Nine students from the only public university in Guatemala denounced the State before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for violating freedoms of expression and academic freedom, after having been expelled for protesting against alleged electoral fraud at that university in 2022, the complainants reported this Tuesday.
“We submitted a petition to the IACHR because we have not been able to receive justice here in Guatemala and because we are very clear that our expulsion was illegal,” Andrés García, former secretary of the Association of University Students and one of those expelled, told EFE, who denounced that his academic life was “destroyed.”
The legal firm that represents the young people explained that the complaint before the Inter-American Court seeks to deduce the international responsibility of the Guatemalan State for violations of freedom of expression and academic freedom.
The case dates back to the mandate of Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024) and directly involves the Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office) and the courts of justice in a criminal prosecution strategy, the legal firm indicated.
The relevance and control of the University of San Carlos (Usac) – the only state university in the country – lies in the fact that the Rectorate has a key chair, with direct voting, in the nomination commissions in charge of electing the magistrates of the courts of justice, the attorney general and other control entities of the Guatemalan State.
For this reason, the origin of the crisis, in March 2022, transcended the academic field, when USAC held rector elections that the opposition described as fraudulent.
According to the complainants, the state response to impose on the university authorities included the use of police forces, digital harassment and an offensive by the Public Ministry that led to the students Heizel Camey and Sergio Morataya being imprisoned, in addition to the definitive expulsion of the student leaders based on regulations that they describe as illegal.
After exhausting internal judicial means without obtaining protection, those affected now demand reparation measures from the IACHR and their immediate academic reinstatement.
The IACHR, based in Washington, is an organ of the Organization of American States (OAS) in charge of promoting human rights and evaluates individual cases only when domestic judicial remedies have been exhausted or are ineffective.
Although its resolutions do not constitute direct judicial sentences, the organization can dictate reparation measures and, if the State does not comply with them, refer the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, whose sentences are binding.
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