Guatemala

The former head of security at a Guatemalan nickle mine, on trial for killing a local indigenous leader, has submitted a guilty plea.

On December 21st the US Congress voted to approve an omnibus finance bill that included restrictions on foreign military financing for El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

In Canada, eleven indigenous Guatemalan women are in the process of taking a multinational mining company to court. The women allege that in 2007, police officers, soldiers, and private security personnel attacked their village of Lote Ocho, in eastern Guatemala, and burned dozens of homes in a bid to drive the community from their ancestral land.

Tahoe Resources is a Canadian mining company. In mid-2010, Tahoe acquired the Escobal mine in southeast Guatemala from Goldcorp; Escobal is a 'high grade silver' mine, and also contains gold, lead and zinc. Some analysts believe it to be one of the biggest silver mines in the world. The Escobal mine is approximately 40km southeast of Guatemala City, and 3km from San Rafael los Flores.

Paraguay

enviado por Orly, desde el SERPAJ PY

9 de agosto del 2001

Después de siete años de vigencia de la Constitución Nacional todavía no se reglamenta la figura de la Objeción de Conciencia. Hubo dos intentos, uno en 1996 y otro en 1997, en ambas oportunidades el poder ejecutivo vetó las leyes sancionadas por el Congreso.

30/04/1998 1 Conscription

conscription not enforced

Since 1994 conscription has not been officially enforced.

After 1994 the civil war between the government and the URNG (National Guatemalan Revolutionaty Unit), which had lasted since 1962, gradually came to an end. In that year the Global Human Rights Accord was signed by the government, the URNG and the United Nations.

REPORT Nº 36/93

CASE 10.975
GUATEMALA
October 6, 1993

BACKGROUND:

1. On January 22, 1992, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights received the following petition:

Alejandro Piché Cuca, a Guatemalan citizen, left his home in Santa María de Jesús, Department of Sacatepéquez, Guatemala, on April 27th, 1991 headed for the Catholic Church's Pastoral Training Center in Santa María de Jesús where he was taking instruction as a "catechist".