You saved me from a most uncomfortable question

I spoke with Ben Reeves (@bpreeves) earlier today about the situation in Guatemala after Thelma Esperanza Aldana Hernández was sworn in as the new attorney general. For me, I was disappointed in the selection process that resulted in Aldana becoming the new attorney general. I'm not upset that Claudia Paz y Paz is not going to be the next AG. I am disappointed that the process to end her term and the process to name her replacement demonstrated how little progress has occurred in Guatemala following nearly ten (twenty?) years of international scrutiny.

The selection committee did not include Paz y Paz on the six names forwarded to the president to save him from passing her over. Everyone is upset at the nominating committee right now for leaving the candidate with the second highest vote total off the final list. But that means they did their job.

President Perez Molina is not answering why he selected Aldana over Paz y Paz. Game over.

Perez Molina wasn't going to select Paz y Paz anyway and now he didn't even have to justify why he passed her over to everyone.

I'd say that Paz y Paz, two CICIG commissioners and maybe even the US Ambassador have now been forced out by Guatemala's powerful. Yasmin Barrios is hanging on by a thread.

However, people have difference motivations for wanting them removed. For some, they didn't want the international community there in the first place. The Guatemalan Congress fought CICIG until they felt they had no choice. Those involved in organized crime were totally against institutional reforms that would weaken their power over the justice system. For others, like those connected to the military's counterinsurgency project, they were more angry with the possibility that any of them could be brought before the courts to stand trial for human rights violations.

I don't want to lump the nationalists, organized crime, and the counter-insurgents together even though there is a lot of overlap.

#Guatemala is in a state of "two steps forward, one step back," in terms of justice and the rule of law, according to @CentAmPolMike
— Benjamin Reeves (@bpreeves) May 21, 2014

Even though cliche, I am hoping that it is two steps forward and one step back, not two steps forward, three steps back. We are likely to see an end to prosecutions of individuals linked to human rights violations, whether de jure or de facto, but it is unclear whether we will see the same backsliding in other areas of the law. Given Aldana's alleged links to shady characters in Guatemala (isn't that everybody), we are also about what the future holds.