SUMMARY
After 15 years under a military government, Guatemala returned to civilian rule in 1986, when Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo was elected president. However, Arévalo failed to contain the military, which kept its predominant role particularly in questions of internal security including the country’s long-lasting intrastate conflict. In 1991, Jorge Serrano Elías was elected president. When he tried to assume dictatorial powers in 1993, he was forced to resign. Guatemala’s former respected human rights ombudsman, Ramiro de León Carpio, completed Serrano’s presidential term. Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen won the presidency in the 1996 elections.
Several government institutions were involved in the planning and execution of one-sided attacks. One of the central institutions was the Presidential Security Directorate, an intelligence unit commonly known as the "archivos." The archivos formed part of a large security apparatus operating directly under the president. The unit collected information on citizens and used this as the basis for composing death lists. In 1993, the newly elected president De León Carpio closed down the archivos. However, its archive was transferred to the military intelligence unit known as G-2, which likewise was reported to have a long history of involvement in political repression; the G-2 was referred to as the “death squad” by military intelligence officers when interviewed several years after the conflict.
In the sphere of government forces, the perpetrators of one-sided violence included the army – mainly in rural areas - and the National Police as well as even the Treasury Police – mainly in urban areas. The government of Guatemala also maintained a number of special operations and paramilitary forces. These include a combined military and police patrol aimed at combating urban crime, the so-called SIPROCI (Sistema de Protección Civil, Civilian Protection System). In the early 1990s, SIPROCI was replaced by the Hunapú Task Force having a similar composition. In rural areas, community-based paramilitary groups, called PACs (Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil, Civil Defence Patrols), supported the Guatemalan army. PAC forces committed one-sided attacks together with the military or without direct army involvement.
The government of Guatemala has been involved in the intra-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
