PBI-Guatemala accompanies FAMDEGUA at Supreme Court of Justice hearing on the Military Diary case
PBI-Guatemala has posted:
“On Tuesday, April 1, #PBI accompanies Famdegua Guatemala to a public hearing at the Chamber of Amparos and Preliminary Proceedings of the Supreme Court of Justice in the #MilitaryDiary case.
During the hearing, the adhesive plaintiffs, survivors and relatives of the victims, asked the Court to declare the amparo requested by the defense, which seeks to reject the plaintiffs in the case, to be without merit.
According to the plaintiffs, granting such amparo would represent a serious setback in the field of transitional justice and a denial of the right to access to justice for the victims.”
What is the Military Diary case?
Journalist Sandra Cuffe has reported: “The Diario Militar, or Death Squad Diary, documented the abductions, torture, disappearances and executions of 183 people, including Mendez Calderon, between 1983 and 1985. The military intelligence dossier includes a section with a numbered list of the 183, with their names, affiliations, photograph, date and location of abduction, and other basic details.”
The Associated Press has also explained: “The ‘Military Diary’ is a dossier found in 1999, which would have been prepared by agents of the Guatemalan State who documented captures, forced disappearances, torture and murders of 183 people during the 1980s.”
Update on #CasoDiarioMilitar
PBI-Guatemala has been accompanying the #CasoDiarioMilitar court hearing process that began in May-June 2021.
In May 2024, PBI-Guatemala commented: “Currently, the process is moving very slowly and is practically at a standstill. However, the families and friends of the people who appear in the [military diary} commemorate the publication of this document every year [on May 20, 1999], in the hope of learning the whereabouts of their loved ones and raising awareness about the importance of this document in the history of Guatemala.”
Most recently, in December 2024, Prensa Comunitaria also reported: “Currently, the case is paralyzed.”
On March 20, 2025, the Associated Press reported: “Guatemala’s Constitutional Court has granted protection to a man accused of crimes against humanity during the 1960-1996 civil war and ordered him to remain free, upholding the decision of the judge hearing the case. Toribio Acevedo Ramírez, 70, is accused by the prosecutor’s office and victims of having participated in the disappearance and execution of dozens of people during the war in the Central American country, facts that were documented in a dossier known as Diario Militar. According to a protected witness, Acevedo Ramírez would have participated along with other state officials, such as police and military, in the crimes.”
Accompaniment
The Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA) is playing a key role in the Diario Militar case.
Peace Brigades International accompanied FAMDEGUA from 1992 until 1999 then resumed that accompaniment in April 2024.
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