Unofficial translation by the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA). You can find the original statement in Spanish further below.

ENOUGH IMPUNITY

THE PEOPLE OF GUATEMALA DESERVE JUSTICE

On February 25, National Day for the Dignification of the Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict, survivors, relatives of the victims, collectives, organizations, and communities continue to demand JUSTICE for the grave human rights violations committed against thousands of victims at the hands of the State’s repressive forces. Thousands of cases involving students, academics, political activists, trade unionists, peasants, women, men, and children are still awaiting investigation and prosecution to uncover the Truth and achieve Justice for the 200,000 people killed and more than 45,000 people forcibly disappeared.

The current government created expectations that Memory and Truth would be taken up by the State as important policies for society. However, two years into its administration, victims continue to be neglected within a context in which the justice system remains co-opted by structures of impunity. Prosecutors, judges, and magistrates, through their rulings, have caused setbacks in cases of serious human rights violations that are being litigated in the courts of justice, which protect perpetrators and not the victims. The Constitutional Court has also protected military personnel linked to grave human rights violations, and governments have compensated them.

We condemn and repudiate justice system operators who continue to seek impunity in cases from the past, in the criminalization of defenders, and in actions to halt changes in the justice system, as we have recently seen in second-degree elections.

We therefore demand that the government, through the Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights (COPADEH), sign and implement the National Plan for the Dignification of the Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict, and fulfill its obligation to investigate the whereabouts of thousands of victims of the Internal Armed Conflict, given that this institution has a structured proposal that has been consulted with organizations of victims and their families, as well as advocate for the opening of the Peace Archives. We demand the creation of the Search Mechanism for Persons Detained and Disappeared during the Internal Armed Conflict, as there is extensive information that provides elements for its implementation. We also demand the prompt investigation of cases of grave human rights violations that remain shelved, an end to the criminalization of defenders of Justice and defenders of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, access to archives that may provide information on these events, and the opening of military barracks. We demand the political will of the government of Bernardo Arévalo to fulfill its commitment to the families of the victims, who are also supported by rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

As survivors and relatives of victims, we are monitoring the process for the nomination of the Attorney General and of the other bodies of the justice system. Enough submission to impunity and the continued protection of perpetrators, who must answer to justice. It is time to know the truth so that victims and survivors can receive true Reparation and Dignification.

COORDINACIÓN GENOCIDIO NUNCA MÁS

Guatemala, February 2026