Violent repression in Guatemala condemned by Congressional Dems

The Guatemalan government has decreed military control for 30 days in the El Estor municipality in response to peaceful protests against a mining project in the territory of the Mayan Q’eqchi’— a community of indigenous people whose ancestry predates the Spanish conquest in the 1520s.

Nine Democrats in Congress and a number of Guatemalan human rights organizations have warned that the state of siege has put the rights of the inhabitants of the region at risk.

 Representatives Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-03), Norma J. Torres (CA-35),  Alan Lowenthal (CA-47), Juan Vargas (CA-51), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-15), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), and Joaquin Castro (TX-20) sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, asking him to publicly condemn and urge the immediate revocation of the State of Exception declared by President Alejandro Giammattei in the municipality of El Estor, Guatemala.

The State of Exception gives the military special powers to enforce a strict curfew, conduct arrests and house raids without a warrant, and suspend basic constitutional guarantees.

Following the establishment of the state of siege, over 800 agents of the National Civil Police, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force were deployed to the zone and the community was forced to end their peaceful mobilization to avoid violent repression and arrest.

The state of siege declared by the president prohibits any kind of public protest and puts control of the municipality in the hands of the army, who can detain people with no arrest warrant.

Even before the state of siege was imposed, the Indigenous protest had been met with heavy repression from security forces, but the measure gave increased powers to the forces.

Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that since Giammattei came into office in January 2020, the administration targeted has the media through bellicose rhetoric and false accusations.

The government’s verbal attacks became more frequent as Covid-19 began to spread in Guatemala in March 2020 and authorities moved to restrict access to information about the pandemic.

Investigations into threats, attacks, and killings of journalists made little progress as the government failed to ensure prosecutors had the necessary resources to conduct prompt and effective probes.

In April 2020, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said Guatemala was one of several countries conducting campaigns to stigmatize journalists.

The congressional representatives are deeply concerned that U.S. aid may be supporting human rights violations and the obstruction of democratic processes by the Guatemalan government. 

“Maya Q’eqchi’ communities in El Estor are unjustly being targeted for defending their land and water from an illegal mining project. We must urge Guatemala’s government to end the State of Exception, and ensure that U.S. aid is never used to perpetrate human rights violations,” said García.

 “The U.S. must take all necessary diplomatic steps to lower the temperature in El Estor, ​call upon the Guatemalan government to end the State of Exception and targeted political violence against indigenous communities, and ensure that our foreign aid is not used in ways that are antithetical to our democratic values,” said Grijalva.

“I’m gravely concerned by the situation in El Estor and I urge the State Department to intervene against repression of peaceful protesters under the guise of Guatemala’s State of Exception law. I have long fought to ensure our security assistance is not misused against the people it is supposed to be helping. I urge the Department of State and Department of Defense to re-evaluate any support to those involved in the State of Exception and hold those responsible for human rights abuses accountable,” said Torres.

In the letter, the Members urge the Department of State to take the following actions:

• Publicly affirm that the U.S. respects the rule of law in Guatemala and that the Constitutional Court’s ruling suspending the Fenix mine until indigenous communities are consulted regarding its operation must be followed.
• Reiterate to the Guatemalan government that U.S. donated equipment and U.S. funded or trained personnel must never be used to repress nonviolent demonstrators community members, or support the extraction o f natural resources from indigenous land without local consent including to execute the State of Exception Congress has already stressed this after donated jeeps were used to intimidate CICIG and the U.S. Embassy in 2018 and were assured the U.S. equipment would not be misused.
• Request the Government of Guatemala provide detailed whereabouts of U.S. donated equipment including jeeps and other vehicles donated for the use of counter narcotics operations, portable fingerprint scanners and biometrics data sharing that may be used to identify indigenous leaders, support for Pegasus and other software used to identify activists and political opposition leaders, or any other direct or indirect support. This information should include the chain of command that allowed U.S. assistance to be used to undermine democratic processes and any other uses that are against the intent and interests of the United States, as well as an acknowledgement of any false statements or misleading facts provided to the United States by Guatemalan officials about this event.
• Provide specific, detailed information regarding any U.S. coordination with the Guatemalan police, military intelligence units public ministry and any other government divisions involved in the State of Exception. Evaluate any U.S. funding streams or support through International Financial Institutions for the Fenix mine or related projects in the region that support the mine.
• Evaluate U.S. support and training for the Guatemalan police and military in accordance with human rights conditions placed in the 2021 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations law. We also urge you to fully enforce the Leahy Law, which prohibits assistance to individuals or units of any foreign military or police body that commit gross human rights abuses with impunity. The State Department, including our embassy in Guatemala and the Department of Defense, must take a consistent and public stance supporting those threatened with human rights abuses, and strongly encourage the investigation and prosecution of those perpetuating crimes.
• We also ask that you immediately block assistance to state agents involved in the State of Exception and related repression in El Estor.

The full text of the letter can be found by clicking here.

Guatemala experienced a political crisis in November 2020, following the adoption of a controversial budget, which earmarked most of the funds for privately managed infrastructure.

The spending plan neglected the fight against poverty and child malnutrition, which affects nearly half of all children under five, while generating an increase in public debt.

Congress was burnt down following the repression of a demonstration by the police, prompting Vice President Guillermo Castillo Reyes to call on Giammattei to resign his presidency for “the good of the country.”

This crisis came at a time when the government was also facing criticism for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as hospitals quickly became saturated and the Ministry of Health was accused of withholding information about the deadly virus.

Wendy López, a lawyer with the Indigenous People’s Firm, declared that the state of siege “goes against the fundamental norms and principles of the constitution.”

“We consider it unconstitutional because it is a disproportionate action,” said Carlos Barrientos of the Committee for Peasant Unity of Guatemala. “The state of siege is a state of exception prior to the entry into a state of war, according to the Constitution. What has happened in the region are demonstrations against the government and business decisions.”