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OAS Organizes Workshop on Analysis and Management of Conflicts and Crises for Governors and Regional Delegates of Guatemala

The Organization of American States (OAS) began a workshop today in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, on the analysis and transformation of conflicts, dialogue and crisis management for governors and delegates from the Guatemalan departments of San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Retalhuleu and Sololá.

The purpose of the workshop, which will take place until January 31, is to strengthen skills and increase knowledge among officials charged with dealing with social conflicts near the areas in which they are generated, at the departmental and municipal level.

In addition to the presence of governors, delegates and sub-delegates from the Unit for the Community Prevention of Violence, commissioners and sub-chiefs from the Sub-Directorate for the Prevention of Crime of the National Civil Police, delegates and representatives from the Secretariat of Planning and Programming of the Presidency – SEGEPLAN – and the Presidential Commission for Human Rights – COPREDEH -, among other organizations. It is thus one of the first opportunities in which governors, advisers and representatives of government departments have met with the specific purpose of strengthening themselves as the teams responsible for social conflict. A similar workshop was held from January 16 to 18 in Zacapa - bringing together governors and delegates from Chiquimula, El Progreso and Zacapa.

This activity takes place within the framework of the Process of Support for the Prevention, Management and Resolution of Conflicts in Guatemala led by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Guatemala and the Department of Democratic Sustainability and Special Missions of the OAS Secretariat of Political Affairs, with the financial support of the government of Canada. In the first phase of the process, more than 270 officials from the Ministry of the Interior of Guatemala were trained in the analysis and management of conflicts, including the staff of the Unit for the Community Prevention of Violence, the Sub-Directorate for the Prevention of Crime of the National Civil Police and the Secretariat of Civic Service.

Inaugurated on April 24, 2012 at the headquarters of the Interior Ministry, the initiative was described by the Minister of the Interior, Mauricio López Bonilla, as the "first step in a project to institutionalize processes of conflict resolution the only way it can be done in open democracies, where there is respect for human rights and where there is the rule of law and strong institutions to respond to the nation."

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-021/13