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Jo-Marie Burt | “We touched the monster. Now the monster is fighting back.” Anti-impunity efforts in post-genocide Guatemala
by
Tue, Oct 21, 2025
12 PM – 1:15 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Aaron Burr Hall, Room 216 (open to students, faculty, visiting scholars and staff)
Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
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Details
For many years, Guatemala was in the international spotlight for leading a successful campaign against impunity, focused on grand corruption and organized crime as well as serious human rights violations during one of Latin America’s bloodiest internal armed conflicts (1960-1996). Former presidents, senior military officials, and others, have been convicted in dozens of cases representing thousands of victims of the conflict. Today, after an intense backlash by economic elites, far-right politicians, and old guard military officials, anti-impunity efforts have been resoundingly defeated, even after the 2023 electoral victory of Bernardo Arévalo, who promised to restore good governance and resume the anti-impunity campaign. In this presentation, Dr. Burt will take stock of Guatemala’s pursuit of accountability for wartime atrocities and explore how survivor groups are fighting back against the restoration of impunity.
ABOUT OUR GUEST SPEAKER
Jo-Marie Burt is Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and is currently Visiting Research Scholar and Visiting Professor at the Program in Latin American Studies at Princeton University.
She has published widely on political violence, human rights, and transitional justice in post-conflict societies. Dr. Burt is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), and has been a Fulbright Scholar, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and President of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). She was a reseacher for Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and has served as an expert witness before Peruvian Courts, US asylum courts, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. She has been monitoring and writing about war crimes trials in Latin America for the past 15 years, including the trials of Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori and Guatemala’s former dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt. Her newest book, In Pursuit of Justice in Post-Genocide Guatemala, is forthcoming from the University of California Press.
DISCUSSANT
Richard Ashby Wilson, Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University
This event is open to students, faculty, visiting scholars and staff.
Sponsorship of an event does not constitute institutional endorsement of external speakers or views presented.
Where
Aaron Burr Hall, Room 216 (open to students, faculty, visiting scholars and staff)
Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
Speakers
Jo-Marie Burt
Political Science, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University; PLAS Visiting Fellow, Princeton University
Jo-Marie Burt is Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and is currently Visiting Research Scholar and Visiting Professor at the Program in Latin American Studies at Princeton University. She has published widely on political violence, human rights, and transitional justice in post-conflict societies. Dr. Burt is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), and has been a Fulbright Scholar, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and President of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). She was a reseacher for Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and has served as an expert witness before Peruvian Courts, US asylum courts, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. She has been monitoring and writing about war crimes trials in Latin America for the past 15 years, including the trials of Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori and Guatemala’s former dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt. Her newest book, In Pursuit of Justice in Post-Genocide Guatemala, is forthcoming from the University of California Press.
Hosted By
Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies