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 ›
Indigenous peoples
Wartime victims exhumed from military base return to Pambach
In the Pocomchi’ Mayan hamlet of Pambach, some 38 km from Cobán, residents gather at a local church to welcome the remains of Baldomero Chiquin (disappeared at the age of 16 with his 21-year-old brother Pedro Chiquin), Alberto Batz (disappeared… Read More ›
Guatemalan State Can No Longer Afford to Neglect Food Security
This is an important article about the problems of hunger and malnutrition that affect people in Guatemala, especially its children and the state’s wilful inactivity in this regard. Joseph Ringoen is a Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs…. Read More ›
“Yes, there was genocide!”: Guatemala’s Ixil Vow to Keep Fighting for Justice
Rob Mercatante writes on the website of the Americas Program: “In the early hours of June 21 hundreds of human rights defenders, artists, feminists, musicians, religious workers, community organizers, independent journalists, international accompaniers, campesino and indigenous activists and others gathered… Read More ›
Ríos Montt Trial
Pamela Yates (When the Mountains Tremble and Granito) has posted a great series of short films from the genocide trial of General Ríos Montt. The 19 episodes of Dictator in the Dock can be found here. The Washington Office on… Read More ›
This land is Mayan
“Indigenous communities in Guatemala, pushed off the land so biofuels can be cultivated, are struggling to survive – and it’s our fault”. On the 15th March 2011, 800 families from 14 communities in Guatemala’s Polochic Valley were forcibly evicted from… Read More ›
Totonicapán: Tension in Guatemala’s Indigenous Hinterland
The International Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict. It recently published a report into the killings at Totonicapán featured
Mayan Priests Denied Access to Ceremonial Places in Guatemala
Following on from the previous blog
Mayan Oxlajuj Baktun: End of an Era, More of the Same.
“It is shameful on the part of the Guatemalan government to make the international community believe it is promoting the Mayan culture, when it continues to develop an aggressive policy of appropriation of our natural resources. This manifests itself in… Read More ›
Science, the Maya and the End of the World?
In the past year, the Maya have been on the news because the Mayan Long Count Calendar will reach the end of a cycle. Sensationalist news linked this end of cycle to a prophecy that warns us about the eminent… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 