Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala

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Our Accomplishments
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Since 1991, NISGUA has successfully pressured Congress to maintain a ban that prohibits Guatemala from receiving international military education and training (IMET) from the U.S. In 2002, Congress lifted a similar ban against Indonesia – the only other non-rogue nation against which the ban had been placed. Yet months of intense lobbying by NISGUA solidarity committees convinced Congress to maintain the Guatemalan ban. The ban remains in place today.
In 2000, when the UN threatened to pull its human rights monitoring mission out of Guatemala, NISGUA accompaniment volunteers gathered testimonies from rural communities affected by political violence. These declarations, which NISGUA submitted to the UN, attested to the communities’ profound desire for a continued UN presence. As a result of our efforts, along with those of our colleagues, the UN’s mandate was extended for an additional three years.
Responding to a request from massacre survivors, in 2000 NISGUA began expanding our accompaniment work to cover nearly 20 communities of survivors and eyewitnesses who risk their lives by charging former Guatemalan dictators with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
Through annual fall tours of Guatemalan grassroots leaders, justice advocates, and human rights defenders, NISGUA has raised and contributed nearly $325,000 to organizations struggling for justice in Guatemala since 1987.
NISGUA provided emergency evacuation support as well as temporary resettlement assistance to individuals and families threatened due to their participation in sensitive human rights (Mack case, 2002) and labor cases (SITRABI, 2001).
Guatemala Accompaniment Project staff have trained and placed more than 145 human rights monitors in returned refugee and internally displaced communities, with human rights organizations, and with genocide survivors since the project first began in 1995.

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print \| close window Our Accomplishments ............................................................................................ Since 1991, NISGUA has successfully pressured Congress to maintain a ban that prohibits Guatemala from receiving international military education and training (IMET) from the U.S. In 2002, Congress lifted a similar ban against Indonesia – the only other non-rogue nation against which the ban had been placed. Yet months of intense lobbying by NISGUA solidarity committees convinced Congress to maintain the Guatemalan ban. The ban remains in place today. In 2000, when the UN threatened to pull its human rights monitoring mission out of Guatemala, NISGUA accompaniment volunteers gathered testimonies from rural communities affected by political violence. These declarations, which NISGUA submitted to the UN, attested to the communities’ profound desire for a continued UN presence. As a result of our efforts, along with those of our colleagues, the UN’s mandate was extended for an additional three years. Responding to a request from massacre survivors, in 2000 NISGUA began expanding our accompaniment work to cover nearly 20 communities of survivors and eyewitnesses who risk their lives by charging former Guatemalan dictators with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Through annual fall tours of Guatemalan grassroots leaders, justice advocates, and human rights defenders, NISGUA has raised and contributed nearly $325,000 to organizations struggling for justice in Guatemala since 1987. NISGUA provided emergency evacuation support as well as temporary resettlement assistance to individuals and families threatened due to their participation in sensitive human rights (Mack case, 2002) and labor cases (SITRABI, 2001). Guatemala Accompaniment Project staff have trained and placed more than 145 human rights monitors in returned refugee and internally displaced communities, with human rights organizations, and with genocide survivors since the project first began in 1995. print \| close window