Guatemala's Public Ministry says 17 magistrates are victims in ongoing judicial probe

The Guatemalan Public Ministry (MP) announced that 17 judges – two from the Supreme Court and 15 from appellate courts – are considered victims rather than subjects of a criminal investigation. The case, opened in 2024 after more than 50 threats were reported, aims to protect magistrates whose identities were later confirmed as part of the same file.

Current Attorney General Gabriel García Luna explained that the investigation originated under former Attorney General Consuelo Porras, whose tenure the MP now says was used for political retaliation and the weakening of judicial institutions. MP secretary general Edwin Chavajay, speaking at a CIDH meeting in Washington, acknowledged that the ministry was co‑opted during Porras’s eight‑year term, turning criminal investigations into tools of political persecution.