The Organisation to Support an Integrated Sexuality to Confront AIDS (OASIS)

The Organisation to Support an Integrated Sexuality to Confront AIDS (OASIS) is an organisation that works with HIV/AIDS education and prevention, as well as promoting and protecting the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Currently: We continue accompanying OASIS and closely monitoring the development of the judicial process against its director Jorge López, who continues to await a date for the next court hearing. The maximum period the Public Prosecutor can continue investigating the case is six months, counted from the initial hearing with the judge. This was held on 23 January, thus the period should finish at the end of July. In June, we also observed the Gay Pride March promoted by OASIS. The parade went from the Municipality to the Central Park in the capital. Jorge López, director of OASIS, appeared very happy with the participation and the support offered by other organisations. The crowd attending the event was large and the atmosphere very lively. The presence of
the National Civil Police was limited, and we did not observe incidents or disturbances.

Background: On 17 December 2005, a transgender worker, Paulina, was killed, the seventh murder of a transgender worker that year. Zulma Robles, who witnessed the crime, was seriously injured during the incident. OASIS reported the case to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) and Zulma, as a witness to the murder, identified alleged agents of the National Civil Police (PNC) as the perpetrators of the crime.
Members of the organisation continued to suffer harassment and threats. Executive Director Jorge López reported being pursued by a police car during the night of 22 January 2006. On 3 February 2006 the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (CIDH) granted protection measures for Zulma Robles, Jorge López, and another eleven members of OASIS, requesting that the Government of Guatemala adopt the necessary measures to guarantee their lives and physical integrity.
We have been accompanying OASIS since the beginning of 2006. In January 2009, we intensified the accompaniment of Jorge López after he was accused of the attempted murder of sex worker Laila (Axel Leonel Donis González) and a legal process opened against him. The Ninth Court of the First Criminal Instance found that there were no elements linking Jorge López to the charge of attempted murder; but decided to keep him within the process for the possible offence of ‘Accessory to the Crime', subjecting him to a substitutive measure of house arrest without surveillance for 6 months, and required to register with a judge every 30 days. Jorge López interprets this process as a new manifestation of the constant persecution and intimidation he has suffered in recent years, which aims to impede the progress of the organisation’s work
and the respect for the human rights of sexual minority communities.
Fearing for his physical safety, we activated the Guatemala Project’s Support Network and stepped up dialogue with Guatemalan authorities, international agencies and embassies present in the country. Between August 2008 and March 2009, with PBI’s Mexico and Colombia projects and in coordination with PBI groups in Europe and North America, we organised speaking tours in Europe, Canada, and the United States, for human rights defenders accompanied by our Latin-American projects. Jorge López and Zulma Robles had the opportunity to present to various audiences the situation faced by OASIS and by sexually diverse communities in Guatemala. In February 2009, protective measures granted to OASIS in 2006 by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) went into effect providing Jorge López with 24-
hour accompaniment by an agent of the National Civil Police (PNC). The next hearing has yet to be called.