February 2012 Mr.

Otto Prez Molina President of the Republic of Guatemala Su despacho Dear President Prez Molina: As international organizations committed to monitoring human rights issues in Guatemala, we would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to office and express our profound concern regarding ongoing human rights violations in Guatemala. We appreciate the scope and complexity of the many challenges that Guatemala faces, including violence, poverty, and impunity. We hope that promoting human rights and protecting Guatemalas most vulnerable populations will be central to your plans to improve security and livelihoods in Guatemala. Our organizations are particularly concerned about the increasing levels of threats and violence against human rights defenders, whose work is integral to ensuring respect for the individual and collective rights guaranteed by the Guatemalan constitution. Civil society groups in Guatemala regularly report that community leaders, human rights advocates and journalists are criminalized, threatened or killed if they speak out against ongoing abuses and violations. In 2011 alone, 19 human rights defenders were assassinated. These attacks often go unpunished, perpetuating a cycle of violence and impunity. We ask that your administration take a clear and public position guaranteeing the rights, safety and wellbeing of human rights defenders as they struggle for justice and equality for all Guatemalans. We applaud the creation of the Instancia de Anlisis de Ataques contra Defensores de Derechos Humanos and urge the Interior Ministry to move quickly to establish mechanisms to work effectively with civil society organizations to protect defenders at risk. We hope the Public Prosecutor's office will prioritize human rights cases. Increasing the number of successful prosecutions is essential to the construction of a strong and transparent democracy. We would like to express our full support of Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz and the work of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) in their efforts to achieve justice in Guatemalas most difficult and sensitive cases. If Guatemalan society is to heal from the trauma of the internal armed conflict, justice for victims and survivors and prosecutions of those responsible for crimes against humanity by an independent and impartial judiciary is essential. We have been pleased to see successful prosecution in legal cases from the conflict, such as sentencing of the perpetrators of the massacre at Dos Erres and forced disappearances in El Jute. However, we remain concerned about the lack of advancement in other emblematic cases, including the genocide case, the case of the forced disappearance of Fernando Garcia, the Bmaca case, among others. We hope your administration will take action against any efforts to pass amnesty laws to protect perpetrators of human rights violations. Furthermore, we stress the importance of protecting the Archivos Historicos de la Policia Nacional and the recently opened Military Archives, and ask that you follow through with former President Coloms promise to declassify key military documents from the early 1980s, including Operation Sofia, Plan Firmeza 82, Plan Victoria 83 and Operation Ixil.

We hope that your administration will prioritize the full implementation of the Peace Accords, support efforts for the recuperation of historical memory, and enact policies that respect and defend Guatemalas multicultural and multiethnic citizenry, and their rights as indigenous peoples. We encourage you to fully enforce international laws ratified by Guatemala, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Labour Organization's Convention 169, which requires that the Government of Guatemala obtain the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples for projects carried out on their land. Furthermore, we urge your administration to fully comply with the American Convention on Human Rights, implement precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and enforce rulings by the Inter-American Court. Similarly, it is important for Guatemala to ratify the Convention of the International Criminal Court. We are concerned about previous administrations practice of violent, forced evictions of indigenous and campesino communities. In 2011, these evictions left many men, women and children without access to basic needs such as food or shelter. We hope your administration will promote productive dialogue and increase regulation of private security forces in order to resolve future land conflicts in a more peaceful manner, consistent with international human rights standards. Violence against women, including high rates of sexual violence and brutal femicides, remain a key concern for national and international organizations. You have voiced your commitment to support the creation of a Special Task Force on Femicide, institutionalize SEPREM and CONAPREVI, and provide the necessary resources for their functioning. We hope these will be among your first priorities as President, and that these offices will consult regularly and openly with organizations that work directly with women who have been victims of violence. Finally, we are deeply concerned about increased involvement of the military in matters of internal security, both because it goes counter to the spirit and intention of the Peace Accords, and also because of increasing evidence linking the Kaibiles Special Operations force to the Zetas. We understand the challenges that organized crime pose to citizen security and the rule of law. However we believe that a long-term solution to crime and insecurity must focus on the strengthening and professionalization of civil institutions such as the judiciary, the Public Ministry and the National Civilian Police. We encourage the prioritization of citizen security strategies that include violence prevention and rights-respecting law enforcement measures. You, as President of Guatemala, and we, as international human rights organizations, share a common concern for the well-being of all Guatemalan men, women and children. We look forward to future communication and meaningful dialogue about these and other pressing human rights issues. Sincerely,