Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, made the following remarks today (March 19th 2013) as the trial of former generals Efrain Rios Montt and Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez began in Guatemala City: The judges,… Read More ›
Legal
Lawsuit against mining company to proceed in Canadian courts
“In an important precedent-setting development for the accountability of Canadian mining companies for alleged overseas human rights abuses, victims of rape and murder at a Guatemalan mine are now able to sue a Canadian mining company in Canadian courts. Guatemalan… Read More ›
Guatemala Sends Former Dictator to Trial for Genocide
Paul N. Avakian writes in the Foreign Policy Journal, “against a long history of impunity, a Guatemalan high judge last month sent to trial a lingering genocide case against a popular former dictator who presided over the most brutal phase… Read More ›
Guatemalan Genocide Trial
“Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez ended a four-hour hearing today in the genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt by accepting all of the witnesses, experts and documents submitted as evidence by the prosecution. The defense, by contrast, failed… Read More ›
Legal news from NISGUA
The genocide cases have moved forward against former General and de facto President Efraín Ríos Montt and two officials under his command: retired General and former Army Chief of Staff Hector Mario López Fuentes and former Director of Military Intelligence… Read More ›
A Murder Foretold
I recently came across this article from the New Yorker magazine about the ‘self-murder’ of Rodrigo Rosenberg, which transfixed Guatemala and much of the international media at the end of 2009. You may remember that he was the lawyer who… Read More ›
Guatemala heeds CIDH and orders suspension of mining
Right on the deadline given by the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights (CIDH, in Spanish) for compliance, the Guatemalan government has responded positively to their request that mining activities at the Marlin mine be suspended. Earlier in the year the… Read More ›
Selecting a new Attorney General
We received a message from laguatemalgringa notifying us of guatemalavisible – which styles itself as a collaborative effort to bring together the will, energy and enthusiasm of diverse civil society groups seeking to strengthen the Guatemalan justice system. We noted… Read More ›
ILO asks Guatemala to suspend mining activities
"The Committee requests the Government to neither grant nor renew any licence for the exploration and exploitation of natural resources as referred to in Article 15 of the Convention while the participation and consultation provided for by the Convention are… Read More ›
Supreme Court reactivates Dos Erres case – action at last
As we reported on 7 January the state of Guatemala was found to have so obstructed the progress of the case against those accused of the Dos Erres massacre that it constituted a denial of the right to justice. Following… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 