The retrial of Efraín Ríos Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity is due to start on the 5th January, tomorrow, in Guatemala. While the defense lawyers are doing what they can to delay or postpone the trial, or even… Read More ›
Justice
Mining interests in Guatemala challenged by indigenous direct democracy
We featured a piece, here, recently by James Rodríguez about a Consulta that took place in Santa María Chiquimula. This is by Jeff Abbott on Waging Nonviolence. Conflicts over mining are expanding across Guatemala. According to a recent report by… Read More ›
Spanish Embassy Case Nearing Close
On October 1, 2014, 34 years after the deadly fire that killed 37 protesters, diplomats, and others, Guatemalan judges for the first time convened to consider the culpability of a state actor in the notorious 1980 siege of the Spanish… Read More ›
Tahoe: Silencing opposition to corporate interests
In a cheat sheet for Kevin McArthur on Tahoe Resources’ tactics to silence opposition in Guatemala, Jennifer Moore writes on rabble.ca about how Tahoe Resources, with the help of the Guatemalan government and the powerful Guatemala Chamber of Commerce, has… Read More ›
Remembering Adolfo Ich Chaman
It is now five years since Adolfo Ich Chaman was brutally murdered during a violent eviction carried out on Q’eqchi’ Mayan communities on the 27thSeptember 2009. Mynor Padilla, former head of security for Hudbay Minerals/CGN, and former Colonel in Guatemala… Read More ›
Tahoe on Trial – a great new resource
Guatemalan plaintiffs seek corporate accountability in Canada for violence A fantastic new blogsite has recently been launched by Breaking the Silence, NISGUA and MiningWatch Canada revolving around the struggle taking place in the municipality of San Rafael las Flores in… Read More ›
Congress denies Genocide
An interesting development has recently taken place in Guatemala where members of Congress were asked to vote on whether or not genocide occurred there. The result was 87 out of 111 who voted that genocide did not occur. I don’t… Read More ›
Guatemala: The War of Paz y Paz
Courtesy of InSight Crime, and written by Steven Dudley, is this fascinating piece about Claudia Paz y Paz and her struggle for justice in Guatemala, which led her up against the powerful and corrupt. Her term as Attorney General has… Read More ›
Guatemala: Suppressing Dissent at Home and Abroad
Last year Otto Pérez Molina presided over the sharpest escalation in targeted attacks on human rights defenders since Guatemala’s armed conflict ended in 1996. Attacks on human rights defenders increased last year by 126 percent, by far the greatest jump… Read More ›
Official Histories
“Veterans of Guatemala’s long civil war recover the secret archive of the National Police, pulling together the missing parts of the country’s past, and of their own. In July 2005, investigators from Guatemala’s Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office stumbled upon a… Read More ›