Guatemalan Police Files May Reveal Secrets
By Juan Carlos Llorca, Associated Press
Guatemala City - Technicians using soft-bristle brushes are working to preserve documents that could contain evidence of government involvement in the torture and disappearance of thousands of Guatemalans during the country's 36-year civil war.
But millions of other pages remain vulnerable to mold, rain, fire, vermin and sabotage in a leaky, humid police warehouse where they were discovered eight months ago. The Guatemalan human rights ombudsman's office doesn't have enough money, people or technology to examine what secrets they contain.
"There could be evidence of human rights violations, but we might never find out if the files decay or are destroyed," said Carla Villagran, director of analysis for the national human rights ombudsman, which stumbled upon the towering stacks of mildewing documents last June.
At least 48 million pages remain haphazardly piled to the ceiling across five rooms in a decrepit, two-story warehouse at the edge of a semi-abandoned police complex filled with junked cars in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood.
With $2.5 million from Sweden, the Guatemalans plan to buy high-speed scanners and build a digital archive of the files. The U.N. Development Program is providing advice and Spain has promised to send archive specialists. A razor wire-topped fence surrounds the building, and guards keep watch around the clock.
But the files remain vulnerable. There are no security cameras and an incendiary device could be tossed from the street through open windows or cracks in the roof and walls. Heavy rains regularly drench documents already coated in mold. Decades of dust and dirt make deciphering information difficult, as do rats, bats and other vermin.
Guatemala's civil war was Latin America's bloodiest in the 20th century. U.S.-backed military and civilian governments destroyed entire villages as they stamped out leftist guerrillas. About 200,000 people, mostly civilians, died or vanished before U.N.-brokered peace accords ended the fighting in December 1996.
Human rights groups hope the files contain evidence the National Police, which was disbanded in 1997 because of its notorious reputation, worked with other shadowy security forces that wrongfully imprisoned, tortured and killed suspected insurgents.
But potentially useful information, such as pictures depicting torture and lists of people classified as "disappeared," "assassinated" or "political detainee," — is mixed in with mundane paperwork, such as driver's license applications and a list of songs played by a police band.
"We haven't begun to look at the files," Villagran said. "Until now, we have just cleaned and prepared them for scanning."
Here's an update on the amazing stash of 
