Several freedom of information groups were outraged at a proposed reform to Guatemala's access to information law, which would make diplomatic and military documents confidential, reported the Guatemalan Center for Investigative Reporting.
Bill 4328, currently pending in the Guatemalan Congress, was proposed by ex-President Álvaro Colom in April 2011, supposedly to protect 103 military records dating from the period between 1954 and 1996, reported the newspaper Siglo 21. That period is particularly relevant, because in 1954 a CIA-backed coup overthrew democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, and in 1996 the country signed peace accords after a 36-year-long civil war.
The proposed reform to the law could imply that records classified as confidential would never be released, the newspaper reported. Civil society organizations Acción Ciudadana, Seguridad en Democracia, Unity for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala, and Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM) voiced their concern about the bill and asked Guatemalan deputies to end its consideration.
"This bill violates the spirit of the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption by allowing an institution, in this case the Ministry of National Defense, to classify any information it wants as confidential," GAM said in a statement.
