Political situation in September 2026

Cifuentes Cano sentenced to 50 years in prison for forced disappearance1

On September 17, 2026, more than 44 years after the crimes in question were committed and following 42 hearings held between May and September of this year, the Eighth Criminal Sentencing Court sentenced the ex-commander of the Special Operations Reaction Battalion (BROE), Juan Francisco Cifuentes Cano, to a total of 50 years in prison, without the possibility of commuting the sentence (25 years for each victim), for the forced disappearances of Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín and Ana María López Rodríguez. In addition, the court ruled that the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) must continue investigating other police and army officers who may have been involved in these events. The court did not find sufficient evidence to support the charges of crimes against humanity. Luz Leticia’s sisters, who have continued the struggle that their parents, Valentina and Jorge, began, said they were satisfied with the verdict. However, they noted that the sentence seems minimal compared to the profound impact the disappearance has had on their family. They said, “Justice has finally been served for our sister, which also means something for the 45,000 people who were disappeared during the war in Guatemala.”

The week after the ruling was handed down, the court held a hearing on dignified reparations, during which it ordered Cifuentes Cano to publicly apologize, publish the ruling and his apology in a widely circulated newspaper, and pay Q500,000 to each plaintiff for non-pecuniary damages. The court also ordered that a commemorative plaque be erected at the Polytechnic School and that the case be incorporated into Army and police training. However, the court rejected a motion to compel the convicted man to reveal where the victims’ remains were located.
 

Judgment in the Rancho Bejuco Massacre Case2

High-Risk Court D found Nicolás Orrego Orrego guilty of murder and crimes against humanity in a special trial. Orrego was charged with the massacre of at least 25 people in the community of Rancho Bejuco, located in Santa Cruz El Chol, in the department of Baja Verapaz. The massacre took place on July 29, 1982, when Orrego was serving as a military commissioner. Due to his health, Nicolás Orrego Orrego will not serve his prison sentence at this time; he is currently subject to alternative measures and wears an electronic monitoring device. According to attorney Lucía Xiloj, “During the trial, three expert reports were presented—psychological, psychiatric, and neurological—establishing his cognitive decline, which requires special treatment that he cannot receive at home but only in a specialized hospital.”

The massacre took place four months after Efraín Ríos Montt’s coup against the government of Fernando Romeo Lucas García. The massacre victims, members of the Maya Achi people, were from Rabinal and had been displaced after surviving several massacres perpetrated in that municipality. The Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), in its report Guatemala: Memory of Silence, determined that genocide and crimes against humanity were committed in four regions of Guatemala; one of those regions is Rabinal, Baja Verapaz.

After lengthy process of criminalization and prosecution, former indigenous authorities from 48 Cantones of Totonicapán and Sololá have been acquitted

Former indigenous authorities, Luis Pacheco, Héctor Chaclán, Basilio Puac, and María Juana Elías Tzunun, and former indigenous deputy mayor of Sololá, Esteban Toc, were acquitted of charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal incitement, terrorism, obstruction of criminal proceedings, and obstruction of justice. Third Judge Mynor Moto closed the cases, in response to a request from the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime to dismiss the charges. The criminalization of the former indigenous authorities began during the first half of 2025 at the initiative of the MP, led by Consuelo Porras, and the Foundation Against Terrorism, following the indefinite national strike in defense of democracy and the 2023 election results, which was led by indigenous peoples. It was thanks to this mobilization that current president Bernardo Arévalo was able to take office.3

The ruling ordered the State of Guatemala, through the Office of the State’s Attorney (PGN), to apologize for the persecution of the five indigenous leaders.4

However, despite this good news, there are continued reports of violations of the rights of indigenous peoples and human rights defenders. In late September, an international mission composed of organizations from Europe, South Africa, and Guatemala visited communities in Alta and Baja Verapaz and gathered testimonies from more than 30 ancestral authorities, women leaders, community leaders, and human rights defenders. The complaints documented include conflicts related to access to land, water, and territory; the lack of prior, free, and informed consultation; and the criminalization of community members for defending indigenous peoples’ territories and collective rights. The mission conveyed its findings to state institutions and called for the state to guarantee communities’ rights and ensure the necessary conditions so that indigenous authorities and human rights defenders can carry out their work without facing threats or any form of retaliation, such as the misuse of criminal proceedings to attack them.5

Chinautla: Floods highlight river’s ongoing pollution

In September, heavy rains caused the Chinautla River to overflow, affecting homes, businesses, and schools. For the ancestral authorities of the Maya Poqomam people, this disaster is not only due to the rain. The flooding occurred in a watershed that has faced pollution, accumulated waste, and sand mining for years. The authorities point out that these conditions exacerbate the effects of the rains and have demanded that the government fulfill its commitments to restore and channel the Chinautla River watershed.6

The pollution of the Chinautla, Las Vacas, and Tzaljá rivers is linked to different factors, including waste flowing from the city. This is in addition to the large-scale sand mining that has been taking place in the area for decades. Since 2004, there have been warnings about the effects the sand mining has had on the riverbed, including erosion and changes to the river’s course. The situation has been the subject of legal proceedings. In June 2025, an injunctions court ordered the Municipality of Chinautla to adopt measures to address river pollution and ensure the participation of the Maya Poqomam community in decisions related to the environmental crisis.7 Nonetheless, the ruling’s implementation has yet to yield concrete results.

The September floods have once again highlighted that Chinautla’s environmental problems are not limited to an emergency caused by rainfall. For indigenous authorities, preventing such disasters requires addressing the structural causes of the watershed’s deterioration and ensuring that the Maya Poqomam people’s territory and rights are protected.

Claudia González accuses Judge Jimi Bremer of “arbitrary actions” in her case

In late August of this year, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared the 2023 detention and 82-day imprisonment of attorney Claudia González arbitrary, calling on the State of Guatemala to conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding these events and to take “appropriate measures against those responsible for the violation of her rights.”8

Based on this finding, in September, the attorney and former head of the now-defunct International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) filed a request before the Judicial Branch’s (OJ) Criminal Proceedings Division to lift Judge Jimi Bremer’s immunity, after accusing him of potentially committing human rights violations. González seeks to ensure that, once the judge’s immunity from prosecution is lifted, he can be investigated for the crimes of breach of legal duty, abuse of authority, failure to fulfill official duties, malicious delays, and denial of justice. Some of the issues the complaint cites include the number of times hearings to resolve her case were delayed, as well as the claim that the crime she was accused of could not applied to her because she was not a public official. The complaint also challenges the rejection of all exculpatory evidence, which, she stated, left her unable to mount a defense during the proceedings.9

More adjournments in the trial of former anti-corruption prosecutor Stuardo Campo

The intermediate stage hearing against former anti-corruption prosecutor Stuardo Campo—in which the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested that he be sent to trial for an alleged failure to fulfill official duties in his investigation of the Zolic case—was postponed for the fifteenth time, preventing the trial from moving forward and resolving the case against Campo and two other defendants. This time, one of the defendants in the case, Juan Fernando Sáenz, submitted a request to be excused from the proceedings, prompting Judge Víctor Cruz to postpone the hearing once again until October 1. The intermediate stage hearing against Campo began on February 26, following 10 adjournments ordered by Judge Cruz, mainly because Campo’s accusers filed various excuses for not attending the hearings.10

Here you find our complete Monthly Information Package of September 2026.