News

Memorandum: No. 150-M


June 28, 1996

MEMORANDUM FOR CORRESPONDENTS


Today the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency are releasing declassified documents assembled in a discretionary review of key government materials relating to the cases covered by the Intelligence Oversight Board's (IOB) Guatemala Review. In addition the State Department is releasing new information previously withheld from some of the 5,000 Guatemalan documents released last month. The review covered the murder of Michael Devine, the disappearance of Efrain Bamaca, and cases involving allegations of the torture, disappearance or death of U.S. citizens in Guatemala since 1984, including the case of Sister Dianna Ortiz. The release includes materials previously withheld from the Department of State's release of Guatemala documents on May 6, 1996 as well as previously- unreleased intelligence documents from the CIA and the Department of Defense.

This discretionary review and release was undertaken to fulfill the President's commitment to provide as much information about these human rights cases as appropriate. Information has been deleted from some of these documents to eliminate material pertaining to other subjects or to protect the privacy of individuals, intelligence sources and methods, and other national security interests.

The release from the three agencies includes approximately 155 documents from CIA, 270 documents from DoD, and about 450 documents containing newly-released material from the Department of State. The Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) has provided to the victims or their surviving family members documents the IOB believed shed light on the facts and circumstances of their cases. Those documents are included in these releases. Full sets of documents relevant to their cases will be provided to the victims or surviving family members. Complete sets of the documents are available for public review at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.