While in some cases family members are able to act as joint parties to the state prosecution (querellantes adhesivos) the vast majority of families are unable to afford to pay for a lawyer to help them navigate the complex process of becoming joint parties to the investigation. "Claudina was killed by one thing: impunityClaudina's killer knew that the likelihood of him being found was very remote" father of 19-year-old law student Claudina Velsquez Paíz, murdered on 13 August 2005. (1) The name has been changed to protect the identity of the family. Statistics also point towards an under-reporting of violence against women in the family, an important contributing factor to murders of women. The new president, a retired general, campaigned on the promise that his government would combat crime with an iron fist. GUATEMALA In Guatemala, organized crime has been a problem for decades. On receiving his sentence "Small" reportedly threatened Clara Fabiola García that she would pay for testifying against him. The main threat to young people in Guatemala is the high level of impunity for crimes against children and adolescents. . (34) Article 180 applies to articles 176 and 177 (estupro, sexual activity with a minor) that state that the honesty of the woman or in this case a minor is a basic requirement for establishing the existence of a crime. Certain investigative units have demonstrated that the police can given the proper resources, training and supervision solve complex crimes. This coverage helped highlight all the shootings that were happening by the police. Similarly, neighbours also witnessed the abduction of 18-year-old student Paola Ninet Gil Escobar, by four men in a green car with no number plates and tinted windows close to her home in the municipality of Amatitln on the outskirts of Guatemala City on 28 March 2006. In the face of chronic deficiencies in the investigation of cases of murdered women and girls, in April 2006 the PDH presented a proposal to the Public Ministry and Judiciary which would allow the PDH to oversee the investigation of cases of murdered women and girls throughout Guatemala. (29) Article 116 of the Guatemalan Penal Code gives relatives the right to propose avenues of investigation, participate in proceedings, request certain tests or examinations and seek the intervention of a judge if they disagree with a prosecutor's decision not to carry out a particular line of investigation. Ministerio Público, www.mp.lex.gob.gt/memorias, (22) La Justicia en Guatemala: Un Largo Camino por Recorrer. Police typically are responsible for maintaining public order and safety, enforcing the law, and preventing, detecting, and investigating criminal activities. (29) In cases where there are no relatives exerting pressure on the authorities to investigate either because relatives are too afraid to actively pursue investigations or the victim has not been identified, investigations seldom advance. Still, the country experienced one of the smallest GDP contractions in 2020 in LAC (-1.8 percent compared to a regional average of -6.7 percent). She knows the police in Guatemala will not protect her. Poor pay and a lack of training have led to lawbreaking by police, including thefts and extortions. But all too often citizens distrust and fear the police widely dismissed as inefficient, corrupt and abusive as much as the criminals. Her bloodstained clothes, which may have contained evidence identifying her attackers, were handed back to the family and were buried together with her body. Officials that make unfounded public statements discrediting the serious nature of crimes committed against women should be dealt with appropriately. The failure to carry out the most basic investigations, properly process the crime scene and protect potential evidence remains evident in numerous cases. Official statistics continue to mask low prosecution rates. Blaming the victim (16) Interview with Sergio Morales, Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman, Violencia se ensaña con mujeres en Guatemala, La Nación, San José, Costa Rica, 4 April 2006. This inadequate legal recognition and protection of lands has led the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) to grant 276 exploitation licenses, 111 exploration licenses, 734 pending licenses, and most recently to grant 7 exploration licenses without consulting the affected indigenous peoples. The ineptitude of the system results from lack of funding and training, low morale and corruption. In the case of 19-year-old university student Claudina Velsquez who was studying to become a lawyer, her dead body was found on 13 August 2005. Other basic lines of investigation were not pursued such as seeking witness statements at the hotel where "la mudita" worked. The law requires officers to hold at least a high school degree, but they often had much less, and some individuals had as little as six months of police training before being sent out on the streets. Solution. Due to the COVID emergency, Guatemala closed its borders, but continued to allow entry of Guatemalan nationals adults and children, accompanied or unaccompanied who are deported from the U.S. or from Mexico. The murder of 26-year-old Clara Fabiola García, witness to the murder of two sisters, 15-year-old Ana Berta and 18-year-old Elsa Mariela Loarca Hernndez on 7 August 2003 in Guatemala City bears testament to the failure of the authorities to guarantee the effective safety of witnesses. As is custom in Guatemala, the protection she was receiving as part of the Public Ministry's witness protection programme was terminated on the sentencing of "Small" despite the fact that she was still clearly at risk of retaliatory violence. She fears will find her, take her daughter from her, and harm or kill her. The study, Global and Regional Trends in Women's Legal Protection Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Harassment, also found that close to 1.4 billion women lack legal protection against domestic economic violence. From 2010 to 2013, Barnica and her long-time life partner and now husband, Leslie Rene Lopez ("Rene"), were engaged in business buying gold jewelry in Guatemala and reselling it for profit in Honduras.1 As part of this venture, Rene drove back and In April 2006 AI was informed that 552 women were murdered during 2005. Guatemalans Have Had Enough. The testimony of Clara Fabiola, was key to securing the 100 year prison sentence in February 2005 against gang member Oscar Gabriel Morales Ortiz, alias "Small". (28) The PDH had previously requested that the Constitutional Court (CC) issue a resolution which would empower the PDH to oversee the investigation of the cases within the Public Ministry, however, the CC responded that this was not necessary as the PDH, in line with article 275 of the Guatemalan Constitution, are already empowered to do so. Guatemala On July 5, 2005, officials from the Guatemalan government's human rights office (PDH - Procuradura de Derechos Humanos) entered a deteriorating, rat-infested munitions depot in downtown Guatemala City to investigate complaints about improperly-stored explosives. (37) See www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2006/wom1559.doc.htm and www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw35/cc/Guatemala_rev.pdf. While