El Faro English presented an English version of a piece by Edward Grattan relating to the tiral and sentencing of those found responsible for the deaths of the 41 young girls in the fire at the Hogar Seguro Virgen de… Read More ›
Human Rights
Regina José Galindo, Performance Artist: “In Guatemala, we don’t live with the truth”
She walked barefoot, leaving footprints of human blood outside the Constitutional Court. She underwent surgery to reconstruct her hymen and become a virgin again. She had a doctor injected her in the mouth with anesthesia as she attempted to read… Read More ›
Military Diary Case: “Every judicial delay prolongs the never-ending grief”
Andrea Godínez has written on Agencia Ocote about the threats to the judicial process in the Military Diary case and the pain being felt by family members of the those forcibly disappeared by the Guatemala state because of these threats…. Read More ›
The Books the CIA Burned in Guatemala
Burning books, part of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, had strong support from local allies. Guatemala, after the fall of Jacobo Árbenz in 1954, points to a common practice in Central America: the violent repression of the free… Read More ›
Podcast: Gang Jailbreak in Guatemala Engulfs Arévalo in Security Crisis
Guatemala’s former minister of governance resigns and leaves the country after the public learns of the escape from prison of twenty Barrio 18 (18th Street) gang members. Gabriel Labrador and Roman Gressier presented a podcast on El Faro English highlighting… Read More ›
Coup Attempt Thwarted in Guatemala
The Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) posted recently about how democracy has again been threatened in Guatemala. A judge, at the request of the Public Ministry, declared that President Bernardo Arévalo’s political party, Semilla, was not legally constituted, declared the… Read More ›
Rethinking Justice: How Prosecutors Can Disrupt Criminal Networks
The Due Process Of Law Foundation has posted a new piece on criminal networks and how prosecutors can disrupt them, using Guatemala as the case study. The research, by Issa Luna Pla, José Roberto Nicolás Carlock, and Harald Waxenecker, as… Read More ›
GHRC – Attacks on human rights defenders continue in Guatemala
GHRC writes that in the past month attacks on human rights defenders, including journalists, have continued. Journalist Carlos Choc has suffered acts of intimidation and has been the victim of a defamation campaign. These acts are believed to be linked… Read More ›
GHRC – Recent Developments in Justice and Human Rights
A recent update from Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) on justice and human rights contained information on the following: At UN President Arévalo Points to Progress & Admits ChallengesAt a recent speech before the UN General Assembly, President Bernardo Arévalo… Read More ›
Pregnant and trapped: Guatemala’s child sex abuse crisis
In late 2022, Anja Popp presented an episode of Unreported World which looked at teen pregnancies among Indigenous Maya as a result of rape and sexual assault. There is a silent crisis of abuse and child pregnancies robbing a generation… Read More ›