Justice and Reconciliation

"The objective of this work," said a member of the EAFG, "is to discover the truth concerning these massacres. From there, obviously, there has to be justice, otherwise it would only be a partial process." As part of the government's commitments in the peace accords, signed on December 29 of last year, a Commission of Historical Clarification, or Truth Commission, is to investigate human rights violations committed during the war and assign blame to either the Army or guerrillas in each case that it investigates.

Critics have pointed out that the Commission does not have the authority to name names, to "individualize" responsibility for abuses and will have only a maximum of one year to complete its entire investigation.

At this point it is unclear when the Truth Commission will begin its work, given that the government has only designated US$50,000 for its investigation. Tomuschat said that the government has talked about providing more money for the Commission, but has so far done nothing. For the surviving victims, and human rights and church organizations, some measure of justice must come first before reconciliation is possible. The 'new' Guatemala cannot be constructed by covering up the atrocities of the past, by offering a blanket forgiveness.

The counterinsurgency apparatus of the Guatemalan Army is, at its core, based on the fear and silence created by the massacres of the early 1980s. Failure to challenge the impunity of the powerful sectors and the military, and dismantle the repressive structures responsible for such crimes, condemns the surviving victims to further trauma and imposed silence.

As long as those crimes are unpunished, as long as those stories are untold, as long as the past is denied, the fear will remain and the military will still exert its power over the Guatemalan nation.

Impunity serves to leave in place the same individuals and structures that committed the crimes; it makes it all the more likely that state repression can occur again in the future.

As Primo Levi, the Italian Holocaust survivor has written, "It happened, therefore it can happen again. This is the core of what we have to say...."

Conclusion

The exhumations are the most gruesome and courageous effort to publicly tell the truth about the past, to 'recover' their dead, to demand justice, and to end impunity. They cannot achieve these goals alone.

US citizens can lend their voices and support. For as long as it takes, pressure must be brought to bear on the US government, to divulge all information it has about the repression in Guatemala (let alone in many countries across the Americas), and the role of the US therein.

Moreover, US citizens, and churches and foundations, can make financial contributions to Guatemala citizen organizations at the forefront of efforts to uncover the truth about the past, and have some measure of justice done.

Action

Educational work in the US and Canada
For more information about the exhumations and other efforts in Guatemala to confront the past, contact the authors.

Declassification work in the US
For information as to how you can work to pressure the US Government to declassify all information it has related to the atrocities in Guatemala, contact Amnesty International (202-544-0200), or the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (202-529-6599). Support for Guatemalan organizations: One of Rights Action's (formerly Guatemala Partners) principle projects dealing with reconciliation in Guatemala, is to raise funds so that survivors of massacres may design and construct monuments to remember the names and lives of their murdered loved ones. If you want to support the monuments project (or other RA-supported projects), or if you want more information, contact the co-author at RA.

<Back

• page 1
  Intro
  Dealing with the past
  
  
• page 2
  A "Dark Chapter" of the Cold War
  The Strategy of Mass Murder and Terror
  The Exhumation Process
  
  
• page 3 [this page]
  Justice and Reconciliation
  Conclusion
  Action