The Guatemalan Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit (UDEFEGUA) presented its 2024 Report on the Situation of Individuals, Organisations, and Communities Defending Human Rights, entitled “Impact of the Co-optation of the Justice System on the Defence of Human Rights.” It provides… Read More ›
Indigenous peoples
The Massacre of a Trial for Genocide
Benedicto Lucas García, a parachutist trained by France and the United States, was an iconic leader of the Guatemalan counterinsurgency. Decades after the horror, as some of the remaining Maya Ixil victims made the trek from the mountains of Quiché… Read More ›
Guatemala: Indigenous Leaders Face Terrorism Charges
International Scrutiny Needed as Attorney General Ramps Up Abusive Prosecutions Human Rights Watch recently issued a News Release concerning the criminalisation of Indigenous leaders by the Attorney General’s office. Guatemala’s Attorney General’s Office has detained two Indigenous leaders on spurious… Read More ›
Arrest of Indigenous Leaders Threatens Rights to Free Assembly and Democracy in Guatemala
In Guatemala, what we had feared would happen is beginning to happen. Indigenous leaders who put their safety on the line for democracy are being arrested. Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) posted a piece on the criminalisation and arrest of… Read More ›
GHRC – Blog: Update on Recent Developments in Guatemala
Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) posted an update last month on the latest news from Guatemala. The topics covered included: These topics, and others, can be read in more detail here, Update on Recent Developments in Guatemala.
Expanding Her Enemy List, Guatemalan AG Accuses Indigenous Leaders of Terrorism
Two Maya K’iche’ pro-democracy leaders who were key in fending off an electoral coup in 2023 and 2024 have now been arrested and accused of terrorism, including a member of President Bernardo Arévalo’s cabinet. In response, Arévalo and Indigenous authorities… Read More ›
Ongoing Struggles for Justice: Criminalisation of Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Defenders in Guatemala
Members of the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa stand in solidarity against the mining on their land An article was recently published on the website of Peace Brigades International UK (PBI-UK) highlighting the criminalisation of Indigenous defenders in Olopa…. Read More ›
Mayans in Guatemala call on multinational companies to stay away
Una Kelly writes on the RTÉ website about the struggle of Indigenous Q’eqchi Maya in their opposition to multi-national resource extraction in eastern Guatemala. Indigenous Mayans in Guatemala have called for a halt on multinational companies coming to their communities… Read More ›
Migrants Describe Journey As Military Deportation Flights Continue
Jeff Abbott writes in the El Paso Times of the trauma of the military deportation flights as Guatemalan nationals are forcibly removed from the United States. It was a somber — and for some degrading — return to their politically… Read More ›
Central America’s Last Comandante
Writing in Jacobin, Emilie Teresa Smith and Margarita Kenefic, both former militants in the Guatemala’s Rebel Armed Forces (FAR) during the Guatemalan internal armed conflict, talk of César Montes, ‘Central America’s Last Comandante’, who led rebel forces, including the Guerrilla… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 