Renegotiating 'law and order': Judicial reform and citizen responses in post-war Guatemala

Democratization and the Judiciary: The Accountability Function of Courts in New Democracies

Volumn , Issue , 2004, Pages 99-116

  Sieder, Rachel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 32644490103     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.4324/9780203485408     Document Type: Chapter

References (64)

1. For an overview see William C.Prillaman, The Judiciary and Democratic Decay in Latin America: Declining Confidence in the Rule of Law (New York and London: Praeger, 2000).
2. Pilar Domingo and Rachel Sieder (eds), Promoting the Rule of Law: Perspectives on Latin America, (London: Institute of Latin American Studies, 2001).
3. Ricardo Salvatore, Carlos Aguirre and Gil Joseph, Crime and Punishment in Latin America: Law and Society since Late Colonial Times (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2001);
4. Victoria Chenaut and Maria Teresa Sierra (eds), Pueblos Indigenas ante el Derecho (Mexico: CIESAS/CEMCA, 1995);
5. June Starr and Jane Collier (eds), History and Power in the Study of Law: New Directions in Legal Anthropology (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1989);
6. Richard Wilson (ed.), Human Rights, Culture and Context: Anthropological Perspectives on Human Rights (London: Pluto Press, 1997).
7. Ralph Lee Woodward Jr, Rafael Carrera and the Emergence of the Republic of Guatemala, 1821-1871 (Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1993).
8. David McCreery, Rural Guatemala, 1760-1940 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994).
9. Arturo Taracena Arriola, Etnicidad, estado y nación en Guatemala, 1808-1944 (Guatemala: CIRMA, 2002).
10. Rachel Sieder, 'Paz, progreso, justicia y honradez: law and citizenship in Alta Verapaz during the regime of Jorge Ubico', Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 19, No.3 (2000), pp.283-302.
11. Patrick Ball, Paul Kobrak, Herbert Spirer, State Violence in Guatemala, 1960-1996: A Quantitative Reflection (New York: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1999);
12. Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado de Guatemala, Informe REMHI, Guatemala: Nunca Mas (Guatemala: ODHAG, 1998);
13. United Nations, Informe de la Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico (Guatemala: UN, 1999). Online at http://hrdata.aaas.org/ceh/report/english/default.html.
14. A thorough analysis of the legal apparatus of the counterinsurgency state is set out in Alberto Binder et al., 'Informe sobre la participación del sistema judicial en la violación de los derechos fundamentales durante el enfrentamiento armado', draft document prepared for the UN Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico, on file with author.
15. See UN, Informe de la Comisión de Esclarecimiento (note 8).
16. A poll commissioned by the Supreme Court in 1997 revealed that 88 per cent of those surveyed considered the justice system to be 'inadequate'; four out of five admitted they had little or no confidence in the system; see Luis Pásara, 'Reforma judicial: el caso de Guatemala', draft paper on file with author (2002).
17. One UNDP study indicated that in 1997 the rate of kidnappings in Guatemala was similar to that in Colombia; approximately 17 per 100,000 inhabitants per year; see PNUD, Proyecto Regional de Justicia, Acceso a la justicia en Centroamérica: seguridad juridical e inversion, 2nd edition, (San José Costa Rica: PNUD, 2001), p. 45.
18. Manolo Vela, Alexander Sequén-Mónchez and Hugo Antonio Solares, El lado oscuro de la eterna primavera: Violencia, criminalidady delincuencia en la postguerra (Guatemala: FLACSO, 2001).
19. Charles T.Call, Sustainable Development in Central America: The Challenges of Violence, Injustice and Insecurity (Hamburg: Central America 2020 Working Paper No.8, 2000), p.9.
20. Hugh Byrne, 'Trials and Tribulations of Justice Reform in Guatemala', paper prepared for the Latin American Studies Association conference, on file with author (2000), pp.7-9;
21. WOLA, La reforma judicial en Guatemala, 1997-1998: Una guia básica sobre losproblemas, procesosy actores (Guatemala: WOLA, 1998), pp.28-38
22. Luis Pásara, 'Reforma' (note 12).
23. See Comisión de Fortalecimiento de la Justicia, Una nueva justicia para la paz: Informe Final, (Guatemala: Comisión de Fortalecimiento de la Justicia, 1998).
24. Between 1994 and 1999 the total number of judges and magistrates increased from 400 to 753. PNUD, Guatemala: Informe delDesarrollo Humano 2000 (Guatemala: PNUD, 2001), p.109. http://www.asies.org.gt/sistema-justicia/informe-final.htm.
25. Five pilot community courts were established in 1998. Each had three 'justices of the peace' (jueces de paz); two people from the community and the local justice of the peace.
26. See Luis Ramirez, Justo Solorzano and Mario Caxaj, Informe: Tribunales Comunitarios, draft document, INECIP, Guatemala, on file with author (1999);
27. Jorge Murga Armas, Análisis del funcionamiento de los Juzgados de Paz Comunitarios. Reformas al Código Procesal Penal, draft document, PNUD, Guatemala, on file with author (1999).
28. The proposed reforms included a series of clauses related to judicial reform and the recognition of the state as multicultural and multiethnic. They were defeated on an 18 per cent turnout, following an effective campaign by opponents who appealed to racist sentiments, raising fears that such measures would balkanize the country and encourage reverse discrimination against non-indigenous people. See Cynthia Arnson (ed.), The Popular Referendum (Consulta Popular) and the Future of the Peace Process in Guatemala, Working Paper No.241 (Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Latin American Program, 1999);
29. Susanne Jonas, Of Centaurs and Doves: Guatemala's Peace Process (Boulder, CO and London, Westview Press, 2000), ch.8);
