Ana Alvarado Gonzalez v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Ana Lucia Alvarado Gonzalez, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order dismissing her appeal from an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying her application for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention'Against Torture (“CAT”). We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review for substantial evidence the agency’s factual findings. Zehatye v. Gonzales, 453 F.3d 1182, 1184-85 (9th Cir.2006). We grant the petition for review, and we remand.

Alvarado Gonzalez testified that she witnessed her cousin being kidnaped by persons later identified as members of the national police, and that his body was later found with signs that he had been tortured. She also testified the national police raped and abused her the year after her cousin’s murder.

In denying Alvarado Gonzalez’s withholding of removal claim, the BIA found Alvarado Gonzalez failed to establish a nexus to a protected ground. When the IJ and BIA issued their decisions in this case, they did not have the benefit of this court’s decisions in Henriquez-Rivas v. Holder, 707 F.3d 1081 (9th Cir.2013) (en banc), Cordoba v. Holder,…