Human rights lawyer's home ransacked in Guatemala

A few days ago, we learned that Guatemala was ahead of El Salvador and Honduras with regards to receiving the $750 million US assistance package.

None of the countries has yet to meet all the conditions, congressional aides said, although Guatemala is further along. Honduras faces harsh criticism about human rights from lawmakers, due in part to the killing of internationally acclaimed environmentalist Berta Caceres in March.

However, I do wonder how much of a pass Guatemala is getting. Several mayors and mayoral candidates have been murdered in the last year. Journalists and their family members, lawyers, and human rights advocates continue to be killed. Civil society leaders are arrested for defending the rights of the country's poor majorities. Guatemala and Honduras seem more alike compared to their peer, El Salvador.

Earlier this year, public prosecutor Thelma Aldana left the country for security reasons. And just this week, the home of human rights lawyer Ramón Cadena Rámila was ransacked.

Armed men posing as police officers have forced their way into the house of one of Central America’s most prominent human rights lawyers, in the latest episode of an escalating wave of intimidation against legal officials.

At least a dozen men ransacked the house of Ramón Cadena Rámila, Central America director of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, on Monday morning.

The assailants forced a security guard and his family to wait outside on their knees while they ransacked the property.

Cadena, who has played a key role in high-profile human rights cases including the suspension of a lawyer representing former military dictator Efraín Rios Montt, was not at home at the time of the raid.

Guatemala's homicide rate continues to improve; the economy is growing; and the country is making enormous strides in the fight against corruption and impunity. However, being better than Honduras and El Salvador only goes so far.