Guatemala Project
Overview
On the night of February 3, 2007, a computer was stolen when the offices of La Unidad were raided. A hangman's noose was left on the doorknob. Several days later, a message was sent through a relative of a member in one of the organizations of the building indicating that the army had conducted the raid. There are reasons to believe the information was accurate. It was at this point that the Unit for Protection of Human Rights Defenders of the National Movement of Human Rights of Guatemala (La Unidad) asked NP to deploy peacekeepers for protective accompaniment. A national election was coming in September and November of 2007, and violence was expected to increase as it approached.
In April 2007, we deployed three peacekeepers and a team coordinator to Guatemala—the first rapid deployment NP history! In addition to La Unidad, NP worked in partnership with Convergence of Human Rights, an organization that denounces the existence of clandestine groups, organized crime and social cleansing. Former NP IGC co-chair Claudia Samayoa is with an organization responsible for investigating these groups.
Therefore, her personal safety was significantly at risk in the months leading to the election.
Strategy
Nonviolent Peaceforce provided individual protective accompaniment to human rights defenders under threat in Guatemala.
Historically, the risk was perceived to be highest leading up to and immediately following the national elections on September 7 and November 9, 2007. The situation was expected to normalize by February 2008.
Based on this assessment, Nonviolent Peaceforce provided a team of four accompaniers, including a Team Coordinator, from April 2007 to February 2008. The other three accompaniers were volunteers who served an average for three months in Guatemala. Unlike field team members in full NP deployments, these volunteers did not receive an offshore salary.
The budget for the ten-month project totaled approximately US$95,000.
Field News
Field reports offer details and descriptions of the work of the Nonviolent Peaceforce teams. Reports are produced monthly by the Country Directors and other staff on location with in a field project.
February 2008 - Special Report
SPECIAL REPORT: GUATEMALA PROJECT
February 2008
Summary of the Findings of the Exit Evaluation
Guatemala Rapid Response Project
Two internal researchers and one external researcher conducted an exit evaluation shortly before the project was closed in February 2008*. It has been found that: Read more »
January 2008
Inauguration of Alvaro Colom and Rafael Espada* : On January 14 at 8:00 p.m. Alvaro Colom and his wife Sandra Torres walked the last few blocks into the Central Park of the capital, smiling and waving at the crowd through the tight circle of security personnel and photographers. In his address to the public Colom said his administration would focus on "those who have the least and those who are most abandoned". Read more »
December 2007
December 10, International Human Rights Day: Guatemala celebrates this day through the public events, exhibits, publications, and forums of many organizations including the government's own President's Commission on Human Rights (COPREDEH). This year COPREDEH presented the fruit of many years of consultation and advocacy in the form of "The National Action Plan for Human Rights". Read more »
November 2007
November 25, International Day of Nonviolence Against Women
The Consortium of Actors for Change*, together with other organizations of the "November 25 Collective", organized public programs of theatre, music, speeches, forums and a caravan through the center of the capital. The Consortium requested NPG accompaniment for some of these events because they had recently received threats both at the institutional and personal level. Read more »
October 2007
1. CICIG Opens Dialogue to Establish Its Priorities
The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) has announced it will begin its operations the first of January, 2008. CICIG is the result of a joint agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Guatemala to investigate and bring to light the identities of the illegal groups and parallel structures, their sources of financing, and their ties with agencies within the government. Read more »
Background
From 1960 to 1996, the Republic of Guatemala endured the longest civil war in Latin American history. Over 200,000 people lost their lives.
More than a decade after the UN-brokered end of hostilities, a culture of violence and intimidation still plagues the country. Efforts to improve the situation have been seriously hindered by corruption in the government and police forces, including credible allegations of involvement of police officers in criminal activity such as rape, murder, and kidnapping.
In February of 2007, three Salvadoran officials who were in Guatemala for a meeting of the Central American Parliament were abducted, tortured and murdered along with their driver. Four policemen were arrested for the crime. Within days the policemen were murdered in prison. The resulting scandal led to the resignations of the Minister of Government and the head of the penal system, both of whom appeared implicated in the assassinations of the Salvadoran delegates.
The crimes, and the corruption that made them possible, sent a wave of alarm through the international community and heightened concern for the safety of human rights defenders in Guatemala. Over 120 attacks on Guatemalan human rights defenders were recorded in the first six months of 2006. Violence continued to rise, reaching a peak in January 2007.
Outcome
Two internal researchers (Phil Esmonde, Sri Lanka, and Alvaro Ramirez Durini, Ecuador) and one external researcher (Anantonia Reyes Prado, Guatemala) conducted an exit evaluation shortly before the Guatemala Rapid Response Project was closed in February 2008. In summary, the evaluation found that:
• The project has achieved its objective to widen the space for the human rights activists by improving their own perception of the safety of the environment in which they worked;
• Given the complexity of the situation, it is impossible to assess whether NP's accompaniment really deterred concrete threats since contrary to expectations there were relatively few threats and little violence against human rights groups in that period. There was considerable political violence in Guatemala during the election period, but it primarily targeted those directly involved with the elections.
• The ability of NP to widen the mandate of the team based on an independent analysis of the situation, risk and needs of partners three months into the project period is mentioned as something very positive;
• As a rapid response project, the evaluation shows that NP acted quickly and was able to send a qualified team in time, and to manage it. However, the evaluation also states very clearly that in the future an independent analysis of the context, conflict, partner and risk is needed and must not be skipped as it was in this case.
