| From | Rights Action <[email protected]> |
| Subject | Urgent Action: Ramon Cadena jailed in Guatemala! |
| Date | November 12, 2025 5:16 PM |
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November 12, 2025
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Urgent Action: Ramon Cadena jailed in Guatemala!
------------------------------------------------------------
By Grahame Russell, November 12, 2025
[link removed]
Criminalization and lawfare are tools of repression used by Guatemala’s corrupt “traditional elites” that retain control over most institutions of the State and government
Rights Action expresses solidarity with Ramon Cadena, widely respected jurist and human rights lawyer, maliciously criminalized in the “Toma USAC: Botín Político” case, now jailed on November 10, 2025 as one more political prisoner in Guatemala.
Below: Prensa Comunitaria article
Next hearing: November 14, 2025. Support needed
Ramon Cadena Photo @ Nov. 10, 2025, circulating on social media
Expert witness in landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits in Canada
Separately, but importantly to Rights Action, lawyers Cory Wanless and Murray Klippenstein, and many others, Ramón acted as an expert witness in the landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits in Canada ([link removed]) . He provided an expert opinion on whether there was a real risk the 13 Maya Q’eqchi’ plaintiffs from El Estor, Guatemala, would not receive a fair civil trial if the claims were heard in Guatemalan courts. He submitted and was cross examined on his expert report in 2012.
Ramon is now a jailed victim of the same corrupted legal system he was asked to provide expert witness testimony about in the Hudbay lawsuits.
Systemic corruption and abuse of institutions of State and government
Here, a bit of the background context to the criminalization and jailing of Ramon in the malicious Toma USAC case (see Prensa Comunitaria article, below), as well as many other land, environment and rights defenders.
The fundamental problem today is the same fundamental problem going back in recent history to 1954 when a U.S.-backed coup ended 10 years of actual democracy and brought back to power the “traditional elites”.
With the risk of over generalizing, from 1954 through to today the U.S., Canada and Western governments have maintained full economic, military and political relations with 71 years of corrupt governments, State institutions, and military and police forces dominated by the traditional elites known today as the “pact of the corrupt”.
Loosely defined, the traditional elites are those wealthy, powerful economic, military and political sectors of Guatemala that maintain full economic relations with global companies, investors and banks and full military relations with the U.S.
Over these decades, they have maintained control over most sectors of the economy (land, banking and finance, corporate investments, etc.), all branches of government (judicial, legislative, executive), and the police and military. Organized crime (drug trafficking and otherwise) has infiltrated sectors of the traditional elites, and therefore branches of the government, police and military, and therefore Guatemala’s ‘open for global business’ economy.
2023 elections curve ball
The 2023 elections threw a curve ball into the normal state of affairs of the traditional elites. What changed with the elections of President Bernardo Arevalo and VP Karin Herrera in 2023 was that, for the first time since 1954, elections actually succeeded in bringing honest leadership to the Presidency – leadership not part of or controlled by the traditional elites.
Not to worry for the pact of the corrupt!
The complicated, though predictable outcome is that since taking power in January 2024, the President and executive branch have been trying to operate government with two hands and one foot tied behind their back.
The executive branch has little real power over government institutions, and zero power in the legislative and judicial branches. The police and military remain controlled by the traditional elites. The land-owing, financial and corporate elites maintain control over and continue to operate Guatemala’s ‘open for global business’ economy.
In this context, the judicial branch openly uses the legal and penitentiary systems as tools of repression –“lawfare”– to criminalize and oftentimes jail or force into exile countless land and territory, rights and environmental defenders, a majority being Indigenous, and lawyers, judges and prosecutors that actually try to make the judicial system work properly.
For his integrity and courage over the course of decades, Ramon Cadena is one more targeted victim of the corrupt Guatemalan traditional elites.
Rights Action will do our best to support Ramon other criminalized land and rights defenders, and will continue to denounce ‘business-as-usual’ policies of the U.S. and Canadian governments and global corporate and investor interests that turn a blind eye to and oftentimes benefit from this very corruption of the Guatemala State and society.