30. Victor Ferrigno, 'La nación a debate: constitución y derechos indigenas' in Jueces para la Democracia, Libro blanco sobre la Independencia del Poder Judicial y la Eficacia de la Administración de Justicia en Centroamérica (San José Costa Rica, 2000), pp.261-302
31. Many of the new community courts and local authorities exceed their functions by dealing with a range of conflicts that are not currently within their competence, calling into doubt the legal validity of their judgements; MINUGUA, Suplemento al décimo informe sobre derechos humanos de la Misión de Verificación de las Naciones Unidas en Guatemala: Funcionamiento del sistema de justicia (Guatemala: UN, 2000).
32. Luis Pásara, 'Reforma', (note 12) p.13.
33. ASIES, 'Avances y dificultades' (note 21).
34. Central America Report, 17 August 2001.
35. Hendrix (note21) p.837.
36. MINUGUA, Suplemento al décimo informe; ASIES, Informe combinado sobre la situación de los derechos humanos en Guatemala durante 1999 (Guatemala: ASIES, 2000), http://www.asies.org.gt/informe-combinado.htm
37. See data contained in the Gacetas Jurisprudenciales of the Constitutional Court (Guatemala: Constitutional Court, various).
38. PNUD, Acceso a la justicia (note 13) p.87.
39. El Periódico, 19 June 2001.
40. The existence of investigative structures parallel to the official judicial process came to light when families of kidnap victims, frustrated with the inability of the police and criminal justice system to secure their release, turned to military intelligence, revealing a network run out of the presidency that co-ordinated operations between the Public Ministry and the Estado Mayor Presidencial (EMP). See Prensa Libre, 13 August 2000.
41. Francisco Goldman, 'Victory in Guatemala', The New York Review of Books, 23 May 2002.
42. Amnesty International, Guatemala: Breaking the Wall of Impunity-Prosecution for Crimes Against Humanity, AI-index: AMR 34/020/2000 19/06/2000 (London: Amnesty International, 2000).
43. WOLA, La reforma judicial en Guatemala, 1997-1998, pp.7-8
44. MINUGUA's llth Report on Human Rights, covering the period December 1999-June 2000 noted an 'intensification of intimidation' against journalists and human rights groups; for a detailed recent account see Amnesty International, Guatemala: Human Rights Community Under Siege, AMR34/22/2001 (London: Amnesty International 2001). Intimidation of human rights organizations continued to worsen throughout 2002.
45. Central America Report, 6 July 2001.
46. For a useful explanation of universal jurisdiction and recent developments see Geoffrey Robertson, Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice (New York and London: New Press, 2000).
47. ASIES, La cultura democrática de los guatemaltecos (Guatemala: ASIES, 1997).
48. A similar study by the UNDP in 1997 found that 50 per cent of the population had no confidence in the judiciary and 60 per cent no confidence in the police-this reflected similar levels of lack of confidence in these institutions throughout Central America. See PNUD, Acceso a la justicia (note 14), p.44.
49. 1998 data cited in Pásara Luis Pásara, 'La justicia en Guatemala', Diálogo, FLACSO, No.3 (2) (1998), Guatemala, p.4;
50. ASIES survey cited in PNUD, Guatemala (note 20) p.112.
51. BID (Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo), Desarrollo: Más Allá de la Economía: Progreso económico y social en America Latina: Informe 2000 (Washington DC: Interamerican Development Bank, 2001), pp.14-15 Only Panama and Uruguay had fewer than 30 per cent; El Salvador was second to Guatemala with 46 per cent.
52. Prensa Libre, 17 June 2001; MINUGUA, Ninth Report on Human Rights of the UN Verification Mission in Guatemala, 1 April 1998 to 31 December 1998 (Guatemala: UN, 1999).
53. In June 2001 the PNC had 18, 314 operatives (UN 2001). The private: public ratio is similar to that in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, where 1.5 million private security guards outnumber the police by three to one; The Economist, 18 August 2001, p.45.
54. Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy, March 2000, cited in Human Rights Watch, World Report 2001: Guatemala (New York: HRW 2001), http://www.hrw.org/wr2kl/americas/guatemala.html.
55. This study includes a useful cross-regional statistical comparison of homicides; see Carlos Mendoza, 'Collective violence: an answer to the absence of justice and security in Guatemala', draft paper, Stanford University, on file with author (2001).
56. MINUGUA, Los linchamientos: un flagelo que persiste (Guatemala: UN, August 2002), http://www.minugua.guate.net.
57. Prensa Libre, 1 April 2001.
58. Marta Gutiérrez and Paul Kobrak, Los linchamientos: post conficto y violencia colectiva en Huehuetenango, Guatemala (Huehuetenango: Centro de Estudios y Desarrollo de la Frontera Occidental de Guatemala (CEDFOG), 2001).
59. MINUGUA, 'Los linchamientos: un flagelo que persiste' (note 59).
60. Carlos Vilas, '(In)justicia por mano propia: linchamientos en el México contemporáneo', Revista Mexicana de Sociología, No.1 (63) (2001), pp.131-60
61. Prensa Libre, 20 December 2000.
62. Such a scheme is currently operating in the department of El Quiché: judges and police negotiate the release of individuals detained by the community into police custody; if there is no proof of misdemeanour an effort is made to explain the subsequent release of the individual to the community and to establish acceptable conditions for their reintegration; Gutiérrez and Kobrak, Línchamientos (note 61) p.44.
63. Human Rights Watch, World Report 2001: Guatemala (New York: HRW 2001), p.4, at http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/americas/guatemala.html.
64. Amnesty International, Guatemala Annual Report 2001 (London: Amnesty International 2001), p.4.