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Over the course of 30 years, more than 150 members of Guatemala's LGBTI community were persecuted for their sexual orientation, according to a new investigation by the Historical Archive of the National Police (AHPN) – despite the fact homosexuality wasn't considered a crime.
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'The Criminalization of the LGBTI Population in the Police Records 1960-1990' was released as part of the United Nations' Free and Equal campaign just 24 hours after International Day Against Homophobia on May 17.
Researchers gathered files from 1960 to 1996 and found that 156 people were targeted for their sexual preferences by the National Police (1881-1997), citing incidents of "police aggravation" going back as far as 1950.
"Thousands of photographs pictured people accused of crimes of homosexuality, although (police) were aware that in Guatemala there has never been legislation to criminalize it," said AHPN coordinator Gustavo Meoño, the report's director.
In one of the official police reports, a transsexual woman, described as a “homosexual man,” was arrested for allegedly “usurping an identity and using a false name.”
According to AHPN researcher Katia Orantes, the National Police referred to the LGBTI community as the "internal enemy."
The investigative report was created to "honor the victims and in this case LGBTI people" and shed light on past impunity while providing answers for those searching for truth, justice, reparation, and an end to discrimination.
"Discrimination against LGBTI people fuels the spiral of violence to which they are subjected daily and creates an environment conducive to their exclusion from opportunities in all facets of life," said Liliana Valiña, representative of the UN Human Rights Commission.
The digitized report includes 57 million documents from the now defunct National Police Office, which closed in 1997.
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