Guatemala is at a juncture that expresses various crises: structural, political, environmental, health and humanitarian

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic starkly revealed the reality of a country with high levels of poverty, extreme poverty, and the state's abandonment of its function to guarantee basic rights to health, education, decent employment and citizen security.

Added to the health and humanitarian crisis, the actions of the political class are openly unpopular, and the executive branch has been making decisions that weaken the mechanisms created to guarantee the rights of women and indigenous peoples, based on the Peace Accords.

The government's response has been erratic, opaque, and has failed to reach the most vulnerable families. Furthermore, it has violated the labor rights of healthcare workers and the general population by not guaranteeing efficient and dignified healthcare services for those who have contracted COVID-19. The measures adopted include external borrowing that will create a fiscal burden for citizens in the medium and long term, jeopardizing the future of generations to come.

This also includes the criminalization of human rights defenders in rural and Indigenous communities. Added to this are the actions against journalists and media workers, and recently the excessive use of force by national security forces against peaceful demonstrations in various squares across the country.

In this context, the Steering Committee of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) expresses:

Condemnation of the violations of fundamental human rights such as social demonstration, freedom of expression and freedom of movement, which occurred on November 21 in the streets of several cities in Guatemala, against women, men, girls and boys who were participating in a peaceful protest called to express their discontent with the approval of a national budget contrary to the demands and needs of the majority of the population, already impoverished as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and affected by the passage of two hurricanes, in less than two weeks, which swept away homes, crops and all means of livelihood for thousands of families.

We condemn the disproportionate and arbitrary actions of the security forces, which aim to instill fear and criminalize those exercising their right to protest by carrying out illegal arrests and using procedures contrary to the regulations contained in international treaties to which the State of Guatemala is a signatory. All of this represents a step backward to previous decades when the country faced an internal armed conflict that caused thousands of victims, the majority of whom were indigenous and from rural areas.

We call upon regional and international academic bodies worldwide to maintain active and ongoing observation, to be attentive to what happens, urging the State of Guatemala to respect the life and rights of Guatemalan citizens.

We urge the State of Guatemala to respect the fundamental rights of the population; and especially the rights to communication (freedom of expression, access to information, to inform and investigate), which are fundamental in building the democratic life of a nation.

CLACSO Steering Committee
2 2020 December