If one looks at the images of the attacks on the Congress building last weekend, you can see perpetrators wielding expandable batons, normal police issue crowd control weapons. This, in addition to narratives highlighting state infiltration of the demonstration and… Read More ›
Poverty
Covid-19, Guatemalan immigration and deportations
Gio B’atz’ has written in Plaza Pública about the scale of deportations to Guatemala during the Covid-19 epidemic and the lies and deception being used to justified this profound abuse of human rights. Over four parts, the articles cover the… Read More ›
Hurricane Eta and the importance of local responses
Hurricane Eta reached Central America earlier this month and caused significant damage across the region in terms of flooding, landslides and huge crop destruction. Sofía Menchú wrote in Reuters about the effects on the Guatemalan Mayan indigenous community of Chicuz,… Read More ›
#ElijoDignidad – I Choose Dignity.
Pamela Yates, the film maker from Skylight, has featured a short film, Cho Ukayib’al (To Look Deeply), as part of her contribution to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, October 12th. The film is by Andrea Ixchíu Hernández and the Colectivo Elijo Dignidad… Read More ›
Evicting Lote Ocho
How a Canadian Mining Company Infiltrated the Guatemalan State Max Binks-Collier has written a powerful piece in The Intercept about the corporate and state violence visited on the poor community of Lote Ocho. It was often when Rosa Elbira Coc… Read More ›
PBI Guatemala – latest Bulletin
Peace Brigades International (PBI) – Guatemala Project published their latest Bulletin recently. It is a very useful resource to follow the work they do and the context within which they do so. Water Shortages in Guatemala Members of the organizations… Read More ›
New Report: Mining Injustice Through International Arbitration: Countering Kappes, Cassiday & Associates’ claims over a gold-mining project in Guatemala
A new report exposes omissions and misrepresentations in a Nevada-based mining company’s more than $400 million suit against the Guatemalan government. Released today, Mining Injustice Through International Arbitration: Countering Kappes, Cassiday & Associates’ Claims over a Gold-mining Project in Guatemala, examines… Read More ›
Renewed ‘La Línea’ Investigations Further Implicate Guatemala Officials
Between May 2014 and April 2015, the criminal network known as “La Línea,” took in over 5.1 million quetzales ($666,000) in bribes, and the scheme cost the government at least 14.3 million quetzales ($1.85 million) in taxes. Alex Papadovassilakis writes… Read More ›
The Case of “Lote Ocho”: Indigenous women hold corporations accountable for violence
Indigenous women in Guatemala are using the concept of extraterritorial obligations to hold corporations accountable for violence—and to set important precedents in human rights law. Andrea Bolaños Vargas and Andrea Suárez Trueba write an interesting and increasingly relevant article in… Read More ›
Guatemala’s Murderous Leap Backward Is Enabled by Trump
Benoit Pierre Amedee María, known as ‘Benito,’ pictured during a graduation ceremony at the Ixil University. Photo: Giovanni Batz/provided for The Globe Post On August 10, a French development worker was shot to death execution-style in rural Guatemala, one of… Read More ›