Oli (they/them) former NISGUA internacionalista wrote this update during their time as a volunteer with NISGUA. Read and enjoy! Dear community, I am in Guatemala for my second stint as an accompanier. Some of the struggles I accompanied when I was here last in 2018-19 have been won, [...]
![[ENG] Photo of a red and white protest sign that reads "Never Again, Rivers of blood in Guatemala" behind a wall that is the entrance of a church. [ESP] Fotografía de una manta dolor rojo que en blanco dice "Nunca más rios de sangre en Guatemala" en la puerta de entrada a una iglesia](https://nisgua.org/wp-content/uploads/nb25-320x202.jpeg)
Over the past four years, the struggle for justice in Guatemala has endured a series of alarming setbacks that call us to maintain and sustain our solidarity with those we have stood beside for over four decades. During Giammattei’s presidency, the Pact of the Corrupt and their powerful economic [...]
On the National Day for the Dignification of the Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict. WE DEMAND JUSTICE! On this day, we, surviving victims and family members,remember the victims of the CREOMPAZ case. We light candles to keep the fire of hope [...]
Last September, we held a webinar together with the Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA) with the objective of hearing updates directly from the families and lawyers of the Military Diary case and discussing some of the gender-differentiated impacts for women. FAMDEGUA was [...]
We share with you a statement from the AJR regarding the return of the remains of several people murdered during the Internal Armed Conflict by the Guatemalan army, to their community of La Trinitaria, Ixcán, Quiche. Guatemala November 17, 2022 We inform the national and international [...]
[español abajo] Dear community, This month, we share with you the concerns of Guatemalan human rights, and survivors organizations over changes to the Public Prosecutor's Human Rights office. We also invite you to commemorate Indigenous people’s day by listening to their powerful leadership in the fight against the US [...]
Es de vital importancia informarles a los pueblos en todo el mundo, que este 25 de Julio, la ADH conmemoró 15 años de lucha y resistencia en defensa del territorio y los bienes comunes. En el caminar de los años, l@s miembros de la ADH hemos pasado por amenazas, [...]
For the past six weeks, I have had the honor of interning with NISGUA. I first became familiar with NISGUA’s work via Oberlin Students in Solidarity with Guatemala (OSSGUA). I transferred to Oberlin in the fall of 2020 and was excited to learn about ExCo (Experimental College), a program [...]
WE EXPRESS: We, the indigenous authorities, the ancestral cocodes authorities, women’s committees from the different indigenous communities of Ixcan, Cobán and Uspantan that compose the Association of Communities for Development and the Defense of Land and Natural Resources – ACODET- assembled today in the Q’eqchi Xalala indigenous community [...]
"What is the institutional framework of peace in Guatemala? They are institutions that ensure that the State respects the Peace Accords and provides dignified reparation to the people who suffered crimes against humanity committed by the Guatemalan State through its repressive apparatus during the Internal Armed Conflict. The current [...]
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 [...]
[Español abajo] On February 25th, NISGUA accompanied survivor organizations as they gathered to remember what they survived and those they lost on the National Day of Dignification for Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict. We gathered this footage as a tribute to the wisdom and lessons that [...]
On October 2, the First High Risk Appellate Court announced their decision to maintain Judge Claudette Domínguez in the CREOMPAZ case, despite the plaintiffs' lawyers' arguments that Judge Domínguez may have direct or indirect interest in the outcome of the case. Domínguez’ sister is an active-duty military physician and [...]
As Guatemala held its general elections on June 16, the justice system made an important arrest. They captured retired general Luis Enrique Mendoza in Baja Verapaz, as he went to cast his ballot. Mendoza had been on the run for nearly eight years. Mendoza served as Chief of Operations [...]
In the past several weeks, communities and organizations in Huehuetenango have noted an increase in U.S. and Guatemalan military presence in their territories. This unexplained and unapproved military presence has caused great consternation in a region that was a target of the military’s “scorched earth” policies during the internal [...]
An image made by the Xinka Parliament reads: "In our Xinka territory, water, our cosmovision, and spirituality are worth more than gold and silver." On Wednesday, May 8th, hundreds of members of the Peaceful Resistance of Santa Rosa, Jalapa, and Jutiapa gathered at the resistance encampment [...]
Current NISGUA accompanier Olivia Pandolfi (they/them or she/her) created this zine about community consultations as a Friends and Family Letter to their community. To read the zine as a PDF, click here. To download the zine, cut it up, and fold it into your own mini [...]
This March, NISGUA partnered with New Mexico State University to host a week-long exchange between Indigenous undergraduate students and Maya Q'eqchi', Mam, Q'anjob'al, and K'iche' environmental defenders. Ten NMSU students visited with NISGUA partners in the Chixoy and Copón Rivers watershed to learn about their grassroots organizing model that [...]
In 1999, the UN-sponsored Commission for Historical Clarification presented its report, Guatemala: Memory of Silence, which documented the crimes the Guatemalan state had committed against its own people during the Internal Armed Conflict. Each year, communities around Guatemala remember what they survived and those they lost on the National [...]
