The Witness series on Al Jazeera features a film by Paula Monaco Felipe. A 40-year search for his disappeared father leads an Indigenous weaver into a world of forensic investigation. Carlos Poyon was just three years old when his father… Read More ›
Impunity
Guatemala is Constructing a Religious Narco-State
Jeff Abbott has written a piece in The Progressive, for the “Other Americans” series, reflecting on the rise of right-wing evangelical forces in the once-Catholic majority nation which is reshaping its culture—and politics. As Christian nationalism rises within the Republican… Read More ›
The Jungle Patrol: Fighting Illegal Loggers on the Guatemala-Mexico Border
Alejandro Melgoza and Alex Papadovassilakis present an important and fascinating report, on InSight Crime, into how a shadowy timber mafia, with ties to Asia, is illegally extracting precious wood on the Guatemala-Mexico border. They document how illegal loggers have ravaged… Read More ›
Special Reports: Guatemala’s Downward Spiral
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the Latin America Working Group Education Fund, the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA (GHRC), and the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLf) have, together, presented three reports into the challenges being faced by human… Read More ›
Who Will Inherit Giammattei’s Power in Guatemala?
Nine months before the presidential election, the right wing that rules the country is fracturing into rivaling projects as progressive groups discuss the elusive idea of a united candidacy. Electoral authorities are indulging pre-campaigning by the ruling party and top… Read More ›
“If the elections are clean, a progressive victory is possible in Guatemala”
In an interview with José Luis Sanz, published in El Faro, the former Guatemalan Human Rights Attorney, Jordán Rodas Andrade, believes that the opposition can still win the 2023 elections in Guatemala. He believes that there is enough outrage among… Read More ›
IACHR ratifies judgement to protect Judge Gálvez
Verdad y Justicia en Guatemala tweeted that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) had ratified their judgement regarding Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez in ordering the Guatemala state to provide protection and security for the Judge and his family. Errors… Read More ›
Wounds Reopened: The Impacts of Democratic Backsliding on Human Rights in Guatemala
GHRC/USA led an Emergency Human Rights Delegation to Guatemala to document the impacts of the democratic backsliding and destruction of rule of law on human rights defenders. The delegation met with, among others, defenders, lawyers, journalists, Indigenous land defenders, and… Read More ›
A Guatemalan law meant to protect women from violence is being used against journalists
Leila Miller writes in the Los Angeles Times about a particular use of lawfare in obstructing journalists in their work uncovering corruption – the law to protect violence against women. It was a landmark piece of legislation for Guatemala: a… Read More ›
‘The Indigenous Women of Guatemala had the Courage to Break the Silence’
Josefina Salomón and Sergio Ortiz Borbolla spoke with Dr. Jo-Marie Burt, a Senior Fellow at WOLA, about the historic importance of two gender violence trials, that of the Maya Q’eqchi’ women of Sepur Zarco, and of the Maya Achi women… Read More ›