“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 ›
Indigenous peoples
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 ›
In Memoriam: Adolfo Ich Chamán
James Rodríguez of MiMundo has put together this special multimedia entry commemorating the third anniversary of the murder of Adolfo Ich Chamán, Q’eqchi’ Mayan schoolteacher, recognised anti-mining leader, and land tenure activist from El Estor, Guatemala. Mr. Ich Chamán was… Read More ›
Language, Identity, Inclusion
In the UK, many local and national government services are promoted in other languages other than the ‘home’ languages of English, Scots Gaelic, and Welsh. It is recognised that in order to reach people you need to reach out in… Read More ›
The Indigenous, Peasant and Popular March arrives to Guatemala City
“After 9 days and 212 kilometers, the Indigenous, Campesino and Popular March for the defense of Mother Earth, against evictions, criminalization, and in favor of Integrated Rural Development, arrived to the center of the Capital City. According to members of… Read More ›
‘Headline Today: Guatemala’
‘Päivän otsikko: Guatemala’ (Headline Today: Guatemala) is a documentary from Finnish television from 1983 presenting events taking place in 1982 in Guatemala through the eyes of a US reporter and photographer.The reporter and journalist happen to be Allan Nairn and… Read More ›
In Guatemala, the oligarchs profit from the Maya civilisation
So titled is an interesting article by Grégory Lassalle on Le Monde Diplomatique’s Spanish website. The article uses the exhibition of Maya artefacts currently showing at the museum of Quai Branly, in Paris, to highlight the fact that oligarch businesses… Read More ›