Kate Doyle

Declassified documents nerd, senior analyst National Security Archive @NSArchive, Latin America, human rights

[Kate Doyle @doylekate]

Ayotzinapa Investigations | National Security Archive: podcasts in English y español, special postings, interviews, photos, videos, articles, reports, and more. A resource we will update regularly.
#AfterAyotzinapa #DespuesdeAyotzinapa
https://t.co/F6IR1Dh8Cz

[Stephen McFarland @AmbMcFarland]

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo has selected Gabriel Garcia Luna on May 5 as the new Attorney General (AG) and head of the Public Ministry. He replaces Consuelo Porras, who under presidents Biden and Trump was on the USG list of corrupt actors ineligible for a visa. Garcia Luna has a strong professional reputation, and Arevalo has clear he will respect the new AG’s independence.

Garcia Luna inherits an AG office that for eight years under Porras has consistently dropped or stalled prosecutions of grand corruption, and which instead has prosecuted, or pushed into exile, persons who had investigated corruption or who had opposed her failed attempt to invalidate the 2023 elections. The AG politicized justice like no other AG had done in 41 years of democratic rule. The prospect of change, of an independent and non-partisan prosecutorial service, unnerves Guatemalans who relied upon grand corruption and a compliant Public Ministry as political and economic tools. It is also bad news for narcotics traffickers and human smugglers who prefer to operate in a corrupt environment.

For over 15 years, Guatemalan institutions – the executive branch, judiciary, and the attorney general – have cooperated with US law enforcement investigations and extraditions. Garcia Luna is most likely to continue and to improve this cooperation. Garcia Luna’s appointment should encourage the Trump administration, since a more independent and credible Guatemalan judicial system will not only do better in prosecuting organized crime, traffickers, and gangs, but will also enable the long-term economic growth and political stability that in turn reduces the push for Guatemalans to emigrate to the US. With Guatemala’s attorney general and the police lined up against organized crime, the US has a major opportunity.

The big questions about the AG’s office, as Garcia Luna prepares to take over, are the extent to which grand corruption and organized crime have grown and infiltrated institutions, the extent to which the AG's office enabled this, what measures to take to address these distortions, restore justice, and to ensure that they cannot be repeated, and how to respond to efforts by status quo politicians and operators to block change.

Specific major challenges facing Garcia Luna:

1) The network of prosecutors who advised and implemented Porras’ decisions to drop cases or imprison opponents. They will try to burrow in; their victims will seek justice;

2) How to answer Guatemalans’ demands for better citizen security and actions against extortion and gang activity;

3) What to do about existing prosecutions of reporters, indigenous leaders, and former corruption prosecutors and judges, and of those forced into exile. Victims seek release; there will be calls to investigate spurious prosecutions;

4) The status of AG units, including the wiretap unit and counternarcotics and organized crime units, that US law enforcement relies upon and which the US previously supported;

5) Opposition by the “pact of the corrupt;” while now on its back foot, this group views Garcia Luna’s appointment as an existential threat, and will use its influence in the courts to stymie him;

6) Opposition by some politicians and wealthy families, including those who financed lobbyists in the US, who at the best are skeptical about Garcia Luna’s appointment and its implications for their ambitions, and who are susceptible to fear and resentment. Underlying this is a lack of consensus on what judicial independence and accountability really mean for persons with power. Garcia Luna has the opportunity to define them as Attorney General.

#Guatemala #FiscalGeneral #ConsueloPorras #GarciaLuna #Arevalo #USEmbassyGuatemala

[El Observador Guatemala @EObservadorGT]

National Security Archive publica hoy artículo sobre Caso Dos Erres, masacre ocurrida en Petén en 1982.
https://t.co/A3sd7BBYuU

[El Observador Guatemala @EObservadorGT]

El medio digital El Faro, obtuvo documentos que confirman que la actual Fiscal General de Guatemala, Consuelo Porras, firmó documentos en al menos ocho adopciones irregulares a principios de la década de 1980.
https://t.co/x9mqUHTqjh

[El Observador Guatemala @EObservadorGT]

Fallece en prisión ex sargento del EMP Noel de Jesús Beteta Álvarez, condenado a prisión por el asesinato de la antropóloga Myrna Mack. Beteta fue hallado culpable por en 1993 y condenado a 25 años de cárcel. También fue condenado a 5 años de cárcel por asalto a un menor.

[Kate Doyle @doylekate]

I testified in Sosa’s Ottawa trial, along with other experts and one of the only living massacre survivors and witnesses, Ramiro Osorio Cristales.

Click on @NSArchive’s website to see the ruling + US and Guate declassified documents used in the case.

[Kate Doyle @doylekate]

Impunity 101
Good news: Canada ruled against a Guatemalan ex-military officer, calling his actions in the 1982 #DosErres massacre “crimes against humanity.”
Bad news: Canada refused to use its own War Crimes Act, so the ruling strips his citizenship and kicks him out of Canada.

