The Guatemalan Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit (UDEFEGUA) presented its 2024 Report on the Situation of Individuals, Organisations, and Communities Defending Human Rights, entitled “Impact of the Co-optation of the Justice System on the Defence of Human Rights.” It provides… Read More ›
Corruption
Arrest of Indigenous Leaders Threatens Rights to Free Assembly and Democracy in Guatemala
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… Read More ›
GHRC – Blog: Update on Recent Developments in Guatemala
Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) posted an update last month on the latest news from Guatemala. The topics covered included: These topics, and others, can be read in more detail here, Update on Recent Developments in Guatemala.
Expanding Her Enemy List, Guatemalan AG Accuses Indigenous Leaders of Terrorism
Two Maya K’iche’ pro-democracy leaders who were key in fending off an electoral coup in 2023 and 2024 have now been arrested and accused of terrorism, including a member of President Bernardo Arévalo’s cabinet. In response, Arévalo and Indigenous authorities… Read More ›
UK sanctions corrupt actors in Guatemala
The UK has sanctioned seven corrupt actors whose actions have undermined democracy and the rule of law in Guatemala. The UK Government recently announced sanctions being placed on corrupt actors in Guatemala. Among the members of the “Pacto de Corruptos”… Read More ›
Exile is ‘a little bit less than death’ for lawyer forced to flee Guatemala
Haroon Siddique wrote in The Guardian on Virginia Laparra’s struggle for justice and her receiving of the Sir Henry Brooke award. A Guatemalan anti-corruption prosecutor forced into exile after being pursued by the country’s conservative elite has said that leaving… Read More ›
The Genocide Trial and the Tightrope
José Luis Sanz wrote a two-piece chronicle in El Faro, published in Spanish in 2014, on CICIG, Claudia Paz y Paz, the genocide trial of Efraín Ríos Montt, and exile. The chronicle has been translated by Max Granger amid the… Read More ›
Mayans in Guatemala call on multinational companies to stay away
Una Kelly writes on the RTÉ website about the struggle of Indigenous Q’eqchi Maya in their opposition to multi-national resource extraction in eastern Guatemala. Indigenous Mayans in Guatemala have called for a halt on multinational companies coming to their communities… Read More ›
Arévalo’s “Democratic Spring” Polls Below the Nicaraguan Dictatorship
El Faro has presented a short video, scripted by Yuliana Ramazzini and Roman Gressier, on Bernardo Arévalo’s inability to curb criminalisation by the Attorney General and how his communications stumbles compound his inexperience as he struggles to make headway in… Read More ›
Fighting Corruption – Virginia Laparra awarded the Sir Henry Brooke award
In a significant acknowledgment of her relentless fight against corruption under perilous conditions, Virginia Laparra Rivas, a former prosecutor in Guatemala, was honoured with the prestigious Sir Henry Brooke Award for 2025. The ceremony, organized by the Alliance for Lawyers… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 