Programs: Science and Policy

http://shr.aaas.org//guatemala/gdsd/index.html

AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

Guatemala Death Squad Dossier

The Guatemalan armed forces kept detailed records of its death squad operations, according to a document recently recovered from Guatemala's military archives: the Guatemalan Death Squad Dossier.

Replete with photographs of the 183 victims and coded references to their executions, the 54-page document puts names and faces to the Guatemalan military's campaign of abduction, torture and assassination waged against suspected subversives during the country's 35-year civil war. By the war's end in 1996, some 200,000 people had been killed or "disappeared." This chilling dossier of political murder -- the only known record of its kind -- provides concrete evidence in support of the Historical Clarification Commission's conclusion that 93 percent of the atrocities occurred at the hands of Guatemalan security forces.

The links below give some context to the document and provide background information that will allow you to understand it better. To view the actual document itself, go to the National Security Archive.

Relevant Sites

Report of the Commission on Historical Clarification (CEH)

CIIDH Online Reports and Data

State Violence in Guatemala A Quantitative Reflection: The Entire Book
Chapter 8: Urban versus Rural Violence: Urban Versus Rural Violence - this chapter speaks to the different patterns in time of violence in urban and rural areas. The disappearances and killings documented in the Guatemala Death Squad Dossier occurred in the selective urban wave of repression in 1983-1985, which followed the indiscriminate rural killings in 1981-1983.
Chapter 11: Selective versus Mass Killing: Selective Versus Mass Killing - this chapter describes how violence occurred largely in massive groups during 1981-1983, but in 1984-1985, perpetrators again committed killings and disappearances against small groups of victims.

Related Sites with Material on the Guatemalan Death Squad Dossier

Statement of AAAS Staff Member (20 May 1999)