there has been some progress in relation to gender-sensitive law reform, the persistence of discriminatory legislation continues to mean that many forms of gender-based violence against women in particular violence against women in the family and sexual harassment go undetected. In common with some other Central American countries, Guatemala experiences high levels of violent crime. One example of the manner in which family members are treated by government officials is the case of Rosa Franco, mother of María Isabel Franco, abducted and murdered in December 2001: August 2005 was the last time I went to the prosecutor's office no. The heavy case loads, lack of equipment and the continuing severe shortage of police investigators,(23) means that in the majority of cases the initial investigation, in particular the way in which the crime scene and other important evidence is processed, is flawed. (13) Many of the concerns expressed in this report apply equally to the failure to adequately investigate murders whether of men or women. (38) A draft bill on sexual harassment in the workplace was sent to Congress in 2002. (17) At the time of writing, only two cases of killings in 2005 had resulted in convictions. (27) Nearly one year after Cristina was abducted and murdered, the Public Ministry has allegedly still not requested the police to carry out a search of a suspect's house or summoned the witnesses to provide information to construct a identikit picture of individuals believed to be responsible for her abduction and subsequent murder. Soon after Cristina's murder, in fear for their safety, the family went into hiding where they remain at the time of writing. What significance does CICIGs closure have for the region? In the Indigenous communities of Guatemala hardest hit by Hurricane Eta's ruinous sweep through Central America, early response to the disaster has come in the form of self-help, amid claims that the slow pace of official assistance is just the latest example of neglect. Impeding investigations or failing to take immediate action to prevent injury to women and girls believed to be at immediate risk should be the subject of disciplinary action. Given Guatemala's incapacity to provide effective protection and the risk that some transferees would face the threat of serious harm either in Guatemala or after returning to their home. Reporting gang activities to police puts a person in greater danger because it aggrevates the gang, challenges their authority, and shows disrespect. These contextual factors complicate the identification of neglect and raise a number of difficult dilemmas for child protection workers that are exacerbated by limited Guatemalan legislation on. It is difficult to establish a clear picture regarding the extent of the violence perpetrated against women or to draw conclusions regarding the identity or the motives of the perpetrators due to the poor quality of investigations and the absence of documentation regarding gender-based violence suffered by the victim prior to being killed. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (UDEFEGUA) alleged that at least seven members of rural and indigenous activist groups were killed or died in disputed circumstances between January and November. It is unclear whether reform efforts have enough support within the PNC hierarchy to survive over the long term. GTM43453.FE - Guatemala: The process for acquiring citizenship; possibility of losing one's citizenship; possibility of reestablishing one's citizenship; whether a child under 10 years who leaves Guatemala without the authorization of a parent can lose his or her citizenship (2003-2005) - April 2005 For example, a female victim who has been raped, tortured and suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head will have these details recorded in the autopsy report, a paper document compiled by hand by a forensic doctor. The level of coordination and cooperation, in particular, between the PNC and the Public Ministry continues to be extremely poor. But these efforts are dependent on the financial aid and political backing of donors. Then, under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), those who seek asylum in the U . According to relatives and an NGO supporting the case no effort has been made to locate them. Unlike the murders of men, however, in cases of women, the gender of the woman is a determining factor in the motive of the crime, the way women are killed (female victims often suffering exceptional brutality before being killed including rape, mutilation and dismemberment), and the way in which the authorities respond to the case. Francisca López, aged 13, was knifed to death on 2 November 2005 in Guatemala City. According to the police unit charged with the investigation of murders of women in the department of Guatemala, during 2005 there were up to a total of 665 murders of women throughout the country 246 murders of women in the department of Guatemala alone a 26 % increase from 2004 (527). When the family presented the clothes to the Public Ministry to assist in the investigation, they were reportedly told to burn them or throw them away. This makes it harder in the long run to build the competent civilian forces needed to enforce the law under stable, democratic regimes. Since the launch of the report No protection, no justice Rosa Franco, mother of María Isabel Franco, has reported experiencing increased acts of harassment and intimidation, including unidentified individuals coming to her home and work place and anonymous calls in which the caller told her that she and her children were going to die. In November 2019, a gun battle broke out in the neighborhood of Zona 7 in Guatemala City between a patrol unit and the Police Inspector General's office. (21) See Memoria de Labores 2005. (10), The precise number of women who have been murdered continues to be disputed with the Public Ministry, the National Civilian Police (PNC) and the Judiciary generating and referring to different statistics. Amnesty International offers the following set of recommendations to complement and reinforce those previously made and those of other national and international experts. is terrified to return to Guatemala. WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. The response by police authorities to reports of missing women or girls, including cases where there are witnesses to their abduction, continues to be inadequate. While the reactivation of investigations is a positive step, it is likely that critical evidence has been lost. (15) Informe de muertes violentas de mujeres 2005. Gangs, in particular, single out informants . (6) For example, on 24 June 2005 Marta Olga Caseros Batres's body was found in zone 6 of Guatemala City. On her return from a lobbying trip to the Netherlands in March 2006 the family received numerous anonymous telephone calls to their home. She had reportedly been raped and strangled. The United States is also making it more difficult for unaccompanied children in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to unite with relatives already in the country. Since 2001 over 2,200 women and girls have been murdered in Guatemala and the rate of murders is on the increase. 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