The Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) shares an article written in exile by Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez. This in-depth study traces the history of corruption and impunity in Guatemala from the period of the revolutionary government of Jacobo Árbenz to the present day.
Gálvez demonstrates how the criminalization of justice workers today is profoundly tied to the actions of Guatemala’s military and economic elite over the past 80 years. He asserts that to better understand the current crisis facing Guatemala’s judicial system and ongoing challenges to the rule of law, it is imperative to study the root causes of corruption and impunity.
It is impossible to discuss justice and democracy in Guatemala without considering the outsized role of the Guatemalan army in every sphere of Guatemalan politics.
To analyze the role and rise to power of the army, we must go back to the year 1954, when what has been called the October Revolution (1944 to 1954) was interrupted. Guatemalan playwright and author Manuel Galich refers to those ten years as “the revolutionary decade” in his article “Ten Years of Spring in the Country of Eternal Tyranny.”
You can read the full article here, Analyzing The Role And Ascent To Power Of The Military In Guatemala, and you can read the original article in Spanish, here Analizando El Papel Y Ascenso Al Poder Del Ejército En Guatemala.
Categories: Corruption, Culture, Genocide, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Indigenous peoples, Military, Report, Solidarity in Action, Solidarity in Action/Guatemala, Violence
Guatemala Solidarity Network 
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