Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA

Guatemala News & Human Rights Updates

Recent Headlines

• January 30, 2010: Organizations Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Burning at the Spanish Embassy
• January 27, 2010: Guatemalan Ex-president Portillo captured
• January 26, 2010: 2009: The Most Violent Year for Human Rights Defenders
• January 21, 2010: Defense Minister asks for an additional $12 million to reopen a military base in San Marcos
• January 21, 2010: President Colom inaugurates new military base
• January 20, 2010: 21 Active Charges against Salvador Gándara
• January 7, 2010: New Appropriations Law has Unprecedented Funding to Protect Human Rights Activists
• January 6, 2010: The Public Prosecutor's Office formally accuses 8 suspects in Rosenberg Case
• December 31, 2009: 708 Women Die Violent Deaths in 2009
• December 15, 2009: Immigration reform bill introduced
• December 14, 2009: Human Rights Ombudsman's Office counts an average of 20 murders per day
• December 14, 2009: Study reveals torture in womens' detention
• December 11, 2009: Exhumation underway to search for victims named in the Death Squad Dossier
• December 4, 2009: Historic Trial: First military officer sentenced for forced disappearance
• December 3, 2009: Operation Sofia: Documenting Genocide in Guatemala

Other News

• Guatemalan organizations analyze 2009:
  • Mutual Support Group: Report on the Situation of Violence and Human Rights Violations


• UDEFEGUA Mid-Year Report (2009) on Human Rights Defenders [English][Spanish]


• December 29, 2009: Former Voiceless Speak Fund grant recipient Jorge Sactic featured in the Washington Post. Read full article or view directly in the Post along with a photo gallery.


• December 21, 2009: GHRC and partner organizations send a letter to Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom urging him to declassify military archives from 1956-1996. Guatemala's Constitutional Court ordered the release of four important documents in 2008, yet the Department of Defense has not fully complied. The Military Archive Declassification Commission, formed in March 2009, will come to the end of its mandate in January 2010. The documents are important for the prosecution of crimes during the internal armed conflict and Guatemalans' right to truth. [Lea la carta en español.]


• December 2, 2009: A large coalition of organizations in the Ixcán have released a statement rejecting the reopening of a military base in the region and the remilitarization of communities still recovering from massacres at the hands of the army. Read their statement in English. Lea su comunicado en español. (pdf)


• Colom addresses United Nations. Colom cited five topics of central importance to Guatemala, including the international financial crisis, insecurity caused by organized crime, and democracy in Honduras. [Read text of speech in English or Spanish, or watch the speech online]


• Read ongoing updates on the case of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg. Rosenberg was killed Sunday, May 10. Prior to his death he recorded a statement charging President Alvaro Colom and others in the Colom administration with corruption and involvement in his own death. On November 13, Castresana of the International Anti-Impunity Commission expressed confidence the case would be resolved by the end of the year.


• Guatemala's police archives take center stage in the search for justice for past crimes. Read more.


• GHRC and partner NGOs give recommendations for U.S. policy in Guatemala to Obama Administration officials, the State Department and the US Ambassador to Guatemala.

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