Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez shares, through the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC), his thoughts following the inauguration of Gabriel Estuardo García Luna as the new Attorney General. He examines how, under the administration of María Consuelo Porras, the Guatemalan judicial system was turned into a selective mechanism of intimidation against independent justice operators, indigenous peoples, human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers. He further outlines the urgent measures needed to restore institutional integrity, including an internal audit, a review of cases against human rights defenders, and close coordination between the Executive Branch and the Office of the Attorney General to strengthen the rule of law.

During the administration of María Consuelo Porras as head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, various social sectors and international organizations denounced the Guatemalan judicial apparatus. In many cases, it ceased to be an instrument for protecting human rights and instead became a selective mechanism of intimidation against independent justice operators, indigenous peoples, human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers.

In its message on May 13 of this year, the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala stated, among other things, that authentic efforts must be made to build a better justice system– with safeguards against the manipulation and unacceptable use of judicial processes to seek revenge against adversaries. This instrumentalization has led to a criminal use of the power of the state to exile or imprison anyone perceived as a threat to the entrenched powers in Guatemala.

The church’s message is important as it acknowledges the institutional deterioration Guatemala is experiencing. Up to this point, the country has been subjected to the laws of nature–survival of the strongest– rather than those of reason, with the most serious issue being the normalization of persecution from within the structures of justice.

Compounding this deterioration is the persecution of indigenous peoples. Specifically, the investigating body refuses to close cases against the indigenous authorities who took part in the 2023 demonstrations–a movement aimed at safeguarding electoral Driven by dissatisfaction with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary, these protests exercised the right of petition to demand the resignations of the Attorney General, the Head of FECI, and several judges. The former leaders of the 48 cantons of Totonicapán, Héctor Samuel Chaclán Batz and Luis Haroldo Pacheco Gutiérrez, remain detained. Held for more than a year at the Mariscal Zavala Men’s Detention Center, their arbitrary detention is intended to punish their leadership in the peaceful protests, functioning essentially as an anticipatory prison sentence.

This situation is aggravated by a context of historical, structural racism that is deeply pronounced in Guatemala, denying indigenous peoples their culture, identity, and labor. Racism operates as a mechanism of domination that seeks to justify an entire system of exploitation and oppression, ultimately culminating in a total system of control.

You can read the full article, here, New Attorney General Must End Criminalization, and the Spanish version here, El Nuevo Fiscal General Debe Poner Fin a la Criminalización.

Categories: Corruption, Criminalisation, Criminalization, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Indigenous peoples, Justice, Solidarity in Action, Solidarity in Action/Guatemala