Establishing A New Norm
In Guatemala
GUATEMALA - The US indictment of Guatemala’s former
president, Alfonso Portillo, for money
laundering demonstrates our ability to
influence accountability for crimes against
the public committed by Guatemala’s leaders.
However, if the United States is genuinely
concerned with ending political corruption,
and hopes to make any meaningful impact on
the proliferation of drug-trafficking, it
must address the roots of impunity in
Guatemala.
This means actively supporting existing
judicial proceedings to hold accountable the
intellectual authors of atrocities committed
during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict -
notably former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. A
UN commission found the state of Guatemala
guilty of committing “acts of genocide’’
during the height of the violence. Without
accountability for crimes of the past, the
deeply entrenched culture of impunity will
continue, unchanged; the drug war will
stretch on for years; and political
corruption will remain the norm.
President Clinton’s 1999 apology for US
involvement in Guatemala’s war is only as
substantive as the action that follows: in
this case, political pressure or rhetoric
from the United States has the potential to
dramatically influence justice in Guatemala. |
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