Next hearing: November 14. More malicious delays to come?
As the Guatemalan courts and judges take vacations for much of December, it is feared the presiding judge in this case will again maliciously delay due process for Ramon, and USAC university students criminalized and jailed in the same case, so they remain in prison into 2026.
We urge folks and groups across Canada and the U.S. to write their elected politicians and government officials to yet again denounce the systemic abuse of the judicial and penitentiary systems in Guatemala, even as Swiss, U.S. and Canadian mining companies and countless other global businesses and investors, barge ahead with business-as-usual, “respecting the rule of law” they endlessly repeat.
Ramón Cadena arrested and sent to Mariscal Zavala prison
By Prensa Comunitaria, November 10, 2025
[link removed]
Human rights lawyer Ramón Cadena voluntarily appeared before the Judiciary on Monday, November 10, to clarify his legal situation. Cadena, who has been facing criminal charges in the “Toma USAC: Botín Político” case since November 2023, sought to have Judge Víctor Cruz hear him in a preliminary hearing, a right he has been requesting since 2024.
Judge Cruz had summoned Cadena on July 9, 2025, but the hearing was suspended [...] and postponed until October 23. Then this second hearing was also suspended due to the court's schedule and rescheduled for January 27, 2026.
“The decision to appear came as a result of the judge's decision to reschedule the hearings,” Cadena said from the Courthouse Tower.
The lawyer also noted that the judge did not want to receive him, so he was detained. His hearing is now rescheduled for November 14 at 1:00 p.m. In the meantime, he will remain in custody at the Mariscal Zavala jail.
Cadena is accused by the Public Prosecutor's Office of the crimes of sedition, unlawful association, ongoing damage to cultural heritage, and aggravated usurpation. The case, known as Toma USAC: Botín Político (USAC Takeover: Political Booty), criminalizes students, teachers, workers, and human rights defenders who mobilized against the imposition of Walter Mazariegos as rector of the USAC in 2022, following a process denounced as fraudulent.
The lawyer said that his presentation responds to the exercise of his right to be tried by an impartial and independent judge, a principle contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Human rights defender Bernardo Caal, who accompanied Cadena, said that the lawyer “has only dedicated himself to defending human rights in Guatemala.” He added that the persecution of Cadena and the USAC students is a mechanism used by shadowy groups to maintain control and power. Caal recalled that, in the past, murder was used to silence critical voices, and warned that “now they have moved on to another stage: torture in prison.”
Career and denunciation
Ramón Cadena has a long history of defending human rights in Guatemala. He was director of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) for Central America and is widely recognized as one of the critical voices against state power in recent years.
Cadena has repeatedly denounced the structural collapse of justice and the existence of a parallel power that, according to him, controls the judicial system. He has also stated that the political persecution of different social sectors in Guatemala constitutes a crime against humanity.
* Read: Ramón Cadena: “There is a substantial collapse of justice and a strong parallel power.” Prensa Comunitaria, July 7, 2025, [link removed]
In June 2024, Cadena, together with peasant leaders, indigenous leaders, and international intellectuals, filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Consuelo Porras, Alejandro Giammattei, Jimmy Morales, Rafael Curruchiche, and Cinthia Monterroso for crimes against humanity.
* Read: Consuelo Porras, Giammattei, and Jimmy Morales denounced for crimes against humanity. Prensa Comunitaria, June 6, 2024, [link removed]
Another parallel trial in the Toma USAC case
This Monday, the preliminary hearing continues for USAC university students Christopher Morales and Pedro Ros, who are also being prosecuted in the same case. Both had been summoned on the same dates as Cadena, but decided to appear voluntarily on October 27, seeking to move the process forward.
As with Ramon Cadena, their preliminary hearings were suspended twice, on July 9 and October 23, and rescheduled for January 27, 2026.
These postponements have been interpreted by advocates and observers of the process as a “malicious delay” that deprives the accused of a prompt hearing and unjustifiably prolongs their pretrial detention.
