Guatemala

• Author: George Kurian
• Pages: 451-454

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Official country name: Republic of Guatemala

Capital: Guatemala City

Geographic description: A country in Middle America bordering the Caribbean Sea on the east and the North Pacific Ocean on the west

Population: 14,655,189 (est. 2005)

LAW ENFORCEMENT

History

Historically, the police establishment was a quasi-military force whose chief and other supervisory personnel, the National Police, the Border Patrol, and the Judicial Police, were under the jurisdiction of the minister of government. The civilian police were stationed in the capital and a few other towns. All rural communities relied on the army or a locally appointed constabulary to maintain law and order.

Structure and Organization

The National Police Force is the primary law enforcement agency. The Border Patrol is in charge of the collection of tariffs, taxes, and other revenues on behalf of the Treasury Department. The Judicial Police (distinct from the enforcement arm of the courts) performs police investigation and intelligence gathering. All three agencies are under the Ministry of Government.

Although all three agencies have national jurisdiction in theory, the National Police and the Judicial Police operate almost exclusively in Guatemala City. Largely by default, the army performs civilian law enforcement and internal security functions in rural areas. A special unit of the army, the Mobile Military Police, combats rural insurgency and banditry in rural areas without civilian police protection.

Some 6,200 small communities of 200 or more people (of which 4,000 are organized farms) have no organized police force. The local mayor, usually the justice of the peace, selects one or more individuals from the community to serve one or more years as local unpaid constables. They do not have the title of policeman but are recognized as lawmen.

Law enforcement has been modernized since the end of the civil war in 1996. The programs include a Central Complaints Division, a central crime laboratory, a fingerprinting system, model precincts, and rural mobile patrols.

The director general of the National Police, generally a senior active duty officer on loan from the Defense Department, reports directly to the minister of government. The police command structure is composed of a small staff in charge of operational divisions in the central

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Guatemala City police stand guard along a route that Pope John Paul II will travel as he visits the city, July 29, 2002. The pope arrived in the country to officially recognize the sainthood of Brother Pedro, a seventeenth-century missionary often called "the St. Francis of the Americas," during a special mass celebration. AP Images. headquarters and five regional zones. Control and...