In spite of the Guatemalan government’s discomfort with the findings of the 2021 human rights report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) report, the Guatemalan government in July continued its pattern of weakening its prosecutorial and investigative capacities. 

Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who was recently placed on the U.S State Department’s Engel List- a congressionally mandated report on corrupt individuals in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua- for obstructing investigations, arbitrarily dismissed eight career prosecutors and eleven other employees of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Among the dismissed prosecutors are Hilda Pineda, Wendy Ordóñez, Sara Romero, Eleonora Castillo, Elka Huitz, and Sara Sandoval. These prosecutors investigated emblematic cases of serious human rights violations and major incidents of corruption. Multiple international human rights organizations noted that the Attorney General’s Office did not complete mandatory disciplinary procedures and omitted proof that serious misconduct had been committed by the dismissed prosecutors prior to firing them.