Maya Achi Survivor Paulina Ixpata Alvarado and Maya Achi lawyer Gloria Pérez speak about their experiences working for justice. On two warm afternoons in Rabinal, Paulina Ixpata Alvarado and Gloria Pérez joined NISGUA, Breaking the Silence Maritimes Network, and a host of callers from the U.S. [...]
In 1999, the UN-sponsored Commission for Historical Clarification presented its report, Guatemala: Memory of Silence, which documented the crimes the Guatemalan state had committed against its own people during the Internal Armed Conflict. Each year, communities around Guatemala remember what they survived and those they lost on the National [...]
Guatemalan partner organizations, including CALDH and HIJ@S, published an open letter denouncing Guatemalan congressional attempts to pass amnesty legislation. The proposed legislation could overturn decades of work for justice, allowing those responsible for crimes against humanity to walk free. The letter rejects these latest attempts to legislate impunity, at the expense [...]
Next week, a verdict is expected in the retrial of José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez, former head of military intelligence under General José Efraín Ríos Montt’s 1982-1983 dictatorship in Guatemala. Rodríguez Sánchez faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for the particular role he played in classifying the entire [...]
Documentary photographer Roderico Y. Diaz talks about the exhibit, “Defending Truth and Memory: The Path Towards Justice in Guatemala,” at the University Museum at Kent Hall on Feb. 1. (Photo by Maggie Adams / Kokopelli) The photo exhibit "Defending Truth and Memory: [...]
Three Ixil survivors lift up the 2013 sentence in the last day of the retrial against Ríos Montt, following his death. Photo credit: CALDH On April 1, 2018, former Guatemalan dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt died of a heart attack at the age of 91. In his death, [...]
Nearly a year has passed since the March 2017 indictment of five former high-ranking officers in the Guatemalan military for crimes against humanity. They stand accused of having participated in the illegal detention, torture, and sexual assault of Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen and the forced disappearance of her 14-year-old [...]
In the midst of the ongoing genocide retrial of José Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez, the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), the Center for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH), and the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) published a press release in the Guatemalan newspaper, El Periódico, to mark [...]
Young Ixil university students stand in solidarity with genocide survivors outside of court.Photo credit: Ixil University students, Chemol txumb'al, FUNDEBASE, y AJR Friday, December 1, marked the seventh trial date since the case for genocide against Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez was reopened on [...]
Today, Survivors of massacres in the 80s from Chimaltenango traveled to participate in the trial against Rodríguez Sánchez for the Ixil genocide. The AJR (Association for Justice and Reconciliation) is made up of survivors from 5 regions in Guatemala and solidarity between communities has been their foundation since [...]
On October 13, the Ixil genocide trial is set to open once again against former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez, former head of military intelligence, in the second attempt to retry the case after the 2013 trial, verdict, and sentence convicting Ríos Montt of genocide. While [...]
On August 27, Guatemalan President, Jimmy Morales, declared Iván Velásquez, head of the UN anti-impunity commission, the CICIG, "persona non grata" in Guatemala and requested his immediate expulsion. This decision came on the heels of a request by the CICIG and the Guatemalan public prosecutor’s office to strip Morales [...]
Guatemala plunged into a political crisis this month as President Jimmy Morales attempted to circumvent a criminal investigation into his campaign finances by declaring the head of the UN-sponsored Commision (CICIG) persona non grata, a decision that sparked widespread public outcry. A second wave of outrage followed over legislation [...]
On International Women’s Day, March 8, a fire was set at a state home for children and youth in Guatemala, immediately killing 19 girls. Since then, at least another 21 have died as a result of their injuries and many more continue to be hospitalized. Survivors have recounted that on [...]
"This experience will be a legacy for new generations, showing that even war has limits. It is a clear message that confirms the commitment that justice and society have to human rights, to promote a much longed-for peace, and allows us as a society to advance, together with the women, [...]
Yesterday marked one year since former members of the Guatemalan military were found guilty for crimes against humanity committed at a military base in the eastern community of Sepur Zarco. At great personal risk, 15 Q’eqchi' women gave preliminary testimonies in 2012 where they documented in detail the violence they survived [...]
The following is a translation of an article originally featured in Spanish on the ACOGUATE blog. NISGUA is a member of ACOGUATE, a coalition of North American and European solidarity committees who provide international accompaniment to threatened Guatemalan human rights defenders. NISGUA observed the 2011 Dos Erres trial and continues [...]
Former Guatemalan dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt is currently facing charges of genocide for his role as the intellectual author of the 1982 massacre that killed more than 200 people in Las Dos Erres, Petén. While he was convicted in 2013 for genocide against the Ixil people, the sentence was [...]
The following is a narrative account by a current NISGUA accompanier who was present at the burial of the remains of eight people from Alta Verapaz, disappeared by the Guatemalan military in 1982. These eight individuals are among the 565 that have been uncovered by the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation [...]
As part of NISGUA’s 2016 tour, “Guatemalan women healing towards justice: the case of Sepur Zarco,” Bay Area organizers brought together community and clinical psychologists working in trauma and healing to discuss the connections between militarism and sexual violence and strategies for resilience and solidarity. The event, “Memory and [...]
