On March 2, 2012, area residents, who had not been consulted about this mine, set up a 24-hour a day blockade at the entrance to the mine site. Within weeks, on May 8, 2012, the women of the Peaceful Resistance… Read More ›
Land
International legal experts gravely concerned at lack of protections for Indigenous peoples and human rights defenders in Guatemala
Peace Brigades International UK (PBI-UK) accompanied a group of international lawyers to Guatemala concerned at UN and civil society reports regarding human rights violations associated with agrarian conflict in Alta Verapaz. The International Delegation of Independent Lawyers travelled to Alta… Read More ›
Exclusion of Presidential Candidates Stains June Guatemalan Elections
Inscription for the June national vote closed this weekend. Electoral authorities, toeing the line of far-right political operatives, have spuriously excluded two presidential duos and are aiming for a third, clearing the way for conservative Zury Rios. Roman Gressier and… Read More ›
Anti-Mining Networks Support Land Defense Movements in Central America
In Guatemala and Honduras, regional anti-mining networks have become key players in struggles to combat extractivism and the criminalization of activists. Giada Ferrucci and Pedro Cabezas write in NACLA on extractivism and resistance in Central America, focussing on Guatemala and… Read More ›
FONGI Denounces Use Of Excessive Force In Chapín Abajo
GHRC writes, ‘In the early morning of December 6, hundreds of Guatemalan police and military forces attacked the Q’eqchi’ community of Chapín Abajo in El Estor, Izabal. The group arrived via boat, working alongside what witnesses have reported as local… Read More ›
GHRC alert condemning the violence against Indigenous Q’eqchi community
GHRC recently issued an alert condemning the violence perpetrated by State security forces against the Indigenous Q’eqchi community in Chapin Abajo, El Estor. Read the full statement above.
La Puya – A Mining Lawsuit In Guatemala Shows How Trade Courts Put Locals Last
A U.S. mining company is suing Guatemala over a shuttered project. The state relied on affected communities to mount a legal defense, but now it’s trying to bypass them to open the mine. Ana Sandoval writes in Foreign Policy In… Read More ›
We Condemn The Kidnapping And Militarisation Of The Communities In The Sierra De Las Minas
UDEFEGUA, on behalf of the the Human Rights Convergence (la Convergencia por los Derechos Humanos), tweeted a statement condemning the militarisation of communities in the Sierra de las Minas. Any errors in translation are mine. You can read the tweet… Read More ›
Carlos Ernesto Choc Chub – Criminalised For Defending Rights
Criminalisation, and the use of ‘lawfare’, is being used increasingly against individuals, and groups, seeking to defend human rights in Guatemala. This is especially true with regard to those working to protect the environment. This can be seen through a… Read More ›
The Lives of Those Who Died
Sergio Palencia Frener writes in NACLA about those who were killed during the Alaska (La Cumbre de Alaska) massacre in 2012. In the Mayan highlands of Guatemala there is a summit called Alaska. Known locally as Chuipatán, it is located… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 