A/HRC/19/58 General allegations Summary of the general allegation 242. The Working Group received information from sources concerning reported obstacles encountered in the implementation of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in Guatemala. This information was transmitted to the Government on 9 September 2011, after the Working Group’s ninety-fourth session. 243. It was alleged that there are obstacles in the advancement in criminal courts of cases of enforced disappearance and that, despite significant efforts and repeated calls upon Congress to make the necessary budgetary allocations, the Public Prosecutor’s Office continues to lack the capacity and resources to advance in investigations of thousands of cases of enforced disappearance which, as a result, remain pending. 244. It was further reported that the extensive use by defendants and acceptance by the Courts of the recourse of amparo frequently constituted an obstacle to justice and delayed the criminal processes. 245. Detailed information has been received concerning the case of the enforced disappearance of Efraín Bámaca in 1992. Despite the sentence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2000, and its repeated orders of compliance between 2003 and 2010 ordering the re-opening of the case, and a 2005 request by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to open the investigation, it is reported that the judicial investigation remains to be re-initiated. It is claimed that this delay of justice could set a worrying precedent in similar cases, effectively denying victims the rights to truth and justice. 246. Information has been further received concerning the lack of a National Search Commission, as was recommended by the Working Group in its report following its visit to Guatemala in 2006. Although an initiative has been discussed in Congress since 2007, it still has not been adopted. As a result, the fate and whereabouts of the large majority of the purported 45,000 cases of enforced disappearance from the armed conflict remain unknown. As these cases were not investigated, victims are left without knowing the truth and without access to an effective remedy. 247. It is further alleged that obstacles are encountered by the organizations and individuals involved in forensic investigations aimed at identifying victims of enforced disappearances. 248. No response was received from the Government regarding this general allegation during the reporting period. Information from the Government 249. The Government transmitted five communications to the Working Group. 250. In the first communication, dated 16 December 2010, the Government transmitted information on the activities undertaken in the follow-up to the recommendations made by the Working Group following its visit to the country in 2006, which were reflected in A/HRC/16/48/Add.2. 251. In the second communication, dated 25 January 2011, the Government transmitted a copy of a letter that the Coordinator of the Historic Archives of the National Police (AHNP) sent to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In this letter, the Coordinator of the AHNP reflected some of the contributions that the institution could do with regard to the clarification of the whereabouts of the thousands of detained-disappeared in Guatemala. In addition, he highlighted that the capacity and compromise of this institution to submit information, archival analysis and technical expertise to contribute to the clarification of 60