Article written in collaboration with MiningWatch Canada and the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network. If the militarized security strategy that Tahoe Resources has used to put its Escobal silver mine into operation isn’t enough to raise questions about the ethics of the company’s operations in Guatemala, the recent resignation of Guatemalan President [...]
Update: On Tuesday, September 8, former President Otto Pérez Molina was indicted on charges of customs fraud, illicit association, and bribery in connection with "La Línea," a customs fraud network accused of stealing millions of dollars from the Guatemalan state. Given the number of people still being investigated in [...]
On Friday, the UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and Public Prosecutor's office revealed evidence connecting Guatemala President Otto Pérez Molina to the massive customs corruption network known as La Línea. Prosecutors have filed a legal motion to strip Pérez Molina of his presidential immunity – the [...]
On July 12, 2015, the Guatemalan Center for Environmental and Social Legal Action (CALAS) filed criminal charges against former Minister of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), Erick Archila, and former mines director at MEM, Fernando Castellanos. CALAS is accusing Archila and Castellanos of violating the Constitution and [...]
On June 10th, Guatemala's Supreme Court unanimously voted to accept Congressman Amílcar Pop's petition to remove President Otto Pérez Molina's immunity. Pop is accusing President Molina of playing a role in the corruption scandals in the tax and health sectors, which were recently unveiled by the UN-backed International Commission [...]
Tens of thousands gather in Guatemala's central park to demand an end to impunity and corruption. Photo credit: SkyCam Guatemala A crime ring that defrauded the Guatemalan national tax collection agency (SAT) and customs office, and implicated high-level authorities in different government institutions all the way up to Vice President [...]
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 [...]
The pact to maintain impunity consolidates with the nomination for Attorney General The Human Rights Convergence states: The director of the Public Prosecutor’s Office is a key and decisive position to guarantee that justice is done and that it is swift. With Doctor Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey at [...]
Join NISGUA and GHRC in calling on Secretary of State John Kerry to deny certification of DOS funds to Guatemala "We need more teachers and not military brigades." Photo: PrensaComunitaria Guatemala’s UN Truth Commission report not only attributes 93% of all human rights violations and acts of violence to [...]
We demand liberty for our leaders; they have not committed crimes Photo: ADH Departmental Assembly of Huehuetenango Communiqué in Solidarity with the Civil Society Movement of Santa Cruz Barillas Today, March 4, 2014, we attended two hearings in which the cases would be presented of six leaders from Santa [...]
Foto: ADH Comunicado Asamblea de Pueblos de Huehuetenango, ADH, en Solidaridad con el Movimiento fe la Sociedad Civil de Santa Cruz Barillas El día de hoy, 4 de marzo de 2014, acudimos a dos audiencias en las que se ventilan los casos de seis líderes de Santa Cruz Barillas, [...]
The Departmental Assembly of Huehuetenango in Defense of Territory and for the Autonomy and Free Determination of the People – ADH – informs the national and international community: During 1981, 1982, 1983, the Guatemalan Army massacred the Achí communities that lived on the banks of the Chixoy River; 444 [...]
On September 28, conflict erupted again in Northern Huehuetenango in response to the imposition of Spanish-owned Cambalam hydro-electric project in Santa Cruz Barillas. Despite ongoing criminalization and repression, community members continue to demand respect for the 2007 community consultation rejecting large-scale development projects in their territory.During his September 3 [...]
A LA COMUNIDAD NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL EXPRESAMOS: La agresión actual a los pueblos Q’anjob’al, Akateko, Chuj y mestizo de la Región Norte del departamento de Huehuetenango, de parte del Presidente y comandante en Jefe del Ejército Nacional, General Otto Fernando Pérez Molina, quien en conferencia de prensa resaltó la [...]
On September 7, six unknown men shot and killed eleven in San José Nacahuil, in the municipality of San Pedro Ayampuc. Today, NISGUA submitted a letter, signed by over a dozen international organizations, to President Otto Pérez Molina to express our solidarity with the community of San José Nacahuil [...]
El 7 de septiembre, seis hombres desconocidos dispararon y mataron a once miembros de la comunidad de San José Nacahuil, en la municipalidad de San Pedro Ayampuc. El día de hoy, NISGUA entregó una carta, firmada por organizaciones internacionales, al Presidente Otto Pérez Molina para expresar nuestra solidaridad con [...]
Yolanda Oquelí (foreground) meets with Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina and Minister of The Interior Mauricio Lopez Bonilla. Photo: Giles Clarke In an uncharacteristic move, President Otto Pérez Molina and the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) invited members of the peaceful resistance of La Puya to a high [...]
The deceased, all wounded by firearm, according to Dr. Jorge Destarac, regional head of the National Forensic Science Institute, were eight in total: Rafael Batz (Pasajoc), Santos Nicolás Menchú (Pasajoc), Jesús Baltazar Caxaj Puac (Chipuac), Francisco Ordoñez (Chipuac), José Eusebio Puac Ordoñez (Chipuac), Arturo Félix Sapón Yax (Panquix), Domingo [...]
At least six protesters were killed and dozens wounded this afternoon in repression of a protest organized by the representatives of 48 indigenous K'iche communities of Totonicapan, Guatemala. According to Guatemala Indymedia Center and social movement organizations, the protesters were shot by Guatemalan military personnel. The autonomous indigenous government of the 48 cantones (communities) of Totonicapan [...]