Guatemala: News & Updates

A Guatemala judge who last week ordered nine former police and military officers to stand trial for alleged crimes during that country’s civil war, said Wednesday that death threats against him had increased since announcing his decision. “They send me messages, they call me on the phone, there’s vehicles following; all of that is happening,” Magistrate Miguel Ángel Gálvez said. Gálvez is no stranger to high-profile cases. He once ordered former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt to be tried. “Before they had threatened me, but now they even come to hearings to photograph me,” he said. Meanwhile, Gálvez fears the government is trying to build a case against him, as has been the case with other judges and prosecutors who have worked on sensitive corruption cases, which are also sometimes part of his docket.

A judge in Guatemala ruled Friday that nine former police and military officers will stand trial for a range of alleged crimes, including forced disappearances, torture and killings during that country’s civil war. In reading his decision, Judge Miguel Angel Gálvez recounted testimony about acts of torture, forced disappearance and killing. The case stems from a document from Guatemala’s civil war recovered in 1999 known as the “Military Diary.” Inside, military officials logged forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the torture of 183 people. The men on trial were high-ranking military and police officers arrested last year and implicated in the cases described in the document by nature of the command positions they held when the crimes occurred between 1983 and 1986.
  

Reproductive rights activists across Latin America have vowed to protect hard-fought gains in their own territories as they brace for potential ripple effects if the US supreme court overturns Roe vs Wade – the 1973 ruling which guarantees the right to abortion. Latin America has some of the most draconian anti-abortion laws in the world. But feminist movements have fought for decades to chip away at the prohibitions, and in recent years a younger, diverse generation of activists has mobilized in massive numbers to help clinch a string of victories in traditionally conservative countries.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopes Obrador is going on a 4-day tour of Central America to talk about the possible migration surge if Title 42 is ended by the Biden Administration. The Mexican leader has urged the United States to invest in economic development in Central America to generate jobs so people do not need to flee poverty. US President Joe Biden "agrees that the causes must be addressed, but Central America is still waiting for several billion dollars pledged by Washington.

In January, Thalía Rodríguez, a renowned human rights defender for trans people, was murdered in Tegucigalpa. Her crime highlighted the challenges faced by the government of President Xiomara Castro in protecting the sexual diversity community in Honduras. The country is considered one of the most hostile places in Latin America to be a member of the LGTBIQ+ community. In her Government Plan, Xiomara Castro proposed to promote the Law of Protection for LGTBIQ+ persons and establish a variety of care programs. The inclusion of some of the demands of the LGTBIQ+ community in President Castro's Government Plan has raised expectations in this sector.

A group of prosecutors and judges who investigated the country’s most powerful officials in Guatemala has been forced to flee to Washington, D.C.

Please see a summary of the letters we sent to heads of state and other high-level officials in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, urging their swift action in response to human rights abuses occurring in their countries.  We join with civil society groups in Latin America to (1) protect people living under threat, (2) demand investigations into human rights crimes, and (3) bring human rights criminals to justice…..IRTF’s Rapid Response Network (RRN) volunteers write six letters in response to urgent human rights cases each month. We send copies of these letters to US ambassadors, embassy human rights officers, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, regional representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and desk officers at the US State Department. To read the letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/rrn , or ask us to mail you hard copies.

Top United States officials are in Panama for a summit on migration in the Americas, where migrant rights groups say US policies exacerbate the dangers faced by migrants and asylum seekers heading north. The US secretaries of state and homeland security are joining their counterparts from 20 other countries in the western hemisphere for a ministerial conference on migration on Tuesday and Wednesday in Panama City. However, migrant rights advocates contend that security and deterrence policies pushed by the US and other destination countries aggravate the risks migrants and asylum seekers face in transit through the region.

Reporting on the human rights situation in Guatemala, the US State Department illustrated worsening conditions and highlighted the role that corruption and impunity have played in the last year. The 2021 Human Rights Report–released on April 12–summarizes and provides examples of what the State Department deems “significant human rights issues” in Guatemala, including the following: unlawful and arbitrary killings; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; restrictions on freedom of expression, including threats and violence against journalists; interference with freedom of association and organization; and significant corruption.