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

WHERE ARE THE 45,000 FORCIBLY DETAINED-DISAPPEARED PERSONS?

On June 21, National Day Against Enforced Disappearance, families of victims, survivor collectives, and social organizations declare:

Guatemala has faced a period of setbacks in delivering justice in cases prosecuting those responsible for grave human rights violations during the internal armed conflict. Despite the efforts of families, organizations, and communities to push these cases through the courts, proceedings have stalled, or those accused of these atrocities have been let off without consequence.

The current government raised hopes for a genuine commitment to Justice, yet families of people forcibly detained and disappeared by the state’s repressive forces are still searching for their loved ones, not knowing where they are. Elderly survivors of the genocide are dying without any hope of justice or dignified reparation for the pain and suffering inflicted on their families and communities by these crimes. And yet, an unjust payout to military veterans has been approved and written into the budget.

For these reasons, we demand that the government of President Bernardo Arévalo, through the National Commission for Peace and Human Rights (COPADEH, by its Spanish acronym), move swiftly to implement the National Mechanism for the Search of Disappeared Persons.

We demand that military barracks be opened and that military archives be made accessible, so they can provide information for investigations seeking truth and justice in cases of enforced disappearance, as well as other grave crimes committed during this period.

We welcome the recent publication of Government Agreement No. 100-2026, the Reparation and Dignification Plan for Victims of Guatemala’s Internal Armed Conflict, 2026-2036, and we urge the Executive Branch to move quickly on its implementation.

We urge the new Attorney General and Head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Gabriel Estuardo García Luna, to strengthen the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office so it can carry out its duty to investigate in accordance with the law and with objectivity, guaranteeing the right to justice and, with it, restoring the memory and dignified reparation owed to victims and survivors.

The crime of enforced disappearance never expires under the law, even once a victim’s whereabouts is known. That is why families demand, and deserve, to know: where are the 45,000 people forcibly detained and disappeared during the internal armed conflict? They demand that judicial processes move forward without delay, and that those responsible for these atrocities be punished, so that they can never happen again. Today, we reclaim their Lives and their Memory.

WE WILL KEEP SEARCHING FOR THEM, UNTIL WE FIND THEM

Guatemala, June 21, 2026

COORDINACIÓN GENOCIDIO NUNCA MÁS

En español: