human rights defender

Ramón Cadena Ramila

© Prensa Comunitaria

HRD's year of birth

1956

HRD's Gender

Man

Type of HRD

  • Lawyer

HRD's thematic area of engagement

  • Civil and political rights
  • Economic, social and cultural rights
  • Indigenous peoples’ rights
  • Other

HRD's geographical origin

Urban

Current Status

Under house arrest (pre-trial)

HRD's bio and work

(AI translated) Ramón Cadena is a lawyer and human rights defender from Guatemala. He has spent more than forty years of his professional career searching for detained or disappeared persons and defending judicial independence in Central America. Throughout his career, he has worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). He was a judge at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the Dos Erres case and has been an expert witness for the Public Prosecutor's Office in various cases, such as the Genocide Case and other cases of criminalisation of social protest.

The lawyer voluntarily appeared before the Judiciary on 10 November, after his initial hearing in the case ‘Toma USAC: Botín Político’ (USAC Takeover: Political Booty) had been postponed twice, on 9 July and 23 October. He would therefore remain in custody at Mariscal Zavala until 14 November 2025, the date on which his initial hearing was to take place. However, this was also suspended and postponed until 18 November and then until 20 November, when he was prosecuted for the crimes of aggravated usurpation and continued destruction of cultural property. He received alternative measures and regained his freedom on the night of 21 November.

Detained since

Nov 10, 2025

Charge(s)

  • Damage to public property
  • Other

Sentence

(AI translated) Prosecuted for the crimes of aggravated usurpation and continuous plundering of cultural property.

Geolocation of detention

Country or area of detention

Region of detention

  • Americas: Latin America and the Caribbean

Location of detention - City/Town

Guatemala

Location of detention - Facility

Centro de Detención para Hombres Mariscal Zavala

Documented by