Domingo Nach Hernández, general secretary of Guatemalan trade union SITRAMVCG, died a day after being kidnapped in June 2018. According to the Special Prosecutor’s Unit investigating the case, the human rights defender was hit by a car.

According to the United Trade Union Confederation of Guatemala (CUSG,) Domingo had been actively participating in the organisation and coalition of workers of the town of Villa Canales ever since January 2016.

Initially, he worked on the creation of an ad hoc committee and then, as of June 23, 2017, he was part of the creation and registration of the SITRAMVCG union. He had already been the victim of a first kidnapping on 16 December 2016, a crime which was duly verified by the Public Prosecutor’s office. After the creation of the SITRAMVCG the authorities sacked a series of workers including Domingo, who was reinstated on June 1, 2018 in compliance with a court order.

On June 15, 2018, Domingo was kidnapped and his body was found on June 20, 2018 in the morgue of the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF.) CUSG added that there are inconsistencies between the death certificate issued by the National Registry of Persons (which indicates that Domingo died on June 20, 2018) and the death certificate issued by INACIF indicating that Domingo died on June 17, 2018 due to a subdural hematoma, a cerebral laceration and a cranioencephalic trauma.

In a statement, the authorities said that Domingo was taken by fire fighters to a hospital in Guatemala City shortly after midnight on June 16, 2018, and that his death the next day was the consequence of a cranioencephalic trauma. The investigation is pending because it awaits the completion of a series of six investigative measures that revolve around the identification of the vehicle that ran him over.