New Attorney General and Head of Public Prosecutor’s Office, Gabriel García Luna

Context

As of May 2026, Guatemala has a new Attorney General (AG), Gabriel García Luna, ending Consuelo Porras’s tenure at the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP). Under Porras, the MP was used to criminalize justice officials, human rights defenders, journalists, Indigenous leaders, and land and water defenders. Her office dismantled anti-corruption and human rights units, protected powerful economic and military interests from accountability, and weakened the rule of law. This resulted in significant damage to social movements and to the dignity of communities in Guatemala fighting for access to land, water and justice. 

Now, García Luna has an opportunity—and a responsibility—to reverse this legacy by dismantling the mechanisms of political persecution and rebuilding an independent MP that guarantees the rights of the Guatemalan people.

Indigenous authorities have called on him to review criminalization cases against those who defend democracy, free expression and justice, and to remove prosecutors responsible for abusing the justice system to enact political repression. Likewise, the OAS Mission for the Strengthening of Democratic Institutions in Guatemala called for García Luna to “end the practices of instrumentalization of criminal law and undue criminalization that have affected justice officials, journalists, human rights defenders, elected authorities, Indigenous leaders and civic actors,” noting that “it is expected that victims of undue criminalization receive reparations and that the State adopt the necessary measures to ensure that such violations do not occur again.” García Luna himself said the MP must stop selectively using the law as a weapon.

Take action! (copy + paste points & email addresses below)

Canada must support this opportunity to end criminalization and impunity in Guatemala!

Urge Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand, Minister of Justice Sean Fraser, foreign affairs critics, staff at the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala, and your local MP to call on the new Attorney General to review cases against human rights and land defenders, drop politically motivated charges, hold those responsible for judicial persecution accountable, and provide reparations to victims. 

Points to emphasize 

  • BTS partner organization, the CCDA, has been plagued by criminalization: more than 3000 of its members have arrest warrants against them. The majority of these cases are concentrated in the northern departments of Alta Verapaz and Izabal, where large landholders have economic interests in dispossessing local communities from their land. Leocadio Juracán, part of the CCDA’s national leadership, has been criminalized since August of 2025 and his case has yet to be resolved. 
  • BTS 2026 Maritimes Speaking Tour guest, Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez has been forced to live in exile, along with dozens of other justice officials, because of the threat of criminalization, merely for pursuing justice within the justice system.
  • Indigenous leaders from the 48 Cantones, who spearheaded the peaceful demonstrations in defence of democracy in 2023, remain in pretrial detention after their case has repeatedly been maliciously delayed. 
  • Consuelo Porras left a dangerous precedent for the suppression of freedom of speech, freedom of expression and the right to protest. If these cases of criminalization are not reviewed and corrected, protections for basic rights could continue to deteriorate for the Guatemalan people. 
  • With upcoming presidential elections in 2027, the Arévalo administration has little time left to make a significant impact in the country’s political and judicial mechanisms. The new AG must act quickly to review and remedy cases of criminalization in order to address the damage of eight years of corruption within the MP. 
  • The new AG has the obligation to use his prosecutorial and investigative power to support justice, fight impunity and protect those that defend human rights – and Canadian officials have the opportunity to push García Luna to make those changes.

Who to contact

TO:

The Honourable Anita Anand
Minister of Foreign Affairs
anita.anand@international.gc.ca

The Honourable Sean Fraser
Minister of Justice and Attorney General
Riding: Central Nova (be sure to mention if you are a constituent!)
mcu@justice.gc.ca 

CC: 

Foreign Affairs Critics
Heather McPerson, MP
Heather.McPherson@parl.gc.ca 

Elizabeth May, MP
elizabeth.may@parl.gc.ca 

Jaime Battiste, MP (Riding: Cape Breton—Canso—Antigonish)
Jaime.Battiste@parl.gc.ca

Michael Chong, MP
michael.chong@parl.gc.ca 

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, MP
Alexis.Brunelle-Duceppe@parl.gc.ca 

Embassy Contacts
Ambassador Olivier Jacques
Ambassador, Embassy of Canada in Guatemala
olivier.jacques@international.gc.ca 

Chargée Caroline Amyot
Head of Political Section at Embassy of Canada in Guatemala
Caroline.Amyot@international.gc.ca

Monica Izaguirre
Political Officer at Embassy of Canada in Guatemala
monica.izaguirre@international.gc.ca

Your local MP
Find their contact here: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en 

BCC: 

BTS Guatemala Coordinator: btsguatemala@gmail.com
BTS Maritimes Coordinator: btsmaritimes2@gmail.com