Guatemala

ELCA Churchwide Assembly Action CA95.03.7

Passed by the 1995 Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Resolved
To affirm the concerns expressed in the memorials of the Arkansas-Oklahoma and Metropolitan Washington, D.C., synods concerning the situation in Guatemala; and

To encourage churchwide units, synods, and congregations and their members to support the Guatemalan peace process by:

1. Supporting in prayer and action the ongoing efforts of the Lutheran World Federation, the Lutheran Office for World Community, the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs, and other church agencies to move the Guatemalan peace process forward and to guarantee full implementation of the peace accords that emerge from the negotiating process;
2. Advocating, through the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs and other appropriate channels, that the United States continue its support to the U.N. Mission for the Verification of Human Rights and of Compliance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights in Guatemala, which has been charged with mediating the final phase of the peace talks and with monitoring overall compliance with the peace accords; and
3. Adding the voice of this church to those of independent human rights monitors and others who are calling for full public disclosure regarding U.S. knowledge of and complicity in human rights violations by direct and indirect support for known human rights violators with Guatemalan military, paramilitary, and intelligence units.