News recap: Prayerful action on the Equinox at the Ohlone Shellmound and Village Sacred Site in California; Genocide retrial moves to Nebaj to hear testimonies from elderly and protected witnesses; Nearly 40 years later, former military officials stand trial for crimes against the Molina Theissen family; NISGUA's latest report celebrates community [...]
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 [...]
Today, plaintiff organizations went to Guatemala’s Constitutional Court to ask that the Court include testimonies from 35 key witnesses in the Military Zone 21 case – the largest case of forced disappearance to date in Latin America’s history. The plaintiff organizations and public prosecutor claim that during the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Luz Méndez, former director and current board member of the National Union of Guatemalan Women (UNAMG) spoke with NISGUA about the historic Sepur Zarco case that is currently being prosecuted in Guatemalan courts. UNAMG is one of the organizations that make up the Alliance to End Silence and Impunity and [...]
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 [...]
Español abajo. Press Release Sepur Zarco Trial January 31, 2016 Today: Justice for Women For more than 30 years, women survivors of sexual violence, sexual slavery and domestic slavery from Sepur Zarco have waited for justice. On February 1, the trial will begin in the Sala de Vistas of the [...]
Today, 11 former military were indicted on charges of forced disappearance and crimes against humanity committed between 1981 and 1988, based on evidence uncovered at the CREOMPAZ military center in Cobán, Alta Verapaz. Judge Claudette Domínguez of the High-Risk Crimes Court "A" ordered all 11 to be sent to preventative prison [...]