Overview
- The CIDH report, following a July on-site visit, details systematic interference that it says undermines judicial independence and threatens governability.
- The commission alleges the Public Ministry and sectors of the judiciary manipulate criminal justice using ambiguous charges, preventive detention and tailored case assignments.
- The report calls for an independent examination of the Public Ministry’s performance during Porras’s tenure with proposed reforms to its founding law.
- Relator Andrea Pochak says Guatemalans fear being criminalized and no longer trust the justice system, while about 100 justice operators, defenders and journalists have gone into exile since 2022.
- Cited cases include journalist José Rubén Zamora held over three years without trial and indigenous leaders Luis Pacheco and Héctor Chaclán jailed nearly eight months, as civil groups launch a platform to document alleged political persecution and Porras remains under travel sanctions by 42 countries.