Dokument #1342465
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
The Presidential Guard is described by one
publication as a brigade belonging to the army (Military Technology
1990, 54). Its members, according to the attached picture from
Guatemala: A Country Study, appear to wear a unique uniform
when guarding the presidential palace (Nyrop 1983, 187). The same
source describes the Presidential Guard as a battalion, indicating
that battalions in Guatemala are smaller in size and firepower than
their United States counterparts (Ibid., 194).
One source reports the creation of the
"Civilian Protection System" or SIPROCI in 1988, designed to
"combat delinquency on a national level" and combining under the
command of the president all of the nation's armed forces,
including the "Presidential Security" (Americas Watch 1988, 16-17).
It is not clear, however, whether the Presidential Security
mentioned in this report is the Presidential Guard mentioned
above.
Another source includes an interview with a
former member of the Guatemalan military, who states that he "was
in the Guardia de Honor (Honour Guard) barracks in zone ten, in
Guatemala City" (Simon 1987, 88). It is not clear from the
interview or other publications whether the Honour Guard is the
same or is related to the Presidential Guard. The same source,
however, contains a specific reference to the Presidential Guard:
an army captain of the G-2 military intelligence unit who was held
responsible for at least one murder was reportedly "appointed to
Cerezo's presidential guard" (Ibid., 237). The captain and
the murder case in which he was implicated are mentioned in the
article attached to Response to Information Request GTM10774 of 4
June 1992.
One report states that a head of the
Treasury Police implicated in death squad activities, Colonel Oscar
Diaz, was removed from the position and "returned to his previous
post as personal security guard to President Cerezo" (Amnesty
International 1989, 47). It is not clear from the report whether
the police colonel served as Cerezo's guard as a member of the
army's Presidential Guard.
Additional and/or corroborating information
could not be found among the sources currently available to the
DIRB.
References
Americas Watch. 1988. Closing the
Space: Human Rights in Guatemala May 1987-October 1988. New
York: Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International. Guatemala:
Human Rights Violations Under the Civilian Government. New
York: Amnesty International U.S.A.
Military Technology. World Defence
Almanac 1989-90. Bonn: Mönch Publishing Group. Nyrop,
Richard F., ed. 1983. Area Handbook Series: Guatemala: A Country
Study. Washington: American University, Foreign Area
Studies.
Simon, Jean-Marie. 1987. Guatemala:
Eternal Spring - Eternal Tyranny. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company.
Attachments
Americas Watch. 1988. Closing the
Space: Human Rights in Guatemala May 1987-October 1988. New
York: Human Rights Watch, pp. 16-17.
Amnesty International. Guatemala:
Human Rights Violations Under the Civilian Government. New
York: Amnesty International U.S.A., pp. 46-47.
Nyrop, Richard F., ed. 1983. Area
Handbook Series: Guatemala: A Country Study. Washington:
American University, Foreign Area Studies, p. 187.
Simon, Jean-Marie. 1987. Guatemala:
Eternal Spring - Eternal Tyranny. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, pp. 88, 237.