| Jorge Mario García Laguardia | |
| Office: | Ombudsman of Guatemala |
| Term Start: | 1 July 1993 |
| Term End: | 19 August 1997 |
| Predecessor: | Ramiro de León Carpio |
| Successor: | Julio Arango Escobar |
| Office1: | Magistrate of the Constitutional Court |
| Term Start1: | 14 April 1991 |
| Term End1: | 1 July 1993 |
| Nominator1: | Supreme Court of Justice |
| Predecessor1: | Héctor Zachrissom Descamps |
| Successor1: | Edmundo Vásquez Martínez |
| Office2: | Deputy Magistrate of the Constitutional Court |
| Term Start2: | 9 June 1986 |
| Term End2: | 14 April 1991 |
| Nominator2: | Supreme Court of Justice |
| Predecessor2: | Position established |
| Successor2: | Rodolfo Rorhmoser |
| Birth Date: | 13 July 1931 |
| Birth Place: | Guatemala City, Guatemala |
| Death Place: | Guatemala City, Guatemala |
Jorge Mario García Laguardia (13 July 1931 – 13 September 2021) was a Guatemalan jurist.[1]
He has been a tenured lecturer at several Guatemalan and foreign universities, including the Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala City, where he founded the School of Political Science, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, 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, Latin American integration (particularly that of Central America), and constitutional law.
He spent a number of years in exile during Guatemala's Civil War, 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.[2] 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;[3] he was serving there during President Jorge Serrano's attempted "self-coup" 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).[4]