Amnesty International has launched a new campaign to press the Guatemalan government to dissolve a notorious military intelligence unit that has acted as a death squad in the past and is suspected of masterminding recent attacks against human rights lawyers, judges, and church groups investigating abuses committed during the country’s civil war.
The campaign features Amnesty’s first Internet “flash” animation movie that depicts the history of the Estado Mayor Presidencial (Presidential High Command), or EMP, as the intelligence unit is called. Under the 1996 peace accords, the EMP was supposed to have been dismantled, but, despite promises by President Alfonso Portillo to do so, the EMP’s budget has actually increased during his term. “Amnesty International is prepared to wield all tools at our disposal to get rid of the travesty known as the EMP,” said William Schulz, executive director of the U.S. section of Amnesty International (AIUSA).
