United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala

“ The development council system, involving as it does the participation of representatives of the central Government, local authorities and organized civil society, is, from the standpoint of the Peace Agreements, an essential instrument for ensuring truly participatory development. ”

“ Activities associated with the commitments in the area of agriculture and rural development in general are showing progress consistent with the goals laid down in the timetable. At the legal and institutional levels, the basic conditions are being created and budgetary allocations are within the ranges envisaged. The implementation of the Government agricultural sector investment programme has begun through the social funds and progress has been made in the reform of that sector. ”

“ The very low professional, educational and organizational level of the former National Police, its loss of public prestige and the high incidence of corruption in its ranks make it clear that the public security forces must be overhauled and corrupt and unprofessional elements removed. ”

“ All State institutions and sectors of society should contribute to it. It is in the armed forces’ own interest to help shed light on the years of the “dirty war” and show just how it operated. In its final years, the negotiating process was a process of building confidence not only between armed forces combatants and URNG combatants but also, gradually, between the Guatemalan armed forces and society. The work of the Clarification Commission affords an opportunity to consolidate this new relationship between civil society and the armed forces. ”

“ Within society, indigenous organizations, cooperative organizations, women’s organizations and much of academia, among others, have shown that they are strongly committed to the changes embodied in the Agreements. Consolidating the peace process in 1998 will mean building on the changes already made and intensifying action by the public administration in support of the peace agenda. It will also mean drawing more fully on the State and social actors involved in the peace process. The international community has pledged its backing to this joint effort. ”

“ At the same, the role of the armed forces in national life, which was predominant during the decades of the armed conflict, has decreased. The one exception to this trend is in the area of public security, where the police’s limitations in dealing with the high levels of crime has prompted some sectors of the population to call for the maintenance of a military presence. ”

“ Despite the progress made in the past year, popular support for the peace process is still being undermined by the lack of public safety and by the persistence of serious economic and social difficulties. ”

“ State bodies, including Congress, the judiciary and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and sectors of organized civil society, such as business, labour and cooperative organizations, professional associations, indigenous, women’s and human rights organizations, other non-governmental organizations and the mass media. The response of State bodies and civil society to the Agreements and its interaction with Government measures have had a decisive influence on the implementation process. ”

“ Turning to the implementation of the Peace Agreements, awareness of the multicultural dimension of Guatemalan society has increased markedly both within and outside the Government, and the participation of the indigenous population in national life has grown. ”

“ In particular, there has been an increase in pluralism and political freedom, accompanied by a growing culture of debate and discussion which extends to many spheres of public life. The broad-based commissions established under the Peace Agreements, the multisectoral boards of many new institutions and other opportunities for dialogue such as the multi-party forum, the open forums and the tripartite discussions on the settlement of land disputes are playing an important role in these developments. ”

“ Peasant and indigenous organizations, landowners’ associations, Government institutions and private enterprise, among others, will have to be viewed as partners in the transformation of the agricultural sector. Otherwise, it will be difficult to build a social consensus that will allow for concurrent progress in the various components of development. ”

“ It is critical for the implementation of public spending commitments that all necessary efforts be made to raise the level of budget execution, particularly in the social sectors where the amount of the budget actually spent, which served as the basis for the commitments made in the Agreements, is traditionally lower than the amount approved. ”

“ It is important to invest the necessary resources, both for the technical units in charge of development projects and for the training of the system’s users, particularly mayors and groups of civil society.
30. There were delays in establishing and implementing the national municipal training programme, which is essential for the implementation of decentralization policies and for social participation, because of coordination problems between the Institute for Municipal Development and the National Association of Municipalities and because of a lack of domestic funding. ”

“ The extent to which the Agreements are being embraced and utilized by indigenous organizations is also noteworthy, one example being the submission to Congress, backed by 5,000 signatures, of a proposal for amending the articles of the Constitution that deal specifically with indigenous peoples, an initiative in which the Congressional Committee on Legislative Issues and Constitutional Reforms, the Congressional Committee on Indigenous Communities and the multi-party legislative forum participated actively through consultations and forums. ”

“ Moreover, the Advisory Commission on Educational Reform was formally established and, now that differences as to the proportional representation of the indigenous sector have been overcome, includes five members of the indigenous delegation of the Joint Commission on Educational Reform.
48. Although there are some examples of out-of-school training in communities and enterprises in rural areas, the number of these programmes is very limited, as is the population benefiting from them. This effort should be stepped up during the third phase of the timetable. ”

