr Patterson moved the remains of the collection to Munich, where they were seized by police later that year.

Mr Patterson has always maintained that he acquired his collection legally from several other collectors. "All of that stuff, I got it in Europe. I don't traffic pieces," he said at the time the artefacts were taken by Munich police. But the court in Munich heard from a witness who said that Mr Patterson told him that he had acquired the two pieces from an art dealer, who in turn had got them from a tomb raider. The court ruled that he could not prove legal ownership of the two pieces, which were kept in the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection while the case and an appeal by Mr Patterson were under way.

At a ceremony at the museum, María Villareal of Mexico's National Institute for Anthropology and History (INAH) said their return set "an important precedent in favour of Mexico".

"Mexico argued that it is the owner of these pieces under Mexican legislation and we were able to prove that ownership in the civil case in Germany," she said.

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Former President Otto Pérez Molina to face trial

A judge in Guatemala has ruled that former president Otto Pérez Molina will stand trial for his alleged role in a huge corruption scheme involving the country's customs service.

The scandal prompted unprecedented mass street protests in Guatemala in 2015.

It led to the resignation and arrest of Mr Pérez Molina and former vice-president Roxana Baldetti.

They are accused of taking a cut from bribes channelled to officials helping businesses evade customs duties.

Both strongly deny the accusations.

The bribery scam has become known as "La Linea" or "The Line", after the hotline businesses allegedly rang to clear their imports through customs at cut-price rates.

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It is strange really: [White] theorists read Agamben or Arendt on a genocide that Americans did not cause or experience directly, but do not read Douglass, WEB DuBois, Baldwin or Morrison, who draw on prophetic idioms to address the racial holocaust that Americans caused and experienced directly, whose legacy still grips the life of each and all.

George Schulman, in American Prophecy: Race and Redemption in American Political Culture