The Ministry of Virtue by Armando de la Torre The CICIG was bound to be corrupt. So would any entity that was born with an exclusive license to practice coercion. The CICIG, or the International Commission Against Impunity… Read More

THE RUNAWAY COMMISSION The CICIG was hired by the UN and Guatemala to do one kind of job, and it has been doing another. This deviation has created a threat to Guatemala as well as to international order. Not only… Read More

THE TRIUMPH OF POLITICS OVER JUSTICE The late and not-so-lamented Fidel Castro succinctly described the governing principle of Cuba under his rule. “Inside the revolution, everything; outside the revolution, nothing.” In November 2015, shortly after the surprise election that… Read More

OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES Before taking leave of the world stage, Obama administration officials announced the end of US imperialism in Latin America. American imperialism is “part of the past. It most definitely is part of the past.”… Read More

THE CASE OF CONGRESSMAN FERNANDO LINARES The Facts In late 2016 Ivan Velásquez, the chief of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), initiated a project to change Guatemala’s constitution . His close collaborator in this effort was Guatemala’s… Read More

The CICIG The most significant presence in Guatemala’s recent governance has been the International Commission Against Impunity, best known by its Spanish–language acronym CICIG. According to the United Nations, which invented the commission and its mandate, the CICIG “aims to… Read More

OR, PROGRESSIVES AGAINST THE FOOLS’ BRIGADE The government of Guatemala and the United Nations agreed in 2006 to create the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a “non-UN organ” that would strengthen the capacity of Guatemala to “fulfill its… Read More

THE CASE OF THE VALDÉS PAIZ BROTHERS Guatemala, May 2009–November 2017 2009: Murder or Suicide? On May 10, 2009, attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg was shot to death near his home in Guatemala City. One day later, a video appeared on… Read More

THE CASE OF THE CICIG VERSUS MOISÉS GALINDO The CICIC Sets Up a Defense Attorney Moisés Galindo is a criminal defense attorney who, in high-profile matters, has defended clients against prosecution by the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG)…. Read More

In the spring of 2010, the government of Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom, two years in power, was preparing to choose an attorney general – a semi-independent office which functions apart from the rest of the executive branch. A nominating commission… Read More