A Guatemalan tried to intimidate a US embassy in 2018 by surrounding the facility with US-supplied army jeeps, according to a new Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday.
The jeeps were provided to Guatemala as security assistance to the country in the drug war, but were not required to be strictly monitored under the Defense Department’s Golden Sentry program, the watchdog firm noted, citing Pentagon officials.
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“According to the [Department of Defense (DOD)] and state documentation, on the day the resolution was announced, seven Jeeps equipped with weapons provided through the DOD surrounded the U. S. Embassy. The U. S. military was later observed parked on a street just in front of CICIG headquarters. in Guatemala. The U. S. governmentconsidered this to be an act of intimidation, according to Defense Department officials,” the GAO report says.
The report proved two incidents, and added an incident in August 2018, when former President Jimmy Morales claimed he was not renewing the mandate of the UN International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala. The moment. The moment happened under current President Alejandro Giammattei when jeeps were allegedly used to suppress protests against a mining company.
In the past, U. S. officials have reported alleged misuse in Guatemala, but the country said the jeeps were used for covering, not intimidation.
Pentagon and State Department officials use spreadsheets to monitor allegations, though databases are incomplete, according to the report. The GAO also reviewed the allegations from Honduras and El Salvador, but only included complaints against Guatemalan officials.
“When we asked agencies if those reports were to identify potential disruptions with the misuse of DOD-provided equipment, state officials said they had not thought about doing so, and DOD officials did not respond to our questions,” the report said.
Golden Sentry is a program to “monitor the end use of defense parts and defense transferred through the DOD in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act,” the report adds.
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The officials said the Defense Department “does not have the authority to recover misused Jeeps,” the GAO said in the report. However, on May 25, “DOD officials asked the Guatemalan government to reassign all Jeeps under the control of the IATF [interagency enforcement groups] to the Guatemalan military. According to DOD officials, the Guatemalan government accepted DOD’s request but had not transferred the jeeps as of July 18, 2022. There are also 38 more jeeps that were to be transferred and remain in storage.
The GAO made five recommendations and added “that the DOD and the status of its policies for the registration of claims and that the DOD its policies to maintain accurate apparatus data. The State accepted his recommendation. DOD disagrees with two recommendations, stating that existing rules are sufficient. The GAO argues that more guidance is needed to make sure DOD records claims and has accurate data. “