All News items from Guatemala

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders, Ms. Hina Jilani, issued the following statement on her preliminary findings of her official visit to Guatemala. In her report Ms.Jilani highlighted the deteriorating situation for human rights defenders.  

Front Line is deeply concerned about death threats that have been made against members of the Fundación de Antropología Forense Guatemala (FAFG), Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, as well as against their family members between 24 and 29 May 2007  

The office of the National Movement for Human Rights (MNDH) in Guatemala City was physically attacked and ransacked during the weekend of the 3-5 February 2007. The office is also shared with the Human Rights Defenders Unit and the Association for Communication of Art and Peace.

Reportedly the doors of the premises were forced open, and in some cases, holes were made in the walls between office rooms. Thirteen computers containing information on human rights violations and on mining issues, including encrypted information on financial and operational details of the member organisations of the MNDH were stolen.

A number of paper files relating to mining from MNDH and the Association for Communication of Art and Peace Asociacíon (COMUNICARTE) were also taken. The master tapes of COMUNICARTE’s entire documentary collection, cameras, projectors, and money were also taken from the office. Those responsible for the break-in left human faeces and gloves behind them. While staff waited for the police to arrive outside the building, a red car drove by. An individual in the car leaned out of the window of the car and proceeded to film the staff and the building.  

Front Line and the National Movement for Human Rights of Guatemala launched a new report, Front Line Guatemala; Attacks Against Human Rights Defenders 2000 – 2005, at a ceremony in Guatemala City on 14 November 2006. The report documents a pattern of increasing attacks on human rights defenders which has continued into 2006 with ten human rights defenders having been killed so far this year.

The report details a significant increase in attacks on human rights defenders in 2005, including a dramatic increase in attacks on defenders of economic, social and cultural rights. The report also demonstrates that there has been an increase in the number of attacks which show evidence of planning, indicating that this is an organized assault on the right to defend human rights.

The report includes chapters on attacks against those defending the rights of women and indigenous peoples as well as on the particularly violent attacks on those working in the judicial system including judges and prosecutors.

8 September 2006

A Guatemalan radio journalist was shot in the mouth and hand in what appears to be a retalition against his work reporting corruption in big business. Vinicio Aguilar was shot and left for dead by two unknown assailants travelling on a motorbike as he was out jogging in a suburb of Guatemala City in the early morning of 23 August.

Aguilar (45), who remains in hospital in a stable condition, hosts a popular daily phone-in show on the independent “Radio 10” station. His programme regularly discusses issues like organised crime, tax evasion and corruption.

The radio station has been threatened repeatedly for reporting on a tax evasion lawsuit involving Avicola Villalobos, one of Central America's largest agricultural conglomerates.

On the 22 August, the day before the attack on Aguilar, a caller threatened the Director of the Radio Station, Oscar Rodolfo Castaneda, on air. The unidentified man said Castaneda would be murdered for speaking about tax evasion unless he left the country within eight days.  

27 July 2005

Eight members of the Sindicato de Trabajadores del Credito Hipotecario Nacional (STCHN) have been threatened in Guatemala with two death notices and a funeral wreath. The STCHN is a trade union which forms part of the Union Sindical de Trabajadores de Guatemala (UNISTRAGUA). The union has been involved in campaigns against privatisation and corruption. On 25 July 2005, a funeral wreath was reportedly placed in front of the headquarters of UNISTRAGUA and two death notices were placed inside the offices, containing death threats against:

• Luis Ernesto Morales Gálvez, member of the Consultative Council • Edgar Vinicio Ordóñez García, Secretary General • Luis Fernando Sirin Aroche, Secretary of Work and Conflict • Efraín López Quiché, Secretary of Communication, Acts and Agreements • José Douglas Asencio, Secretary of Sport • Elio Santiago Monroy López, Secretary of Finance • Danilo Enrique Chea Herrera , Secretary of Organisation and Advertising • Manuel Francisco Arias Virula, Secretary of Social Welfare  

Front Line is seriously concerned for the safety of members of the Centre for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH), a non-governmental organisation which campaigns for truth and justice on behalf of victims of genocide in Guatemala.

In April 2004 it brought the case of the massacre on 18 July 1982 of 268 inhabitants of the community of Plan de Sanchez by the Guatemalan armed forces before the Inter American Court on Human Rights, which subsequently condemned the Guatemalan Government for the massacre. CALDH is also a member of the coalition promoting the creation of the Commission for the Investigation of Illegal bodies and Clandestine Security Operations (CICIACS). Christina Laur, a member of CALDH, attended the Front Line Second Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders in September 2003.

According to reports received by Front Line, on 14 and 15 July 2004 the home of the director of CALDH, Edda Gaviola, was broken into. Nothing was stolen but intimidating messages were left and her personal documents had been searched.