Jorge Santos
Two days ago, the Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights -IACHR- for the year 2022 was made public, regarding the human rights situation in the country and its decision to incorporate the Guatemalan State in Chapter IV.B. According to the Report in question, it establishes that once “the human rights situation in Guatemala had been evaluated, the IACHR decided to incorporate the Guatemalan State into this Chapter because it considers that it falls within the scope of Article 59, subparagraph 6.d)) of the Regulations on the IACHR, which establishes as criteria for the inclusion of a Member State in this chapter the existence of: d. the presence of other structural situations that seriously and gravely affect the enjoyment of the fundamental rights enshrined in the American Declaration, the American Convention or other applicable human rights instruments. Among other factors to be considered, there will be the following: (…) ii. Systematic failure of the State to comply with its obligation to combat impunity, attributable to a manifest lack of will.”
The IACHR report says that the information received and analyzed in 2022 indicates that the situation identified in 2021 related to the State’s obligation to combat impunity and respect and guarantee judicial independence would have worsened. In other words, through said evaluation, the IACHR warns of an intensification of judicial persecution, criminalization, and abuse of the pre-trial procedure with the purpose of intimidating and removing from office justice operators in charge of investigating and prosecuting cases. linked to the internal armed conflict, including cases that have been sentenced by the Inter-American Court, and high-impact or large-scale acts of corruption.
These conclusions issued by the IACHR are fully consistent with the multiple complaints made by citizens and civil society groups, particularly those made by the Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders-Guatemala (UDEFEGUA), which reports the increase in attacks and political violence against people, organizations and communities that defend human rights.
This important Report not only accounts for the claims of Guatemalan citizens, but must also become another instrument in the struggle of the Peoples, civil society organizations and social and popular movements, to continue raising their voices against injustice. , against corruption and impunity, against the installation of the authoritarian State that Alejandro Giammattei and the Corrupt Pact want, must be a more powerful voice against the impoverishment and abandonment to which the population is subjected. This Report of the IACHR must increase our national efforts, but particularly international ones, so that the truth about Guatemala is known and that, sooner rather than later, those who today subject us to such unworthy living conditions fall and place us back in the possibility of building the long-awaited democracy.
Jorge Santos
jsantos@udefegua.org
Defender of human rights, lover of life, hopes and utopias, which has led me to work for another Guatemala, in student and peasant organizations, victims of the Internal Armed Conflict and the protection of human rights defenders. I faithfully believe, like Otto René Castillo, that those who build it beautiful find life beautiful.
source The Time
