GHRC – El Quetzal (Winter 2025) The Winter 2025 edition of El Quetzal, from The Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC), has recently been published. In it, they explore the implications of a co-opted justice system and the necessity of change, sharing the views of the Indigenous Mayor of Nebaj, two defenders living in exile, and two defenders working for justice within Guatemala. Indigenous Mayor Feliciana Herrera explains how tightened borders in the US are affecting the Guatemalan Indigenous communities, Juan Francisco Sandoval reports on the case of exiled Constitutional Court Judge Gloria Porras, Judge Miguel Angel Galvez discusses transitional justice cases, and Juan Francisco Soto, director of UDEFEGUA, warns of the various ways the selection of a new attorney general next spring can be influenced by corrupt networks trying to hold onto their power.

GHRC – El Quetzal (Winter 2025)
@ghrcusa.bsky.social‬ #ElQuetzal #Guatemala #GSN #GuatemalaCorruption #PactoDeCorruptos

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 recent the prison break from a maximum-security prison. For almost two months, Guatemalan authorities didn’t make a peep about the escape of 20 gang leaders from the maximum-security prison Fraijanes Two, facilitated by public officials.

‘Podcast: Gang Jailbreak in Guatemala Engulfs Arévalo in Security Crisis’ @periodistagl.bsky.social @romangressier.com @elfaroenglish.bsky.social‬ #Guatemala #GuatemalaCorruption

‘Rethinking Justice: How Prosecutors Can Disrupt Criminal Networks’ @dplf-info.bsky.social @waxeneckerh.bsky.social #Issa_Luna_Pla and #José_Roberto_Nicolás_Carlock #Guatemala #GuatemalaCorruption #GuatemalaCriminality #GuatemalaResearch

GHRC – El Quetzal (Summer 2025) The Summer 2025 edition of El Quetzal, from The Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC), has recently been published. It features an interview with Eva Siomara Sosa, a former prosecutor who worked as sub-director of the Special Prosecutor's Office against Impunity (FECI) is one of those forced into exile. GHRC awarded her the Alice Zachmann Human Rights Defenders Award in April and was able to learn more about her commitment to justice.

@ghrcusa.bsky.social‬ #ElQuetzal #Guatemala #GSN #GuatemalaCorruption #PactoDeCorruptos

Legal investigation into legitimacy of mining licenses of Montreal-based Central America Nickel in Guatemala Rights Action has posted a translation of an article by Simon Antonio Ramon, published in Prensa Comunitaria. The piece is followed by a Rights Action commentary looking at the Corrupt government of President Giammattei, Hypocrisy in U.S. and Canada, and a breakdown of the 60-year nightmare of mining in Q’eqchi’ territories. It is then followed by a call to action.

@prensacomunitaria.bsky.social‬ #RightsAction #Guatemala #GuatemalaCorruption #GuatemalaResourceExtraction #GSN #CentralAmericaNickel #GuatemalaGovernment

Exile is ‘a little bit less than death’ for lawyer forced to flee Guatemala Haroon Siddique wrote in The Guardian on Virginia Laparra’s struggle for justice and her receiving of the Sir Henry Brooke award. A Guatemalan anti-corruption prosecutor forced into exile after being pursued by the country’s conservative elite has said that leaving the country was the only way to save her life but was only “a little bit less than death”. Virginia Laparra, 45, spent two years in prison for allegedly abusing her position after she reported her suspicion that a judge had leaked sensitive details from a sealed corruption case to a colleague in 2017.

@theguardian.com #HaroonSiddique #VirginiaLaparra #Guatemala #GuatemalaCorruption #PactoDeCorruptos

The Genocide Trial and the Tightrope José Luis Sanz wrote a two-piece chronicle in El Faro, published in Spanish in 2014, on CICIG, Claudia Paz y Paz, the genocide trial of Efraín Ríos Montt, and exile. The chronicle has been translated by Max Granger amid the ongoing trial of Benedicto Lucas García on the charge of genocide against the Maya Ixil people. The day they knocked her down, Claudia Paz y Paz thought she had won the match.

#JoséLuisSanz @maxgranger.info @elfaroenglish.bsky.social #Guatemala #GuatemalaCorruption #GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos

Mayans in Guatemala call on multinational companies to stay away Una Kelly writes on the RTÉ website about the struggle of Indigenous Q’eqchi Maya in their opposition to multi-national resource extraction in eastern Guatemala. Indigenous Mayans in Guatemala have called for a halt on multinational companies coming to their communities and extracting resources. As more of their people are being deported from the US under the Trump administration, they have said they will particularly resist US companies in their area.

@news.rte.ie #UnaKelly #Guatemala #GuatemalaCorruption

Arévalo’s “Democratic Spring” Polls Below the Nicaraguan Dictatorship El Faro has presented a short video, scripted by Yuliana Ramazzini and Roman Gressier, on Bernardo Arévalo’s inability to curb criminalisation by the Attorney General and how his communications stumbles compound his inexperience as he struggles to make headway in Guatemalan mafia politics. He promised a “democratic spring” in Guatemala but is less popular than Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega. You can view the video here, Arévalo’s “Democratic Spring” Polls Below the Nicaraguan Dictatorship.

