Embassy Guatemala City works in a complex and conflictive environment. Aiming over the long term to eradicate the political and social causes of a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996, and, in the short term, to combat large-scale drug and alien smuggling, the embassy adheres to a focused and operational MPP. Embassy operations benefit from the fact that the U.S. and Guatemalan agendas coincide. On the other hand, they are hampered by the Guatemalan government's identification with corrupt practices and by its failure to maintain momentum in implementing the peace accords that ended the civil war. Declining U.S. aid levels and limited Washington interest in Guatemala further complicate the embassy's task. Morale is as good as it can be given problems like crime, threat of earthquake, and latent political instability.
Mission leadership is strong and purposeful. Interagency relations are for the most part good, but the U.S. military presence, a vestige of the civil war period, remains sizeable. Core functions are performed well, with the consular affairs workload mushrooming in size and complexity. The embassy's large-scale antinarcotics operation would benefit from more cooperation among the U.S. embassies in the region and from a strategic plan involving all Central American countries. Much of the narcotics that move northwards through Guatemala each year are not intercepted.
Overall, administrative operations are satisfactory, but some weak spots exist due principally to inexperience, personnel shortages and poor budgeting. Management controls are in place and functioning well, but there is a serious vulnerability in accounting for consular receipts.
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