ICONnect 2022 Global Review of Constitutional Law: GUATEMALA (original) (raw)
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ICONnect 2023 Global Review of Constitutional Law: GUATEMALA
ICONnect 2023 Global Review of Constitutional Law, 2024
In 2023, Guatemala experienced intense waves of events mainly concerning two critical issues of constitutional relevance: Firstly, there was the instrumentalization of justice institutions to criminalize and intimidate key actors who have played a significant role in the fight against corruption and the defense of human rights. Secondly, there was the national electoral process, aimed at defining who would occupy, starting from January 2024, the Presidency and the Vice Presidency of the Republic, seats in the Congress and in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), as well as municipal corporations throughout the country.
Guatemala 2018: Facing A Constitutional Crossroad
Revista de ciencia política (Santiago), 2018
Guatemalan politics were dominated in 2018 by political strife between the Jimmy Morales administration and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The most pressing issues in Guatemala continue to be corruption and the weakness of the rule-of-law. The year began with but guarded optimism that CICIG could continue its work despite worries about the President's commitment to democracy, but ended with a constitutional crisis that threatened CICIG's work in Guatemala. With general elections approaching in 2019, democracy in Guatemala hangs in the balance. However, at the end of 2018, the makeup of the election was still in doubt and Guatemala was in a constitutional crisis that has not been resolved.
2017
This article offers a broad picture of the constitutions of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. First, it briefly discusses the circumstances surrounding their drafting and signing and describes their most relevant formal and textual features. Secondly, it points out relevant aspects of their fundamental rights catalogs and discusses how they relate to international human rights regimes. Thirdly, it outlines their organization of government, analyzes the implementation of the principle of separation of powers and describes the territorial distribution of power established in each constitution, as well as their amendment procedures. Lastly, it describes the constitutional (judicial) review models adopted by each constitution. Both depiction and analysis of the above-mentioned elements are made jointly, thus allowing for a comparative analysis among the four constitutions. The article ends with concluding notes and comparative remarks that assess the relevance of both shared and unique features that emerged from the study.
2021 Global Review of Constitutional Law
2022
The core mission of the Global Review remains is to offer readers systemic knowledge about jurisdiction-specific constitutional law that has previously been limited mainly to local networks rather than a broader readership. The Global Review is our contribution to an ambitious weltanschauung: to make the world of constitutional law smaller, more familiar, and more accessible to all. Like in every other country, the COVID-19 pandemic prolonged its effects in Honduras during 2021. However, the main event of the year was the general election celebrated in November.1 The outcome of the election would have considerable consequences in the country ́s future, considering it represented the end of Juan Orlando Hernandez ́s tenure in the presidency after being reelected in a controversial 2017 election despite constitutional prohibitions regarding term limits. With newly created electoral bodies, the enactment of new electoral legislation occurred one day before the beginning of the general election process, opening the door for constitutional claims concerning some of its provisions. Parallel to the electoral context, three of the most pressing debates that occurred in 2021 were the constitutional reforms that, on the one hand, prohibited abortion and, on the other, established a voting threshold higher than that already contemplated in the Constitution for the reform procedures. The new amendment threshold was also set for future amendments regarding the existing ban on same-sex marriage. Finally, the debate on the constitutionality of the Employment and Economic Development Zones (ZEDE), a figure included in the constitutional order since 2013, continues to generate controversy. Considering this is the first report about Honduras in the Global Review, it is imperative to start the next section with an introductory context of its constitutional system.
The judiciary and indigenous rights in Guatemala
International Journal of Constitutional Law, 2007
In Latin America, indigenous peoples constitute a marginalized group that is using the courts, increasingly, as one means by which to pursue and defend its rights. In part, this is a result of the juridifi cation of its collective rights through processes of constitutional reform across the region during the 1980s and 1990s. It is also a consequence of the very limited advances that have been made to date in guaranteeing these rights in practice. The enlarged legal recognition of indigenous autonomy has occurred at the same time as judicial reform in implementation of economic policies promoting free trade and accelerated natural resource exploitation -policies that affect indigenous communities negatively and disproportionately. This combination of factors has meant that indigenous movements more and more have called on the judiciary in defense of their collective rights, albeit often with limited tangible effects.