In Guatemala, what we had feared would happen is beginning to happen. Indigenous leaders who put their safety on the line for democracy are being arrested.
Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) posted a piece on the criminalisation and arrest of two Indigenous leaders on charges relating to protecting the environment. We posted a piece on this recently.
Guatemalan authorities on April 23rd arrested an Indigenous leader of the nationwide protests in 2023 that sought to ensure then President-elect Bernardo Arévalo’s transition to power while also demanding the resignation of the country’s attorney general. The Attorney General’s Office is accusing Luis Pacheco, now serving in Arévalo’s government, of terrorism and illicit association. In October 2023, Pacheco led an alliance of 48 Indigenous communities in peaceful protests that shut down highways across Guatemala for three weeks. Along with Pacheco, Indigenous leader Hector Chaclan was arrested on the same charges. After repeated delays owing to the absence of representatives of the Public Ministry (aka Attorney General’s Office), the two men were brought before a judge and indicted on the charges of terrorism and obstruction of justice. They remain in prison awaiting trial. Judge Carol Patricia Flores has given the Prosecutor’s Office on Organized Crime two months to strengthen its case against the Indigenous leaders, meaning they will remain in prison for at least that amount of time.
Reporting for the Associated Press, Sonia D. Perez notes that Pacheco, a member of the K’iche’ people, said at the time of the protests that the galvanizing moment for the community he represented which led them to protest was a raid on electoral offices broadcast live in which federal agents opened and took away — despite resistance from some electoral officials — boxes containing precinct vote tally sheets. “The people already voted and you have to respect the decision taken,” he said at the time.
Following the protests, in negotiations brokered by the US Embassy, Indigenous leaders met with former president Alejandro Giammattei and leaders of Guatemala’s business sector to reach an accord that allowed Arévalo, elected in a landslide, to take office. The men’s arrest implies a threat to leaders of other Indigenous peoples who were involved in the protests and a constriction of basic rights, such as the right to free assembly. Despite Arévalo’s resounding victory in August 2023, observed by the Organization of American States and found to be free, and fair, the Attorney General’s Office has continued to investigate the election and members of his party, accusing them, among other things, of improperly gathering signatures required for the party to form. The Attorney General’s office has brought 14 spurious lawsuits against President Arévalo. One of them relates, like the accusations against Pachecho, to the protests of 2023 and is one of four in which the Attorney General’s office has asked for the president’s immunity to be removed. Arévalo, in that case, is charged with sedition, accused of promoting the protests. Guatemala’s Supreme Court is considering the removal of Arévalo’s immunity in the case so that he can be prosecuted.
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Indigenous leaders have mobilized and are demonstrating in response to the arrests. Their rights to safety and to free assembly must be guaranteed. Please remain alert for more news.
You can read the full piece, with links, here, Arrest of Indigenous Leaders Threatens Rights to Free Assembly and Democracy in Guatemala.
We posted a piece from El Faro English about this case and you can read that here, Expanding Her Enemy List, Guatemalan AG Accuses Indigenous Leaders of Terrorism.
Categories: Corruption, Criminalisation, Environment, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Indigenous peoples, Justice, Land, Legal, Resource Extraction, Solidarity in Action, Violence
Guatemala Solidarity Network 
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