Guatemala - With the aim of combating organized crime in a holistic manner, President Alvaro Colom created the Presidential Commission Against Impunity to be led by Carlos Menocal. This commission will include the Inspectors General of the Army, representatives of the National Civil Police, delegates from the internal revenue service and IVE. Other institutions that are not part of the executive branch will also be a part of the commission.
The announcement was made on the 3rth of March by the President.
The President stated: "The intention is to create a 'mirror' to the CICIG, The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, to help in the workload that is considerable, but above all be a support for it by giving CICIG all the necessary inputs. This committee should work cases of organized crime, corruption, money laundering, all in an integrated manner. "
Furthermore, that day the President of Guatemala announced the formation of the Presidential Commission for the declassification of military archives. This commission's specific task is to open within a period of 10 months, the files of military operations from 1954 to 1996.
"The opening of the military archives has made ex- military very nervous, even the family of the Minister of Defense has received death threats. But the decision has been made ... the opening of the archives will allow us to find the truth and only that way we will find peace, "concluded the President Colom.
"We are no longer at war. We have no reason to hide anything," Colom told reporters. A previous defense minister was replaced after he refused to follow the president's order to open the archives, stating publicly Colom was overstepping his mandate.
Guatemala's defense minister Gen. Abraham Valenzuela Gonzalez announced the creation of a commission within the Military to investigate the whereabouts of two military files missing from documents the armed forces were ordered to hand over to a court probing. The commission will be made up by officials from the army.
Carlos Menocal, head of the Presidential Commission Against Impunity, CPCI, stated recently that the Government expects to find many obstacles and active opposition from organized crime, clandestine paramilitary groups and even the private sector, to fulfillment of its objectives in the short and long term. These groups are involved in the state.
The Presidential Commission Against Impunity (CPCI), which will be installed this week. "For the first time, Guatemala is going to have a structure and a body that examines the causes of impunity," said Carlos Menocal, coordinator of the CPCI. Menocal is a presidential advisor and journalist.
The first objective of the CPCI is "to identify the origins of impunity" and to develop strategies to combat this scourge. It aims to cooperate with information necessary for conducting investigations by the National Security Council and the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).
According to Menocal, by interfering with the interests of the groups that foment impunity or benefit from it, the government expects the reactions and responses that might not be peaceful. The work of the new entity will have within its jurisdiction the investigation of the systematic impunity within the State, including the private sector.
Sources: Press Office of the President of Guatemala, La Hora
Picture: Press Office of the President of Guatemala
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