The U.S. State Department announced the extension and amendment of the “Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Guatemala Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Archaeological Material from the Pre-Columbian Cultures and Ecclesiastical Ethnological Material from the Conquest and Colonial Periods of Guatemala,” effective September 29, 2012 for a period of five years.
This extension represents a continuation of cooperation that began in 1991 with the imposition of emergency U.S. import restrictions to staunch the pillage of Guatemala’s rich archaeological heritage and the illicit trafficking of it.
This Memorandum of Understanding also serves to underscore the U.S recognition of the threat of plunder and despoiling of Guatemala’s ecclesiastical cultural heritage and the U.S. commitment to cultural heritage preservation.
Guatemala requested the original agreement to preserve its Pre-Columbian cultural heritage, as well as that of the Conquest and Colonial periods of the country.