Background info
Rights Action archives: Other crimes against humanity trials ([link removed])
More info in U.S. and Canada
* PLATAFORMA CANADA-Guatemaltecos Exiliados por Terrorismo de Estado, [link removed], [link removed]
* NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with People of Guatemala): www.nisgua.org, [link removed], [link removed]
* GHRC (Guatemalan Human Rights Commission): www.ghrc-usa.org, [link removed]
* Breaking the Silence: www.breakingthesilenceblog.com, [link removed], [link removed]
Rights Action (U.S. & Canada)
Since 1995, Rights Action funds land, justice, human rights and democracy struggles, environment, community development and emergency relief projects in Guatemala and Honduras. Rights Action works to denounce and hold accountable the U.S. and Canadian governments, global companies, investors and banks (World Bank, etc.) that help cause and profit from exploitation and poverty, repression and human rights violations, environmental harms, corruption and impunity in Honduras and Guatemala.
*******
Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2
Credit-Card Donations: [link removed]
Direct deposits, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Donations of securities, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
13 BRAVE GIANTS ([link removed]) :
How We Won the Landmark Hudbay Minerals Lawsuits in Canada and the Mynor Padilla Criminal Trial in Guatemala, and at What Cost! ([link removed])
Resolution of landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits ([link removed])
TESTIMONIO–Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala ([link removed])
Edited by Catherine Nolin & Grahame Russell (Between The Lines, 2021)
More info: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) , www.rightsaction.org
e-Newsletter: [link removed]
Previous e-Newsletters: [link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed] ([link removed])
[link removed]
*******
Please share and re-post this information
*******
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[link removed] Twitter ([link removed])
[link removed] Website ([link removed])
[link removed] Instagram ([link removed])
[link removed] YouTube ([link removed])
============================================================
Copyright © 2025 Rights Action, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you are one of our subscriptor
Our mailing address is:
Rights Action
Box 50887
20091-0887
Washington, DC 0
USA
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[link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fmailchi.mp%2Frightsaction%2Furgent-action-ramon-cadena-jailed-in-guatemala Tweet ([link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fmailchi.mp%2Frightsaction%2Furgent-action-ramon-cadena-jailed-in-guatemala)
[link removed] Forward ([link removed])
November 12, 2025
**
Urgent Action: Ramon Cadena jailed in Guatemala!
------------------------------------------------------------
By Grahame Russell, November 12, 2025
[link removed]
Criminalization and lawfare are tools of repression used by Guatemala’s corrupt “traditional elites” that retain control over most institutions of the State and government
Rights Action expresses solidarity with Ramon Cadena, widely respected jurist and human rights lawyer, maliciously criminalized in the “Toma USAC: Botín Político” case, now jailed on November 10, 2025 as one more political prisoner in Guatemala.
Below: Prensa Comunitaria article
Next hearing: November 14, 2025. Support needed
Ramon Cadena Photo @ Nov. 10, 2025, circulating on social media
Expert witness in landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits in Canada
Separately, but importantly to Rights Action, lawyers Cory Wanless and Murray Klippenstein, and many others, Ramón acted as an expert witness in the landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits in Canada ([link removed]) . He provided an expert opinion on whether there was a real risk the 13 Maya Q’eqchi’ plaintiffs from El Estor, Guatemala, would not receive a fair civil trial if the claims were heard in Guatemalan courts. He submitted and was cross examined on his expert report in 2012.
Ramon is now a jailed victim of the same corrupted legal system he was asked to provide expert witness testimony about in the Hudbay lawsuits.
Systemic corruption and abuse of institutions of State and government
Here, a bit of the background context to the criminalization and jailing of Ramon in the malicious Toma USAC case (see Prensa Comunitaria article, below), as well as many other land, environment and rights defenders.
The fundamental problem today is the same fundamental problem going back in recent history to 1954 when a U.S.-backed coup ended 10 years of actual democracy and brought back to power the “traditional elites”.
With the risk of over generalizing, from 1954 through to today the U.S., Canada and Western governments have maintained full economic, military and political relations with 71 years of corrupt governments, State institutions, and military and police forces dominated by the traditional elites known today as the “pact of the corrupt”.
