The message from the president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, and deputies of the Congress of his country against the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which warned in its 2021 report of the successive human rights violations in that country, has put on alert to civil society organizations enrolled in the matter.
The Guatemalan president, during his visit to washingtonin a special session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) distorted the work of the hemispheric body that records human rights violations mandated by the Inter-American Charter and the Convention, both signed by Guatemala.
Giammattei’s speech according to nine civil society organizations in the region that signed a joint statement in which they repudiate the president’s “false diatribe” and warn that after rapprochements between the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry and its pair of Nicaragua could be predicted an attempt by Guatemala to want to get out of control of the Inter-American System.
“It is striking that the president’s statements come after the meetings that the Foreign Ministry has held with the government of Daniel Ortega, who in 2021 withdrew from the OAS (…) We warn that these statements by the president are the preamble to a attempt to withdraw Guatemala from the SIDH”, the Inter-American Human Rights System, says the forceful response of the organizations recognized for their work history in the region.
Alejandro Giammattei used qualifiers and direct accusations against the organization, which he said acts with “threats and extortion” against his country while describing the organization’s practices as “rude” among other derogatory adjectives.
The IACHR included Guatemala in Chapter 4 of the 2021 report, issued in recent June, after several years of waiting for the government’s consent to receive a visit crazy to follow up on numerous cases of violations reported by civil society organizations to the agency.
The inclusion of Guatemala in Chapter 4 of the IACHR follow-up report placed the country on a par with Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela in terms of fundamental rights violations.
The organizations stressed that they “demand” full compliance with the recommendations issued by the hemispheric instance “in order to resolve the very serious crisis of democratic institutions that Guatemala faces, derived from the co-optation of the State by a criminal alliance of politicians, businessmen and military committed to human rights violations”.
The president asked the plenary of the OAS to stop the actions of the Commission that he considered illegitimate against the Guatemalan State, to which he said that as head of the Executive he will not allow attempts to “impose ideologies” and international practices that his people do not accept, such as the openness to the rights of minorities such as women and the LGBTI community.
In the case of women, according to a video presented by the president, who said he represented the voice of the deputies of the National Congress, the audiovisual narration accuses the IACHR of “deploring the legal regulations that protect life from conception and typify crime of abortion, and in clear abuse of its mandate, it intends to force the adoption of legislative measures, public policies, among other actions, in order to promote unrestricted access to abortion practices.”
In his accusation against the Giammattei body, he said that the IACHR should only act in a subsidiary manner “and not as a fourth instance within the judicial institutions of a country.”
The IACHR has not issued a response to the words of the Guatemalan president, the voice of america requested a reaction, but it was said that given the working mechanisms of the agency there would be no comment on the matter, for the moment, but that they are closely following the situation.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and turn on notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Add Comment