THE ASSOCIATION FOR JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION -AJR- TO THE PUBLIC OPINION COMMUNICATES: The victims and survivors of the Internal Armed Conflict (IAC) organized in the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) reject with total indignation the law initiative 6099, because it favors the military personnel responsible for committing grave [...]
On June 9, Guatemala’s justice system granted substitute measures and house arrest to former high-rank military officials Benedicto Lucas García, Manuel Callejas y Callejas, and Francisco Luis Gordillo Martínez, who were sentenced in 2018 for their participation in the illegal detention, torture, and sexual assault of Emma Guadalupe Molina [...]
In May 2018, the judges of the Highest Risk Court C sentenced General Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, former head of the Presidential General Staff; Manuel Callejas y Callejas, former intelligence chief; and Hugo Ramiro Zaldaña, former intelligence officer, to 58 years in prison; and to 33 years in prison [...]
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 [...]
On November 15, Judge Galvez announced his resignation as a High-risk Court Judge and made public that he left the country due to defamation, intimidation, harassment, security threats and lack of access to a due process. The threats against Judge Miguel Angel Galvez increased dramatically after he ordered the [...]
We share the statement of Convergencia por los Derechos Humanos, in solidarity with the pursuit of democracy, freedom of expression and non-criminalization of human rights defenders. In view of the raids on El Periódico, the arrest of its President and the Prosecutor Samari Gómez We denounce: the arbitrary action [...]
On May 6, Judge Miguel Angel Galvez ordered the opening of the trial for the first nine military and retired policemen accused in the “Military Diary” case. Subsequently, after the capture and first hearing of Toribio Acevedo Ramirez, who was a fugitive and wanted for the same case, Judge [...]
"I commemorate to avoid repetition!" Flyer, of the eighth anniversary of the first sentence for genocide and crimes against against the Maya Ixil people, released on May 10, 2013. Credit: Center for Legal Action on Human Rights, CALDH. To mark the 8th anniversary of the sentence that [...]
Guatemalan authorities put a giant poster with national symbols outside the Congress. Social organizations covered it with pictures of the disappeared and victims of the Internal Armed Conflict during the February 25 commemoration. Photo credit: Edith López Ovalle [...]
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 [...]
In the last few weeks, protests are growing in Guatemala due to the mismanagement of the pandemic and the lack of an appropriate state response to hurricanes Eta and Iota, the outrageous 2021 budget, and the systematic corruption and impunity of the ruling class. Therefore, human rights organizations and [...]
On November 10, the Guatemala Supreme Court elected Roberto Molina Barreto to the Constitutional Court (CC), replacing Judge Bonerge Mejía, who died of COVID-19 in September. In 2013, when Molina Barreto was also serving on the CC, he voted to overturn Ríos Montt's genocide conviction. Years later, in December [...]
After the Guatemalan government heavily repressed on Saturday 21 a peaceful demonstration that had initially being call against the 2021 budget, human rights organizations and social movements are calling for the immediate resignation of the president and vice president, and some civil society groups are calling for a constitutional [...]
Members of the Platform of Victims and Survivors of the Internal Armed Conflict outside the Constitutional Court of Guatemala. Photo credit: Courtesy of AJR On October 5, the National Platform of Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict and Guatemalan social organizations expressed their rejection of President Giammattei’s [...]
"Their truth is our truth". Illustration by CALDH. On September 16, 17 and 18, survivors of massacres that occurred in the Ixil region gave their testimonies as pretrial evidence in the case against retired military officer Luis Enrique Mendoza García who was Chief of Army Operations in the government [...]
[Español abajo] NISGUA denounces the attack on social activist Tania Palencia We are deeply concerned about the attack at the home of social activist Tania Palencia on May 22 . Tania is a human rights defender and has made fundamental contributions to Guatemalan social movements, and is also an [...]
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 [...]
As several grave war crimes cases have been temporarily suspended, the lawyer of five senior military officials convicted in the Molina Theissen case (including Benedicto Lucas García and Manuel Callejas y Callejas) made another attempt to release convicted war criminals, this time using the pandemic as an excuse. Survivors [...]
In the midst of an unprecedent health, economic and social crisis caused by COVID19, the Guatemalan government is betting on closing SEPAZ, one of the few institutions that ensures the monitoring and compliance with the Peace Agreements. In this critical context, we stand in solidarity with the victims of [...]
Survivors of the Internal Armed Conflict at their Press Conference. Photo Credit: Impunity Watch Statement on International Human Rights Day The Victims and Survivors of the Internal Armed Conflict, convened in National Assembly, declare before national and international public opinion that: 1. We publicly condemn the [...]
News recap: NISGUA celebrates a successful fall speaking tour; Communities celebrate another year of resistance; Take action to stand with Indigenous Peoples to demand respect for Indigenous self-determination in Guatemala; ACODET releases statement in the face of attacks against water defenders; 2018: a year of horizontal exchange - a [...]
Español abajo. The peoples that form part of M4 who resist the capitalist and extractive model and are working towards social transformation DECLARE In Guatemala City’s historic center, on November 15, 16 and 17, we met to discuss and analyze current efforts to regulate prior consultation of our [...]
The following article was co-written by the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network, Earthworks, and NISGUA. On November 19, 2018, the Xinka Parliament held a press conference to denounce the malicious behaviour of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), and [...]
The following is a statement made by the Departmental Assembly of the Peoples of Huehuetenango (ADH) on the International Day of Indigenous Peoples. For the original statement by the ADH, click here. Translation by NISGUA. The Departmental Assembly of the Peoples of Huehuetenango (ADH) August 12, 2016 To mark the [...]
Today marks the opening of the trial against seven land defenders from northern Huehuetenango, all of whom have been held in pretrial detention as political prisoners for over a year. All seven are being accused of crimes that allegedly took place during community protests against the imposition of hydroelectric [...]