Kirsten Weld, Paper Cadavers
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ABBREVIATIONS — i KIRSTEN WELD PAPER CADAVERS THE ARCHIVES OF DICTATORSHIP IN GUATEMALA duke university press durham and london 2014 © 2014 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞ Designed by Heather Hensley Typeset in Whitman by Copperline Book Services, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Weld, Kirsten, 1982– Paper cadavers : the archives of dictatorship in Guatemala / Kirsten Weld. pages cm — (American encounters/global interactions) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5597- 7 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5602- 8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Guatemala—Politics and government—1945–1985—Sources. 2. Guatemala. Policía Nacional. Archivo Histórico. 3. Guatemala—Relations—United States—Sources. 4. United States—Relations—Guatemala—Sources. 5. Archives—Political aspects. I. Title. II. Series: American encounters/global interactions. f1466.5.w45 2014 972.8105'2—dc23 2013026391 Photographs on cover and p. i by Daniel Hernández- Salazar and used by permission of the photographer. For the workers, past and present, of the Proyecto para la Recuperación del Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional CONTENTS List of Abbreviations ix Acknowledgments xiii introduction The Power of Archival Thinking 1 PART I: EXPLOSIONS AT THE ARCHIVES 27 chapter 1: Excavating Babylon 29 chapter 2: Archival Culture, State Secrets, and the Archive Wars 50 chapter 3: How the Guerrillero Became an Archivist 69 PART II: ARCHIVES AND COUNTERINSURGENCY IN COLD WAR GUATEMALA chapter 4: Building Counterinsurgency Archives 91 chapter 5: Recycling the National Police in War, Peace, and Post- Peace 119 PART III: ARCHIVES AND SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION IN POSTWAR GUATEMALA chapter 6: Revolutionary Lives in the Archives 153 chapter 7: Archives and the Next Generation(s) 183 PART IV: PASTS PRESENT AND THE FUTURE IMPERFECT chapter 8: Changing the Law of What Can Be Said, and Done 213 chapter 9: Conclusion: The Possibilities and Limitations of Archival Thinking 236 Notes 257 Bibliography 301 Index 323 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS aeu Association of University Students, University of San Carlos (Asociación de Estudiantes Universitarios) afpc Accord on the Strengthening of Civil Power and the Role of the Armed Forces in a Democratic Society (Acuerdo de Fortaleci- miento del Poder Civil y Función del Ejército en una Sociedad Democrática) agca General Archives of Central America (Archivo General de Centroamérica) agsaemp Archives and Support Services of the Presidential General Staff (Archivos Generales y Servicios Apoyados del Estado Mayor Presidencial) ahpn Historical Archives of the National Police (Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional) aid Agency for International Development arena Nationalist Republican Alliance, El Salvador (Alianza Republicana Nacionalista) avemilgua Association of Military Veterans of Guatemala (Asociación de Veteranos Militares de Guatemala) bien Special Investigations and Narcotics Brigade (Brigada de Investiga- ciones Especiales y Narcóticos) broe Special Operations Reaction Brigade (Brigada de Reacción de Operaciones Especiales) cacif Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Financial Associations (Comité Coordinador de Asociaciones Agrícolas, Comerciales, Industriales, y Financieras) cadeg Anti- Communist Council of Guatemala (Consejo Anticomunista de Guatemala) cci International Advisory Board, Project for the Recovery of the Na- tional Police Historical Archives (Consejo Consultivo Internacional) ccn National Advisory Board, Project for the Recovery of the National Police Historical Archives (Consejo Consultivo Nacional) ceh Commission for Historical Clarification (Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico) cem Center for Military Studies (Centro de Estudios Militares) cicig International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comis- ión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala) cnt National Workers’ Central (Central Nacional de Trabajadores) cnus National Committee on Trade Union Unity (Comité Nacional de Unidad Sindical) cocp Joint Operations Center of the National Police (Centro de Opera- ciones Conjuntas) coe Special Operations Commando (Comando de Operaciones Especiales) crio Regional Telecommunications Center (Centro de Reunión de Información y Operaciones) cuc Campesino Unity Committee (Comité de Unidad Campesina) dgpn Director- General of the National Police dic Department of Criminal Investigations dinc Criminal Investigations Division (División de Investigación Criminal) dit Department of Technical Investigations dnsa Digital National Security Archive egp Guerrilla Army of the Poor (Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres) emdn National Defense General Staff (Estado Mayor