Panelists:

Manfredo Marroquín, Executive Director of Acción Ciudadana

Manfredo Marroquín is a political science practitioner and one of Guatemala's most prominent leaders of the Organized Civil Sector. He is a specialist in justice administration, political analysis, Electoral Observation, Transparency, and anti-corruption.

He is the pioneer in the fight against corruption in Guatemala, funding in 1996 he founded Acción Ciudadana, the Guatemalan chapter of Transparency International, from which Manfredo has been leading several processes towards the strengthening of Guatemalan democracy. In 2008 he was the main advocate for the Access to Public Information Act, and he was also an advocate for the Public Procurement transparency system in Guatemala and, the Anticorruption Act in 2012. He has led advocacy campaigns for the improvement of transparency mechanisms in the public sector and the advance towards digital government mechanisms and open data.In 2006 he hosted the 12th International Anti-Corruption Conference with the theme “Towards a fairer world: Why is corruption still blocking the way?” bringing together more than a thousand anti-corruption activists from around the world, in addition to the attendance of the 7 presidents of the Central American countries.

Manfredo Marroquín was a strategic ally of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala - CICIG - right from the commission's inception until it was forced out in 2018. During the 2015 political crisis caused by the corruption cases that CICIG investigated and brought to trial, which ended with the resignation of then Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina and his Vice President Roxana Baldetti, along with a dozen high-level officials, Manfredo was one of the preeminent voices in promoting political reforms and democratic changes in Guatemala.

At the Latin American level, he represents Acción Ciudadana in different civil society networks such as the Lima Declaration, the Citizen Forum of the Americas, the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency, the Regional Alliance for Freedom of Information, and the Center against Corruption and Impunity in Northern Central America, among others.

Currently, he continues working as the Executive Director of Acción Ciudadana, from where he is fighting against both corruption and the advances of authoritarianism that have been seriously affecting Guatemala in the last few years.

Mirte Postema, Senior Program Officer, Seattle International Foundation

At Seattle International Foundation (SIF), Mirte leads the Anti-Impunity Fund (AIF) and the Independent Journalism Fund (IJF). Prior to joining SIF, she worked as a researcher for Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program, where she researched human rights violations against LGBTQ people in northern Central America, and for HRW’s Americas Division, where she focused on Guatemala and Mexico.

She has previously worked at Stanford Law School’s Human Rights Center, in California, where she was Fellow for Criminal Justice and Prison Reform in the Americas, and at the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF) in Washington, D.C., where she led the Judicial Independence Program. Mirte has also contributed political analysis on Guatemala to the Economist Intelligence Unit.Mirte holds a master’s degree in human rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science, in the UK, a law degree from Maastricht University, The Netherlands, and a certificate in Contemporary Latin American Studies from the Catholic University of Chile.She has written numerous articles and opinion pieces about rule of law issues in Mexico and Central America. She is a native Dutch speaker, is fluent in English and Spanish, and has some command of Portuguese, German, and French.

Joaquin Uy, External Affairs Manager & Policy Advisor, Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, City of Seattle

Born in Manila, Philippines, Joaquin Uy immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio in 1981 and has called Seattle home for over 24 years. As the External Affairs Manager and Policy Advisor, he works across departments to help staff integrate effective immigrant- and refugee-focused strategies into communications, outreach, and engagement workplans. His position in the City also includes advocating for immigrant communities regarding policy decisions and long-term planning. He has spent a combined 22 years in community engagement, communications, and fundraising/development, which includes serving as the News and Public Affairs Director at Community Radio KBCS 91.3 FM.

As a lifelong community organizer and advocate, he is proud to be one of the founding members of the first overseas chapter of the Filipino American youth network Anakbayan Seattle. You can usually find Joaquin giving an informal tour in Seattle's Chinatown-International District or singing at a local karaoke spot or kayaking through a local waterway.

Alejandra Gonza, Executive Director of Global Rights Advocacy

Global Rights Advocacy is a Seattle based non-profit dedicated to pro-bono human rights defense. Formerly, she was the Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at the University of Washington’s School of Law, where she now teaches Human Rights Advocacy as an Affiliate Professor of Law. An Argentine lawyer, Gonza served as an attorney at the Inter-American Commission and the Inter-American Court, and has litigated before both institutions.  She has published on several topics on human rights, such as freedom of expression, personal liberty, indigenous rights and property rights. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Notre Dame Law School.