Yuliana Ramazzini writes in El Faro on the continuing corruption of the Guatemala judicial system through an interview with former Attorney General, Claudia Paz y Paz, internationally known for bringing to trial the first charges of genocide in Guatemalan history,… Read More ›
Corruption
Guatemala: A 2025 Snapshot
Emilie Sweigart provides a snapshot for 2025 on Guatemala in Americas Quarterly. Elected on an anti-corruption platform, President Bernardo Arévalo and his center-left Semilla Party (which holds only 23 of the 160 seats in Guatemala’s unicameral Congress) have faced strong… Read More ›
Guatemala’s New Anti-Monopoly Law: Bark or Bite?
In December, two-thirds of Congress approved an anti-monopoly law proposed by legislators aligned with President Bernardo Arévalo, marking a significant improvement of their negotiating power in the legislature while sparking debate over whether the new rules will in fact curb… Read More ›
Defense Strategy and Guatemalan AG’s Decisions Reduce Odds of Genocide Conviction
In the genocide trial against retired military commander Benedicto Lucas García, initially expected to end three weeks ago, the defense has attempted to recuse the court to delay sentencing. Last-minute tension is affecting proceedings: A judge is now on medical… Read More ›
Guatemalan AG Wants to Send Jose Rubén Zamora Back to Prison
After spending more than two years in prison in a corrupt judicial process, Guatemala’s most prominent newspaperman was released on house arrest pending retrial. But a Guatemalan court, at the request of AG Consuelo Porras, wants to send Zamora back… Read More ›
GHRC – El Quetzal
The Winter 2024 edition of El Quetzal, from The Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC), has recently been published. It features an interview with Juan Francisco Sandoval, who was the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI) from 2015… Read More ›
International organizations demand due process guarantees at key hearing for Jose Rubén Zamora’s release
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) was a signatory, among many others, of a Joint Statement demanding due process at the review of journalist Jose Rubén Zamora’s detention. 19 international civil society organisations demand due process at the review… Read More ›
Judicial Elections Enter Decisive Phase
“The Commissions have not excluded from the process aspiring magistrates, judges, lawyers, prosecutors and magistrates who have participated in acts of corruption and who have been involved in the corruption of the judiciary.” The Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA (GHRC) recently… Read More ›
The Voices Of Those Who Live Among Mountains
Resistance Of The Communities Of Guatemala Against Dispossession “We are Ral Ch’och, that is to say: we were born, we live and we are on our lands. We cannot go anywhere else other than our own.” Pascual Miranda, Río Cristalino… Read More ›
Guatemalan Women Fought for Democracy. Now They Have to Make It Work for Them.
Laura Carlsen writes in Z about the mobilisation of Indigenous people in defence of democracy, and the role of Indigenous women within that struggle. After the election of Bernardo Arévalo, the corrupt elites tried to turn back the clock and… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 