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Amnesty International announced Saturday that Guatemala’s judiciary had closed criminal proceedings against four Indigenous leaders who had been charged over their role in nationwide protests during Guatemala’s October 2023 national strike, hailing it as a victory for the right to freedom of assembly. The group, which has represented the men since their arrests, welcomed the decision.
Commending the court’s decision, Astrid Valencia, Amnesty International’s Deputy Research Director for the Americas, stated:
Pacheco and Chaclán, who at the time of their arrest served as president and treasurer of the Maya K’iche’ Council of Community Mayors of the 48 Cantones were arrested on April 23, 2025, and held in pretrial detention for more than 15 months. The charges carried combined sentences of over 30 years.
Amnesty International designated the pair as prisoners of conscience in May 2026, meaning the organization considered them imprisoned because of who they were or what they believed in. Both men were later moved to house arrest although the underlying charges remained unresolved. According to Human Rights Watch, Toc, who was arrested separately in August 2025 on similar charges had also been placed under house arrest.
The proceedings had drawn criticism from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which said in an April 2025 statement that the Guatemalan government’s prosecutions targeted Indigenous leaders who played an instrumental role in preserving democratic order during the 2023 protests. The Commission described the underlying charges as a “politically motivated misuse of criminal law” by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Although the closure of the proceedings ends the criminal cases against the four leaders, Amnesty International said it would continue monitoring similar cases against Indigenous leaders and human rights defenders still pending in Guatemala’s courts. The organization cited broader concerns over the use of criminal prosecutions against Indigenous activists in the country.
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Commending the court’s decision, Astrid Valencia, Amnesty International’s Deputy Research Director for the Americas, stated:
Luis Pacheco, Héctor Chaclán, Basilio Puac, and Esteban Toc were charged with unlawful association, terrorism, obstruction of justice, sedition, and obstruction of criminal prosecution. Pacheco, Chaclán, and Puac are ancestral authorities of the 48 Cantones of Totonicapán, and Toc was a member of the Indigenous Mayor’s Office of Sololá. Their charges stemmed from their participation in protests that Indigenous authorities led across Guatemala in October 2023 to defend the disputed presidential election results of that year against prosecutors’ efforts to challenge the transfer of power to now-President Bernardo Arévalo.
Pacheco and Chaclán, who at the time of their arrest served as president and treasurer of the Maya K’iche’ Council of Community Mayors of the 48 Cantones were arrested on April 23, 2025, and held in pretrial detention for more than 15 months. The charges carried combined sentences of over 30 years.
Amnesty International designated the pair as prisoners of conscience in May 2026, meaning the organization considered them imprisoned because of who they were or what they believed in. Both men were later moved to house arrest although the underlying charges remained unresolved. According to Human Rights Watch, Toc, who was arrested separately in August 2025 on similar charges had also been placed under house arrest.
The proceedings had drawn criticism from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which said in an April 2025 statement that the Guatemalan government’s prosecutions targeted Indigenous leaders who played an instrumental role in preserving democratic order during the 2023 protests. The Commission described the underlying charges as a “politically motivated misuse of criminal law” by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Although the closure of the proceedings ends the criminal cases against the four leaders, Amnesty International said it would continue monitoring similar cases against Indigenous leaders and human rights defenders still pending in Guatemala’s courts. The organization cited broader concerns over the use of criminal prosecutions against Indigenous activists in the country.
The post Guatemala judiciary closes criminal proceedings against four Indigenous leaders appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.