As I write these lines, I can’t help but think that just a year ago, on March 15, 2020, the first COVID-19 death was reported in Guatemala. On March 17, the state closed the borders and imposed a stage of siege. One month later, on April 23, I closed [...]
During the February 25 commemoration, social organizations placed a poster with national symbols, covered by pictures of the disappeared and victims of the Internal Armed Conflict, outside the Congress. Photo credit: Edith López Ovalle Dear friends and comrades: We are already walking [...]
(Español abajo) Maya-Ixil Human Rights survivors and victims of Guatemalan state-sponsored violence fight for asylum in the United States El Paso Immigration Lawyer Carlos Spector declares, “It’s the most significant case I’ve ever had.” El Paso, TX: Gaspar Cobo and Francisco Chávez are Maya-Ixil human rights leaders and [...]
Guatemalan authorities put a giant poster with national symbols outside the Congress. Social organizations covered it with pictures of the disappeared and victims of the Internal Armed Conflict during the February 25 commemoration. Photo credit: Edith López Ovalle [...]
SIGN THE PETITION TODAY REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR Indigenous peoples of Abiayala (the Americas, in colonial terms) continue to face the destructive results of ongoing Doctrine of Discovery-based colonialism: imposed resource extraction, impunity for crimes against humanity, systemic poverty, robbing of ancestral lands, and more. [...]
These past few months have been full of challenges, victories, and continued perseverance. Continue reading below to join us in celebrating our wins, take action with us, and learn about the continued fight for justice for genocide survivors, land defenders, and all migrants and asylum seekers. Please also consider [...]
Since Giammattei announced a series of decrees closing several institutions created to comply with the Peace Accords signed by the Guatemalan State in 1996, we have been echoing the demands of our Guatemalan partners and uplifting their actions and statements. We also express our concerns on this grave setback [...]
"What is the institutional framework of peace in Guatemala? They are institutions that ensure that the State respects the Peace Accords and provides dignified reparation to the people who suffered crimes against humanity committed by the Guatemalan State through its repressive apparatus during the Internal Armed Conflict. The current [...]
On December 9, 2020 a virtually public hearing was held in the Constitutional Court, to address an injunction presented by FAMDEGUA regarding the prosecution of the crimes of sexual violence and crimes against women in the CREOMPAZ case. In 2016, Judge Claudette Domínguez’s made the decision to exclude [...]
Written and originally posted by our comrades at the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). Haz clic aquí para leer en español. On December 18, International Day of the Migrant, CISPES joined over thirty human rights, religious, solidarity and service organizations throughout Central America and [...]
In the last few weeks, protests are growing in Guatemala due to the mismanagement of the pandemic and the lack of an appropriate state response to hurricanes Eta and Iota, the outrageous 2021 budget, and the systematic corruption and impunity of the ruling class. Therefore, human rights organizations and [...]
On November 10, the Guatemala Supreme Court elected Roberto Molina Barreto to the Constitutional Court (CC), replacing Judge Bonerge Mejía, who died of COVID-19 in September. In 2013, when Molina Barreto was also serving on the CC, he voted to overturn Ríos Montt's genocide conviction. Years later, in December [...]
After the Guatemalan government heavily repressed on Saturday 21 a peaceful demonstration that had initially being call against the 2021 budget, human rights organizations and social movements are calling for the immediate resignation of the president and vice president, and some civil society groups are calling for a constitutional [...]
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GUATEMALA? For centuries, the elite of Guatemala have consolidated their power by violently robbing resources from the Indigenous majority. In recent history, the oligarchy has maintained its control through militarized violence, mass corruption, systemic impunity, and strategic alliances with the U.S. government and multinational corporations. [...]
Members of the Platform of Victims and Survivors of the Internal Armed Conflict outside the Constitutional Court of Guatemala. Photo credit: Courtesy of AJR On October 5, the National Platform of Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict and Guatemalan social organizations expressed their rejection of President Giammattei’s [...]
"Their truth is our truth". Illustration by CALDH. On September 16, 17 and 18, survivors of massacres that occurred in the Ixil region gave their testimonies as pretrial evidence in the case against retired military officer Luis Enrique Mendoza García who was Chief of Army Operations in the government [...]
This article was originally written by Carlos Juarez for gAZeta magazine on January 2020. You can read the article on Spanish here. Since the publication of this article no further arrest has been made. On the contrary, several defendants have requested their release from preventive detention, claiming that due [...]
Archive picture of Marco Antonio Molina Theissen On Wednesday, August 19 a closed hearing was held to resolve the petition of substitute measures for 3 high-rank military officials who currently are in the Guatemalan Military Hospital, arguing the dangers to their health in the face of [...]