“ With regard to internally displaced persons who are scattered rather than organized into communities, talks have resumed on a framework agreement between displaced persons’ representatives and the Land Trust Fund, which will purchase land for their resettlement. ”

“ In addition to efforts to implement the commitments relating to the administration of justice, there is a growing determination on the part of institutions and political parties to move towards institutional change and to improve coordination among bodies in this sector. ”

“ The higher rate of economic growth was insufficient to generate any significant expansion of employment. Two additional factors which helped to reinforce the population’s negative perceptions of the economic situation were the adoption of measures that will affect consumption in 1998, such as fuel price increases, and the fact that there was no widespread improvement in basic public services, despite the increase in public spending. ”

“ It links the issues of participation, social development, agrarian reform, rural development and fiscal reform to the consolidation of peace and represents an innovative input into the whole issue of conflict resolution. Its implementation faces two major challenges: securing the cooperation of the different social and economic sectors, and making tangible, rapid improvements that will generate popular support and, consequently, political sustainability for the peace process as a whole. ”

“ At the same time, it is important that effective mechanisms be set in motion for settling labour disputes in rural areas and that intercommunity disputes concerning the delimitation of community or municipal land not be neglected, despite their complexity. ”

“ The second Phase of the timetable emphasizes the commitments relating to modernization and decentralization of the State, public administration reform and fiscal policy. Progress in these areas is essential to the implementation of most of the commitments made, especially the commitments to increase social spending, improve and expand economic and social infrastructure and strengthen public participation in the definition of public policy. ”

“ However, the immediate demands of the fight against crime, the concern not to create vacuums of authority, and other risks which the disbanding of the National Police would entail have prompted the Government to opt for a strategy which combines very rapid retraining of members of the existing force with the training of new police. ”

“ It is important that the implementation of these amendments should not weaken the traditional authorities responsible for applying indigenous norms, where such authorities exist. In this context, it is essential that communities be consulted in the process of selecting community justices of the peace and that the powers of community authorities to indicate what community norms apply be recognized, in accordance with the Agreement. ”

“ These medicines are purchased by health areas through the system of transfers. In addition, in places in which the private sector has no access or interest, a network of community or municipal pharmacies or pharmacies run by nongovernmental organizations will be set up to make medicines available to the population at fair prices.
47. In 1997, the budget approved for the education sector and the support provided, in accordance with the Constitution, to Guatemala’s University of San Carlos and the National Literacy Commission met the financial targets of the Agreements. ”

“ These developments in the economic sphere in 1997 confirm the urgent need to implement a strategy aimed specifically at improving the distribution of the benefits of growth while preserving macroeconomic stability, as a prerequisite for ensuring the sustainability of the peace process. ”

“ The draft does not include the commitment to carry out reforms for the recognition of associations formed by agricultural workers hired through contractors. It is suggested that this component of the commitment regarding worker organization be discussed and rescheduled. In addition, although the procedures for the authorization of trade unions have been streamlined, the situation with regard to worker organization remains precarious, as the signs of anti-union practices at the time of the first collective actions indicate. ”

“ With regard to the commitments on personal documentation for the uprooted population, a new Act on the Personal Documentation of the Population Uprooted by the Internal Armed Conflict entered into force on 16 October 1997. Positive aspects of this Act include facilities for the replacement of local identity cards, reversal of the burden of proof, the use of ordinary books for registration records, and simplification of the procedures which applicants must follow. ”

“ However, serious shortcomings were observed in the procedures both for selecting National Police members for retraining courses and for selecting candidates for the first basic course at the Academy. In the latter instance, there were cases of corruption involving the purchase of places on the course and other irregularities which enabled candidates to be admitted who did not meet the necessary requirements. ”

“ In this connection, the fact that the governing bodies of the new institutions responsible for implementing the rural development strategy include representatives of business and peasant organizations, as stipulated in the Agreement, represents major progress towards resolving agrarian conflicts. ”

“ As for public spending, available figures indicate that there was an increase in actual outlays relative to 1996. Nevertheless, the problem of underspending on investment persisted: according to official figures, 65 per cent of the total budgeted for investment was actually spent. ”