Relevant state institutions should coordinate their actions to ensure that these are fully implemented and appropriately assessed with agreed timelines and benchmarks. Gangs, in particular, single out informants . The new president, a retired general, campaigned on the promise that his government would combat crime with an iron fist. Intense gang warfare continues to plague El Salvador, undeterred by successive governments' heavy-handed and militarised repression policies. deny the petition in part and otherwise dismiss it for lack of jurisdiction. (12). (18) As noted by the PDH no arrests were made in 97% of cases,(19) more than 70% of the cases have not been investigated and the motive for the killing is unknown. When Police Repression is Not Enough: A U.S. (33) Draft law no. A series of arrests in Guatemala has brought down a criminal group made up of police officers working as drug dealers and hitmen, showing how the country has not been spared from the growing crisis of police criminality across the region. GUATEMALA In Guatemala, organized crime has been a problem for decades. The lack of response, according to diplomats, emboldened Guatemala to ratchet up its campaign against the archives. (11) Establishing a comprehensive overview of the statistics regarding both the numbers of women killed as well as the identity of the perpetrators is still therefore extremely difficult. She fears will find her, take her daughter from her, and harm or kill her. Only a few months later, under the leadership of a retired Lieutenant Colonel that served during the genocidal dictatorship of Efran Ros Montt, the police drew . Likewise, in the case of María Isabel Franco, who was raped and brutally murdered in December 2001, it was only after significant international attention on the case and after a TV documentary, that in February 2006 the prosecutor agreed to compile a list of leads that have yet to be investigated and to locate the main suspect in the case. These "non-violent" deaths included 54 cases where the cause of death was unknown; 39 of the cases were death via suffocation through submersion. Her sister, also a sex worker, who witnessed the killing, reportedly informed the Public Ministry that two plain-clothed policemen shot her sister. In April 2006 the European Parliament held a hearing on the killings of women in both Guatemala and Mexico. police, body of officers representing the civil authority of government. Guatemalans gathered in Plaza de la Constitucin in downtown Guatemala City, which has been renamed by feminist collectives as Plaza de las Nias in memory of the 41 girls who died inside a state-ran . Expectations have been raised, again and again, but results have rarely followed. As is custom in Guatemala, the protection she was receiving as part of the Public Ministry's witness protection programme was terminated on the sentencing of "Small" despite the fact that she was still clearly at risk of retaliatory violence. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. When the family presented the clothes to the Public Ministry to assist in the investigation, they were reportedly told to burn them or throw them away. From there, media coverage of unarmed black men getting shot began to sky rocket. Nor do police exist in a vacuum; permanent change can only take place within broader efforts to battle corruption and favouritism within the justice system as a whole. According to the police Female Homicide Unit by the end of 2005 they had archived 100 cases out of a total of 224 cases of murdered women and girls allegedly due to a lack of evidence because families no longer wanted investigations or witnesses were no longer willing to talk for fear of reprisals. Drug traffickers, including Mexican cartels, move at will across porous borders, while criminal gangs dominate many urban areas. All police investigators, crime scene investigation officials and forensic experts should receive intensive and ongoing training in investigative techniques, particularly in the collection and preservation of forensic evidence in relation to gender-based violence. Combatting violence against children, especially sexual exploitation and abuse, is a key component of programming. Concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Guatemala (CEDAW/C/GUA/CO/6). (9) www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw35/cc/Guatemala_rev.pdf, (10) Based on a population of 12 million, cited in United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report, 2005. Police Use of Force. . Using the army to fight crime, however, further demoralises and weakens the police, especially when the militarys role is poorly defined. In the case of Cristina Hernndez (see first page) the police failed to respond to the desperate pleas of her family despite neighbours having witnessed her abduction. On 8 March 2006, three Congressional Commissions issued a joint favourable opinion to a draft amendment which proposes the reform of the Guatemalan Penal Code in relation to violence against women. The United States is also making it more difficult for unaccompanied children in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to unite with relatives already in the country. Rosa Franco talking to Amnesty International in April 2006. The fact that these killings are not investigated exacerbates the suffering of family members seeking justice; furthermore, family members complain that during the investigative and judicial process the authorities discriminate on the grounds of gender."