In the framework of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, President Bernardo Arévalo ordered the Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights (Copadeh) to create a search mechanism for victims of enforced disappearance.
The executive director of Copadeh, Oswaldo Samayoa, reported that there has already been progress in the creation of the mechanism, but that it will have to be broad because people continue to disappear in the country.
“We know that in Europe, Canada and the United States there are organizations of people who say they are Guatemalan or have some memory, and therefore, what we are doing is enabling from now on, as part of that mechanism, a form where they can enter to give us information, which is being handled confidentially by the Commission and start a system where we can locate them and their families,” explained Samayoa.
He added that people continue to disappear in Guatemala due to migration issues and internal displacement caused by violence from organized crime.
“The forced displacement of people leads to disappearances, so this mechanism has to be a very broad mechanism. We are not only seeing the internal armed conflict, but also the current situation, but essentially the State has a debt to search for boys and girls who were separated from their families during the armed conflict,” said Samayoa.
Regarding the identification of cases, Samayoa said that “there are a number of things that are being worked on, for example, DNA samples, fingerprint identification, searching for files and records where there may be information.”
“Each case is unique, each case has its own history and so, based on that history, we start looking for where we have to go to make those records or how we also have to approach certain families to see if there are matches and with that we can generate the identification,” he added.
He also said that the mechanism requested by Arévalo is part of a national plan for dignity, which means that it will be composed of different phases.
“People who are in other countries can find the first phase by visiting the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights and there they will find the form where they can provide the information,” he added.
He also said that they already have personnel to follow up on this information to “try to arrange reunions.”
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