PBI-Guatemala accompanies Military Diary Case hearing at which the Public Prosecutor’s Office seeks to close the case against those accused of torture and murder

Published by Brent Patterson on October 22, 2025 October 22, 2025

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has posted on social media:

On October 14, #PBI accompanied the intermediate stage hearing of the #CasoDiarioMilitar [Military Diary Case] case at the High Risk Court C.

The plaintiff organizations Famdegua [the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala], Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Humanos [Human Rights Law Firm], CALDH [the Centre for Human Rights Legal Action], and the Mutual Support Group-GAM rejected the position of the Public Prosecutor’s Office after José Crisanto Gómez of the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office proposed closing the case.

The plaintiffs requested that another prosecutor be appointed, but Judge Carol Patricia Berganza indicated that this decision rests with the Attorney General.

The hearing sought to resolve the final act in the proceedings against [former member of the Presidential General Staff (EMP)] Toribio Acevedo Ramírez, [former National Police officer] Malfred Orlando Perez Lorenzo, [former military officer] Edgar Virgilio de León Sigüenza and [former specialist first sergeant of the National Defense General Staff (EMDN) of the Guatemalan Army] Alix Leonel Barillas Soto. It was rescheduled for January 14, 2026.”

The Military Diary Case

The Military Diary gives an account of more than 195 victims of state security violence between 1983 and 1985. Those seen as “internal enemies” were disappeared.

Ruda further notes that the Military Journal itself is “a record of the names, photographs, and addresses of men and women who were arrested, detained, disappeared and murdered. The list includes students, university professors, trade unionists, and members of social organizations that the Army identified as allies of the guerrillas.”

Prensa Comunitaria image. Photo credit: Paolina Albani.

Civil society response

In response, this civil society statement, signed by the Mutual Support Group (GAM), Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (UDEFEGUA), the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network (BTS), Rights Action and others that states:

“In the face of the attempt of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to guarantee impunity for the serious human rights violations committed during the internal armed conflict, the undersigned declare:

Eight months after the departure of the current Attorney General, this openly illegal action that contravenes international standards in terms of justice translates into a pact of impunity in favor of human rights violators, war criminals and, mainly, an insult to the families of the victims who have promoted the process for more than four decades.

In this regard, we make the following call:

To the community and international human rights organizations, to accompany and follow up on the Diario Militar case, to speak out and condemn the revictimizing actions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, as well as to call on the State of Guatemala to ensure that the judicial process is carried out guaranteeing the life and integrity of judges, lawyers, plaintiffs, victims, witnesses and survivors.”

Accompaniment

PBI-Guatemala has been accompanying the #CasoDiarioMilitar court hearing process that began in May-June 2021.

We continue to follow this.