[From the introductory text accompanying this report on the U.S. Department of State website: "In most cases, the Interim Assessment is intended to serve as a tool by which to gauge the anti-trafficking progress of countries that may be in danger of slipping a tier in the upcoming June 2010 TIP Report and to give them guidance on how to avoid a Tier 3 ranking. It is a tightly focused progress report, assessing the concrete actions a government has taken to address the key deficiencies highlighted in the June 2009 TIP Report. The Interim Assessment covers actions undertaken between the beginning of May – the cutoff for data covered in the June TIP Report – and November. Readers are requested to refer to the annual TIP Report for an analysis of large-scale efforts and a description of the trafficking problem in each particular country or territory."]

The Government of Guatemala has made limited progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2009 TIP Report. The government enacted an anti-trafficking law in April 2009, but the government has done little to implement or enforce the law. Judges and police remain poorly informed about trafficking in general and the provisions of the anti-trafficking law. Government agencies' continuing efforts to rescue trafficking victims and prosecute trafficking offenders remain hindered or stalled by a lack of funding and resources, and government-supported victim services remained severely lacking.

As required by Guatemala's new law, the government established a secretariat within the vice president's office to lead and coordinate anti-trafficking efforts. Since the secretariat was formed in early 2009, the group has consulted with congress to clarify its mandate and begun to map the anti-trafficking activities of relevant institutions within the government and civil society but not yet taken any action. Though the Ministry of Labor and the office within the Public Ministry dedicated to human trafficking and irregular child adoptions have begun to work on labor-related trafficking cases, there were even fewer resources available for labor-related trafficking than there were for trafficking for sexual exploitation.

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