- |
- Press Release
- |
- Guatemala: Concern over transitional justice setbacks
Guatemala: Concern over transitional justice setbacks
The Americas, December 6, 2024
The undersigned international organizations warn about the serious setbacks facing transitional justice processes, following the recent changes made by Attorney General Consuelo Porras in the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office, as well as the recent resolutions of the Appeals Chambers that seek to guarantee impunity for those responsible for serious human rights violations committed during the internal armed conflict.
On November 5, the newly elected Second Chamber of the High Risk Court of Appeals arbitrarily annulled the entire judicial process of the Creompaz case, one of the largest cases of forced disappearance in Guatemala, ordering the immediate release of all military personnel implicated in the case. Among them, Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, former Chief of Staff of the Guatemalan Army, accused of genocide against the Maya Ixil population during the government of his brother, Fernando Romeo Lucas García (1978-1982).
On November 28, after 9 months of trial in the Genocide Case against Lucas García, the First Court of Appeals for High Risk accepted the challenge to the Criminal Sentencing Court presented by the defense, ordering that the case be heard by the High Risk Court B. This halts the trial in its phase of the Genocide Case against Lucas García. This halts the trial in its final phase, preventing the issuance of the sentence and nullifying years of progress in the process. On November 4, the Attorney General had already dismissed the prosecutor in charge of the Genocide case for years, Erick de León. We recall that the Guatemalan justice system has twice determined that the army implemented a state policy of genocide during the successor government of Lucas García, led by Efraín Ríos Montt.
The Attorney General practically dismantled the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office, with the dismissal of 3 prosecutors and the transfer of 11 assistants and prosecutorial agents who investigated cases of the armed conflict. In addition, she appointed Noé Nehemías Rivera Vásquez, who is one of the persons included in the Engel List and has been the main promoter of the criminalization of former prosecutor Virginia Laparra, as well as other human rights defenders, as the head of this office. It is worrying that the Attorney General’s Office is deepening the criminalization strategy against justice operators who have been in charge of these processes, lawyers and human rights defenders.
These decisions not only jeopardize the right of victims to justice, but also weaken the rule of law and democracy in the country.
We therefore remind the State of Guatemala of the urgency of immediately complying with its international obligations, particularly those ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding the duty to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for serious human rights violations. In addition, we call on the State to comply with the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), particularly the recommendation to conduct an independent review of the work of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and to cease the misuse of criminal law to criminalize.
SIGNATORIES
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
American Jewish World Service (AJWS)
Be Just
Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)
Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF)
Luis von Ahn Foundation
Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA (GHRC)
Impunity Watch
Latin American Working Group (LAWG)
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
