Thursday 5 March 2009

Guatemala: Will Army Archives Be Revealed?

Recently, Guatemala's President apologised for the crimes of the civil war.

Now, he has gone further:
A new government commission will organize and declassify military documents that could shed light on torture, disappearances and other atrocities during Guatemala's 36-year civil war, President Alvaro Colom announced Tuesday.

On the face of it, this is great news, and should prove fascinating. Human rights group are cautious, however.
"It's not a matter of commissions. The president announced that the files would be handed over in 2008 and the military always spins its wheels,"

said Carmen Aida Ibarra of the Myrna Mack Foundation.
So now it's a matter of trying to hold the government accountable and hoping that they keep their word.

Guatemala team to release war-era military files (AP)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, well:

"We have information that the defense minister's family members received death threats from a group of ex-army officials upset about the de-classification of potentially compromising archives," Colom said at a news conference.

Lillie Langtry said...

Thanks for the tip! Looks like that will have to go on the main page later.