Maudí Tzay joins hundreds of activists in denouncing ongoing U.S. militarization at this year’s SOA Watch Convergence This year’s tour, “Guatemalan women healing towards justice: the case of Sepur Zarco,” kicked off at the U.S.-Mexico border, together with hundreds of other activists at the annual School of the Americas Watch [...]
"Today our loved ones return to Central Park; we celebrate their love and their LIVES, their example and their dignified rebellion" - Hijos Guatemala On June 30, urban activists took to the streets once more for the Day of Heroes and Martyrs, in celebration of life, resistance, and dignity. This [...]
In commemoration of the National Day Against Forced Disappearance in Guatemala, we share words from photographer CPR.Urbana on the importance of photography in the recuperation of historical memory. CPR.Urbana describes their project in the following way: The Communities of People in Resistance (CPRs) were civilian fronts of resistance against the counter-insurgent [...]
On June 7, Judge Claudette Domínguez of Guatemala’s High-Risk Crimes Court “A” ordered eight former military officers to stand trial for crimes against humanity in one of the largest cases of forced disappearance in Latin America’s history. The legal case is built on eyewitness and expert testimonies, documentary evidence, [...]
A major legal victory took place in Guatemala earlier this year, when for the first time, sexual slavery was successfully tried as a crime against humanity. A former Colonel and Military Commissioner were convicted for crimes against humanity for sexual violence and sexual and domestic slavery committed against Q’eqchí [...]
The following are translations from the Center for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH), plaintiff in the genocide case against former dictator Ríos Montt and his Head of Military Intelligence, Rodríguez Sánchez. CALDH and the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) are currently participating in the closed-door retrial of Ríos [...]
Photo of 14-year-old Marco Antonio Molina Theissen. Photo credit: Lucrecia Molina Theissen The submission of preliminary evidence in the Molina Theissen trial was expected in Guatemala's First Instance Tribunal last week but was halted by a defense appeal on the issue of amnesty. The court had previously ruled [...]
Women survivors of Sepur Zarco stand and raise their hands in acknowledgement of the guilty verdict and sentence. Photo: EPA Yesterday marked an historic day for both Guatemala and the world in the struggle to seek justice for gender-based crimes. Retired Coronel Esteelmer Reyes Girón and former [...]
The first case in the world to be tried in a domestic court for sexual and domestic slavery opened in Guatemala City today, for crimes against humanity committed at the Sepur Zarco military base in the early 1980s. At the national level, this is the first time a court [...]
The following statement was released by the Public Prosecutor’s office on January 6, 2016. Translation by NISGUA. On January 6, 2016, the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Human Rights coordinated the capture of four members of the Guatemala Army in charge of the Military Zone “GMLB” of Quetzaltenango. Those arrested [...]
Earlier this year, the Center for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH) inaugurated the permanent installation of the Casa de la Memoria, an art exhibit that empowers youth to reconstruct their historical memory through the creation of personal and collective identity. NISGUA accompanier Kayla Myers takes us on a photographic [...]
Legal battles over Efraín Ríos Montt's health have taken center stage over the past three months in the decades-long search for justice for genocide in Guatemala. On August 25, the three-judge tribunal ruled that Ríos Montt is mentally unfit to stand trial due to chronic and irreversible dementia. The [...]
Article written in collaboration with MiningWatch Canada and the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network. If the militarized security strategy that Tahoe Resources has used to put its Escobal silver mine into operation isn’t enough to raise questions about the ethics of the company’s operations in Guatemala, the recent resignation of Guatemalan President [...]
Update: On Tuesday, September 8, former President Otto Pérez Molina was indicted on charges of customs fraud, illicit association, and bribery in connection with "La Línea," a customs fraud network accused of stealing millions of dollars from the Guatemalan state. Given the number of people still being investigated in [...]
On Friday, the UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and Public Prosecutor's office revealed evidence connecting Guatemala President Otto Pérez Molina to the massive customs corruption network known as La Línea. Prosecutors have filed a legal motion to strip Pérez Molina of his presidential immunity – the [...]
On June 22, 2015, Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez ruled to accept witness testimonies and other evidence in the Sepur Zarco sexual slavery case. This is the first case of its kind to be heard in Guatemala courts and will be presided over by Judge Yassmín Barrios. The case first [...]
On June 10th, Guatemala's Supreme Court unanimously voted to accept Congressman Amílcar Pop's petition to remove President Otto Pérez Molina's immunity. Pop is accusing President Molina of playing a role in the corruption scandals in the tax and health sectors, which were recently unveiled by the UN-backed International Commission [...]
Tens of thousands gather in Guatemala's central park to demand an end to impunity and corruption. Photo credit: SkyCam Guatemala A crime ring that defrauded the Guatemalan national tax collection agency (SAT) and customs office, and implicated high-level authorities in different government institutions all the way up to Vice President [...]
This year, ACOGUATE honors 15 years providing a physical international presence to threatened Guatemalan human rights defenders as they work towards social justice and transformation. In 2000, NISGUA joined international accompaniment organizations from Canada and Austria to form ACOGUATE, drawing from experiences accompanying refugee communities during their return to [...]
Three and a half decades had to go by in order to achieve justice for a horrendous moment in the history of the country. At the time, television cameras recorded the burning of the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala and showed the agony the 37 people endured after being blocked [...]