The Historical Police Archive of Guatemala: Understanding its Challenges, Achievements, Value and Dealing with the Past Contribution

The news of the discovery of an almost abandoned archive of the former Guatemalan Archive by the Ombudsman’s Office, made headlines in the international news in 2005. 14 years later, despite of the incredible achievements made, the existence of the archive which provides testimony of 100 years of police history – which is also the history of the internal armed conflict, genocide and a peace process – continues to be threatened. Based on interviews with more than a dozen current and former staff of the archive, as well as archivists and representatives from the international community who have supported the effort to protect, safeguard and understand the archive, the authors are in the process of publishing a book chapter which summarizes the political history of the archive between 2005 and 2017. Taking the coincidental discovery of the archive as a starting point, the authors explain what actors were involved and what was done to ensure that the archive be protected in the short, medium and long term. They explain how the financial, the technical and the political support all contributed to the protection of the archive. At the same time, the solid international support to the archive also contributed to the development of a significant group of highly competent archivists, who today use their knowledge in many other institutions and organizations in the country. Subsequently, the difficult struggle to strengthen the institutional independence and existence is described. The authors then present the strategies, which the staff of the archive developed in order to safeguard and provide access to the documents in the archive. In this context, it is among other aspects discussed what lead to the decision to publish all digitalized material on a public website of a US University, despite of the concerns for the privacy rights of those mentioned in the documents. Finally, the authors assess how the use of the archive contributed and continues to contribute to the implementation of the four pillars of a holistic approach to dealing with the past. As Guatemala’s President is about to shut down the praised as innovative UN-governmental hybrid accountability and anti-corruption mechanism -the International Commission against Impunity-, and the parliament is about to pass an amnesty law for war criminals, the publication of this book chapter does not come a day early. (Authors: Corsin Blumenthal/Lisa Ott/Luisa Franco)