Current political situacion March 2026

OHCHR releases its report on the human rights situation in Guatemala

In early March, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published its report on the situation in Guatemala, highlighting progress made in terms of equality, non-discrimination, and sustainable and inclusive development. However, concerns remain regarding violations of women’s and indigenous peoples’ rights. Discrimination and systemic racism continue to impact the full enjoyment of the rights of indigenous peoples, Garifuna, and people of African descent. The report also emphasizes the misuse of criminal law to restrict freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, highlighting direct attacks against indigenous leaders such as Luis Pacheco and Héctor Chaclán. Both men have been in pretrial detention for a year, charged with terrorism and other crimes, because they lead the 2023 protests to defend the election results and, ultimately, democracy. Additionally, two other indigenous leaders have been indicted in the same case. For the High Commissioner, these repressive actions instill public fear of protesting and encourage journalists to self-censor out of fear of potential charges. The report documents at least 1,465 attacks against human rights defenders, journalists, and justice operators; most were committed by state actors in the justice sector.1

Evictions and criminalization of indigenous peoples2

Alongside the presentation of the OHCHR report, PBI Switzerland organized the event “Guatemala: Challenges and Recommendations for Guaranteeing the Right to Adequate Housing.” The panel included the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, and human rights defender and UVOC member Sandra Calel, who is accompanied by PBI. The Special Rapporteur, who visited Guatemala last year, recommended that the State immediately declare a moratorium on evictions, legally recognize the territorial rights of indigenous peoples, and protect human rights defenders.

Meanwhile, in Guatemala City, on March 10, several international organizations presented the findings of the study “Eviction and Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala: The Role of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.” The report identifies the so-called “liberal agrarian reform,” carried out during the governments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as one of the roots of the problem. Its policies led to the widespread expropriation of indigenous territories and the forced assimilation of indigenous inhabitants of these territories as plantation workers.” “Public lands or lands without a registered owner were given to private parties on the condition that they invest in agricultural production.” Thus, the policies “granted a significant portion of the national territory to a limited number of new plantation owners who, together with the traditional landowning oligarchy, ended up concentrating most of the country’s land into a few hands.”

The analysis highlights the disproportionate increase in eviction orders against communities and arrest warrants against peasant farmers living on lands claimed by large plantation owners and companies, without any historical investigation into the ownership of those lands. This has led to extremely dire situations that profoundly affect the peasant families targeted. In light of this situation, the report concludes that the Guatemalan State—to name just some issues—”is violating its constitutional and international obligations” by “imposing a series of legal and institutional barriers to the recognition and titling of indigenous territories…leaving indigenous peoples completely defenseless against criminal charges of trespass and judicial evictions brought by companies and individuals who claim ownership over their territories.” Likewise, one of its most notable recommendations calls on the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) to “conduct a comprehensive review of institutional policy on investigation and criminal prosecution to ensure that criminal proceedings are not used as the first resort for resolving disputes over land rights, ownership, or tenure, especially in cases involving territories claimed by indigenous peoples on the basis of historical or ancestral rights.”

It also recommends that the MP refrain from “requesting arrest warrants and forced evictions as an automatic or intimidatory measure and review the use of the presumption of in flagrante delicto in trespass cases, in order to avoid broad interpretations that violate the right to personal liberty and due process.”

March 8: International Women’s Day

As they do each year on March 8, hundreds of women took to the streets of Guatemala City’s historic center and several departmental capitals, raising their voices against the increasing rate of teenage pregnancies, the state’s failure to protect women, and the takeover of the University of San Carlos’s president’s office by Walter Mazariegos, who is doing everything in his power to remain in office. They also denounced the atrocities of the wars in Palestine and Iran and the murder of children in the bombings.3

According to data from the National Registry of Persons (RENAP), last year there were 56,889 births to mothers between the ages of 10 and 19, most of them in the departments of Alta Verapaz and Guatemala. In 2018, 77,700 were recorded. Over the past seven years, Guatemala has reduced births from child and teenage pregnancies by 26.8%. Ximena Aguilar, Political Advocacy Coordinator at Incidejoven, an organization defending sexual and reproductive rights in Guatemala, explains that early pregnancies are due to a combination of factors, including high levels of sexual violence, high poverty rates, early sexual activity, as well as a lack of comprehensive sex education and access to contraceptives. “One of the structural barriers in Guatemala is that it is a deeply sexist and patriarchal country,” says Aguilar, “This leads to violent behavior that is normalized in the everyday lives of girls and teens and is exacerbated by poverty and inequality.” According to RENAP data, 33,054 of the births in 2025 were to mothers between the ages of 10 and 17. Of these, 2,611 were between the ages of 10 and 14. As for the fathers, only 17.3% (5,714) were also minors. In 22% of the cases, there is no record of the father’s age or identity.