Loosely defined, the traditional elites are those wealthy, powerful economic, military and political sectors of Guatemala that maintain full economic relations with global companies, investors and banks and full military relations with the U.S.
Over these decades, they have maintained control over most sectors of the economy (land, banking and finance, corporate investments, etc.), all branches of government (judicial, legislative, executive), and the police and military. Organized crime (drug trafficking and otherwise) has infiltrated sectors of the traditional elites, and therefore branches of the government, police and military, and therefore Guatemala’s ‘open for global business’ economy.
2023 elections curve ball
The 2023 elections threw a curve ball into the normal state of affairs of the traditional elites. What changed with the elections of President Bernardo Arevalo and VP Karin Herrera in 2023 was that, for the first time since 1954, elections actually succeeded in bringing honest leadership to the Presidency – leadership not part of or controlled by the traditional elites.
Not to worry for the pact of the corrupt!
The complicated, though predictable outcome is that since taking power in January 2024, the President and executive branch have been trying to operate government with two hands and one foot tied behind their back.
The executive branch has little real power over government institutions, and zero power in the legislative and judicial branches. The police and military remain controlled by the traditional elites. The land-owing, financial and corporate elites maintain control over and continue to operate Guatemala’s ‘open for global business’ economy.
In this context, the judicial branch openly uses the legal and penitentiary systems as tools of repression –“lawfare”– to criminalize and oftentimes jail or force into exile countless land and territory, rights and environmental defenders, a majority being Indigenous, and lawyers, judges and prosecutors that actually try to make the judicial system work properly.
For his integrity and courage over the course of decades, Ramon Cadena is one more targeted victim of the corrupt Guatemalan traditional elites.
Rights Action will do our best to support Ramon other criminalized land and rights defenders, and will continue to denounce ‘business-as-usual’ policies of the U.S. and Canadian governments and global corporate and investor interests that turn a blind eye to and oftentimes benefit from this very corruption of the Guatemala State and society.
Next hearing: November 14. More malicious delays to come?
As the Guatemalan courts and judges take vacations for much of December, it is feared the presiding judge in this case will again maliciously delay due process for Ramon, and USAC university students criminalized and jailed in the same case, so they remain in prison into 2026.
We urge folks and groups across Canada and the U.S. to write their elected politicians and government officials to yet again denounce the systemic abuse of the judicial and penitentiary systems in Guatemala, even as Swiss, U.S. and Canadian mining companies and countless other global businesses and investors, barge ahead with business-as-usual, “respecting the rule of law” they endlessly repeat.
Ramón Cadena arrested and sent to Mariscal Zavala prison
By Prensa Comunitaria, November 10, 2025
[link removed]
Human rights lawyer Ramón Cadena voluntarily appeared before the Judiciary on Monday, November 10, to clarify his legal situation. Cadena, who has been facing criminal charges in the “Toma USAC: Botín Político” case since November 2023, sought to have Judge Víctor Cruz hear him in a preliminary hearing, a right he has been requesting since 2024.
Judge Cruz had summoned Cadena on July 9, 2025, but the hearing was suspended [...] and postponed until October 23. Then this second hearing was also suspended due to the court's schedule and rescheduled for January 27, 2026.
“The decision to appear came as a result of the judge's decision to reschedule the hearings,” Cadena said from the Courthouse Tower.
The lawyer also noted that the judge did not want to receive him, so he was detained. His hearing is now rescheduled for November 14 at 1:00 p.m. In the meantime, he will remain in custody at the Mariscal Zavala jail.
Cadena is accused by the Public Prosecutor's Office of the crimes of sedition, unlawful association, ongoing damage to cultural heritage, and aggravated usurpation. The case, known as Toma USAC: Botín Político (USAC Takeover: Political Booty), criminalizes students, teachers, workers, and human rights defenders who mobilized against the imposition of Walter Mazariegos as rector of the USAC in 2022, following a process denounced as fraudulent.