Yuliana Ramazzini Roman Gressier @elfaroenglish.bsky.social @romangressier.com #Guatemala #GuatemalaCorruption #GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos

Fighting Corruption – Virginia Laparra awarded the Sir Henry Brooke award In a significant acknowledgment of her relentless fight against corruption under perilous conditions, Virginia Laparra Rivas, a former prosecutor in Guatemala, was honoured with the prestigious Sir Henry Brooke Award for 2025. The ceremony, organized by the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk, took place recently, in London, celebrating her exceptional commitment to human rights and the rule of law.

https://journa.host/@rozenberg
#amnesty
#amnestyuk
#PublicLawLibrary
#virginialaparra
@joshuarozenberg.bsky.social
@amnestyuk.bsky.social
#PactoDeCorruptos
#Guatemala
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaImpunity
#AllianceforLawyersatRisk

Claudia Paz y Paz: “What Consuelo Porras seeks in Guatemala is impunity in all cases” 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, against former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. In the last two months of 2024, Guatemala’s Prosecutor's Office for Human Rights suffered an internal earthquake threatening a series of cases of serious human rights violations against the country’s military elites.

Claudia Paz y Paz: “What Consuelo Porras seeks in Guatemala is impunity in all cases”’
#YulianaRamazzini
@elfaroenglish.bsky.social
Claudia Paz y Paz
#Guatemala
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos
#ClaudiaPazyPaz

Claudia Paz y Paz: “What Consuelo Porras seeks in Guatemala is impunity in all cases” 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, against former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. In the last two months of 2024, Guatemala’s Prosecutor's Office for Human Rights suffered an internal earthquake threatening a series of cases of serious human rights violations against the country’s military elites.

Claudia Paz y Paz: “What Consuelo Porras seeks in Guatemala is impunity in all cases”’
#YulianaRamazzini
@elfaroenglish.bsky.social
Claudia Paz y Paz
#Guatemala
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos
#ClaudiaPazyPaz

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 headwinds in advancing his transparency agenda. Judicial authorities temporarily suspended Semilla during the 2023 election, and the party was suspended again in late November.

‘Guatemala: A 2025 Snapshot’
Emilie Sweigart
Americas Quarterly
#EmilieSweigart
#AmericasQuarterly
#Guatemala
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos

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 headwinds in advancing his transparency agenda. Judicial authorities temporarily suspended Semilla during the 2023 election, and the party was suspended again in late November.

‘Guatemala: A 2025 Snapshot’
Emilie Sweigart
Americas Quarterly
#EmilieSweigart
#AmericasQuarterly
#Guatemala
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos

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 market concentration — or create insider loopholes. Yuliana Ramazzini writes in El Faro on the battle over new market competition rules and whether these rules rules will ultimately challenge or reinforce the decision-making influence of the most powerful economic actors in Guatemala.

‘Guatemala’s New Anti-Monopoly Law: Bark or Bite?’
#YulianaRamazzini
@elfaroenglish.bsky.social
#Guatemala
#CACIF
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos

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 market concentration — or create insider loopholes. Yuliana Ramazzini writes in El Faro on the battle over new market competition rules and whether these rules rules will ultimately challenge or reinforce the decision-making influence of the most powerful economic actors in Guatemala.

‘Guatemala’s New Anti-Monopoly Law: Bark or Bite?’
#YulianaRamazzini
@elfaroenglish.bsky.social
#Guatemala
#CACIF
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos

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 leave, and Attorney General Consuelo Porras removed five prosecutors from the case. Victims asked for international support to achieve the justice they have sought for more than 40 years.

‘Defense Strategy and Guatemalan AG’s Decisions Reduce Odds of Genocide Conviction’
Yuliana Ramazzini
@elfaroenglish.bsky.social
#Guatemala
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos
#GuatemalaGenocide
#GuatemalaSiHuboGenocidio

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 leave, and Attorney General Consuelo Porras removed five prosecutors from the case. Victims asked for international support to achieve the justice they have sought for more than 40 years.

‘Defense Strategy and Guatemalan AG’s Decisions Reduce Odds of Genocide Conviction’
Yuliana Ramazzini
@elfaroenglish.bsky.social
#Guatemala
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos
#GuatemalaGenocide
#GuatemalaSiHuboGenocidio

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 to Mariscal Zavala, where the publisher suffered poor treatment including torture and due process violations. El Faro recently posted a short video on the above and it can be viewed, with English subtitles, here.

‘Guatemalan AG Wants to Send Jose Rubén Zamora Back to Prison’
@elfaroenglish.bsky.social
@romangressier.com
#JoseRubénZamora
#ElPeriodico
#Guatemala
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos

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 to Mariscal Zavala, where the publisher suffered poor treatment including torture and due process violations. El Faro recently posted a short video on the above and it can be viewed, with English subtitles, here.

‘Guatemalan AG Wants to Send Jose Rubén Zamora Back to Prison’
@elfaroenglish.bsky.social
@romangressier.com
#JoseRubénZamora
#ElPeriodico
#Guatemala
#GuatemalaCorruption
#GuatemalaPactoDeCorruptos