Foreword to the English Edition
It is with great pleasure that we have arranged the translation and publication in English of the first report of the International Center for Human Rights Research (hereinafter the CIIDH by their Spanish acronym). This book is the first of a series bringing to fruition many years of work by the CIIDH. The report also presents many person-months of support from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Human Rights Program. The report provides a detailed analysis, both qualitative and quantitative, of different patterns of state-sponsored violence in the municipalities of Nebaj, Rabinal, and Santo Domingo Suchitepéquez.
The AAAS Science and Human Rights Program has supported this project for more than three years. We have made possible the collaboration of North American consultants and AAAS staff who brought diverse disciplinary perspectives and years of experience in human rights projects in different countries to share with the interviewers, data processors, and programmer-analysts at the CIIDH. Throughout, we have been deeply impressed by the CIIDH’s dedication to technical and methodological excellence, even as they worked under tight resource constraints and in extraordinarily difficult political conditions.
This is a critical time for Guatemala, and this is an important report for this time. During the next year the history of human rights violations in Guatemala will be fiercely debated, both in Guatemala and here in the United States, as the peace accords unfold and the Clarification Commission begins its work. We believe that reports such as this one should play a fundamental role in the debate.
The report begins with a very strong methodological basis. It compiles the experiences of thousands of victims, witnesses, and human rights survivors, and it tells their stories in narratives and in statistical graphs. These are the stories which must be heard and statistics which must be studied to understand recent Guatemalan political history. By the combining these different kinds of data we can begin to establish the truth about grave violations of human rights that happened in Guatemala during the previous three decades.
We would like to thank the General Services Foundation, the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and other donors that have generously made our work possible.
Between early July when this volume was published, and October and November when it was translated and edited in English, the CIIDH made a small number of additions. Thus this version differs slightly from the Spanish original. The only substantive change is the addition of Table 1.0 and the accompanying text.
We anticipate that this book will be followed by additional publications, and we look forward to continuing our assistance to the CIIDH as they work to bring scientific analysis to the study of political tragedy.
AAAS Science and Human
Rights Program
November, 1996