On November 7 a court acquited 3 former kaibiles accused in the Dos Erres massacre case despite that in 3 previous trials several military officers were convicted and the facts were proven. During this trial Gilberto Jordán, José Mardoqueo Ortiz & Alfonso Bulux Vicente were accused of killing more [...]
(English below) Acción solidaria con las familias y querellantes del caso Diario Militar Como NISGUA organizamos esta campaña de fotos esperando que esta muestra internacional de solidaridad sea un aporte más a la visibilidad de la lucha que por décadas los familiares y sobrevivientes han llevado a cabo. Lamentablemente, [...]
En septiembre pasado, tuvimos un seminario web junto con La Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos de Guatemala (FAMDEGUA) con el objetivo de escuchar actualizaciones directamente de las familias y abogadas del caso del Diario Militar y discutir algunos de los impactos diferenciados por género para las mujeres. FAMDEGUA nació [...]
Ruby Tedeschi (she/elle/ella) former NISGUA Internacionalista, recorded this update during their time as a volunteer with NISGUA. Turn the volume up and enjoy! Dear Friends and family I enjoy talking a whole lot more than I enjoy writing so I attached a voice recording [...]
Following the news that eleven alleged perpetrators in the Military Diary case have been detained on May 27 of 2021, we express our solidarity with the family members of the disappeared people. These family members have struggled for 38 years to discover what happened to their loved ones who [...]
In February, 2020, President Giammattei signed into law Decree 4-2020, formerly known as Bill 5257, but it was stalled by the former Constitutional Court (CC) due to a series of lawsuits that considered this law to be unconstitutional. On May 13, the CC definitively denied the injunctions against this [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
A survivor of sexual violence waits outside the courtroom for the Military Zone 21 case. Photo Credit: CALDH This article is about Indigenous women seeking justice for systematic sexual violence that was used as a tool of war against them. It contains several explicit descriptions of [...]
En una conferencia de prensa, organizaciones de sobrevivientes del conflicto armado interno rechazaron tanto la influencia del ejercito en el gobierno de Jimmy Morales, como la militarización de la seguridad pública y la corrupción de funcionarios del Estado. Las personas recordaron al público el rol del mismo ejercito en masacres [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
News recap: CREOMPAZ: Public Prosecutor presents evidence in the largest case of forced disappearance in Guatemala’s history; Closed-door genocide retrial moves to Ixil territory; Observer mission travels to Huehuetenango to document human rights violations in the context of hydroelectric projects; “Communities Rise Up” delegation builds connections across borders. This and more in this [...]
"We are talking about one of the biggest cases of forced disappearance in Latin America." - Thelma Aldana, Guatemala Attorney General Major arrests were made yesterday morning related to cases of crimes against humanity and forced disappearances committed between 1981 and 1988 by former high-ranking military officers. The remains of 558 people have been [...]
On July 3 and 4, four witnesses presented their testimony to the High Risk Court "B" in anticipation of the upcoming trial in the Military Diary case. Although a trial date has yet to be set, the court allowed the elderly witnesses to give their testimony, which will be [...]
Boys carry Martina Rojas' photo through the streets of Rabinal. Photo: CPR Urbana On September 7, Martina Rojas was buried in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, 31 years after she was forcefully detained and disappeared from her home community of Río Negro, situated on the banks of the Chixoy River. On [...]
In 2003, members of the community of Choatalúm dared to do the unthinkable: they publicly denounced then-mayor Felipe Cusanero Coj for his responsibility as military commissioner for the forced disappearances of six family members between 1982 and 1984. Forced disappearance, a kidnapping authorized by a State that refuses to [...]
The following was written by Amanda Kistler, an international accompanier from 2008 - 2009 with NISGUA. She was based out of Guatemala City and accompanied the plaintiffs in the Choatalúm trial. This article originally appeared on NACLA. Original article can be found here. On August 31, a tribunal [...]