Beloved community, we write this Solidarity Update with broken hearts. Rubén Herrera of the Departmental Assembly of Peoples of Huehuetenango (ADH) passed away on July 22. We honor Rubén and we stand in solidarity with Rubén's family and the ADH. We also invite you to watch [...]
learn more and take action Migrants’ rights organizations deliver petition with 2000+ signatures against the Asylum Cooperative Agreements (ACAs) Leer en español Today, a broad coalition of Central and North American organizations delivered a petition to the U.S. Congress with more than 2000 signatures against the [...]
[English below] The Constitutional Court is the highest body of defense for the Political Constitution of the Republic. (Photo: La Asamblea Departamental de Pueblos de Huehuetenango- ADH) Alta Corte de Justicia de Guatemala Las instituciones internacionales de derechos humanos firmantes expresamos nuestra profunda preocupación ante una [...]
[Español abajo] Image reads: Liberty! No to the State of Siege (Photo credit: Festivales Solidarios) On May 30, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei declared a State of Siege in Santa Lucía Utatlán, Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán, and Nahualá in Sololá due to territorial conflicts in these regions. [...]
June 21 is the National Day Against Forced Disappearance in Guatemala, marking the anniversary of the collective forced disappearance of 27 unionists from the National Workers Union (Central Nacional de Trabajadores). We share the statement of the survivors of the Internal Armed Conflict and echo their demands. Photo Credit: [...]
Para leer en Español Read this statement that our comrades from the Departmental Assembly of the Peoples of Huehuetenango (ADH) wrote "in the face of the serious crisis generated by the measures taken by the Guatemalan government in relation to containing the COVID-19 pandemic." [...]
[English below] LAS VIDAS NEGRAS IMPORTAN. Desde NISGUA nos solidarizamos con todas las luchas en defensa de la vida, la dignidad y la seguridad de las personas negras por todo el mundo. Como una organización estadounidense, honramos a las tácticas diversas que líderes/as negras e indígenas utilizan para exigir [...]
Lawyers of the victims and survivors of the CREOMPAZ case at the hearing on May 18. Photo credit: Dr. Ramón Cadena May 2020 Solidarity Update We are in regular contact with our partners in Guatemala, where people are struggling to follow social-distancing measures and [...]
[Español abajo] NISGUA denounces the attack on social activist Tania Palencia We are deeply concerned about the attack at the home of social activist Tania Palencia on May 22 . Tania is a human rights defender and has made fundamental contributions to Guatemalan social movements, and is also an [...]
A page from the Military Diary. Photo credit: Centro de Medios Independientes. The Military Diary is a 54-page document that lists the names of 183 people who were captured and forcibly disappeared between 1983 and 1985, during the term of dictator Oscar Humberto Mejía Victores. In [...]
On May 11, the military José Antonio Vásquez García and César Augusto Cabrera Mejía, accused in the CREOMPAZ case, asked Judge Claudette Dominguez to obtain conditional freedom in the context of the COVID-19 emergency. The plaintiffs in the CREOMPAZ case published a first statement explaining why this petition should [...]
[Español abajo] On February 25th, NISGUA accompanied survivor organizations as they gathered to remember what they survived and those they lost on the National Day of Dignification for Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict. We gathered this footage as a tribute to the wisdom and lessons that [...]
We share with you this statement from the Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA), in commemoration of the Los Josefinos massacre, which occurred on April 29 and 30 in 1982. On those days, a military unit from the Guatemalan army burnt houses and [...]
Picture of Esteban Celada during a hearing on the Creompaz case. Photo credit: Verdad y Justicia April 2020 Solidarity Update As we all face the multidimensional implications of the current pandemic, we want to share with you the analyses of our Guatemalan partners. Read [...]
As several grave war crimes cases have been temporarily suspended, the lawyer of five senior military officials convicted in the Molina Theissen case (including Benedicto Lucas García and Manuel Callejas y Callejas) made another attempt to release convicted war criminals, this time using the pandemic as an excuse. Survivors [...]
NISGUA joins CALDH in denouncing the break-in of the home of Esteban Celada. Esteban is a well known Guatemalan lawyer who currently represents the girls massacred in a state-run youth shelter "Hogar Virgen de Asunción" in 2017. To date, there have been 39 attacks on Esteban, who also worked [...]
In the midst of an unprecedent health, economic and social crisis caused by COVID19, the Guatemalan government is betting on closing SEPAZ, one of the few institutions that ensures the monitoring and compliance with the Peace Agreements. In this critical context, we stand in solidarity with the victims of [...]
The setting sun shines through bougainvillea flowers in central Guatemala. Dear friend, I write to you today from my kitchen table, thankful for the pink-blossomed trees outside and the available resources for digital communications. On behalf of all of us at NISGUA, I want to offer [...]
On February 14, Guatemalan Congress approved law Decree 4-2020, formerly known as Bill 5257, or the NGO Law. Guatemalan social movements have pointed out that this initiative is antidemocratic, regressive, limits political rights, and threatens people who work in the defense of life. We are extremely worried about the impacts this [...]
Graphic by CEJIL, Center for Justice and International Law. As NISGUA we thank CEJIL for their leadership in creating this letter.
