AMERICAS COUNTRY OF ORIGIN SERIES GUATEMALA BACKGROUND PAPER October 2013 Paula Worby Visiting Scholar, Center for Latin American Studies University of California, Berkeley Regional Bureau for the Americas United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees P.O. Box 2500, 1211 Geneva 2 Switzerland E-mail:
[email protected] Web Site: www.unhcr.org RBA/COI/GUA/13/01 The present paper has been prepared by Paula Worby, Visiting Scholar at the Center for Latin American Studies of the University of California, Berkeley. Ms. Worby holds a doctorate in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, has conducted research in Guatemala beginning in 1985, and is the author of various related articles and monographs. She worked for UNHCR Guatemala from 1992 to 1998 and currently is Associate Director of a non-profit organization providing social services to immigrant families in California. The author would like to thank Luis Solano for extensive background research for this project and the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at University of California, Berkeley, especially for access to research resources and for administrative support. The document was prepared on the basis of publicly available information and analysis. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the United Nations or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This paper may be freely quoted, cited and copied for academic, educational or other non-commercial purposes without prior permission from UNHCR, provided that the source and author are acknowledged. This paper is not, and does not purport to be fully exhaustive with regard to conditions in the country surveyed, or conclusive as to the merits of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.