VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGT #0256/01 0600144
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 290144Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4879
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000256 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KJUS PHUM KDEM KCRM MOPS MARR PGOV ESOCI GT
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT COLOM ORDERS DECLASSIFICATION OF 
MILITARY ARCHIVES 
 
REF: 07 GUATEMALA 1530 
 
¶1. Summary:  On February 25, in commemoration of Guatemala's 
National Day of Dignity of Victims, President Colom announced 
that the government will declassify, and open to the public, 
military archives that contain information on human rights 
violations committed during the country's internal conflict. 
While human rights leaders hailed the decision as key to 
clarifying the fate of thousands of disappeared persons and 
to seeking justice, others criticized the decision as 
unconstitutional and politically motivated.  It is not clear 
whether operational files from the conflict era still exist. 
End Summary. 
 
¶2. On February 25, Guatemala commemorated the National Day of 
Dignity of Victims in memory of the more than 200,000 victims 
of the country's internal conflict.  More than 3,000 persons, 
including Cabinet members, government officials, and members 
of the international community, press, civil society, and 
indigenous organizations, attended the 10th annual event, 
while leaders of the National Movement of Victims and other 
human rights activists demonstrated outside the National 
Palace of Culture.  Demonstrators urged the government to 
intensify efforts to investigate human rights abuses and to 
reactivate cases against former military officers accused of 
engaging in gross human rights violations during the 
conflict.  They demanded reparations promised by the state 
and sanctions against those responsible for "genocide." 
 
¶3. In his keynote address, President Colom acknowledged that 
the state committed atrocities during the armed conflict and 
that it has an obligation to clarify the past.  He stated 
that the government would undertake all necessary efforts to 
seek the truth and to ensure justice.  He announced that the 
government would declassify and open military archives that 
contain information on human rights violations committed 
during the internal conflict.  He also reaffirmed his 
commitment to full transparency and to the protection of 
human rights, especially to constructing a functioning 
judicial system and redressing victims of the internal 
conflict.  Colom called on his Secretary of Peace and Human 
Rights, former human rights activist Orlando Blanco, to form 
a task force to locate and analyze the military archives with 
the aim of determining which documents can be declassified. 
Colom committed to addressing legal challenges to ensure the 
public disclosure of military documents. 
 
¶4. Blanco reiterated Colom's commitment to human rights, 
highlighting as a priority the national program of reparation 
to victims, including restoration of houses, creation of 
jobs, expansion of exhumation programs, and access to health 
care and educational opportunities.  He stated his goal of 
creating a society that respects the rule of law.  He 
affirmed that, with the support of human rights activists, he 
would seek the necessary legal mechanisms to implement the 
President's order with the aim of contributing to historical 
clarification.  As an initial step, he and his team will 
conduct a search at various military institutions to locate 
the archives.  He noted that some of the archives are in the 
Public Ministry, while others are housed in military 
institutions.  Blanco indicated that it could be months 
before they locate all the archives, and warned that they may 
not find all the documents.  Nonetheless, he said, they will 
focus on seeking documents pertaining to the most violent 
period (1979-1983) of the internal conflict, and most 
importantly to prosecuting those responsible for human rights 
Qimportantly to prosecuting those responsible for human rights 
violations. 
 
¶5. Vice Minister of Defense Carlos Alvarado told the press 
that the Ministry will fully comply with the President's 
order.  He noted, however, that he has no knowledge of the 
location, content, or number of documents that Colom will 
request.  Once the documents have been located and 
identified, they will be delivered to the Human Rights 
Ombudsman, but will not be made public until all legal 
questions have been resolved. 
 
¶6. Human rights leaders hailed the decision as important for 
clarifying the fate of thousands of Guatemalans who 
disappeared during the internal conflict.  They believed the 
decision would facilitate families' search for the 
disappeared and reconciliation efforts, and enable Guatemala 
to move forward while remembering the past.  Critics, 
however, argued that the decision contravenes the 
constitution, which protects military archives as a matter of 
national security, and characterized the decision as more 
political than legal.  Former presidential candidate and 
retired General Otto Perez Molina described the announcement 
as a purely "political measure," while a political analyst 
reportedly complained that Colom was "exploiting people's 
morbid curiosity."  Others viewed it as an attempt to preempt 
 
Perez Molina's possible future bid for the presidency. 
 
¶7. Comment:  Colom's announcement early in his term is a 
positive affirmation of his long-standing commitment to a 
transparent government focused on human rights and social 
development.  Guatemala's lack of a Freedom of Information 
Act and the constitution's lack of clear definition of 
"national security," however, leave open the possibility of 
broad interpretation, which may pose serious legal 
challenges.  In a 2007 court ruling on four military plans 
allegedly used during the 1980s (reftel), the Ministry of 
Defense argued on appeal, based on national security grounds, 
that the plans could not be used as evidence in the Rios 
Montt case.  It is also not clear that the military continues 
to possess files from the conflict period that would shed 
light on military operations.  When President Berger took 
office in 2004, he turned over to the Human Rights Ombudsman 
over a million pages of files from the notorious Presidential 
Guard (Estado Mayor Presidencial).  The files turned out to 
be accounting records. 
Derham