Exile is ‘a Little Bit Less Than Death’ for Guatemalan Lawyer Forced to Flee

• Mar 5, 2025

Virginia Laparra, a former anti-corruption prosecutor from Guatemala, has described her exile as “a little bit less than death” after fleeing her homeland to escape continued persecution. Laparra, who spent two years in prison on charges widely seen as politically motivated, said leaving Guatemala was the only way to protect her life and freedom.

The 45-year-old prosecutor had been imprisoned after reporting her suspicion that Judge Lesther Castellanos had leaked sealed details from a corruption case in 2017. Though Castellanos was sanctioned, he later filed a criminal complaint against Laparra with the backing of the right-wing Foundation Against Terrorism. She was detained in February 2022 and sentenced in December of the same year to four years in prison for her allegations against the judge. In January 2023, she was placed under house arrest, but in July, she was sentenced to another five years behind bars for a separate charge related to her work.

Facing the prospect of further imprisonment, Laparra made the painful decision to seek asylum in Mexico, leaving her two daughters behind. Speaking in London after receiving the Sir Henry Brooke award from the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk, she said: “Nobody chooses exile willingly. It’s the only option left when all else has failed. Exile takes everything from you—your family, your home, your way of life.”

Laparra previously led a special prosecutor’s office that collaborated with the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig), a UN-backed anti-corruption body. However, Cicig was expelled from Guatemala in 2019 by then-President Jimmy Morales, triggering widespread retaliation against those who had worked with the organization.

When Laparra was arrested, she was treated as if she were a high-profile criminal. “It was like a scene from a movie,” she recalled. “As we drove out of the underground parking lot, there were soldiers and heavily armed police on both sides of the street.”

She endured five months in solitary confinement in a tiny, windowless cell within a high-security prison in Guatemala City, 200 miles from her home in Quetzaltenango. “Male prisoners in that facility usually spend just two or three days in solitary because it’s unbearable. I was there for months,” she said.

Laparra also suffered serious health complications while in custody, including severe bleeding that required a hysterectomy. During her surgery and subsequent hospital stays, police officers guarded the hospital, the gynecology unit, and even her bedside.

After speaking to a journalist, Laparra was transferred to Matamoros prison, notorious for housing drug traffickers and gang leaders. Despite the dire conditions, she remained defiant, saying: “If I was going to die in prison, at least I wanted the world to know what happened.” She contemplated pleading guilty in the hope of securing release, but her daughters urged her to remain strong. “You’ve been here too long to give up now,” they told her.

At her lowest point, she considered taking her own life but clung to the promise she made to her daughters—that she would always be there for them.

Following her release on house arrest, Laparra received recognition from Guatemala’s newly elected progressive president, Bernardo Arévalo. However, she believes this only intensified the efforts of Attorney General María Consuelo Porras to prosecute her further. Porras, who has been sanctioned by both the U.S. and the European Union for corruption and undermining democracy, has targeted numerous anti-corruption judges, prosecutors, and journalists, many of whom have also been forced into exile.

Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the Fund for Global Human Rights, have condemned the Guatemalan judiciary’s campaign against legal professionals and activists fighting corruption. Amnesty declared Laparra a prisoner of conscience in 2022, while the Fund for Global Human Rights expressed concern over the systematic criminalization of those challenging impunity in the country.

Despite receiving international recognition, Laparra continues to face hostility. “I thought two years in prison would have been enough for them,” she said. “But the hate hasn’t faded.”