Questions about the death of Qawa’ Domingo Choc Ché
2020 Agosto Guatemala
Once the pandemic reached Guatemala, most of the national media have focused on how our society is dealing with it. Some emphasize how inequalities...
“We already won the elections; now we need to organize to make it real”
2019 Noviembre Nicaragua
The Electoral Reform Promotion Group has been working in Nicaragua since 2002, and has made a very important contribution to this institutional challenge....
From the UN to a regime that denies its human rights violations
2019 Octubre Nicaragua
A t the onset of Nicaragua’s socio-political and human rights crisis in April 2018, the Of¬fice of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)...
The six phases of state repression against the civic uprising
2019 Agosto Nicaragua
Ever since the civic insurrection kicked off in April 2018, the government of Daniel Ortega has responded to the massive peaceful protests with repressive...
Has there ever been rural development in Nicaragua?
2019 Agosto Nicaragua
When we were nomads, our entire lives were in contact with nature. We human beings would interact permanently with the earth, waters, trees, their fruits…...
The beginning of the April uprising…
2019 Agosto Nicaragua
Regardless of the specific nature of all the events examined by the GIEI, the protests were at first peaceful.
Use of mortars
The marches,...
Repression in the prisons and abuse in the courts
2019 Julio Nicaragua
This report examines what happened, after the crackdown in the streets, to many of the hundreds of people arrested by police or abducted by armed pro-government...
The Caribbean Coast’s voice in the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy
2019 Junio Nicaragua
I still remember when Monsignor David Zywiec, the Catholic bishop of Siuna, up until a few months ago Auxiliary Bishop of Bluefields, called me on...
Torture in the detention centers
2019 Junio Nicaragua
When we interviewed Alex Pérez, a former political prisoner, after his release, he answered our greeting, “How are you?” with: “I’m here, going back...
The repressive structures will eventually have to be investigated
2019 Mayo Nicaragua
With Ortega’s return to official power in 2007, political violence began to increase throughout Nicaragua. The police became increasingly drawn into...
The lasting imprint of pain and indignation
2019 Abril Nicaragua
There are many cases of family members of April’s victims being subjected to revictimization. One exam¬ple of revictimization in found in the consequences...
How did adults view April’s rebellious youth?
2019 Marzo Nicaragua
Five university youth organizations made up the heart and muscle of last April’s revolt. Their debut on the nation’s political stage took analysts by...
“The regime is using the judicial system as a repressive political weapon”
2018 Octubre Nicaragua
The political crisis we’re going through caught us all by surprise. We were an apathetic society, with even the energy of our youth, which is so fundamental...
Veterans with disabilities still fighting battles in peacetime
2018 Febrero El Salvador
The Chapultepec Accords that put an end to a dozen years of war were signed 26 years ago this January 16. As a result of that war, the Salvadoran people...
Reflections on the referendum in Catalonia
2017 Octubre Internacional
The Catalonian referendum on Sunday, October 1, will become part of Europe’s history, possibly for the worst of reasons. I don’t discuss here the substantive...
Impunity finally stands trial: The case of Herbert Anaya Sanabria
2017 Julio El Salvador
On October 26, 1987, Herbert Anaya Sanabria, president of the nongovernmental Human Rights Commission of El Salvador (CDHES), was killed by three people...
Sexual abuse of children is a Nicaraguan pandemic
2017 Junio Nicaragua
A team of eight women—four of us psychologists who are survivors of sexual abuse and have become experts on the subject and four other women, not necessarily...
Fiscal Crisis: Between dangers and opportunities
2017 Febrero El Salvador
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) leader Lorena Peña currently chairs the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly’s Financial Commission after...
The repeal of the Amnesty Law: A bittersweet ruling
2016 Octubre El Salvador
On July 13, the Supreme Court of Justice’s Constitutional Bench announced four rulings of unconstitutionality on its Twitter account, demonstrating...
Armed and politically motivated: A repeating tragedy
2016 Agosto Nicaragua
Since 1990, the inability, insensitivity and lack of political will of Nicaragua’s successive governments to acknowledge and deal withthe civil war’s...
A book bathed in tears
2016 Agosto Guatemala
I first learned about Ixcan: Masacres y sobrevivencia (Ixcan: Massacres and survival) by Ricardo Falla in 1989. It was hidden in the catacombs...
Political prisoners: “The Fifth Front” 36 years later
2016 Agosto El Salvador
The Political Prisoners’ Committee of El Salvador (COPPES) was formed in September 1980 with a hunger strike in the Santa Tecla prison grounds and in...
Minimum wage history, struggles, maneuvers and proposals
2016 Marzo El Salvador
When Karl Marx wrote 172 years ago that “Wages are determined through the antagonistic struggle between capitalist and worker,” it was one of the most...
The American Dream’s anteroom is Mexico’s nightmare, Solid and liquid border vigilance, part 1
2015 Abril Centroamérica
The surveillance operations of the policies designed to repel immigrants have both “solid” and “liquid” expressions, often more theatrical than effective,...
Would a truth commission be possible here?
