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FLD – Harassment, threats, smear campaign and criminalisation against ACOGUATE

By kevodell on December 4, 2021 • ( 0 )

Acts of harassment, threats, defamation and criminalisation campaigns against human rights defenders have no place in Guatemala and the elites of the country need to take responsibility for allowing this to happen. They continue to hide behind a thin veneer of respectability.

Front Line Defenders has added its voice to concerns about the concerted attacks against ACOGUATE, the International Accompaniment Project in Guatemala, being carried out through social networks and public statements by Guatemalan authorities.

Front Line Defenders expresses its deep concern at the recent upsurge of intimidatory acts against the International Accompaniment Project in Guatemala ACOGUATE, following its accompaniment during a mobilisation on the occasion of the Indigenous Resistance Day on 12 October 2021. Of particular concern are the defamation campaign against their legitimate work and threats of criminalisation against members of the organisation, who are subjected to it through social networks and public statements by Guatemalan authorities. Also a cause for concern is that the further limiting of ACOGUATE’s work is likely to have negative impact on other human rights organisations, observers, human rights defenders and civil society.

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Front Line Defenders calls once again on the Guatemalan authorities to promote a collaborative approach to work with human rights defenders and civil society organisations, and to refrain from committing any act of verbal stigmatisation, legal intimidation, criminalisation or misuse of criminal law against civil society organisations, human rights defenders and journalists in the country.

You can read the full note, including links, here, Harassment, threats, smear campaign and criminalisation against International Accompaniment Project ACOGUATE in Guatemala. You can also send a message of solidarity here, The International Accompaniment Project in Guatemala ACOGUATE.

In the face of these Government and elite attacks, other acts of solidarity and support for ACOGUATE, and the work that it does, can be viewed here, Solidarity And Support For ACOGUATE And CUC, and here, GHRC – Human Rights Accompaniment Comes Under Attack.

For many years, GSN was a proud member of the ACOGUATE family.