Military Reform – 2001
2001
The Joint Group, composed of civil society and military leaders, proposed a draft Civic Service Act that would set the standards for a universal, human-rights-compliant, non-compulsive system of military and civil service in accordance with the peace agreements. The Follow-up Commission and Peace Secretary endorsed the draft and forwarded it to the President’s office to submit to Congress. The Strategic Affairs Secretariat (SAE) prepared a draft Free Access to Information Act, which was approved by the Follow-up Commission and also submitted to Congress. The SAE also began working on a draft Supervision of State Intelligence Agencies act. A group of legislators with the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) presented a new draft to the Arms and Munitions Act, which was only reviewed and shelved.1
Following positive dialogues over the Handbook of Military Doctrine of the Armed Forces of Guatemala, Government Accord 456-2001 established a process of soliciting input from civil society on national defense policy. The Civilian Affairs Directorate of the General Staff also began reforming its Civilian Affairs Doctrine handbook, which was originally designed for a counter-insurgency strategy that manipulated the civilian population for military ends, and was far from consistent with international human rights law norms.2
While the 2001 budget, like the 2000 budget, was set to allocate appropriate amounts for military spending, financial transfers from the Executive to the Ministry of Defense increased military spending to 0.96% of GDP, a level that far exceed the amount permitted by the agreements. At the same time, the Government allocated insufficient amounts to the Priority Program for Peace, in violation of the National Budget Law and the peace agreements.3
MINUGUA confirmed reports that military personnel carried out two extrajudicial executions and colluded with illegal armed groups, which carried out many lynchings and other egregious human rights violations.4