Key facts
- Guatemala is working to preserve 60,000 case files detailing abuses during its 1960-1996 armed conflict.
- The testimonies include accounts of extrajudicial executions, murders, sexual abuse, forced disappearances, and forced recruitment.
- Previous administrations neglected and attempted to dismantle the National Reparations Program that collected these testimonies.
- President Bernardo Arévalo is prioritizing the recovery and digitization of these archives.
- The project aims to protect the archive and make it accessible for historical and potential criminal investigation purposes.
Guatemala is undertaking a critical effort to preserve approximately 60,000 case files containing testimonies of abuses committed during the country's armed conflict from 1960 to 1996. The files, which document atrocities such as extrajudicial executions, murders, sexual abuse, forced disappearances, and forced recruitment, are at risk of being lost due to neglect and damage.
Workers attempting to save the archive have described finding "damp, piled-up boxes, incomplete, torn files." This effort is part of a UNESCO-funded project aiming to recover the archive and potentially have it recognized under the Memory of the World Program for protection and accessibility. The urgency stems from the approaching end of progressive President Bernardo Arévalo's term in January 2028, with concerns that a future administration might not prioritize the preservation.
Under previous presidents Jimmy Morales and Alejandro Giammattei, the National Reparations Program, which collected these testimonies, was largely abandoned and eventually ordered to be shut down without provisions for safeguarding the records. Elvin Díaz, the presidential commissioner for human rights, stated that these actions represented an "intention, on the part of the Morales and Giammattei governments, to erase collective memory." The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has also noted a "systematic policy of dismantling institutions for peace and justice" during those administrations.
President Arévalo has made reparations a priority, seeking to revive efforts to preserve evidence of past abuses and provide reparations, including launching a national registry for disappeared persons. The information within the archives, while primarily for humanitarian aid and reparations, could also be utilized for criminal investigations. The restoration project includes plans to digitize the archive for universal access, integrating it into the Reparation and Dignity Plan for the Victims of the Armed Conflict. The case of Manuel Botom Uz, who disappeared at age four in 1982 and whose remains were later exhumed, exemplifies the personal stories contained within these files.