NISGUA recently published the following summary of the report Pressure to construct Xalalá hydroelectric dam; Local opposition remains strong. Nearly two years after the Guatemalan government announced its renewed interest in constructing the Xalalá Hydroelectric Dam, communities maintain strong… Read More ›
Environment
Atlas of Environmental Justice
The picture above is a shot from the Atlas of Environmental Justice and shows the current entries in that atlas of environmental conflicts in Guatemala. As is the way of these things, environmental conflicts in Guatemala are far from… Read More ›
Brief Review of 2013
Situation of Human rights defenders The context in Guatemala in 2013 continued being hazardous for human rights’ defenders where, up to October, there were 18 assassinations of human rights defenders and 608 attacks against them, which is almost double the… Read More ›
Link Between Land Grabs and Sexual Violence Against Q´eqchí Women
Luz Mendez has posted an article on the Americas Program website describing links between land grabs and sexual violence against Maya Q’eqchí women. Relating the stories of two groups of women, who have filed claims in the courts, Mendez links… Read More ›
La Puya – Employees of EXMINGUA-KCA plead guilty to threats against journalists
Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) reports that Juan José Reyes Carrera y retired Guatemalan Army Lt., Pablo Silas Orozco Cifuentes, were sentenced to two years in prison for “threats and coercion” against independent journalists reporting on local resistance to a… Read More ›
Despite the rejection, the cement plant is inaugurated
Sandra Sebastián accompanies her photographs of the demonstration against the cement plant in San Juan Sacatepéquez with some background. “Thousands of community members of San Juan Sacatepéquez demonstrated in front of the San Gabriel cement factory to reject the commencement… Read More ›
Indigenous Guatemalans Reject Mining Moratorium, Want Genuine Community Consultation
The above photograph accompanies an article by Curtis Kline on the Intercontinental Cry website. “Mining in Guatemala has often been to the detriment of the Indigenous Peoples of the country as it has proven to take away their ability to… Read More ›
La Puya’s Celebration of Life, Peace, and Defense of the Earth
On the same day that Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina announced a two-year moratorium on mining, human rights and environmental activist Santos Fidel Ajau Suret was gunned down after leaving the peaceful community roadblock known as La Puya. He was… Read More ›
Guatemala: Defamation and the Cost of Speaking Out
Mary Lawlor, from Front Line Defenders, writes about defamation and the cost of speaking out – or if you prefer the cost of speaking truth to power – in Guatemala. “Once again Yuri Melini, Rafael Maldonado and their colleagues in… Read More ›
Guatemala’s sugar cane land rush anything but sweet for corn growers
“For the past decade, the corn farmers of this village in southern Guatemala managed to scratch out two harvests of maize a year from the 10 hectares (24.7 acres) of land they rent. But the crop they planted in May… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 