2014 Junio Nicaragua
What is transitional justice? What does it mean? It’s a relatively new concept in human rights doctrine that refers to the justice that should be fostered...
The reform of Law 779 sends society a very negative message
2013 Noviembre Nicaragua
The “Comprehensive Law against Violence toward Women” (Law 779) was passed unanimously by the National Assembly on June 22, 2012, and went into effect...
The Ríos Montt trial was a historic milestone
2013 Julio Guatemala
On May 10, a lower court sentenced retired General José Efraín Ríos Montt to 50 years in prison for the deaths—categorized as genocide—of 1,771 Ixil...
In six years the gold will all be gone
2013 Abril Nicaragua
I’m both the son and the grandson of miners, and the child of a mining tragedy. My grandfather, who was born in the indigenous Monimbó neighborhood...
Decriminalizing drugs: Pandora’s Box or the path to peace?
2012 Abril Guatemala
It was inevitable that the proposal of Guatemala’s new President, retired General Otto Pérez Molina, to discuss the possible decriminalization and even...
On Social Security the IMF Has Little to Tell Us and a Lot to Be Told
2010 Septiembre Nicaragua
Everything that has to do with the subject of social security is highly sensitive for any society because it’s about life; it’s of interest to all human...
The Right to Memory
2010 Mayo El Salvador
The first enormous task of the Museum of the Word and Image was to safeguard documentary records from different origins and in a variety of formats (audiovisuals,...
Children’s Rights: From Paper to Reality
2010 Marzo Nicaragua
Twenty years have passed since the United Nations General Assembly unanimously approved the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on November 20,...
And the Amnesty Law?
2009 Julio El Salvador
In his inaugural speech, President Mauricio Funes’ only mention of the long war his people lived through until 1992 was this stylized reference: “The...
Child Adoption: Another Form of Violence
2008 Noviembre Guatemala
The growth of violence in Guatemala increasingly horrifies people. On October 18 the Guatemalan Episcopal Conference released a statement that expresses...
The Left and Human Rights: A Contribution to the Debate
2008 Agosto América Latina
Fidel Castro wrote in Granma’s July 3 edition: “Out of a basic sense of humanity, we were pleased by the news that Ingrid Betancourt, three North...
A Penitentiary Crisis That Refuses to Go Hawai
2008 Mayo El Salvador
During the first half of March eight prisoners were reported murdered in the Chalatenango and Ciudad Barrios penitentiary centers. Public Security and...
Nicaragua’s Justice System: A Portrait in Grays
2007 Octubre Nicaragua
Nicaragua’s judicial branch is always on the spot. The country has never had an authentic judicial system where that old principle of “give each one...
“We’re Still Concerned about the Human Rights Situation”
2007 Julio Nicaragua
When Daniel Ortega was elected President, his sym-pathizers said to us in the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center (CENIDH), “You’re going to have no reason...
Organized Crime is Embedded In the Public Institutions
2007 Junio Guatemala
On September 9, Guatemalans will elect a new President, legislativerepresentatives and mayors. The latest poll conducted by Vox Latina for the daily...
The Legacy of Mitch: Are We Ready for Another Disaster?
2007 Abril Nicaragua
Nine years have passed since Hurricane Match left Nicaragua prostrated. Since then, the international community collaborating with Central America has...
The Odyssey of a Peasant Navigating the Seas of Power
2006 Septiembre Nicaragua
Matagalpa, August 2, 2006. Bearing corn stalks and banners proclaiming “you won’t intimidate me,” a crowd of over a hundred peasants, human rights activists...
“The Problem Isn’t Lack of Resources; It’s Fiscal Inequity and Legalized Pillage”
2006 Marzo Nicaragua
Several acute social crises are being played out in the country right now. One of the two main ones is the strike of public-sector doctors and other...
Honduras’ Prison Massacres Reflect a Social and Political Crisis
2006 Enero Honduras
Yet more prison violence broke out on the afternoon of January 5, 2006, this time at the Támara National Penitentiary, where thirteen prisoners were...
States and Laws Reproduce Violence against Women
2005 Septiembre América Latina
The words of Latin American women continue to have no value to those who legislate, govern and administer justice. A couple of weeks ago I was in Mexico...
The Code of Children and Adolescents: Comments on a Misunderstood Law
2005 Mayo Nicaragua
The Office of Special Attorney for Children and Adolescents, which forms part of the Human Rights Defense Attorney’s Office, was created in 2000. In...
Marías Island Penal Colony: A Prison with Walls of Water
2004 Noviembre México
Las Marías Archipelago, off Mexico’s Pacific coast, is home to a singular prison. Nearly 29,000 prisoners have passed through it during its hundred...
The Fight against Corruption: Sowing Now to Harvest Later
2004 Septiembre Nicaragua
Let’s briefly outline why we are where we are today and why, as soon as possible, we have to come up with our own regulatory and juridical framework...
The Myrna Mack Case: Continuing Impunity
2003 Junio Guatemala
The verdict issued on May 7 by the Fourth Appeals Court acquitting the three high-ranking military officers involved in the 1990 assassination of anthropologist...
