Photo credit: Roderico Díaz. News recap: Honoring the life of Miguel Ramírez Matóm, witness in the Ixil genocide trial; Take action: Denounce impunity for attacks against environmental defenders; Communities in the Ixcán commemorate 10 years since the referendum that said ‘no’ to resource extraction; Announcing our fall tour: "Guatemala youth in defense of [...]
While international accompaniment is at its core a response to the requests of Guatemalan communities and a tool for the protection of human rights, it is also a radical practice of showing up in solidarity and grappling with the deeper questions of structural injustice. Current accompanier Chris Shorne shares a poignant [...]
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 [...]
The following is a statement released by Ixil human rights organizations in light of the decision to move the genocide retrial to Nebaj for three days this week. This is the first time the Court for High-Risk Crimes is moving the closed-door trial to Ixil territory, to hear from elderly [...]
"We can't allow the massacres in our communities to remain in impunity. We've already achieved our sentence, but we're ready for it to be declared a second time because we know there was genocide." - Julia Cortéz, spokesperson for the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), plaintiff in the [...]
On Tuesday, Guatemala's National Forensic Science Institute (INACIF) published a report stating that former general Efraín Ríos Montt is mentally unfit to stand trial. The report was requested by Judge Carol Patricia Flores, the same judge who attempted to annul the genocide trial proceedings on April 18, 2013. The [...]
When President Otto Peréz Molina was elected in 2012, he came with an agenda to fully re-instate US military aid and end the restrictions on funding to Guatemala in place to varying degrees since the Carter administration implemented a direct security aid ban in 1977. Even before the Peace [...]
NISGUA sat down with several members of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) to ask them how they feel about the genocide retrial and the events of January 5th, when lead Judge Jeannette Valdés was recused from hearing the case and the retrial was suspended. The departure of [...]
"We know that genocide took place. The whole world knows it, but the truth has been denied." Juventino Caal, member of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) Yesterday, a new trial against Jose Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez opened in Guatemalan courts and once again [...]
January 5, 2015 Dear members of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), During this moment in which the Guatemala justice system is retrying the case against Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez, we here at NISGUA want to acknowledge this long process in search of justice and particularly [...]
“The thousands and thousands of victims will never abandon this struggle. We have to see it through. There are multitudes of victims by my side demanding that I speak out for justice and so I am going to speak out. In no moment will this [struggle] be abandoned. We have [...]
"Historically, we have never received the support of the state or the government for our development, which is why it seems fair that we be able to take advantage of our own natural resources in order to improve the living conditions of our people according to our own vision [...]
On May 10, supporters, scholars and students from over a dozen countries celebrated the one-year anniversary of the genocide sentence. The worldwide day of action brought together communities to support the survivors' decades-long struggle for truth and justice in Guatemala. People across the world read the sentence aloud, participated commemorative events [...]
“We must raise awareness [so] that these kinds of events are never repeated, because the people of Guatemala want to live in peace, acknowledging our identity, our rich multicultural, multilingual [heritage] and the respect for the freedom of expression of our ideas.” -Genocide sentence (page 89 in English translation) [...]
OUR SUPPORT FOR THE DIGNITY AND PROFESSIONALISM of HONORABLE JUDGE YASSMÍN BARRIOS To the people of Guatemala and to the international community, we express our total indignation of the decision emitted by the ethics tribunal of the Guatemalan Bar Association that attempts to penalize Judge Yassmín Barrios Aguilar. [...]
Interview originally published by El Periódico in Spanish. Translation by NISGUA. Judge Yassmín Barrios Photo: El Periódico Judge Iris Yassmín Barrios, presiding judge of the High Risk Crimes Court A, refers to the decision handed down against her last week by the Ethics Tribunal of the Guatemalan Bar Association (CANG [...]
This morning, the Constitutional Court (CC), Guatemala’s highest court, will hear arguments regarding the April 2013 decision by Judge Carol Patricia Flores to set the genocide case back to a pre-trial phase. The mid-trial ruling cited technical errors in the judicial process and stated that the case should return [...]
February 25 marks the annual Day of Dignity for Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict in Guatemala. In addition, 15 years ago to the day, the UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Commission presented its "Guatemala: Memory of Silence" report. Twelve volumes in total, the report provides findings from a detailed investigation [...]
The Guatemala Education and Action Project (GEAP) hosted NISGUA and the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) on our third tour stop in Los Angeles. GEAP's events included a press conference, community event and a number of college speaking opportunities for AJR president Anselmo Roldán. Anselmo receives [...]
The following is reblogged from UNREDACTED, the National Security Archive Blog. We're posting Kate Doyle's article in full for her first-hand account of the most recent proceedings in the Guatemalan Genocide Trial. Follow the National Security Archive's work here. Rios Montt on trial. Credit: Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters Guatemala City, [...]