Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Forenses de Guatemala

November 4-6

National Institute for Forensic Sciences for Guatemala

What an extraordinary experience getting a personal tour of the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Forenses deGuatemala (INACIF), of which I can say is  the gem of Guatemala. The smell of dead bodies lingers within building. We meet Director Dr. Carlos Aigusto Rodas Gonzalas, a well presented gentleman with a bow-tie. He explains these facilities is the centre of forensics for the whole country. In asking where they get their funds, he says from some international states as the US as USAID and EU has provided such funding and technology. We were soon to see indeed, some astounding facilities. He says with a coy smile that their works were who helped catch the Guatemalanvice-present for corruption with the use of their newly received technology of wire-taps. He does point out that what is going on in Guatemala is not all bad. There is indeed some cooperation between professio nals from Mexico , Chile, and Italy, in order to track organized crime, especially gangs. But it is indeed still a great struggle for these professionals who work so hard to halt corruption they continue to see within the police and justice system. Dr. Rodas has even worked on creating training workshops on proper methodology for the crime scene for police so that they no longer continue to lose evidence. The Guatemala justice system has its large flaws from so many unsolved crimes that are let slide while the victims suffer in fear, distrust and resentment. There is still much under the table threats and pay outs to cover up crimes, but also because many of the officers have had very little formal training, and most often are 'volunteers'. For example, coroners are supposed to be the only one touching and collecting the bodies to ensure no evidence is lost. Here, most of the time, police have been known to  just drag and load the bodies in the back of a truck, and in some cases allow the someone to dispose or wipe away the evidence. It is definitely a great barrier for those like Dr. Rodas' teams and for Cristian's.

We then proceed with the rest of the tour.  We entered a little room with a video camera tv screen and a window to give the family options of how they want to confirm the body. We walked into their morgue cooler. He informs us that there are 78 bodies here from the weekend alone, and the next closed door is where they have 203 from the Cambry II mudslide a month before. Then we walked by a forensic technician who was cleaning 3 male bodies, as a result of gang violence. One of the pale bodies had tattoos. In fact, one of their latest magazines gives an article on their use of tattoos in body identification," Tatuajes en las ciencias forenses. Breve experiencia de este tipo de hallazgo" ( tattoos on forensic science :  brief experience of this type of discovery). We then follow by more data collection teams, working hard on computers. Onto the other side of the building, we enter into the room where they remove tissue from the bodies (by simmering them) in order for them to be taken to the Forensic Anthropologist specialists. 

This is where we got to spend the rest of the afternoon, asking questions, analysing, and practising like we had done the previous day ageing and sexing the bones. These victims, were ongoing contemporary cases (so post-civil war), some gang violence, some femicide. It was really interesting finding out which was the first gunshot to the victims skull. One of the forensic anthropologists told me you can find identification by comparing which one first fractured the skull from first impact, to the second having the pressure let out was clean through.

female victims fingernails

  It definitely is an odd feeling, working with human remains. Humans, as social beings, are so attached to emotion and human characteristics. Yet, when we lose an aspect of such, we begin to see as an object, a puzzle which needs to be solved. We were working with remains of victims of brutal deaths, but yet, I was not the whole time dealing with the sickening feeling of how they died. Did I feel guilty for not feeling heart-wrenched, but rather intrigued, and curious?  But that is what it is like for most people in this field; refocusing their emotion on solving the task at hand, or imputing the data so that the case to solved faster, so hopefully justice is served. The place that hit me the most was outside the facilities when we were leaving seeing all the families waiting to see the deceased. Right before we left a police truck pulled up with a body in the back covered in white cloth. The families were waiting outside the gates crying. I felt bad as us foreigners got the 'ok' to go right in while some of these families had been waiting all day outside, with no waiting area.

Police truck pulls up with body

  We later went to visit the second  Guatemala INACIF facilities. Their laboratories include documentoscopy, ballistics, toxicology, fingerprinting, biology, identification of vehicles, physical chemistry, controlled substance, genetics, and shot paths. First we met the director of the DNA Laboratory starting with the microscopes where they normally use for blood and semen. As he was explaining more of their facilities, two women were working on articles of clothing, one bloody shirt from a inmate murder, female dress pants from a femicide of rape and murder, and pair of female underwear from a rape and murder. Here, they cut tiny pieces from the clothing where the blood or semen would be, then dilute with solution so that they may further analyze. Then the clothing and the swabs are packaged back up. Dr. Rodas kindly joined us for the rest of the tour. I realize that my co-op at my hometown Parry Sound Hospital lab came in handy as I recognized much of the technology, machines and procedures. The DNA spin machines are extremely expensive to process, and that is why within the facilities DNA processing is more of a last resort. When processing the DNA, you not only can use to identify the victim and the perpetrator but also help solve the missing pieces in identifying family members, or missing children. Erica brought in some comparative and informative information after they had informed us they could get results out in 48 hours, while in LA it would take up to 2 weeks to a month. It puts a little into perspective of all those American crime shows where only 4 people can solve a mystery in less than an hour!

With consensus vote we headed up next to the ballistics lab, which deals with the guns and bullet identification of crimes. The first area we entered was the main identification of the weapon used, what caliber, and bullets. They even have a range of homemade weapons that have been used, created with some steel piping and some welding. Many of the guns they receive have the registration numbers scratched off of them as many of the weapons are bought or borrowed off of a black market. In order to acquire comparative data and confirmation, they must produce a replica shot from the gun and bullet of which they do so in another room. One question was asked what form of education and training was necessary for this line of work, and interestingly enough, most were engineers and because of no actual direct education, their paths were led to this work! It was a positive reassurance, at least for myself, that we can never foresee where out education will take us. And that is what makes life exciting right!? Life would be boring if we were just to foreseen a straight path of work, education and careers!  

Under the microscope the bullets undergo comparison for damage and markings. The last area was the computer data input. The technology they had was incredibly advanced, IBIS machines and 3D scanners, where they store all the bullet and weapon models. This form of data entry is extraordinarily efficient as this data base can track the same gun to hundreds of cases. Erica informed us in LA, they tend to just leave the bullets in a box and that be it, where as this is a whole new dimension of data entry and storage. The most fascinating was an enormous tree graph they had created which links on for what I could compare as miles spread out around the country and onto other countries. To zoom in and then out you see how vast these connections are, such as gang members using the same guns and how they travel around through this geolocation. They even mentioned that they had recently got back from a conference in Montreal presenting their data to INTERPOL. The main concern now, is if there would be greater cohesion and legitimate cooperation with the justice system.