source: Global Witness
Luis Pacheco had served as Guatemala’s deputy energy minister for eight months when police came to his home and arrested him on charges of terrorism and sedition. A Maya K’iche’ leader from the country’s forest-cloaked western highlands, his detention in April was the first in a wave of arrests of Indigenous leaders through 2025, ahead of critical judicial elections the following year. Both before and after his arrest, thousands of posts on Facebook, X and TikTok accused Pacheco of money laundering, terrorism, corruption, and conspiring with foreign powers to commit electoral fraud. Some posts came from accounts notorious for spreading fake news with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers. Others came from anonymous accounts, including one named Yes, Master!, known for coordinating with the country’s public prosecution service to persecute human rights defenders. And others came from members of Guatemala’s military or political elite. “Social networks have become a tool to disinform and strengthen our criminalisation” LUIS PACHECO, MAYA K’ICHE’ LEADER IMPRISONED ON CHARGES OF TERRORISM Guatemala's former deputy energy minister, Luis Pacheco (r), and the Governor of Sololá department, Edgar Tuy (l), have both been accused of terrorism online and pursued by the country's Public Prosecutor. Rafael Gonzalez / Global Witness Global Witness March 2026 Weaponising social media 4 Speaking from his prison cell in Guatemala City, Pacheco told Global Witness that this smear campaign shows how social media is being harnessed to attack defenders. “Social networks have become a tool to disinform and strengthen our criminalisation,” he said. “These attacks make people question our motives. They create doubts in our communities and people replicate the smears. They make it easier to damage our reputations and to criminalise us.” Facebook, used by almost 80% of adults in Guatemala at the start of 2025, is a key vector for these attacks. They are also widespread on TikTok, which has seen rapid growth to become Guatemala’s most popular social media platform, used by 89% of adults. And attacks are also common on X, used by around 7.5% of the country’s adult population. In this investigation, we analyse how social media is being used to persecute Guatemalan defenders. We take two crucial flashpoints in the country’s struggle for democracy and human rights: • The efforts to overturn the result of Guatemala’s 2023 election and the backlash against activists who resisted this “attempted coup” – which we explore in Part 1. • The persecution of land activists in the Guatemalan countryside, where Indigenous people are criminalised for pursuing legitimate land claims – the theme of Part 2. Then, in Part 3, we look at the forces behind these campaigns to smear and criminalise those defending democracy and their land. Finally, we set out how we can turn the tide – calling on social media giants such as Meta, X and TikTok to get to grips with the wave of disinformation and shield vulnerable activists from persecution. Most of the attacks we analyse occurred after Meta followed X in slashing support for factchecking and content moderation in the US in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2024 US election victory. Such changes were touted as promoting “free expression.” But the crackdown in Guatemala proves the opposite: they risk leaving those fighting corruption and authoritarianism more vulnerable than ever to harassment, stigmatisation and criminalisation.
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