Guatemala's Human Rights Profile

Human Rights Watch put out a pretty accurate report on the human rights situation in Guatemala several days ago.

Guatemala’s weak and corrupt law enforcement institutions have proved incapable of containing the powerful organized crime groups and criminal gangs that contribute to one of the highest violent crime rates in the Americas. Illegal armed groups are believed to be responsible for ongoing threats and targeted attacks against civil society actors and justice officials.

Although impunity remains the norm for human rights violations, there were significant advances for accountability in 2011, including convictions of four former officers for a notorious massacre in 1982 and the first arrest of a top-ranking official for human rights violations.  

I see the situation in Guatemala as still very difficult but having come off its lows in 2008 and 2009. Arrests of high profile drug traffickers have increased. There have been some prosecutions and/or arrests of human rights violators from the civil war years. Murders of both men and women have declined two years in a row.

Guatemala has gone from a murder rate of 46 per 100,000 to 39 per 100,000 at at time when the rates of its neighbors are in the 70s (El Salvador) and 80s (Honduras). When CICIG first arrived in Guatemala, there were reports that 2% of all murders resulted in convictions. Today, it's between 5% (2010) and 9% (2011).

There's still too much violence and too much impunity, but statistically the country is heading in a better direction than its neighbors.

Femicide in Guatemala (2001-2011)

President Otto Perez Molina recently formed a "task force to combat femicide" in Guatemala. Nobel prize winners Rigoberta Menchu and Jody Williams are traveling the region to help bring attention to the intentional killing of women in Guatemala and beyond. And the British Ambassador is organizing human chains around volcanoes. I hope that these three actions are going to help reduce femicide in Guatemala in the region.

In an article for IPS, Danilo Valladares cites statistics from the Presidential Commission Against Racism in Guatemala that indicates femicides increased from 675 in 2010 to 705 in 2011. I think that they are using INACIF numbers which includes murders and other violent deaths but I can't be certain.

However, when one looks at the National Civilian Police's statistics on murder over the last decade one sees that femicide more than doubled from 2001 to 2009 and then has declined in both 2010 and 2011. The increase and then decrease in murders doesn't look at the different from those of men.

This isn't to belittle the murders of Guatemalan women as a problem. It's just to point out that, according to the Guatemalan National Civilian Police's (PNC) murder statistics, the number of women murdered decreased in 2010 and 2011 and that's not even controlling for population increases.

Update - Murder by gender in Guatemala (2010-2011)

I have my first class of the semester in a few minutes, but I thought this was interesting. Here's my lesson for today - don't post right before class, come back after class and double-check everything. I read 2010's numbers for women incorrectly. In 2010, 695 women were murdered. That means the number of women declined from their highs in 2009 in both 2010 and 2011.

According to the National Civilian Police, 5,681 people were murdered in Guatemalan in 2011. Of that total, 5,050 victims were male and 631 were female. Women comprised 11% of all murder victims in 2011.


In 2010, the PNC recorded 5,906 murders throughout the country. Of that total, 5,265 involved male victims and 625 695 female victims. Women comprised about the same percentage in 2010, 10.6%.


Therefore, overall murders dropped 3.8% (from 5906 to 5,681), male victims declined 4.1% (from 5,265 to 5,050), and female victims increased by 1% (from 625-631).decreased from 695 to 631.


Why have authorities been so much more successful at reducing male victims?


According to the National Civilian Police, 5,681 people were murdered in Guatemalan in 2011. Of that total, 5,050 victims were male and 631 were female. Women comprised 11% of all murder victims in 2011.

In 2010, the PNC recorded 5,906 murders throughout the country. Of that total, 5,265 involved male victims and 695 female victims. Women comprised about 11.8% in 2010.

Therefore, overall murders dropped 3.8% (from 5906 to 5,681), male victims declined 4.1% (from 5,265 to 5,050), and female victims decreased 9.2%  from 695 to 631 (720 died in 2009).

The PNC's statistics from from Carlos Mendoza's blog.

Honduras: Central America’s free-fire zone

The Miami Herald ha hasa new editorial, Central America's free-fire zone, calling forstronger action against Honduras in light of escalating violence andcorruption.

The recent withdrawal of America’s Peace Corps volunteersfrom Honduras is one more sign that the security situation in that CentralAmerican country has deteriorated to crisis levels not seen since the civilwars of the 1980s. The country is quickly turning into a disaster zone.

After the tide of civil war receded, the armies went back totheir barracks and the insurgents laid down their arms. But then narcoticstraffickers flooded in, and the violence has spiked dramatically ever since.The DEA estimates that 25 tons of cocaine move through the country every monthheading north.

In my opinion, theeditorial is poorly framed. First, why all this talk about civil wars, armiesreturning to their barracks, and insurgents laying down their arms when, in thecase of Honduras, it didn't experience a civil war, the army returned to itsbarracks but never relinquished power, and few insurgents ever posed a threatto the survival of the regime. 

Why not talk about the US-encouragedmilitarization of the country during the 1970s and 1980s. How about the contrasoperating on Honduran soil and launching illegal attacks across the border andinto Nicaragua? You could also write about US support and training for Hondurantroops involved in helping to massacre Salvadorans along its border during the1980s.   

