(Josue Decavele/Getty Images)

Dear John,

This week, I am in Guatemala City to monitor electoral conditions as the country prepares to hold presidential run-off elections on Sunday.

As you may recall, on June 25, Guatemala held the first round of these elections, which led the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to announce that Sandra Torres of the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE) and Bernardo Arévalo, an anti-corruption candidate and leader of the progressive Movimiento Semilla, would compete in a second round.

As I said in a recent statement with Human Rights Watch urging the Guatemalan authorities to hold free and fair elections: “The country is on the brink of an unprecedented social and political crisis. Robust international oversight will be key to avert this crisis and help uphold the integrity of the people’s will.” 

So far, the judiciary has been weaponized by a corrupt elite, journalists and activists have been criminalized and the authorities have interfered in the electoral process.

Also with regards to Guatemala, Senior Fellow, Jo-Marie Burt, published an op-ed in El Faro highlighting the trial in the Rancho Bejuco massacre case, in which 25 Indigenous Mayans, including 17 children, were allegedly killed by the Guatemalan Army. On August 17,  a Guatemalan court heard closing statements from the nine defendants. The verdict is expected soon.

In other sad news, last week the former Ambassador of El Salvador to the U.S., Francisco Altschul, passed away. Throughout his career, Ambassador Altschul was a deeply meaningful and important part of WOLA’s history. On behalf of WOLA, he will be dearly missed. 

All this and more in this week's WOLA Weekly.

Best,

Ana María Méndez Dardón

Director for Central America

📍 Last week, WOLA launched its Honorary Council. The committed members, lend their names as ambassadors to WOLA in an effort to strengthen our mission and message. Learn more here. 

Ambassador Altschul with Eileen Rosin (on the left) and Cristina Eguizabal (on the right) at the 2011 WOLA Human Rights Award Ceremony and Benefit Gala.

We were saddened to learn of the death of Francisco Altschul, former Ambassador of  El Salvador to the United States.

During the painful years of oppression in El Salvador during the 1980s, Altschul represented the opposition parties in Washington, DC. As an exile himself, he played a central role in educating people in the United States on the causes of the violence and speaking out for the thousands of Salvadorans who were forced to flee the country. After the peace accords were signed, he returned to El Salvador and, drawing on his training as an architect, he worked with nonprofits dedicated to housing and local development. He was appointed ambassador to the United States in 2010 and again in 2014.

Throughout his career, we at WOLA admired his commitment to the cause of human rights and justice, and are grateful for his life of service to the people of El Salvador. We extend our sympathy to his spouse, Melinda Delashmutt Altschul, and his family.

Read our statement. 

🇨🇴 In a recent episode of Colombia Acuerdo Paz, rural women of Colombia discuss their efforts in empowering themselves in their communities and the importance of supporting their efforts in order to promote and implement peace in the country.

In April 2022, WOLA launched its one-of-a-kind Border Oversight Database, which documents hundreds of reports of human rights violations and abuses against migrants and asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Laura Dib

Director for Venezuela

"If you take a look at discussions in the legislature over the past 20 years, there has been next to no discussion on matters such as sexual and reproductive rights…and protection of LGBTQI rights, [...] And this is a result of the closure of civic spaces and the persecution of human rights groups and human rights defenders.”

– Al Jazeera, Mass arrest at LGBTQ club in Venezuela prompts outcry over discrimination

"'For at least 30 years, U.S. border policy has assumed that if the migration experience is dangerous and miserable at the border, with a high likelihood of deportation, then people won't come,' Isacson said. 'That keeps being proved wrong, as migration has been increasing steadily since the early 2010s — not just in the United States, but throughout the Americas.'"

– CBS News, Crossings along U.S.-Mexico border jump as migrants defy extreme heat and asylum restrictions

Adam Isacson

Director for Defense Oversight

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