Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted a video of its Acércate (‘come closer’) interview with Maya Q’eqchi river defender Bernardo Caal Xol in prison in Cobán, Alta Verapaz. Caal Xol is a leader of the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón, a collective… Read More ›
Poverty
World Water Day – It Is Time To Free Bernardo Caal Xol
Yesterday, 22nd March, was World Water Day, and we wanted to bring attention to the case of Bernardo Caal Xol, who has been unjustly detained for three years now. Since 2015, Bernardo Caal has defended the rights of the communities… Read More ›
Very High Stakes – Elections to the Constitutional Court
By the 23rd March, the five individuals who will serve the next 5-year term on the Guatemala Constitutional Court must be named in order to be sworn in and to take office on the 14th April. This is the date… Read More ›
#NosDuelen56 – The Hogar Seguro fire, four years on
March 8th, as well as being International Women’s Day, is also the anniversary of the death of 41 young women and girls, in 2017, in the Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción, (Virgin of the Assumption Safe Home) in San… Read More ›
Sepur Zarco: The Fight For Justice Continues
Based on information from Mujeres Transformando el Mundo, La Cuerda, through Jody García, has presented an infographic on the continuing fight for justice with regard to the Sepur Zarco case. Any errors in translation are mine. Five years ago, a… Read More ›
Guatemala Takes a Hard Line Against Migrants—With US Support
Long before Trump, Washington was exporting control of migratory routes, along with repressive policing, to Mexico and Central America. Jeff Abbott writes in The Nation magazine about the response of Guatemalan authorities to the recent ‘caravan’ of Honduran refugees and… Read More ›
David vs Goliath in Guatemala: how palm oil companies encroach on indigenous land
A community in northern Guatemala is fighting against the force of nature and against the expansion of palm oil. Jody García writes in Climate Tracker about a community that is increasingly trapped, literally, by the effects of climate change, on… Read More ›
13 young Guatemalans who left for a better future were slain in Mexico, families say
Kate Linthicum and Jeff Abbott write a very sad story in the Los Angeles Times, highlighting the frightening dangers posed to migrants heading north, through extremely hostile territory, to the United States. As 15-year-old Robelson Isidro left Guatemala this month,… Read More ›
Guatemala Cross-Border Crime and Corruption Investigation
InSight Crime made a presentation recently regarding an investigation into cross-border crime and corruption in Guatemala. Drug trafficking has been reconfigured in Guatemala. The large clans that traditionally dominated the business have broken up. Now the main actors are small… Read More ›
No Human Being Is Illegal
The Convergencia por los Derechos Humanos (The Human Rights ‘Meeting Point’) issued a statement, published by UDEFEGUA, on the 21st January in relation to the violence meted out to the Honduran migrants over the previous weekend. Any errors in translation… Read More ›