Guatemala intensifying crackdown on human rights defenders group warns

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Guatemala intensifying crackdown on human rights defenders group warns

Newspaper publisher José Rubén Zamora (center) in court this month. Photo: Johan Ordóñez/AFP via Getty Images A Guatemalan human rights group that the country's government has intensified its crackdown on rights defenders, and judicial workers. Driving the news: The group, Udefegua, has documented more than 560 attacks, including police brutality and “spurious” and “unfounded” criminal cases. The organization has recorded more than 2,645 such attacks since January 2020, when President Alejandro Giammattei took office.The group documented 1,642 attacks during the entire four-year term of Giammattei's predecessor, Jimmy Morales. The big picture: The U.S. has added of Giammattei's government, including Attorney General Consuelo Porras, to its list of "corrupt and undemocratic actors."The U.S. and rights groups have accused Porras and other officials of obstructing justice, including in anti-corruption investigations. At least 15 judges and district attorneys have in the last year after facing threats or for their anti-corruption cases against business people and officials. UN Secretary-General António Guterres earlier this year over those judges’ situations.Guterres this month when El Periódico's José Rubén Zamora, publisher of a newspaper that has run several stories uncovering government corruption, was arrested on charges of money laundering. Zamora denies any wrongdoing. Udefegua also highlighted cases of harassment against Indigenous women and student activists by police forces. What they’re saying: “I thought that we had hit bottom with Jimmy Morales, but no,” Jordán Rodas, the outgoing Guatemalan human rights ombudsman, in mid-August. Giammattei is behaving “like an emperor," Rodas added.

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