The lawyer said that his presentation responds to the exercise of his right to be tried by an impartial and independent judge, a principle contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Human rights defender Bernardo Caal, who accompanied Cadena, said that the lawyer “has only dedicated himself to defending human rights in Guatemala.” He added that the persecution of Cadena and the USAC students is a mechanism used by shadowy groups to maintain control and power. Caal recalled that, in the past, murder was used to silence critical voices, and warned that “now they have moved on to another stage: torture in prison.”
Career and denunciation
Ramón Cadena has a long history of defending human rights in Guatemala. He was director of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) for Central America and is widely recognized as one of the critical voices against state power in recent years.
Cadena has repeatedly denounced the structural collapse of justice and the existence of a parallel power that, according to him, controls the judicial system. He has also stated that the political persecution of different social sectors in Guatemala constitutes a crime against humanity.
* Read: Ramón Cadena: “There is a substantial collapse of justice and a strong parallel power.” Prensa Comunitaria, July 7, 2025, [link removed]
In June 2024, Cadena, together with peasant leaders, indigenous leaders, and international intellectuals, filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Consuelo Porras, Alejandro Giammattei, Jimmy Morales, Rafael Curruchiche, and Cinthia Monterroso for crimes against humanity.
* Read: Consuelo Porras, Giammattei, and Jimmy Morales denounced for crimes against humanity. Prensa Comunitaria, June 6, 2024, [link removed]
Another parallel trial in the Toma USAC case
This Monday, the preliminary hearing continues for USAC university students Christopher Morales and Pedro Ros, who are also being prosecuted in the same case. Both had been summoned on the same dates as Cadena, but decided to appear voluntarily on October 27, seeking to move the process forward.
As with Ramon Cadena, their preliminary hearings were suspended twice, on July 9 and October 23, and rescheduled for January 27, 2026.
These postponements have been interpreted by advocates and observers of the process as a “malicious delay” that deprives the accused of a prompt hearing and unjustifiably prolongs their pretrial detention.
Background info
Rights Action archives: Other crimes against humanity trials ([link removed])
More info in U.S. and Canada
* PLATAFORMA CANADA-Guatemaltecos Exiliados por Terrorismo de Estado, [link removed], [link removed]
* NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with People of Guatemala): www.nisgua.org, [link removed], [link removed]
* GHRC (Guatemalan Human Rights Commission): www.ghrc-usa.org, [link removed]
* Breaking the Silence: www.breakingthesilenceblog.com, [link removed], [link removed]
Rights Action (U.S. & Canada)
Since 1995, Rights Action funds land, justice, human rights and democracy struggles, environment, community development and emergency relief projects in Guatemala and Honduras. Rights Action works to denounce and hold accountable the U.S. and Canadian governments, global companies, investors and banks (World Bank, etc.) that help cause and profit from exploitation and poverty, repression and human rights violations, environmental harms, corruption and impunity in Honduras and Guatemala.
*******
Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2
Credit-Card Donations: [link removed]
Direct deposits, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Donations of securities, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
13 BRAVE GIANTS ([link removed]) :
How We Won the Landmark Hudbay Minerals Lawsuits in Canada and the Mynor Padilla Criminal Trial in Guatemala, and at What Cost! ([link removed])
Resolution of landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits ([link removed])
TESTIMONIO–Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala ([link removed])
Edited by Catherine Nolin & Grahame Russell (Between The Lines, 2021)
More info: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) , www.rightsaction.org
e-Newsletter: [link removed]
Previous e-Newsletters: [link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed] ([link removed])
[link removed]
*******
Please share and re-post this information
*******
[link removed] Facebook ([link removed])
[link removed] Twitter ([link removed])
[link removed] Website ([link removed])
[link removed] Instagram ([link removed])
[link removed] YouTube ([link removed])
============================================================
Copyright © 2025 Rights Action, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you are one of our subscriptor
Our mailing address is:
Rights Action
Box 50887
20091-0887
Washington, DC 0
USA
** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
** update subscription preferences ([link removed])
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