The systematic reprisal in Guatemala against former anti-corruption prosecutors continues as the country’s judicial system faces co-optation by the far right and those who seek to maintain impunity. These attacks have occurred throughout the nearly three years since the end of the U.N.-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG.
“There is an attitude of verbal and psychological violence that is being exerted in the process.”
On June 7, Virginia Laparra, the local head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI) in Quetzaltenango, was sent to trial for perjury and the “abuse of power.” This was the latest case of reprisals this year, and it is raising red flags for human rights and anti-corruption activists.
“There are a number of things that are of great concern,” Claudia Samayoa, with the Guatemalan human rights organization Udefegua, tells The Progressive. “There is an attitude of verbal and psychological violence that is being exerted in the process.”
Laparra was detained in Febuary and is being held in a cell where she only receives one hour of sunlight per day. The World Organization Against Torture and other organizations have classified Laparra’s detention as torture.
The charges against her come after she was denounced for leaking, to an attorney colleague, internal information from Judge Lesther Castellanos Rodas that he did not wish to be made public.
“They are giving us a very, very complicated message,” Samayoa says. “Because they are literally stating that a prosecutor cannot file administrative complaints when they see faults [or crimes] that a judge may be committing.”
Further legal complaints came in from the far-right Foundation Against Terrorism, which has taken the lead in persecuting former investigators, lawyers, and anti-corruption activists. Lawyers and activists with the Foundation Against Terrorism have been sanctioned and are currently on the U.S. State Department’s list of corrupt and anti-democratic actors, known as the Engel List.
The case has also brought a worrying closure of access to information. On the day of the hearing in June, the judge blocked journalists from the courtroom and covered the windows. Journalists who interviewed Laparra in prison have also faced harassment on social media by netcenters—social bots or anonymous accounts meant to attack critics and sway public opinion.
Laparra was moved to one of Guatemala’s most dangerous prisons following the visit by journalists.
The attacks against operators of justice and prosecutors intensified in 2021 in the lead up to the re-election of Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras, who has overseen the dismantling and debilitation of the country’s anti-corruption and anti-impunity efforts. She is currently sanctioned by the United States and is also on the Engel list.
“They are punishing [Laparra] as a way to punish all prosecutors and all those who fought against corruption,” Samayoa says. “It is a clear case of criminalization.”
The reprisals have targeted anti-corruption investigators, prosecutors, judges, and activists, sending many into exile, but these attacks have increasingly extended to lawmakers of opposing political parties.
“They are not just going after prosecutors and community leaders, but now journalists, judges, and politicians of the opposition.”
On June 4, Guatemala’s public prosecutor’s office requested the stripping of immunity of congressional representative Ligia Hernández, a member of congress from the centrist Semilla party. She and her party have rejected these attacks.
“All officials who have some kind of financial or administrative work are required to attend [oversight subpoena],” Hernández tells The Progressive. “The oversight activity that [Semilla] was carrying out is based on legal and constitutional grounds.”
The country’s supreme court will decide if Hernández will be stripped of her immunity and investigated.
The charges came after Hernández subpoenaed Rafael Curruchiche, the current head of the FECI, to an oversight hearing in congress in February 2022. But Hernández’s office was not informed of the charge until May. While the public prosecutor’s office has argued that this was an abuse of authority, there is precedent for congress to summon lead prosecutors for oversight in hearings.
“Previously, congress has summoned officials from the public prosecutor’s office,” Hernández says. “And in no case has the Public Ministry requested the removal of the immunity of the deputies who have summoned [officials] to hearings.”
One of the key examples of this is when congressional representative Delia Bac, who was with the ruling party and had faced accusations of corruption, subpoenaed Juan Francisco Sandoval to an oversight hearing in 2019.
Other members of the opposition have also faced attempts to strip them of their immunity.
Congressional representative Aldo Davila, who forms part of the opposition, was stripped of his immunity for alleged aggressions against a police officer in September 2020, which allows him to be investigated by the public prosecutor’s office. Another congressional representative, Vicenta Jerónimo, who serves with the leftwing Movement for the Liberation of Peoples, faces a denouncement for a tense interaction with a police officer during a protest in 2021.
“It is a very severe situation,” Hernández explains. “They are not just going after prosecutors and community leaders, but now journalists, judges, and politicians of the opposition.”
While there are some victories, such as the court absolving—due to lack of evidence and merit—two cases against activists who were accused of damaging the “heritage” of the country, the situation is increasingly concerning. Among the looming worries is what will happen with Guatemala’s human rights ombudsman’s office, which for the past several years has come under attack.
“We are going to see you exiled or [in jail], you will see,” Raúl Falla, a far-right activist and lawyer for the Foundation Against Terrorism said to Rodas as he entered the hearing against Laparra. Rodas is ending his term in August 2022, but there are still attempts to find the votes in congress to remove him from his position.
The election of the country’s new human rights ombudsman is currently underway, with the majority of candidates having histories of disrespecting or violating human rights. If these attacks continue, Guatemala will see far more people in exile in the coming years.
“We are going to have the State more and more against us,” Hernández says, “because it is a powerful group that has decided to reverse democracy.”