The Impending Return of Guatemala’s “Amnesty Law”

By Nichelle Christopherson

On June 7, 2021, Guatemala’s far-right Valor political party, led by Zury Rios, proposed Law 5920 for the Consolidation of Peace and Reconciliation—also known as the “Amnesty Law.”[1] The proposed law aims to prevent persons responsible for previously committing war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity from being formally charged and convicted for their crimes.[2] This law, however, is not the first of its kind. Indeed, in 2019, Bill 5377 received international criticism for its attempt to achieve the same objective.[3] Nevertheless, in February 2021, Bill 5377 was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, who issued an injunction that forced Congress to abandon the bill.[4] Guatemala’s Constitution expressly acknowledges in which instances amnesty may be granted; crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide, however, are not among those enumerated.[5] Passage of Law 5920 would thus directly usurp both the Constitutional Court’s ruling and the constitution itself. Nevertheless, its impact has far greater social and security implications for constituents of the country.

The significance of proposed Law 5920 is that it threatens to provide immunity to the perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity that took place from 1960 through 1996. During this period of time, Guatemala underwent a brutal civil war that resulted in the death of more than 200,000 people.[6] As a part of the government’s counterinsurgency strategy of suppressing the opposing guerilla forces, both state and military actors committed countless human rights violations against indigenous persons and innocent civilians.[7] A United Nations report titled, Guatemala: Memory of Silence, concluded that approximately 93 percent of human rights violations were perpetrated by state and military groups.[8] Although the severity and type of human rights abuses varied, about a quarter of the recorded abuses were directed at women.[9]

In 1996, Guatemala signed the peace accords that formally ended the civil war.[10] However, this act only effectuated the end of the war on paper. In reality, the war continued to rage on long after the peace accords were signed, largely as a result of the government’s failure to acknowledge the war’s root causes and dismantle the government and military actors responsible for carrying out the mass human rights violations.[11] For example, the peace accords called for the creation of a new police force known as the Policía Nacional Civil (“PNC”), which was to be free of military influence and human rights violators.[12] However, laws passed by Congress did not bar former military personnel and members of security forces from joining the PNC.[13] As a result, over half of the new police officers were drawn from the former police force, those who actively promulgated corruption and committed mass human rights violations during the country’s civil war.[14]

Law 5920 fits into this puzzle as an extension of the government’s effort to avoid confronting its dark history, the result of which will have direct and substantial implications for the victims, families, and communities previously targeted by the perpetrators. The proposed law orders the immediate release of all detained persons serving sentences for crimes committed during the civil war.[15] According to data pulled from the Public Ministry (“MP”), should the law come into effect, persons released will include 67 individuals in prison and an additional 33 more who have pending arrest warrants.[16] Conveniently, Law 5920 was proposed just days after 12 former military personnel were arrested on charges related to war crimes and crimes against humanity listed in the case known as the Death Squad Dossier, which chronicled the “kidnapping and disappearance of 183 people by government agents” from the years 1983 through 1985.[17]

Passage of Law 5920 will also have the effect of promulgating a dangerous precedent that the Guatemalan government is willing to allow future perpetrators of grave human rights violations to walk away unfettered. However, high levels of impunity are not unusual within the country’s current climate. Pursuant to a 2019 CICIG report, for over a decade Guatemala averaged a 94 percent impunity rate,[18] and as recent as 2018, impunity rates have risen to 97.61 percent.[19] Despite these discouraging figures, by striking down Law 5920, the Guatemalan government has an opportunity to show the world and their citizens that they intend to begin taking steps toward healing and accountability.

[1] Kevodell, Amnesty for War Crimes is Back on the Table, Guatemala Solidarity Network (July 7, 2021), Amnesty for War Crimes is Back on the Table – Guatemala Solidarity Network.

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Jeff Abbott, The Other Americans: Guatemala’s Far Right Seeks Amnesty for War Crimes, Progressive Mag. (June 30, 2021), https://progressive.org/latest/guatemala-amnesty-war-crimes-abbott-210630/.

[5] Douglas Cuevas, Así Busca el Partido Valor Exculpar a Militares por Crímenes de Guerra, Política (June 17, 2021), https://www.prensalibre.com/guatemala/politica/asi-busca-el-partido-valor-exculpar-a-militares-por-crimenes-de-guerra/.

[6] Timeline: Guatemala’s Brutal Civil War, PBS (Mar. 7, 2011), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/latin_america-jan-june11-timeline_03-07.

[7] Guatemala: Memory of Silence, Comm’n for Historical Clarification 22 (Feb. 25, 1999), https://hrdag.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/CEHreport-english.pdf.

[8] Id. at 20.

[9] Id. at 23.

[10] Guatemala: Squeezed Between Crime and Impunity, Int’l Crisis Group 3 (June 22, 2010), https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/central-america/guatemala/guatemala-squeezed-between-crime-and-impunity.

[11] Id. at 5-6.

[12] USCIS, Human Rights in Guatemala: Since the Signing of the Peace Accords, Refworld (April 1, 2000).

[13] Id.

[14] Id.

[15] https://www.prensalibre.com/guatemala/politica/asi-busca-el-partido-valor-exculpar-a-militares-por-crimenes-de-guerra/

[16] Cuevas, supra note 5.

[17] Kate Doyle, Guatemala: Arrests Create First Possibility of Justice for Death Squad Dossier Victims, Nat’l Sec. Archive (June 4, 2021), https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/guatemala/2021-06-04/diario-militar.

[18] Diálogos Por El Fortalecimiento De La Justicia Y El Combate a La Impunidad en Guatemala, Int’l Comm’n Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) 5-6 (June 2019), https://www.cicig.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Informe_Dialogos_SIJ.pdf.

[19] Sistema Integrado De Justicia, Int’l Comm’n against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) (2018), https://www.cicig.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Presentacion_GIZ_SIJ_2019.pdf.