Country Snapshot

Population: (2002 est.): 11.5 million. Size, comparable to U.S.: slightly smaller than Tennessee Per Capita GDP, not adjusted for PPP (year): (2002 est.): $2,068 Income, wealthiest 10% / poorest 10%: 1.6/60.6 (1998) Population earning less than $2 a day: 37.4% Ranking, Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index: 100 out of 133 Defense Expenditure as a percentage of GDP: 1% (2001) Size of armed forces: 31,000 (2001) U.S. military personnel present: 16 (2003)

Most U.S. security assistance to Guatemala benefits the country’s Civilian National Police (PNC).The Guatemalan military’s troubled human rights record and questionable democratic credentials have kept it from receiving aid through many U.S. programs since 1990, when Guatemalan soldiers murdered a U.S. citizen.

Restrictions on aid to Guatemala

Guatemala is the only country in the hemisphere (excluding Cuba) prohibited from receiving assistance through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program. The annual Foreign Operations Appropriations legislation has specifically singled out Guatemala among the few banned countries during each of the past several years, and this provision remains in place for 2000. Once obligated for a country, however, FMF remains “in the pipeline” until spent, and some $2.5 million in FMF remains on hold for Guatemala. Non-binding report language accompanying the House of Representatives’ version of the 2000 Foreign Operations bill recommended that this $2.5 million be used for programs to implement the 1996 peace accords and to build democracy.

Foreign Operations legislation since 1996 has banned funding for “regular” International Military Education and Training (IMET) funds, which would fund the attendance of Guatemalan military personnel in U.S. technical and combat training courses. Guatemala is restricted to the “Expanded IMET” category, which funds courses in defense resource management, civil-military relations, law enforcement cooperation and military justice. This legislative provision has been renewed despite the State and Defense Departments' arguments for reinstatement of regular IMET for Guatemala. In a response to written questions from a 1998 House committee hearing, the Defense Department contended that "Guatemala would reap greater benefits if it had access to the full range of courses offered by the IMET program."¹

Because of the regular IMET ban during the past few years, Guatemalan students at U.S. military Spanish-language training facilities, such as the U.S. Army School of the Americas and the Air Force’s Inter-American Air Forces Academy, have attended only “E-IMET” courses like “Democratic Sustainment” and “Rule of Law and Discipline in Military Operations.”

Police assistance and counternarcotics

Guatemala’s Civilian National Police (PNC), particularly its Department of Anti-Narcotics Operations (DOAN), receive the vast majority of U.S. equipment, training, and advice. The State Department’s International Narcotics Control (INC) program organizes, trains and equips the DOAN to carry out interdiction and eradication activities.² According to the program’s 2000 Congressional Presentation, “Funds will support the development of the DOAN staff through increases in professional training, including leadership and anti-narcotics intelligence analyst training.”³

The INC program had supported an aerial cocaine interdiction, reconnaissance and opium and marijuana eradication program in Guatemala during the early 1990s. In 1997, helicopters stationed in Guatemala under the INC program's Interregional Aviation Support program were removed. While the helicopters remain deployed outside Guatemala, the INC program planned to fill a perceived gap by improving the DOAN’s aerial and maritime interdiction ability. These plans include a large increase in funding for the DOAN in 1999, to $2.6 million from $1.1 million in 1998.⁴ A September 1998 “emergency drawdown” for counternarcotics added $600,000 in field gear, weapons and ammunition for Guatemala’s police.⁵

The Justice Department’s International Criminal Investigations Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) funds further training of police personnel. The program plans to spend $2 million in 2000 on PNC organizational development, investigations and intelligence-gathering training, and computer upgrades.⁶

The United States and Guatemala began discussions in early 1999 on a maritime counter-drug agreement that would allow U.S. personnel on anti-drug law enforcement missions some access to Guatemalan territorial waters. According to the State Department’s February 1999 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), the proposed agreement “met with resistance from the Guatemalan government and the opposition political parties on traditional sovereignty grounds,” and no progress is expected until after the December 1999 elections.⁷

Other training and exercises

The Special Forces’ Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) program, which has faced criticism for training elsewhere with abusive militaries, appears to have been relatively inactive in Guatemala. The Seventh Special Forces Group carried out a medical humanitarian assistance JCET with Guatemalan Army personnel in 1997, and a Special Forces team taught de-mining techniques in 1998. While U.S. Special Forces teams may have deployed to Guatemala up to four times in 1997 and four times in 1998 on counternarcotics training missions, conflicting source documents leave no clear indication of the exact number of these visits or the units that received training.⁸

Guatemalan military personnel participated in two multilateral seminars sponsored by the U.S. Southern Command in 1999 (Fuerzas Aliadas Humanitarian and Fuerzas Aliadas Peacekeeping) and participated in a peacekeeping command-post exercise in 1998 (Fuerzas Aliadas Peacekeeping 98). U.S. military personnel were present in late 1998 and most of 1999 as part of the “New Horizons” Humanitarian Civic Assistance (HCA) exercise, which carried out reconstruction projects in areas affected by Hurricane Mitch.⁹ A 1998 Southern Command news release also discusses “Joint Task Force Smokey,” a $500,000 Humanitarian Assistance (HA) effort in which four U.S. helicopters and twenty-nine U.S. military personnel assisted Guatemalan firefighting efforts in the northern department of Petén.¹⁰

Sources:

¹ U.S. House of Representatives, “Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Appropriations for 1999,” Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations. (Washington: 1998): 258.

² U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998, (Washington: Department of State: February 1999): <http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/1998_narc_report/major/Guatemala.html>.

³ United States, Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Congressional Presentation (Washington: Department of State: March 1999): 32 <http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/fy2000_budget/latin_america.html>.

⁴ Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Congressional Presentation 32, 34.

⁵ United States, Department of State, "Memorandum of Justification for use of Section 506(a)(2) special authority to draw down articles, services, and military education and training," September 15, 1998.

⁶ Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.

United States, Department of State, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000, (Washington: Department of State: March 1999): 936.

⁸ United States, Defense Department, State Department, "Foreign Military Training and DoD Engagement Activities of Interest In Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999: A Report To Congress," Washington, March 1999: 4.

United States, Defense Department, "Report on Training of Special Operations Forces for the Period Ending September 30, 1997," Washington, April 1, 1998.

⁹ United States Southern Command, J34, Exercise Program Quick-View, (U.S. Southern Command: October 13, 1998).

¹⁰ Master Sgt. Patrick Corcoran, “JTF-Smokey Fights Forest Fires in Guatemala,” Iguana Online (Honduras: JTF Bravo, 1998) <http://www.ussouthcom.com/southcom/jtfbravo/Iguana%20On-Line/news15.htm>.