AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGES GUATEMALAN CONGRESS TO RESIST ATTEMPTS TO ALLOW THE DEATH PENALTY

(London) - Amnesty International has called on the Guatemalan Congress to abolish the death penalty, as lawmakers debate new legislation that would allow its use for the first time since 2000. Bill 4175 proposes a mechanism for granting presidential pardons for those on death row, a move that would permit the country to use the death penalty in what politicians say is a response to public pressure over rising gang violence. “The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said