Günther Maihold · 2016
European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Intervention by Invitation? Shared Sovereignty in the Fight against Impunity in Guatemala

This article deals with the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a joint hybrid commission to investigate impunity in the context of illegal security networks and organized crime. It was set up as an external governance intervention through an agreement between the UN and the State of Guatemala in 2006 to strengthen state institutions in the face of a worsening security situation. Based on a delegation of governance in the modality of shared sovereignty, CICIG has been operating in the country since 2006, trying to generate support in the national realm and the judicial system of Guatemala while exposed to the critical junctures of the highly contested national debates on its existence. More specifically, the article analyses the patterns of appropriation and rejection of CICIG by different actor constellations. Through a critical discourse analysis, actor constellations are specified, various themes of appropriation and rejection are detected and specific aspects of CICIG's mandate are investigated.

Access the article here: https://www.erlacs.org/articles/abstract/10.18352/erlacs.9977/

Contributors from our Network

Günther Maihold

Günther Maihold
German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)

Günther Maihold has been the Deputy Director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) since 2004. Coming from a background of Political Science and Sociology, Prof Maihold received his doctorate in 1987 from the University of Regensburg, where he subsequently worked as a Research Fellow. After having spent eight years as project manager in social policy consulting in Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, as well as the Department for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, he was appointed Director of the Ibero-American Institute of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin. Günther Maihold was a lecturer at the University / GH Duisburg and at the Latin American Institute of the Free University of Berlin. Since November 2006, he has been an Honorary Professor in Political Science at the Free University of Berlin

Read more about Günther Maihold ›

Share on:

Stay tuned on the latest news from our research network.