de la Defensa Nacional) emge Army General Staff (Estado Mayor General del Ejército) emp Presidential Staff (Estado Mayor Presidencial) esa Secret Anti- Communist Army (Ejército Secreto Anticomunista) fafg Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala) famdegua Association of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Guatemala (Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos- Desaparecidos de Guatemala) far Rebel Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes) ferg Robin García Student Front (Frente Estudiantil Robin García) frg Guatemalan Republican Front (Frente Republicano Guatemalteco) fur United Revolutionary Front (Frente Unido de la Revolución) gam Mutual Support Group (Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo) gog Government of Guatemala x — ABBREVIATIONS hijos Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice and Against Forgetting and Silence (Hijos e Hijas por la Identidad y la Justicia y Contra el Olvido y el Silencio) hrdag Human Rights Data Analysis Group ica International Cooperation Administration icitap U.S. Criminal Investigations Training Assistance Program iiaa Institute of Inter- American Affairs inta National Institute for Agrarian Transformation (Instituto Nacional de Transformación Agraria) isaar International Standard Archival Authority Record isad(g) International Standard for Archival Description (General) jpt Patriotic Workers’ Youth (Juventud Patriótica de Trabajo) minugua United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala mln Movement of National Liberation monap National Movement of Pobladores (Movimiento Nacional de Pobladores) mp Public Ministry noa New Anti- Communist Organization (Nueva Organización Anticomunista) odhag Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala (Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado de Guatemala) ops Officeof Public Safety orpa Revolutionary Organization of People in Arms pac Civil Self- Defense Patrols (Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil) pdh Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (Procuraduría de los Derechos Humanos) pgt Guatemalan Workers’ Party (Partido Guatemalteco de Trabajo) pma Mobile Military Police (Policía Militar Ambulante) pn National Police pnc National Civil Police pr Revolutionary Party prahpn Project for the Recovery of the National Police Historical Archives (Proyecto para la Recuperación del Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional) psd Social Democratic Party psp Public Safety Program remhi Interdiocesan Project for the Recuperation of Historical Memory (Proyecto Interdiocesano de Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica) ABBREVIATIONS — xi rmu Master Location Registry (Registro Maestro de Ubicación) scuga Special Commando Unit (Unidad de Comando Especial del Ejército de Guatemala) sedem Security in Democracy sepaz Presidential Peace Secretariat (Secretaría de la Paz de la Presidencia de la República) sic Criminal Investigations Section (Sección de Investigaciones Criminales) siproci Civilian Protection System (Sistema de Protección Civil) stusc University of San Carlos Employees’ Union (Sindicato de Traba- jadores de la Universidad de San Carlos) uae Special Investigations Unit, Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (Unidad de Averiguaciones Especiales) urng Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca) usac University of San Carlos usaid United States Agency for International Development xii — ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION THE POWER OF ARCHIVAL THINKING n the dark of a restless night during the late 1970s, a young Guatemalan named Raúl Perera shot into wakefulness from a dream so unusual that he Iremembers it vividly thirty- fiveyears later. He cannot quite recall the date. He knows that it was after he joined the Guatemalan Workers’ Party (pgt), the outlawed communist party, and became a vocal leader of his Guatemala City trade union, but before the two attempts on his life that left a bullet scar along his forearm, a close friend dead, and no option for him but to begin a long exile in Mexico. Amid years of activism and war, that one night has haunted Raúl ever since because it brought him a vision so fantastical that it verged on the absurd. That night, his subconscious granted him entrance to a forbidden space: the archives kept by his country’s feared National Police.1 Once inside, Raúl crept along the archives’ labyrinthine corridors in the crepuscular light. He yanked open drawers and thumbed through file folders thick with surveillance photographs of loved ones and reports detailing in- formants’ infiltration of leftist groups. He mined the files, learning how the police organized its death squads, what sorts of information they collected on citizens, and what could be gleaned about the fates of disappeared comrades. In Raúl’s waking life—which he spent dodging, not courting, the attention of state security