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A small Central American nation, Guatemala has one of the worst human rights records in the Western Hemisphere. Over 90% of human rights violations are committed by members of state security forces or people under their control.
Since the mid-1960s, over 47,000 people have "disappeared" in Guatemala. This amounts to approximately one-half of the disappearances in Latin America. The government has almost no political prisoners in its jails. Real or perceived opponents are assassinated or "disappeared" into clandestine prisons where they are held, tortured and usually killed. The majority of torture victims do not survive their interrogation. Since 1954, as many as 150,000 people have been killed. Members of the security forces are almost never successfully prosecuted for human rights crimes. The judicial system barely functions and impunity is almost guaranteed for state actors. In the early 1980s, the military destroyed 440 entire Mayan villages. The term "village" not only includes houses, crops, and animals, but also a majority of the people there Often everyone present was massacred.
In many of these instances, the women and girls were mass raped. As a result of these counter-insurgency tactics used against civilians, a million people are internally
displaced in Guatemala and over 250,000 people fled to nearby Mexico.
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Despite recently elected civilian governments, human rights are still violated, impunity persists, and public security is increasingly threatened. According to the United Nations, in 1995, 3,161 people were victims of human rights violations. Over 94% of these were committed by state actors. According to various reports, 1996 has not shown an improvement.
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