(42). (7) The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Yakin Ertürk, visited Guatemala in February 2004 and issued her subsequent observations and recommendations in February 2005 (see E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.3). While Amnesty International was informed that talks are underway within the Commission to Address Femicide to create a database which would record and cross-reference cases of disappeared women and girls with the discovery of dead bodies, at the time of writing no such mechanism existed. Such attitudes are evident in public statements by government officials. Serious deficiencies were reported in relation to the effectiveness of the investigation. On 5 May 2006, for example, the Chief of Police stated publicly that in order to prevent the murders of women it is necessary to "ask them not to get involved in street gangs and to avoid violence within the family, which we as police cannot do" and attributed more than 60% of the cases to these causes. (27) Nearly one year after Cristina was abducted and murdered, the Public Ministry has allegedly still not requested the police to carry out a search of a suspect's house or summoned the witnesses to provide information to construct a identikit picture of individuals believed to be responsible for her abduction and subsequent murder. The friend that was with her at the time but who managed to escape was able to testify against him. It is critical (determinante) in the questions witnesses and family members are asked, in the way the investigation is carried out and in the position in which the victim is found as a victim or as the instigator of her own death."(31), According to information received by Amnesty International forensic specialists receive no training in relation to the documentation of sexual violence and it is not common practice for forensic experts to refer to international standards on the practice of forensic investigation which includes specific information not only on carrying out effective forensic investigations but also how to detect and investigate cases of sexual violence. Guatemala Executive Summary The 25,000 members of the National Civil Police (PNC) are on the front lines of Guatemala's battle against crime. The spent shells were reportedly never submitted as part of the investigation. An average of 101 murders per week were reported in 2018. (41) See A Summary of Amnesty International's Concerns. Guatemala once again had the fourth highest rate of killings worldwide of land and environmental defenders per capita; 13 were killed in 2020, according to the NGO Global Witness. Given Guatemala's incapacity to provide effective protection and the risk that some transferees would face the threat of serious harm either in Guatemala or after returning to their home. Finally, the Guatemalan judicial system is largely inefficient. I begged them to put up road blocks to stop them and catch them. R. App. While the creation of the Commission needs to be viewed positively, it is unclear how another institutional structure will improve the government response and overcome issues of duplication and official incompetence. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights following her visit to Guatemala, 27 May 2006.(45). Fight injustice and help create a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. The CGRS director notes that many women do not report domestic violence due to a lack of "confidence in the justice system to provide protection and a just result," as well as lack of economic opportunities and shelters (24 Apr. Police Reform in Guatemala: Obstacles and Opportunities, Curtain Falls on Guatemalas International Commission against Impunity. To stem the violence that kills thousands of Guatemalans each year, the government must find the resources and will to carry out long-stalled reforms of the national police. As one of the Unit's police officers told Amnesty International we don't have the tools to carry out the work. She had been beheaded and her body cut into 19 pieces. Registering property is less time-consuming and less costly compared to regional averages ( DB 2016 ). In some cases there have also been allegations of complicity by police investigators in covering up crimes or "misplacing" important evidence. Subsequent calls to the delivery agencies established that no such parcel existed. It called on the Guatemalan government to: take without delay all the measures necessary to put an end to the murders and disappearances of women and the impunity of perpetrators. The Ministry of Interior ( Ministerio de Gobernacin) is in charge of Guatemala's law enforcement services. Francisca López, aged 13, was knifed to death on 2 November 2005 in Guatemala City. Recognizing the deficiencies in the investigation of the case, in November 2005, the head of the Special Prosecutor's Office on Crimes against Life took over the investigation. This adversely affects their physical health as well as the . A number of relatives have also complained about having to prove that their family member was "respectable" or that she had not been involved in any crime before the authorities would take their complaint seriously. In the case of 17-year-old Andrea Fabiola Contreras Bacaro who was raped and murdered in June 2004 in Jocotenango, Sacatepéquez, and who had the word "vengeance" carved into her leg, in February 2005 Otto René Argueta was sentenced to 35 years. Guatemala On July 5, 2005, officials from the Guatemalan government's human rights office (PDH - Procuradura de Derechos Humanos) entered a deteriorating, rat-infested munitions depot in downtown Guatemala City to investigate complaints about improperly-stored explosives. Page 234, available at: http://hdr.undp.org/2005. Law enforcement in Guatemala Read Edit View history Guatemalan law enforcement, mainly performed by the civilian-led National Civil Police of Guatemala (PNC), yet assisted by its military, which has a poor record with regard to human rights violations. On receiving his sentence "Small" reportedly threatened Clara Fabiola García that she would pay for testifying against him. 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