Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala

352 Pages·2014·2.13 MB·English

by  Kirsten Weld

ABBREVIATIONS — i
AMERICAN ENCOUNTERS/GLOBAL INTERACTIONS
A series edited by Gilbert M. Joseph and Emily S. Rosenberg
This series aims to stimulate critical perspectives and fresh
interpretive frameworks for scholarship on the history of the
imposing global presence of the United States. Its primary
concerns include the deployment and contestation of power,
the construction and deconstruction of cultural and politi-
cal borders, the fluid meanings of intercultural encounters,
and the complex interplay between the global and the local.
American Encounters seeks to strengthen dialogue and
collaboration between historians of U.S. international re-
lations and area studies specialists. The series encourages
scholarship based on multi archival historical research. At
the same time, it supports a recognition of the representa-
tional character of all stories about the past and promotes
critical inquiry into issues of subjectivity and narrative. In
the process, American Encounters strives to understand the
context in which meanings related to nations, cultures, and
political economy are continually produced, challenged, and
reshaped.
KIRSTEN WELD
PAPER CADAVERS
THE ARCHIVES OF DICTATORSHIP
IN GUATEMALA
duke university press durham and london 2014
© 2014 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞
Designed by Heather Hensley
Typeset in Whitman by Copperline Book Services, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Weld, Kirsten, 1982–
Paper cadavers : the archives of dictatorship in Guatemala / Kirsten Weld.
pages cm — (American encounters/global interactions)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5597- 7 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5602- 8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Guatemala—Politics and government—1945–1985—Sources.
2. Guatemala. Policía Nacional. Archivo Histórico.
3. Guatemala—Relations—United States—Sources.
4. United States—Relations—Guatemala—Sources.
5. Archives—Political aspects.
I. Title. II. Series: American encounters/global interactions.
f1466.5.w45 2014
972.8105'2—dc23 2013026391
Photographs on cover and p. i by Daniel Hernández- Salazar
and used by permission of the photographer.
For the workers, past and present,
of the Proyecto para la Recuperación del
Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional

CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
introduction The Power of Archival Thinking 1
PART I: EXPLOSIONS AT THE ARCHIVES 27
chapter 1: Excavating Babylon 29
chapter 2: Archival Culture, State Secrets,
and the Archive Wars 50
chapter 3: How the Guerrillero Became an Archivist 69
PART II: ARCHIVES AND COUNTERINSURGENCY
IN COLD WAR GUATEMALA
chapter 4: Building Counterinsurgency Archives 91
chapter 5: Recycling the National Police in War,
Peace, and Post- Peace 119
PART III: ARCHIVES AND SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION
IN POSTWAR GUATEMALA
chapter 6: Revolutionary Lives in the Archives 153
chapter 7: Archives and the Next Generation(s) 183
PART IV: PASTS PRESENT AND THE FUTURE IMPERFECT
chapter 8: Changing the Law of What Can Be Said,
and Done 213
chapter 9: Conclusion: The Possibilities and
Limitations of Archival Thinking 236
Notes 257 Bibliography 301 Index 323

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
aeu Association of University Students, University of San Carlos
(Asociación de Estudiantes Universitarios)
afpc Accord on the Strengthening of Civil Power and the Role of the
Armed Forces in a Democratic Society (Acuerdo de Fortaleci-
miento del Poder Civil y Función del Ejército en una Sociedad
Democrática)
agca General Archives of Central America (Archivo General de
Centroamérica)
agsaemp Archives and Support Services of the Presidential General Staff
(Archivos Generales y Servicios Apoyados del Estado Mayor
Presidencial)
ahpn Historical Archives of the National Police (Archivo Histórico de la
Policía Nacional)
aid Agency for International Development
arena Nationalist Republican Alliance, El Salvador (Alianza Republicana
Nacionalista)
avemilgua Association of Military Veterans of Guatemala (Asociación de
Veteranos Militares de Guatemala)
bien Special Investigations and Narcotics Brigade (Brigada de Investiga-
ciones Especiales y Narcóticos)
broe Special Operations Reaction Brigade (Brigada de Reacción de
Operaciones Especiales)
cacif Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial,
and Financial Associations (Comité Coordinador de Asociaciones
Agrícolas, Comerciales, Industriales, y Financieras)
cadeg Anti- Communist Council of Guatemala (Consejo Anticomunista de
Guatemala)
cci International Advisory Board, Project for the Recovery of the Na-
tional Police Historical Archives (Consejo Consultivo Internacional)
ccn National Advisory Board, Project for the Recovery of the National
Police Historical Archives (Consejo Consultivo Nacional)