News recap: Organizations demand justice in wake of assassinations and ongoing violence in Ixquisis, TAKE ACTION to stand with communities working to protect community consultations, NISGUA Speaking Tour shares lessons from successful organizing in Chixoy-Copón Rivers Watershed, KCA sues Guatemalan State in international court, survivors of sexual violence in Military Zone [...]
For a downloadable version of this media advisory, click here. For nearly a year and a half, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has repeatedly defied the rule of law by attacking the UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). On January 7, Morales announced that his administration would [...]
For nearly a year and a half, the Jimmy Morales administration has repeatedly defied the rule of law in its attacks on the UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).The situation reached another climax when CICIG researcher, Yilen Osorio, was detained and denied entry to the country at the [...]
Jakelin Ameí Rosmery Caal Maquin died on December 6 of septic shock, fever, and dehydration while in US Border Patrol custody. Artist credit: Ruben Guadalupe Marquez Like many of you, we have spent this week reeling with pain from the murder of seven-year-old Jakelin Ameí Rosmery [...]
En este boletín el equipo de ACOGUATE subraya varios desarrollos en casos jurídicos de alto perfil, incluyendo el caso por genocidio, el caso de Las Dos Erres y el caso de la Mina San Rafael. También explica unos puntos en la coyuntura de Quiché y Ixquisis. ¡Haz clic en [...]
Following the recent ruling in the Ixil genocide case late last month, NISGUA invited its base to reflect on the significance of the decision for members of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) with the organization's president, Edwin Canil. Edwin spoke about survivors' long struggle to break [...]
En este boletín el equipo de ACOGUATE hace un análisis histórico del caso Las Dos Erres y da actualizaciones sobre un caso por violencia sexual, el estatus de defensorxs criminalizadxs en Huehuetenango y la lucha del pueblo Ch’orti’ de Morola. ¡Haz clic en la foto abajo para leer más! [...]
En este boletín el equipo de ACOGUATE da actualizaciones sobre las luchas de la resistencia pacífica en Ixquisis, FAMDEGUA y CONAVIGUA. También cuenta sobre la visita de la relatora especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas en Guatemala. ¡Haz clic en la foto abajo [...]
On April 1, 2018, former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt died from a heart attack at the age of 91. Having initially been convicted in 2013 of genocide and crimes against humanity against the Ixil people, he died under house arrest facing a retrial. Today, survivors organized with the [...]
Community members demand justice for the murder of 16-year old environmental activist, Topacio Reynoso, outside of the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor's Office in 2014 On March 26, Guatemalan and international human rights organizations called on the Guatemalan state to restore the life-saving security measures for the Reynoso Pacheco [...]
The Ixil genocide case retrial was moved to Santa María Nebaj for this week, following plaintiffs' request for the judges to hear testimony in the region against former de facto dictator Ríos Montt and former head of military intelligence, José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez. Antonio Caba Caba, a survivor and [...]
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 [...]
Photo credit: Jose Rodriguez After a holiday recess, the Ixil genocide case retrial will be heard again today. As Ixil witnesses come forward to once more share their experience of genocide publicly, they are surrounded by the supportive presence of members of the AJR. However, the AJR members [...]
In the midst of the ongoing genocide retrial of José Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez, the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), the Center for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH), and the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) published a press release in the Guatemalan newspaper, El Periódico, to mark [...]
Young Ixil university students stand in solidarity with genocide survivors outside of court.Photo credit: Ixil University students, Chemol txumb'al, FUNDEBASE, y AJR Friday, December 1, marked the seventh trial date since the case for genocide against Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez was reopened on [...]
Today, Survivors of massacres in the 80s from Chimaltenango traveled to participate in the trial against Rodríguez Sánchez for the Ixil genocide. The AJR (Association for Justice and Reconciliation) is made up of survivors from 5 regions in Guatemala and solidarity between communities has been their foundation since [...]
On October 13, the Ixil genocide trial is set to open once again against former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez, former head of military intelligence, in the second attempt to retry the case after the 2013 trial, verdict, and sentence convicting Ríos Montt of genocide. While [...]
On August 27, Guatemalan President, Jimmy Morales, declared Iván Velásquez, head of the UN anti-impunity commission, the CICIG, "persona non grata" in Guatemala and requested his immediate expulsion. This decision came on the heels of a request by the CICIG and the Guatemalan public prosecutor’s office to strip Morales [...]
Guatemala plunged into a political crisis this month as President Jimmy Morales attempted to circumvent a criminal investigation into his campaign finances by declaring the head of the UN-sponsored Commision (CICIG) persona non grata, a decision that sparked widespread public outcry. A second wave of outrage followed over legislation [...]
Press release May 17, 2017 (Guatemala/Oakland, CA/Tatamagouche, NS) -- On Wednesday, a letter was delivered to the Public Prosecutor’s office in Guatemala on behalf of more than 2,900 people requesting an immediate and thorough investigation into the murder of 16-year-old Topacio Reynoso Pacheco and the attacks against her father, Alex [...]