From the Project for the Recuperation of the Historic Archives of the National Police (PRAHPN). Photo: Xeni Jardin

The Guardian has just printed an article by Billy Briggs on the 'Secrets of the Dead'. It's good to see the Guardian reporting directly on Guatemala and not going through the wire services.

"Some of the finds so far have included confidential messages from the police to senior Guatemalan leaders. Hundreds of rolls of still photographs are being developed. Some show pictures of bodies and of detainees. [Gustavo] Meoño refuses to be drawn on the legal implications of the information, but he will say that investigators have given priority to the early 1980s when most of the killings took place. It seems a safe bet that this will be the focus of the first batch of documents released."

The article pulls together many of the different justice issues that we regular touch on on this blog. It's a coincidence that this article's published the same week Xeni Jardin has been exploring these same issues on NPR, talking to similar key people such as Gustavo Meoño and Fredy Peccerelli. Her report is part of an excellent series of reports called,"Guatemala: Unearthing the Future".

Xeni Jardin and Billy Briggs's reports pose the question of the implementation of justice in Guatemala. In the documentary "Guatemala - Duel with the Devil" by Steven Hunt and Fred Yackman, just released, the performance of the Guatemalan police today is put under the forensic microscope.

"The 1996 Peace Accords ended the bloody conflict, but there was no functional justice system to step in. Police powers are restricted because of their association with previous military regimes. Because of this, to make an immediate arrest the police must catch the murderer in the act. In this case, investigators have a suspect in mind – a family member. Even though he is still at the scene, they must convince a judge to order an arrest. Even a confession is not good enough. They'll need physical evidence. But the Guatemalan team lacks the forensic know-how."

The documentary makes for grim watching but seems to suggest that the situation can be improved, at least in part, by better training, increased resources for the police and perhaps even wider powers of arrest. In terms of where this film's coming from, the perspective of the documentary is undoubtedly influenced by its subtext: an exploration of how the Canadian police are supporting the Guatemalan police.

"The Canadian program is starting to make an impact. There is a dramatic increase in the amount of forensic evidence processed at the national forensic laboratory in Guatemala City. More and more crime scenes are producing forensic evidence because the investigators taught in Canada have trained 400 colleagues and established countrywide standards."

But whatever its biases, the report certain helps to explain why so few homicides in Guatemala end in the culprit getting a criminal conviction.

"One of the primary problems with their system is that most cases tend to depend entirely on oral testimonial evidence. And they are not very good at gathering and presenting corroborative physical evidence. And witness testimony can be unreliable and you certainly wouldn't want to have to base a case entirely on witness testimony if you could avoid it."

Background

Siglo XXI reported recently (06-01-07): "Según la PNC, en 2005 fueron asesinados 4,887 hombres, mientras que en 2006 la cifra fue de 5,530, o sea, 643 más. En cuanto a mujeres, hubo 586 muertes en 2005 y 569 en 2006, es decir, 17 crímenes menos."

The rate of conviction for feminicide is incredibly low- again in Siglo XXI: ""En el país, las cifras son alarmantes, pero el mayor problema es la indiferencia del Estado, pues de cada 100 mujeres asesinadas, únicamente en 5 se tiene información de los criminales, de los cuales sólo un caso llega a los tribunales", señala el procurador Sergio Morales."