Guatemala, July 21, 2012. The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) warmly welcomes the recent approval of Decree 15-2012, whereby the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation is established as a special civil group that has jurisdiction in all of the territory of the Republic of Guatemala.

This is the first step towards complying with one of the commitments made by CICIG and the branches of the State of Guatemala at the presentation of the CICIG 2012-2013 Activities Plan on July 9 this year.

We congratulate the President of the Republic, Otto Fernando Pérez Molina; the President of Congress, Gudy Rivera Estrada, and the Members of Congress; the President of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Judiciary (OJ), Thelma Esperanza Aldana Hernández; and the Attorney General and Head of the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP), Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey. We also reiterate our commitment to supporting the implementation of this new directorate with the aim of helping Guatemala to have a professional, independent and highly trained investigation entity that contributes to providing the security that all Guatemalans deserve and allows them to live in democracy and peace.