The National Lawyers Guild recently sent a delegation to Guatemala to observe the precedent-setting genocide trial of U.S.-supported military dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt and his advisor Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez. In the wake of uncertainty over whether the trial would continue after widely criticized procedural developments over the last few weeks, we were pleased that the U.S. dispatched Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp to Guatemala to signal the importance of upholding the rule of law.

The National Lawyers Guild joins Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and special rapporteur to the United Nations, in calling for an investigation into the causes of acts of terrorism directed at the United States.

“Since before 9/11, the U.S. government has made a concerted effort to debunk any cause-and-effect relationship between United States foreign policy and foreign-based terrorism directed against the United States,” said NLG Executive Director Heidi Boghosian.

A delegation of National Lawyers Guild (NLG) election monitors visited polling sites in five Venezuelan states on April 14 and found that the Venezuelan presidential election process was fair, transparent, participatory, and well-organized.

H.R. 944 would grant eligibility for relief from deportation and permanent residency status to any Venezuelan who entered the U.S. from the day Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela until the day before he died.