According to the World Bank, Guatemala has the fifth-highest rate of teenage pregnancies among girls aged 15 to 19 in Latin America, with 68 cases for every 1,000 girls in that age group—15 points above the regional average of 52—and trailing only Nicaragua, Honduras, Guyana, and Paraguay.4

In terms of how March 8 was observed at the departmental level, Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, stands out: there, survivors from the Mujeres Achí case and human rights organizations reinstalled a mural dedicated to the indigenous women who reported sexual assaults committed during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict. The mural is part of the reparations ordered by the courts in this landmark case. Two rulings—issued in 2022 and 2025—convicted former Civil Defense Patrolmen (PAC) of sexual violence and crimes against humanity committed between 1981 and 1985. For the Maya Achí women survivors, the mural symbolizes public recognition of their truth after decades of silence, stigmatization, and denial of the crimes committed during the genocide carried out by the de facto governments of General Romeo Lucas García and General José Efraín Ríos Montt, in power from 1978 to 1983. The mural also represents an act of collective dignity, as the images recall the violence they endured while simultaneously highlighting the resilience of the women who spoke out about what happened, their struggle for justice, and a message for future generations: the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war must never be repeated. The mural was restored after the Rabinal municipal government removed the original painting on July 22, 2025, covering it with yellow paint.5

New developments in various criminalization cases

Human rights defender Francisco Mateo Mateo, from the village of Pojom in San Mateo Ixtatán, Huehuetenango, continues to be criminalized for his involvement in the resistance movement that stood up against the construction of two hydroelectric projects in the Yichk’isis micro-region. After holding Mateo Mateo for more than a month at the Santa Cruz del Quiche Pre-trial Detention Center, the presiding court held his preliminary hearing on March 20. Judge Alberto Calmo Ramírez acquitted Mateo Mateo of the murder charge but indicted him on charges of concealment. He also granted Mateo Mateo alternative measures and gave the MP four months to present its closing arguments. The intermediate phase hearing has been scheduled for August 11, 2026. The charges against Mateo Mateo relate to events that occurred in 2014. His arrest and prosecution are not isolated incidents; on the contrary, in recent years, numerous arrest warrants have been carried out against community members who participated in the resistance against the imposition of hydroelectric dams in the region.6

Judge Marjorie René Azpuru Villela of the Fifth Criminal Court scheduled a hearing for April 13 at 9 a.m. to begin the public trial against Maya Kaqchikel activist Nanci Sinto. Sinto has been charged with the crime of destruction of cultural property, allegedly committed during a demonstration that took place on November 21, 2020. The notification came just hours after Sinto filed a challenge against Attorney General Consuelo Porras over her bid to lead the Public Prosecutor’s Office for a third term. Sinto was indicted in March 2023. The judge presiding over the intermediate phase, Sonia Carol Martínez Obregón, rejected 20 of the 21 pieces of evidence presented in Sinto’s favor, but accepted 55 of the 56 pieces of evidence presented by the MP. In June 2021, following the oral and public hearing, Judge Wendy Coloma ruled to dismiss the case; however, an appeal filed by the MP before the Third Chamber of the Criminal Division for Anti-Narcotics and Environmental Crimes in Guatemala reopened the proceedings against the activist. The proceedings have been deemed a case of criminalization because they stem from a public protest and have targeted individuals critical of the Alejandro Giammattei administration.7

There has been no progress in the cases in which former anti-corruption prosecutor Stuardo Campo—who has been held in pretrial detention for 27 months—is facing criminal charges, as the judge has repeatedly postponed hearing dates.8