We Don’t Ask for Favors, We We Don’t Ask for Favors, We
2003 Mayo Nicaragua
In the midst of the confusion of the first traumatic days following the FSLN’s electoral defeat on February 25, 1990, the distinguished jurist Boris...
The Chronicle of a Reform Foretold
2003 Abril Nicaragua
The Technical Committee consisted of José Luis Medal, Sergio Santamaría, Róger Cerda, Néstor Avendaño, Ricardo Zambrana and me. Our group decided to...
The Myrna Mack Case: An Historic Verdict
2002 Noviembre Guatemala
Myrna Elizabeth Mack Chang was assassinated on September 11, 1990. She had just left her office at the Association for the Advance of Social Sciences...
Corruption and Party Polarization: The Cancer in our Justice System
2002 Julio Nicaragua
On February 21, a symbolic date for Nicaragua as it commemorates the assassination of General Sandino, President Bolaños set up a legal commission consisting...
Crime Is on the Rise in our Lands
2002 Mayo América Latina
The crime rates in Central and South America have skyrocketed in the last two decades. According to The Economist, all of the region’s cities...
The Wounds of Sexual Abuse
2001 Septiembre Nicaragua
On the periphery of the globalized world, Nicaragua struggles as best it can for democracy and development, longing to reach these two closely-linked...
Pensions System Reforms: Three in One
2000 Mayo Nicaragua
The complete replacement of Nicaragua’s state pension scheme with a private one has caused a huge commotion in the country from the moment the reforms...
Pinochet Under Arrest The End of Voluntaristic Democracy
1998 Diciembre América Latina
Finances and stock markets are not the only things that have globalized. Law and the struggle against impunity are beginning to be universalized too,...
A Declaration of Human Rights For the 21st Century
1998 Septiembre América Latina
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was born exactly fifty years ago, in 1948. A new initiative by Latin America's women is now touring the continent...
Some Voices of the 55,000 Victims
1998 Mayo Guatemala
Exactly three years ago, on April 25, 1995, we publicly presented the REMHI Project; an interdiocesan pastoral work whose objective was to open consoling...
Zedillo Government: Human Rights in Crisis
1997 Febrero México
With the first third of Ernesto Zedillo's administration now over, a balance sheet can be drawn up from a specifically human rights perspective. This...
The Armed Conflict in Estelí
1993 Septiembre Nicaragua
The events visited upon Estelí in late July are a tragic new milestone in Nicaragua's current crisis of violence. The description and assessment contained...
Human Rights: Americas Watch Cites "Mixed Results…"
1989 Diciembre Nicaragua
Right-wingers in Washington are already using the most recent Americas Watch (AW) report on human rights violations in Nicaragua to oppose the plan to...
Prison Inspections End Numbers Speculation
1989 Noviembre Nicaragua
A recent census of Nicaragua's prisons has helped dispel the aura of mystery that opposition groups have tried to create concerning the number of political...
Judicial System Demands Larger Budget
1989 Agosto Nicaragua
On May 15, Dr. Rodrigo Reyes, president of Nicaragua's Supreme Court, opened a two-day conference for 100 of the nation's judges on "the independence...
Regional Commission Studies Nicaragua
1989 Julio Nicaragua
Human rights and democracy in Nicaragua and other Central American countries have been reviewed at two recent meetings of a regional human rights organization....
Human Rights: A Pardon for Peace
1989 Abril Nicaragua
February 27 was a very difficult day in the life of President Ortega. He presented a bill to the National Assembly proposing a pardon for 1,932 former...
Human Rights: Opposition Rights Group Continues Attack
1989 Marzo Nicaragua
The Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), headed up by Lino Hernández and directed by some of the leading political opposition figures in Nicaragua,...
Human Rights: Three Critiques of Contra Human Rights Agency
1989 Enero Nicaragua
Six months ago contra leader Enrique Bermúdez offered this candid prediction: “The fight will take another configuration… We will see more sabotage,...
A New Electoral Law—For a Stronger Opposition
1988 Noviembre Nicaragua
As President Reagan pursued more aid for the counterrevolution in August, Nicaragua's legislative body was busy pursuing the democratic goals of the...
The Law in Nicaragua—Seeing Justice Done
1988 Septiembre Nicaragua
This article by US lawyer Jerry Pyle won second prize in envío’s First Annual Writers' Contest.
—envío Editors
Such constant charges...
Human Rights Nicaragua's Record
1987 Octubre Nicaragua
The subject of human rights in Nicaragua is as important as it is poorly dealt with in terms of information and analysis. This deficiency results not...
World Court Sides with Justice
1986 Julio Nicaragua
On June 27, 1986, the International Court of Justice at The Hague delivered its judgment on the merits in the case concerning "Military and Paramilitary...
The Politics of Human Rights Reporting on Nicaragua
1986 Junio Nicaragua
The justifications for US intervention in Latin America have not changed in over a century. From the Mexican War of 1846-48 to the invasion of Grenada,...