Guatemala, 1981-1984. Clandestine Detention Centers in the Context of the Counterinsurgency Urban War

• In Event: Political Repression, Disappearance and Impunity in Mexico and Guatemala

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the internal dynamics of the clandestine detention centers that, between 1981 and 1984, the most critical phase of the urban counterinsurgency war, worked in Guatemala City.
The document was made based on the testimonies of six disappeared detainees. Some of them escaped from these centers; some others, under specific circumstances, obtained freedom. The study is based on this memory exercise in these extreme conditions, through which this group of survivors crossed. Another part of the study is based on the testimony of perpetrators, former military intelligence agents or police officers, who were, or were near, the death squads. Another type of source is archival documents, particularly: el Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional, and the Archivo del Estado Mayor Presidencial. In addition, here we analyze documents declassified by the government of the United States.
The document is organized around six topics: 1) The different types of clandestine detention centers; 2) the different types of detainees; 3) the use of torture; 4) the organization of the center; 5) archive systems; and, 6) the death squad jargon.
For the case of Guatemala, this is the first time that -from the social sciences- an analysis of this part of the dynamics of urban terror has been made, especially this institution -the clandestine detention centers- that was a determining factor in the urban counterinsurgency war.

Author

• Manolo E Vela Castañeda, Universidad Iberoamericana, Ciudad de México