Policy

The Republic of Guatemala signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 26 March 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 September 1999. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was passed in 1997.[1]

Guatemala frequently attends meetings of the treaty, most recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it did not provide a statement. Guatemala did not attend the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014, nor did it attend the recent intersessional meetings of the treaty in Geneva in May 2019. Guatemala previously consistently submitted updated annual Article 7 transparency reports but has not done so since 2017.

Previously, Guatemala has served as co-rapporteur and then co-chair of the Standing Committees on Stockpile Destruction (2002–2004) and the General Status and Operation of the Convention (2004–2006). At the Tenth Meeting of States Parties, Guatemala announced that it has helped form a working group along with several other South American states in order to monitor implementation of the Cartagena Action Plan and to encourage cooperation and victim assistance.[2]

Guatemala is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Guatemala is also party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpile

Guatemala has never used, produced, imported, exported, or stockpiled antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes.

In April 2011, eight landmines were found in a narcotics raid in Guatemala City. American defense analysts stated “with a high degree of confidence that many of these weapons and munitions came from Guatemalan military stock.”[3]