Rodrigo Tot (Goldman Environmental Prize) Rodrigo Tot, an indigenous leader in Guatemala’s Agua Caliente, led his community to a landmark court decision that ordered the government to issue land titles to the Q’eqchi people and kept environmentally destructive nickel mining… Read More ›
Environment
El Oriente
Guatemala’s El Oriente (Eastern land) is a region which has systematically been left aside by the state’s political and economic system. The population’s suffering is visible as they have one of the highest levels of malnutrition in the country. It… Read More ›
Take Action: Support Communities Resisting “Gunpoint Exploration” Mining Project
This from The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) Across Guatemala, communities have innovated diverse strategies to protect and defend their lands and livelihoods. For the communities of San Juan Bosco and Casillas in southeastern Guatemala, the imposition of Tahoe… Read More ›
Another Young Environmentalist Is Murdered in Guatemala
Renata Avila writes in the Global Voices website about the recent murder of Jeremy Abraham Barrios Lima. Despite an opening of some democratic space in Guatemala, threats against human rights defenders continue to increase. — The murder of 22-year-old Jeremy… Read More ›
Murder of Young Assistant from Guatemalan Environmental Organization is Evidence of Escalating Risk to Human Rights Defenders
This on the TahoeonTrial website. (Ottawa/Toronto/Vancouver/Reno/Washington/Guatemala) North American organizations are dismayed and deeply troubled by the execution-style murder of 22 year-old Jeremy Abraham Barrios Lima, assistant to the director of the Guatemalan Centre for Legal, Environmental and Social Action (CALAS),… Read More ›
Indigenous communities mobilize to defend Guatemala’s forests from loggers
Jeff Abbott writes in the Waging Nonviolence website about indigenous communities protecting their forests from logging interests. Across Guatemala, indigenous communities are organizing to challenge logging in the country’s vast forests. These communities are concerned with the impact that both… Read More ›
Guatemalans’ Fight Against Rogue Canadian Mining Giant Heats Up
Guatemalan communities form the area of Santa Cruz del Quiche unanimously vote against resource extraction on their lands. | Photo: Courtesy James Rodriguez, MiMundo.org Communities in Guatemala have repeatedly voiced their opposition to a Tahoe Resources silver mine. The company… Read More ›
Guatemalan Environmental Defenders on the Front Line of a Global Struggle
Last month the killing of Honduran activist and winner of the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize Berta Cáceres caused international outcry. Her highly publicised murder has called global attention to the many risks front line environmental defenders face every day, not only… Read More ›
Justice Comes Slowly for Guatemala’s Maya Achí
In 1982, over 400 Maya Achí men, women, and children were murdered for opposing a hydroelectric dam under construction on the Chixoy River. The next year, the completed Chixoy dam flooded more than 30 Maya Achí communities. In 2014, the… Read More ›
Killing of Guatemalan activist in the Maya Biosphere Reserve raises alarm
Walter Manfredo Méndez Barrios. Photo courtesy of Defensores de la Naturaleza (Mongabay website) The violent death of an environmental activist and community leader in northern Guatemala two days ago has sparked consternation and concern among communities and organizations working in… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 