Countries
Guatemala

The Republic of Guatemala is located in Central America. The President Álvaro Colom Caballeros was elected in 2007.

The political situation has stabilized in recent years, but the country has passed through coups d’état and civil war.
The continued violence and intimidation threatens to repeal the little progress that has been made in bringing peace to the country.

Many threats and attacks are directed towards human rights activists

After more than a decade since the end of armed conflicts, impunity for human rights violations is regular. The government’s commitment to grant the judiciary access to military documents has been stalled. As a result it has been difficult to bring perpetrators of human rights violations between 1960 and 1996 to justice.

The police system is fragile and corrupt, and is not able to contain the strong criminal groups that make Guatemala one of the countries with the highest violence rate of the Americas.

Guatemala is only third country from the last spot of all South America in the United Nations Development Index, and one of the countries with the most inequality in distribution of richness.