Guatemala Gov't Seeks Impunity For Rights Violators Threatening Decade Of Reform - Report

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales's government is attempting to undermine a United Nations-backed commission responsible for reforms that allowed courts to begin punishing high-ranking military and police officials for murdering dissidents during the country's civil war, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2019) Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales's government is attempting to undermine a United Nations-backed commission responsible for reforms that allowed courts to begin punishing high-ranking military and police officials for murdering dissidents during the country's civil war, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday.

"Access to justice is receiving heavy blows from which Guatemala will not be able to recover unless measures are taken now," Amnesty International Americas Director Erika Guevara-Rosas said in the report. "The actions being taken by the nation's highest authorities must be stopped immediately and they must ensure justice for every case of human rights violations."

The report said between 2007 and 2018, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) - a body created by the United Nations to support the Public Prosecutor's Office - was able to open more than 100 cases. Several of the cases are closely tied to human rights violations during the 1960-1996 civil war, the report added.

"At the same time, starting in 2009, Guatemalan courts began to dictate historic sentences against former military commissioners, and members of the police and army - including high-ranking commanders - something that had never happened before," the report said.

Morales announced in August 2018 that he would not renew a mandate for CICIG, which expires September 3, 2019, leaving more than 70 pending cases in limbo, the report noted.

In addition, pending legislative proposals in Guatemala's Congress would guarantee impunity for serious human rights violations committed during the armed conflict, according to the release.

An estimated 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during the nation's 36-year civil war between a military government and leftist rebel groups that drew support from indigenous Maya and Ladino peasants, according to published reports.