[National Security Archive @NSArchive]

The Long Shadow of Dos Erres: Canadian Court Sanctions Perpetrator of 1982 Dos Erres Massacre in Guatemala -- @NSArchive publishes key records from the trial
https://t.co/DmqNSGLTiT

[Kate Doyle @doylekate]

If international law is more than just a legal theory, countries like Canada need to find the political will to prosecute perpetrators of the worst human rights crimes in their own courts.

Without justice, universal jurisdiction is a hollow promise.

[Omar Hamad | عُـمَـرْ 𓂆 @OmarHamadD]

Building the first library during the genocide

Week Six may be the busiest week. You might think it’s the most important, but for us, building and planting roots is what truly matters. This has always been the philosophy that guided our lives. This achievement and hard work are seeds planted in rock—defying pain, hardship, and every obstacle.

Among the most important accomplishments of this week: we installed all the bookshelves to hold the largest possible number of books, creating fertile ground for every seed that longs to grow freely. We also installed a projector to facilitate education for all levels, and set up a sound system so the teacher’s voice can reach every corner of the space.

Several obstacles remain, most notably the scarcity of books and the high cost of paper, which makes printing extremely difficult.

We kindly ask everyone to join us by donating or sharing the campaign, so we can purchase and print as many books as possible.

Thank you to every person who believed in us and contributed to the success of our project.

https://t.co/MvCd9MfWCG

[Verdad y Justicia en Guatemala @VerdadJusticiaG]

#CasoClaudiaGonzález
#PersecuciónPolítica

El Tribunal Séptimo Penal levantó todas las medidas de coerción contra Claudia González, luego de que la defensa acreditara que cambiaron las circunstancias que motivaron las medidas sustitutivas impuestas. Podrá movilizarse libremente y salir del país sin autorización judicial.

[Verdad y Justicia en Guatemala @VerdadJusticiaG]

El Caso Diario Militar documenta una estructura clandestina de inteligencia responsable de desapariciones forzadas y ejecuciones durante el conflicto armado interno.

A más de 40 años de los hechos, el proceso judicial continúa enfrentando obstáculos que ponen en riesgo el derecho a la verdad y la justicia.

⏭️ En nuestro siguiente video: cómo inició el proceso penal por el caso Diario Militar.

📹 @NathusQuan

#CasoDiarioMilitar #MemoriaYJusticia ✊📄

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

MINNEAPOLIS: “All I did was step outside as a Somali American citizen, and I got chased by a masked person, assaulted, kidnapped. It was inhumane. If this is what’s happening to a 🇺🇸 citizen on camera, imagine what could happen to your loved ones.”

[ProPublica @propublica]

The U.S. government doesn’t track how often immigration agents detain citizens. So ProPublica did.

We found more than 170 incidents since the start of Trump’s second term. Americans have been kicked, dragged and held for days without access to lawyers: https://t.co/Spdio0KRi2

[Government Accountability Project @GovAcctProj]

🧐 Did you know? This American Life podcast episode "The Out Crowd,” ft. our whistleblower client and former asylum officer Doug Stephens, won the very first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a radio show!

Aired originally in 2020, the episode explores the on-the-ground impacts of the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, detailing the domestic refugee camps “we don’t call refugee camps” and the risks refugees face when they cross back into Mexico.

Listen to the full episode: https://t.co/uQ0AI45GZp

Photo Illustration: Lola Dupre
Photograph: Ira Glass

[Donnovan Romero @Donnovan_Rom_An]

Posicionamiento como ex trabajadorxs del @MEHistoricomx (Mecanismo de Esclarecimiento Histórico) respecto a la publicación del libro Entre el orden y el caos de @perezricart y Daniel Herrera Rangel

[Kate Doyle @doylekate]

“¿Qué pasó con ese enorme archivo lleno de documentos sobre atrocidades contra los derechos humanos que descubrieron en Guatemala?"
Respuestas, de @NSArchive
https://t.co/4qq4T7IP57

[Kate Doyle @doylekate]

Portraits of courage. Deep admiration and respect for the women, who never gave up. Thank you Victor Blue for the powerful images and @anniecorreal for giving this story voice. Astonishing work. https://t.co/D9DfItjvWa

[Ana Ceballos @anaceballos_]

NEW: Alligator Alcatraz isn’t meant for minors. A 15 year old ended up there anyway.

State and federal officials initially deflected questions about the boy being held at the facility, but eventually acknowledged he had been there.

w @clurhealy

https://t.co/3UDkCslXbf

[Mother Jones @MotherJones]

The Miccosukee Tribe in Florida joined environmental groups on Tuesday to sue the federal and state agencies that constructed an immigrant detention center known as the “Alligator Alcatraz" located in the Everglades National Park. https://t.co/xUbgipDhv5

[Mary Beth Sheridan @marybsheridan]

Its U.S. funding cut, rights group flees Bukele’s El Salvador https://t.co/92iWi5hHAp