Chapter 9 chronicles the postwar trajectory of extrajudicial killings within the Guatemalan police. It first examines state violence during the transition period and subsequent postwar police reforms, which included the creation of the new National Civilian Police (PNC) in 1997. The chapter then analyzes how the dominant wartime distributional coalition managed to survive peacebuilding reforms and uphold the undermining rules governing extrajudicial executions to eliminate “undesirables.” In an important contrast from the case of Guatemala’s customs administration, the PNC saw the direct reentry of these groups into the upper echelons of the security cabinet, highlighting a different pathway of institutional persistence.

Chapter 5 examines the wartime origins of undermining rules governing extrajudicial killing by Guatemala’s National Police (PN). It argues that the development of such procedures is rooted in the specialization of the police force and the broad discretion granted to concentrated groups of police elites amid the late 1960s period of perceived threat escalation. Specifically, with the creation of highly insulated elite investigative units like the Detective Corps [Cuerpo de Detectives], previous extralegal violence waged by right-wing death squads was institutionalized as routine state activity. The new rules were sanctioned by top military intelligence officials, who devised clear procedures for how to frame the resulting killings to the public.

Currently, many cities in Colombia are starting to embrace and promote urban art even though in the recent past the police-or even worse, social-cleansing groups-have persecuted graffiti and street art artists. However, cities like Barranquilla, Valledupar, Medellin, Cali, Bucaramanga, Pereira, and Ibague have welcomed graffiti, designating places, mainly walls, for artists to express themselves via graffiti and street art. Fairs, seminars, and museum exhibitions of urban art are being held in various Colombian cities and these art forms are even boosting local tourism. Amidst this growing collection of street art, one question remains: what protection does street art-particularly lettering-based graffiti-enjoy and what kind of rights do their artists hold over them?