The June 26th Delegation

2007-06-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

[Local]

I'll be gone to Guatemala for a month, so this site may not be updated until I get back at the end of July. While there, I will be visiting the Guatemalan lawyers (caldh.org) prosecuting Ríos Montt, so if anyone has any questions or comments you'd like me to relay to the prosecution team, please respond to this entry with your question/comment.

Meanwhile, I want to leave with an update about my local Amnesty Chapter, Group 4 (Seattle)'s efforts to initiate a Congressional Resolution calling for the arrest and extradition of Ríos Montt to Spain. This upcoming Tuesday, June 26, Group 4 will be meeting with Washington Senator Patty Murray and House Representative Jim McDermott to propose both Senate and House Resolutions regarding the aforementioned arrest and extradition.

On April 27, 2007, a Congressional Letter signed by various members of the US House and Senate, was sent addressing the Guatemalan Attorney General, Licenciado Juan Luis Florido, to prevent Ríos Montt from running for Congress (and thereby gaining parliamentary immunity) and to call for his prompt arrest and extradition (in accordance to the ruling by the Spanish National Court). The April 27th letter can be accessed by clicking here.

This upcoming Tuesday, Group 4 will be meeting with Senator Murray and Representative McDermott to propose that they sponsor (and preferably seek bipartisan co-sponsors) a text Resolution drafted by Amnesty International USA in D.C. If our local Congressional representatives agree to sponsor a Resolution to extradite Ríos Montt, then Amnesty USA can move on to drafting the actual text of the Resolution. If the Resolution were to pass, this would be a significant victory at home, because a Resolution, compared to the April 27th letter, would carry the weight of the nation (so to speak), rather than just the signatures of a few Congressional reps.

Thank you to Eugene Martin and Aaron Tovo of Group 4, as well as Leanne Smith (Amnesty's Legal Advisor), for drafting some talking points for the June 26th delegation.

Hopefully, I'll be able to find some way to relay the outcome of the delegation to the Guatemalan lawyers I'll be meeting with.

Introducción

2007-06-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

[Announcement]

Hola! Welcome and mucho gracias for visiting this blog!

I'd like to refer all first-time visitors to the "About this Blog and Author" section on the sidebar for more general information on what this blog is about and of course, the common disclaimer attached to blogs of this nature.

I want to reiterate the urgency of acting in solidarity with Guatemalans to bring Efraín Ríos Montt to justice. For this reason, be sure to always check the top of this blog for updated urgent actions and petitions issued by existing human rights organizations.

In the entries to come, I hope to fill in a narrative (*) that will help viewers understand the historical and contemporary context in which Ríos Montt was able to rise and maintain his power, but more importantly--and indeed, I should emphasize the primary reason for this blog--to update viewers on the progress of pressuring the Guatemalan Government to see that justice prevail.

I have decided to preface my entries with headers, to minimize the confusion and set the context of the post. Examples of headers include: [Announcement], [Local], [National], [News Update], [Op-Narrative].

Before I end this entry, I'd like to thank:

Amnesty International's (AI) Program for International Justice and Accountability (IJA) for their support, resources, and updates to help spotlight this issue within the USA and make this blog a reality;
NISGUA, which has done a lot to spread awareness and activism within the USA through their national speaking tours;
My local Amnesty chapter AI Group 4 (Seattle chapter) for their consistency and assiduousness in pursuing our Congressional Representatives and Senators to take this issue to D.C.;
and Dr. Angelina Godoy, Assistant Professor of the Law, Societies, and Justice and Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, whose knowledge, passion, and dedication to Guatemala has challenged, inspired and empowered a generation of undergraduate students to fight injustice and help affect real, sustainable change in Guatemala.

*Please see 4th paragraph of disclaimer on sidebar

Seeking Justice in Guatemala

The June 26th Delegation

Introducción