Author Archives
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Wartime victims exhumed from military base return to Pambach
In the Pocomchi’ Mayan hamlet of Pambach, some 38 km from Cobán, residents gather at a local church to welcome the remains of Baldomero Chiquin (disappeared at the age of 16 with his 21-year-old brother Pedro Chiquin), Alberto Batz (disappeared… Read More ›
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Judging a Dictator: The Trial of Guatemala’s Rios Montt
The Open Society Justice Initiative has just published a summary of the six week trial of Efrain Rios Montt based on the daily monitoring reports from this website. The 56-page book, Judging a Dictator: The Trial of Guatemala’s Rios Montt,… Read More ›
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La Puya – Employees of EXMINGUA-KCA plead guilty to threats against journalists
Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) reports that Juan José Reyes Carrera y retired Guatemalan Army Lt., Pablo Silas Orozco Cifuentes, were sentenced to two years in prison for “threats and coercion” against independent journalists reporting on local resistance to a… Read More ›
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A personal story of the “Disappeared” in Guatemala
The annual commemoration of the International Day of the Disappeared takes place on August 30th and aims to draw attention to those people who have been imprisoned without their friends or relatives knowing where or why; also to highlight the work of… Read More ›
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Guatemalan State Can No Longer Afford to Neglect Food Security
This is an important article about the problems of hunger and malnutrition that affect people in Guatemala, especially its children and the state’s wilful inactivity in this regard. Joseph Ringoen is a Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs…. Read More ›
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Interview with Juan Francisco Soto, Director of CALDH
The following is an interview with Juan Fransisco Soto, Director of CALDH published in English by Carolyn O’Neil on the website,‘The Trial of Efrain Rios Montt & Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez’. Twelve years went by before the querella lodged by the… Read More ›
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Despite the rejection, the cement plant is inaugurated
Sandra Sebastián accompanies her photographs of the demonstration against the cement plant in San Juan Sacatepéquez with some background. “Thousands of community members of San Juan Sacatepéquez demonstrated in front of the San Gabriel cement factory to reject the commencement… Read More ›
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Indigenous Guatemalans Reject Mining Moratorium, Want Genuine Community Consultation
The above photograph accompanies an article by Curtis Kline on the Intercontinental Cry website. “Mining in Guatemala has often been to the detriment of the Indigenous Peoples of the country as it has proven to take away their ability to… Read More ›
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La Puya’s Celebration of Life, Peace, and Defense of the Earth
On the same day that Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina announced a two-year moratorium on mining, human rights and environmental activist Santos Fidel Ajau Suret was gunned down after leaving the peaceful community roadblock known as La Puya. He was… Read More ›
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“Yes, there was genocide!”: Guatemala’s Ixil Vow to Keep Fighting for Justice
Rob Mercatante writes on the website of the Americas Program: “In the early hours of June 21 hundreds of human rights defenders, artists, feminists, musicians, religious workers, community organizers, independent journalists, international accompaniers, campesino and indigenous activists and others gathered… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 