GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchú on Friday lamented the impunity that surrounds the massacre of indigenous people by the military in the north of the country 37 years ago during the civil war.
GUATEMALA CITY – A court in Guatemala on Monday sentenced a former police chief to 90 years for a massacre at the Spanish Embassy in 1980 where a group of indigenous protesters, peasants and university students were holed up inside.
Constitutional Court Secretary Martín Guzmán announced in a press conference that justices of the country's highest court had agreed with a constitutional appeal filed by the Prosecutor's Office against a previous ruling by a lower court judge. A new trial could begin on Jan. 5.
"My father, who died while trying to improve our region, taught me that a country is only as good as its citizens, and that we each have a role in shaping its future," Paiz said.
In Guatemala, the rule of law hangs in the balance following the ouster of human rights champion Claudia Paz y Paz from the post of attorney general. A right-leaning former Supreme Court justice, Thelma Esperanza Aldana Hernández, was named as Paz y Paz’s replacement, and may be about to roll back recent gains against corruption and human rights violations, analysts say.
