Jorge Mario García Laguardia (13 July 1931 – 13 September 2021) was a

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

Biography

He has been a tenured lecturer at several Guatemalan and foreign universities, including the Universidad de San Carlos in

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

, where he founded the School of Political Science, and the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

, and he has served the Guatemalan state in several juridical capacities. García Laguardia's academic work has focussed on three main areas: the history of

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations and affairs between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that ...

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

n integration (particularly that of

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), and

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

. He spent a number of years in exile during Guatemala's

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, lecturing and conducting research at the UNAM in Mexico City. In 1983 he became executive director of the Interamerican Center for Electoral Advice and Promotion (''Centro Interamericano de Asesoría y Promoción Electoral'', Capel), based in San José,

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

."Jorge Mario García Laguardia, Impulsor del proceso electoral democrático en América Latina"
''El País'', 21 January 1987. Between 1985 and 1989 he worked for the Costa Ricabased Inter-American Institute of Human Rights. As the Guatemalan Civil War drew to a close, he returned to his country and was appointed a magistrate of the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

; he was serving there during

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Jorge Serrano's attempted "

self-coup A self-coup, also called an autocoup () or coup from the top, is a form of coup d'état in which a political leader, having come to power through legal means, stays in power illegally through the actions of themselves or their supporters. The le ...

" of 25 May 1993, when the Court was instrumental in preserving the country's constitutional order, preventing a military takeover, and installing Ramiro de León as caretaker president. After his time with the Constitutional Court, he was appointed to serve as the country's Procurator (ombudsman) for Human Rights ''(Procurador de Derechos Humanos)''.

References

1931 births 2021 deaths Human rights in Guatemala Academic staff of Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala 20th-century Guatemalan judges 21st-century Guatemalan judges People from Guatemala City Ombudspersons in Guatemala Justices of the Constitutional Court of Guatemala {{Guatemala-law-bio-stub