They could also avoidthe 1980s Cold War rhetoric altogether since the war's been over for twentyyears. If there's been a "a 250-percent increase in half a dozen years," why notlook to the source of violence six years ago rather than twenty-five years ago?They could write about some of the mano dura policies firstintroduced in 2002 or the breakdown of the rule of law prior to, during, andafter the 2009 coup?

It'salso a terrible title because, while violent, I'm not exactly sure that anyonewould describe the situation as a "free-fire zone" and if it's aneditorial about the situation in Honduras, why not put "Honduras" inthe title rather than "Central America."

For a south Floridanewspaper with an international audience, they should be able to write aboutHonduras' particular history rather than general regional patterns.

This time, however, thereappears to be no effective U.S. strategy to combat the wave of crime and thegradual destruction of the country. To make matters worse in Honduras, thereare indications that elements of theU.S.-backed government are complicit in the violence andcriminality.

Way to beat around thebush. How about the Honduran government receives millions of dollars each yearfrom the United States at the same time that members of the executive,legislative and judicial branches are responsible for much of the country'sviolence and criminality? The evidence that the Miami Herald lists after thesetwo statements is much stronger but they already undermined its effect withindications, elements, and complicit framing.

Nudging Honduran leaders to do the right thing hasn’tworked. Time for Washington to get serious and put U.S. aid on the line,starting with an accounting of where U.S. dollars have ended up. The U.S.government helped fund a program to train Honduran prison guards, but has sincelost track of where those guards wound up.

Historically, the United States has been the biggestbilateral donor of aid to Honduras, but where’s the accountability?

Congress should withdraw assistance if the Hondurangovernment blocks reforms. This crisis requires more than tough talk.

Finally, I support aneffort to hold Honduran leaders accountable for the security situation andcorruption. However, the editorial also should have called on the US congressand the executive branch to review their own actions. How have they contributedto the situation in Honduras? How are they going to change the way that theyoperate? 

Does anyone in the US government have a clue? 

(h/t to Boz fora link to the article)

Murder and Police Corruption in Honduras

It's good to see themedia begin to pick up on the fact that national police and governmentofficials in Central American are involved in all sorts of crime. It's not justdrug traffickers from Mexico and Colombia or gangs. (See the Miami Herald and McClatchy). Boz also has a write-up on Police Corruption in Honduras this morning.

A few things jumped outat me. I don't follow Honduran politics as closely as others, but how can youappoint a Security Minister to "lead a sweep of law enforcement" whohad no idea that criminals were operating out of police stations? Maybe not tothe extent that it was occurring, but not that it wasn't happening.

“It never occurred to me whenI took over this ministry that inside police stations there were peoplecommitting crimes and acting against human life,” said Security MinisterPompeyo Bonilla, named recently to lead a sweep of law enforcement. “We have aserious problem.”

While the Miami Heraldarticle wasn't bad, I can't help but notice that the 2009 coup against Zelayawasn't mentioned at all. Perhaps the the violence would have escalated inHonduras had the June 2009 coup not occurred. Obviously, we'll never know. Butit sure seems to me that violence committed by authorities has increased sincethat date. There's also the concern that drug traffickers stepped in to takeadvantage of the chaos that ensued following the coup. It should have beenmentioned even in passing.

Tim Johnson also has agood article for McClatchy on Crime booms as Central Americans fear police switched sides.I definitely don't like the title. Maybe they could have changed it to crimebooms as Central American police remains on both sides of the law.Maybe it's worse today but problem is nothing new.

Murder rates remain stubbornlyhigh across the region. El Salvador tallied 4,354 murders last year, slightlyunder Guatemala's 5,618 and the 6,723 that Honduras registered. The NorthernTriangle now approaches far more populous Mexico in the total number ofhomicides.

Now, notto be picky but these are not rates. It's also not good to present thesenumbers without taking into consideration population differences. El Salvadorhas a population of approximately 6 million, Guatemala somewhere in the 14million range, and Honduras about 8 million. 

Finally, changes in murder ratesfor each country do not look alike. While crime booms, the murder rate in ElSalvador has gone up some years and down other years. In Honduras, it has gonestraight up. And in Guatemala, it has remained pretty flat for the last fewyears. Unlike Honduras and El Salvador, it has declined two years in a row. Guatemala'smurder rate has also been significantly lower than those for the two countriesfor just about every year under consideration.

A comparison of the three countriesshould take these differences into account.

The Miami Herald (Therisks and rewards of helping Honduras) and HermanoJuancito also have stories worth checking out. Their focus is on doinggood work in the midst of such violence. 

Guatemala Murder Rates by Department

Here are the approximate murder rates per 100,000 people for each department in Guatemala in 2010 and 2011.

Guatemala – Change in murder rates 2010-2011

Here's a map that lays out the change in each department's murder rate from 2010 to 2011 in Guatemala. Green is where the murder rate has improved. Red is where the murder rate has worsened. And yellow is where there has been little to no change (El Progreso at 0%, Izabal worsened 0.78%, and Chiquimula improved 1.42%).