By: Daniel Nardini
They had been lying in an abandoned warehouse for decades. The archives of the former Guatemalan National Police might hold the keys to what happened to the tens of thousands of people who had simply “disappeared” during Guatemala’s 40 year civil war. When this archive was discovered in 2005, no one at the time could have gathered that they might shed light on all those who had gone missing. One of the main problems with trying to bring former police and military personnel to justice for any crimes against humanity they might have committed was the lack of evidence. The chances of finding and identifying bodies is remote, and until now finding documentation on those missing was equally remote.
So it begs for the question why these archives, which might not only identify those who disappeared but also finger those who committed the crimes, were left intact? One would have logically thought that leaving the entire police archive in one piece would have been like a thief leaving his/her fingerprints and other evidence all over a house they robbed. But this is what has happened, and the Guatemalan government is now using state-of-the-art equipment from Switzerland and Austria to put these old but still intact archives online so that the government will not only be able to catalog them, but to probably find those who were responsible for the atrocities committed during the civil war.
To date, 1,900 former missing have been identified by family and relatives through these archives. The government has gone through less than a third of these documents, and there is still much in them that may yet shock the Guatemalan public. But every document that is found and cataloged will mean a legal piece of proof against any individual responsible for what happened to the disappeared during the civil war. It will also mean that those in the military and former police force will be unable to escape from the justice they deserve. More important, the archives may help to not only bring those who committed these atrocities to justice, but to help Guatemalans close this chapter on their dark recent history.
The Secret Guatemalan Police Archives
By: Daniel Nardini
So it begs for the question why these archives, which might not only identify those who disappeared but also finger those who committed the crimes, were left intact? One would have logically thought that leaving the entire police archive in one piece would have been like a thief leaving his/her fingerprints and other evidence all over a house they robbed. But this is what has happened, and the Guatemalan government is now using state-of-the-art equipment from Switzerland and Austria to put these old but still intact archives online so that the government will not only be able to catalog them, but to probably find those who were responsible for the atrocities committed during the civil war.
To date, 1,900 former missing have been identified by family and relatives through these archives. The government has gone through less than a third of these documents, and there is still much in them that may yet shock the Guatemalan public. But every document that is found and cataloged will mean a legal piece of proof against any individual responsible for what happened to the disappeared during the civil war. It will also mean that those in the military and former police force will be unable to escape from the justice they deserve. More important, the archives may help to not only bring those who committed these atrocities to justice, but to help Guatemalans close this chapter on their dark recent history.