Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
being of the general populace. It committed the government to increasing the tax
base as a percentage of GDP from 8 percent (the lowest in the hemisphere) to 12
percent within the next four years. A glaring omission was the ubiquitous issue
of land reform. The government's conservative economic policies and the need
to get Guatemala's wealthy elites to support the peace process were undoubtedly
behind the relative weakness of this accord's reach.
In contrast, a relatively far-reaching accord, if fully implemented, is the Ac-
cord on Strengthening of Civilian Power and the Role of the Army in a Demo-
cratic Society, signed in September 1996. It covers the demilitarization of
Guatemalan society, in which the military has long had its tentacles, requiring
far-reaching constitutional reforms to be fully implemented. The accord limits
the role of the military to the defense of Guatemala's territorial integrity. It elim-
inatedthemuch-hatedCivilDefensePatrolsandcounterinsurgencysecurityunits
while reducing the size and budget of the military by a third. It also created a
newcivilian policeforcetoreplacethenotoriouslycorruptPoliciaNacionalwith
a mandate to guarantee citizen safety. Last, it mandates necessary reforms of the
judicialsystemtoeliminate pervasiveimpunity.Theimportanceofthislastpoint
cannot be understated, as the state of the judiciary serves as a type of barometer
in the progress report for Guatemala's democratization. As the CEH described in
its final report:
The justice system, non-existent in large areas of the country before the
armed confrontation, was further weakened when the judicial branch sub-
mitted to the requirements of the dominant national security model…by tol-
erating or participating directly in impunity, which concealed the most fun-
damental violations of human rights, the judiciary became functionally in-
operative with respect to its role of protecting the individual from the State,
and lost all credibility as guarantor of an effective legal system. This al-
lowed impunity to become one of the most important mechanisms for gener-
ating and maintaining a climate of terror.
The 1995 Accord on Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples issues a
groundbreaking call to amend the 1985 Constitution to redefine Guatemala as
“multiethnic, multilingual and pluricultural.” Its full implementation requires
deep reforms in the country's educational, judicial, and political systems, laying
the foundation for a new entitlement of Guatemala's indigenous majority to
make claims upon the state and creating a new context for social interactions. It
thus goes beyond mere antidiscrimination protections for Guatemala's indigen-
ous majority.
The far-reaching accords offer hope for the construction of a brand-new
Guatemala among more equitable lines. The implementation of the reforms
