Horrors of Guatemalan civil war uncovered in University’s collaboration with police archive
Horrors of Guatemalan civil war uncovered in University’s collaboration with police archive
By Ryan Dutch
Published May 9, 2012
The University will collaborate with the Guatemalan Historical Archive of the National Police and the General Archives of Central America in a series of projects in the hopes of shedding light on human rights violations committed by Guatemalan police officers during the Guatemalan civil war, which ended in 1996. The projects include the translation of a report and a documentary called “Keep Your Eyes on Guatemala.”
The archive, housed in a police compound in Guatemala City, was previously kept a secret from those pursuing records pertaining to atrocities committed during Guatemala’s 36-year-long civil war. The archive holds an estimated 80 million documents from the years of 1882 to 1997.
The project began when the University’s Wired Humanities Project Director and Senior Research Associate, Stephanie Wood, visited Guatemala, under the Network Startup Resource Center last year to lecture on digital archiving. After being solicited by a member of the Guatemalan Historical Archive of the National Police to help with the archive in Guatemala City, she enlisted the services of University faculty and researchers.
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“This archive is serving a number of purposes,” Aguirre said. “It helps victims and relatives identify information about those that were suffering from political repression during the war in Guatemala and the documents found in this archive are being used as evidence against the perpetrators of human rights violations, including some of the very top Guatemalan politicians and heads of state.”
More:
http://dailyemerald.com/2012/05/09/university-collaborates-with-guatemalan-archive-to-shed-light-on-civil-war-attrocities/