As Emilie Teresa Smith articulates so well in Sojourners magazine, Gold and silver mines in Guatemala are wreaking havoc on local communities. But the people, using nonviolent Christian action, are fighting back. With regard to this article, she is referring… Read More ›
Land
Gladys Tzul on Indigenous Governance and State Authority in Guatemala
The driving force of the history of Indigenous peoples in Latin America is the struggle for territory. This is something that has been difficult for the traditional academy to comprehend. If we examine peoples’ uprisings throughout history – in the… Read More ›
Two years at ‘La Puya’ protecting land and community
In February of 2012, residents of San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc (La Puya), north of Guatemala City, were struggling to obtain information about a reported mining project in their communities, which would affect hundreds of families. Months… 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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
Land Grabs, the Latest Form of Genocide in Guatemala
Leonor Hurtado of the Institute for Food and Development Policy – Food First writes about the genocide being carried out in Guatemala with land and food as the means. “In today’s Guatemala, land and resource control is increasingly in the… 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 ›
State of Siege: Mining Conflict Escalates in Guatemala
“Fifty miles southeast of the capital, private security guards working for Vancouver-based mining firm Tahoe Resources shot and wounded several local residents on Saturday in San Rafael Las Flores, on the road in front of Tahoe’s El Escobal silver mine…. Read More ›
‘La Puya’: The Rhythm of Resistance
On March 3rd, this year, La Comunidad en Resistencia celebrated its first anniversary of non-violent resistance to the attempt to start mining for gold between the municipalities of San Pedro Ayampuc and San José Del Golfo, on the road between… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 