PBI UK takes a closer look at what a new presidency might mean for Indigenous human rights defenders
Christina Challis writes on the PBI-UK website about what the new Presidency, of Bernardo Arévalo, might hold for Indigenous human rights defenders. Speaking to various Indigenous leaders it is clear that Indigenous communities have been key in protecting democracy in the face of concerted corruption by the business and military elites. The piece also reflects on the criminalisation of journalist, Carlos Ernesto Choc Chub, as well as recapping on the cross-regional delegation of independent human rights lawyers that visited the country last year before producing an expert report.
As the New Year rang in, the world awaited the successful transfer of power to anti-corruption President-elect Bernardo Arévalo, following death threats and smear campaigns against him in an attempt to delegitimise his election win, amidst growing fears about the fragile state of democracy in Guatemala.
Following Arévalo’s win in the elections last August, attempts to prevent him from taking power ramped up, as prosecutors reportedly aligned with Guatemala’s political and economic ruling class tried to overturn the election results and strip Arévalo of immunity from prosecution.
“During these last months we have faced complex tensions and challenges that led many to believe that we were destined for an authoritarian setback,” Arévalo said following his successful inauguration on 15 January, adding that Guatemala’s “painful passage of uncertainty” was now giving way to hope.
The hope that Arévalo referred to is also shared by both human rights defenders and Indigenous communities in Guatemala, as well as the international community. “I’m not going to say that there will be a total change – that it will transform the situation of agrarian conflict and the systematic oppression that our communities face – because we’re realistic,” Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi leader Lesbia Artola told us in October last year. She added that there is however “hope that the new government will have some positive effect.”
“In Guatemala, we – as Indigenous communities – are not included in the Guatemalan constitution, but it has been us – the Indigenous community – who have been active in defending the small amount of democracy that we do have in the country,” Indigenous Maya Poqomchi leader Sandra Calel told us last year. Indigenous communities and human rights defenders were at the frontlines of peaceful protests calling for the democratic will of the Guatemalan people to be upheld, since the results of the presidential election were contested.
You can read the full piece with, photos and links, here, Guatemala: From uncertainty to hope.
Categories: Accompaniment, Corruption, Criminalisation, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Indigenous peoples, Justice, Presidential Elections, Solidarity in Action, Solidarity in Action/Guatemala
Guatemala Solidarity Network 
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