The political and social instability of Guatemala has grown worse with the murder of Guatemalan lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg on 10 May and the broadcast the next day of a video in which he accuses high-level government officials of plotting his assassination, including President Álvaro Colom and his wife. He accuses the latter of being the intellectual authors of his murder, or at least of authorizing it, in order to cover up other alleged killings and acts of corruption at a bank which manages a large amount of State funds.
Numerous civil society organizations and the international community have asked the International Commission Against Immunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to help with the investigation and clarification of the facts around this crime. They have called for an impartial, independent and transparent investigation. They have expressed concern about the governability of the country and the stability of democratic institutions. They have once again demanded an end to impunity.
Two days after Rosenberg’s death, with no evidence yet emerging to support the accusations made he made in the video, the involvement of Guatemalan right wing elements in its recording and dissemination came to light. The individuals involved are associated with the Guatemalan business and financial sector and have links to the military. They are also connected to destabilizing movements and to attempts to overthrow the government in the late 1980s, as well as to death squads. The Coalition of Guatemalan Human Rights Organizations issued a press release to express its concern about the situation. “The Coalition of Guatemalan Human Rights Organizations demands respect for the rule of law and state institutions, and it condemns the acts of destabilization which may have the support of sectors with vested interests in gaining or negotiating influence within the power structure, taking advantage of the current political climate to advance their own interests”.
At the same time, many groups have mobilized either in opposition or support of the President. On the one side, there have been protests to demand Colom’s resignation. These protests have mainly been organized by the business and financial sector of the oligarchy with ties to some factions of the armed forces. This sector has long opposed the current government’s policies .
On the other side, there have been demonstrations in favor of the President with the broad participation of the country’s general population. Most of the participants in these demonstrations are not members of the country’s civil society organizations, although officials of the governing party, National Unity of Hope (UNE), have confirmed it organized and financed these demonstrations. There have been serious charges made about the use of public funds to assemble and mobilize protesters.
Guatemalan civil society and political organizations, as well as the international community, have called attention to the gravity of the current socio-political situation, and have expressed their concern for the growing political and social unrest.
According to Marielos Monzón of the Guatemalan policy institute, Incidencia Democrática, Rosenberg’s murder has served to exacerbate the climate of instability with clear signs of a power struggle and a process of political destabilization which has characterized Guatemalan reality for many years .
These recently emerging signs can be summarized as follows: military factions calling for a coup d’état, wiretapping of telephones in the Presidential Home, a wave of killings of bus drivers, rumors of a State of Prevention, pressure to declare a curfew, growing militarization and an increase of attacks on human rights defenders, among others.
Members and leaders of organizations recognized for their work in defense of and to promote human rights, such as the Guatemala Human Rights Defenders Unit (UDEFEGUA), the Security in Democracy Association (SEDEM), and the Survivors Foundation, have recently received a number of threats over a brief period of time. Moreover, there has been a serious increase in attacks on defenders of human, social and cultural rights, particularly attacks on peasant leaders and assassinations or attempts on the life of mainly union activists.
These events have led to the current situation in which progress in the governability of the country, the stability of democratic institutions, improvements in the justice system and the struggle against impunity are in serious jeopardy.
In view of this situation, our main CONCERNS are the following:
- As a result of the situation described above, which reflects the current scenario in Guatemala, attention is being diverted from the scene of extreme violence in which dozens of persons are killed each day, among them human rights activists and defenders in the country.
- The timid progress in the area of justice and the fight against impunity is being reversed, particularly the advances made with the establishment of CICIG.
- The spaces in which human rights defenders work continue to close as these individuals continue to be the targets of threats and attacks by parallel powers and clandestine security organizations.
- The vulnerability of democratic institutions gives rise to the increased militarization of the country and the use of violence.
Therefore, WE ASK the international community to continue monitoring the situation closely, particularly as regards the following:
- The efforts of the Guatemalan justice system and CICIG, which is helping to resolve cases pending in connection with serious crimes and human rights violations. In particular, the international community should back efforts aimed at guaranteeing transparency and independent and impartial investigations, in both the murder of the lawyer R. Rosenberg and the criminal acts he denounced, as well as other crimes of the past that have gone unpunished.
- The need to maintain democratic institutions and transform the justice system to end impunity.
- The forceful rejection of attempts to militarize the country even more as a solution to the current crisis.
- The situation of human rights defenders, expressing its concern to the Guatemalan Government about their security and protection.
Furthermore, WE ENCOURAGE the international community to actively approach human rights defenders, organizations and other members of the Guatemalan social movement to offer them support and protection under the EU Directives for the protection of human rights and other instruments and mechanisms existing for this purpose.