The Defender Community demands that the Arévalo government implement the protection policy in the face of the lack of budget

President Bernardo Arévalo holds a governmental agreement on the protection of human rights defenders during a public event in Guatemala. (Guatemalan News Agency) The Human Rights Defenders Community of Guatemala demanded that Bernardo Arévalo's government implement the protection policy for activists, which has been in force for a year, citing the lack of a budget, a work plan, and an institutional structure capable of responding to attacks against those who defend rights. The demand was presented on November 13 at a press conference held at the Human Rights Office of the Archbishopric of Guatemala, in the capital. The group brings together organizations, networks, alliances, movements, and communities from different regions of the country. The policy was approved through Governmental Agreement 198-2025, signed on November 13, 2025, which created the Public Policy for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala 2025-2035. The Ministry of the Interior (Ministerio de Gobernación) was designated as the governing body and the Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights, known as COPADEH, as coordinator of its implementation. The measure stemmed from a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which in August 2014 condemned the Guatemalan state for the lack of justice in the murder of a defender that occurred in 2004. The court determined that prior actions were insufficient and ordered the implementation of a public protection policy. A group of people holds a banner of the Human Rights Defenders Community in front of the steps of an institutional building. (Otra Guatemala ya) Edgar Tomás Alejandro Godoy, representative in Xela of the Highland Peasant Committee (Comité Campesino del Altiplano), questioned that the norm has not resulted in concrete measures. "It has been in force for a year as of today, but without any execution, without any action, without any project, without any vision, without any established goal, and without any budget," he said. The Defenders Community stated that the 1543 emergency system already has a digital platform, but warned that it maintains a police-focused approach that does not respond to the criminalization processes against activists. Much of the aggression, it noted, occurs in digital environments and through judicial or administrative actions against defenders. The organizations acknowledged COPADEH's efforts to publicize the policy, although they had expected the Coordinating Council to already be operational, with a work plan and funds to carry out actions during 2027. Godoy demanded that the Ministry of the Interior install the planned structure with the "permanent, real and substantive observation and participation" of members of the defenders' community. He also called for opening dialogue to build the Comprehensive Protection System, which was supposed to be established during the first year of the norm's validity. A statement from the Human Rights Defenders Community demands that the government of Guatemala provide security guarantees and ratify the Escazú Agreement. (Otra Guatemala ya) The second demand is directed at President Arévalo and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: to move forward with the signing and ratification of the Escazú Agreement before Congress. Guatemala signed the environmental and human rights treaty in September 2018, but in December 2022 the government of Alejandro Giammattei notified the United Nations that it did not seek to become a state party. That decision stripped the signature of legal effect, and the file remains stalled in the Directorate of International Treaties of the foreign ministry. The third request calls for incorporating the observations of the journalistic guild into the prevention and protection mechanism for journalists and communicators before approving the corresponding governmental agreement. According to the organization, the proximity of the election year increases the risk for journalists, defenders, and people dedicated to social auditing and election observation. The group cited the murders of Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, Evelio Lissandro López, Eduardo Matzul, and Carlos Humberto Cal Ical, cases it linked to complaints about corruption and the presence of organized crime in politics, and which remain unpunished. Solórzano Foppa, a former prosecutor with the Public Prosecutor's Office and former head of the Tax Administration Superintendence, was assassinated on October 17 with more than 20 gunshots while playing soccer at the Campo Marte sports complex, in zone five of the capital. The attack also left another man dead and four people wounded. López, a Maya Mam community journalist and founder of the digital outlet Huehue Es Noticias, was assassinated on October 2 in San Pedro Necta, Huehuetenango, days after denouncing threats related to his work. Cal Ical was the first journalist murdered in 2026: the crime occurred on April 26 in San Cristóbal Verapaz, Alta Verapaz. Godoy asked the Executive to enable the participation of those who defend human rights and to allocate resources for the policy: "We ask that the government, especially President Bernardo Arévalo, give importance to this and open the doors to all women and men human rights defenders so that we can contribute to and enrich this law."