Ten human rights organisations recently released a joint statement condemning police brutality in El Estor. Read the pronouncement below. You can read the above condemnation on the website of GHRC, here, GHRC – Condemnation. You can read more about the… Read More ›
Poverty
“It pains me to tell you that the image of Canada is severely damaged”
Damning testimony in a new book reveals the horrific record of Canadian mining companies in Guatemala. Joan Baxter has written in the Canadian publication, Halifax Examiner, about a new book, Testimonio: Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala,… Read More ›
Guatemala Cracks Down on Q’eqchi’ Resistance in El Estor
In the latest episode of a lengthy saga of repression and resistance, Maya communities demanding to be consulted about a foreign-owned nickel mine in their territories now live under a state of siege. Vaclav Masek writes in NACLA on the… Read More ›
Where Impunity Reigns: Nickel Mining in El Estor, Guatemala
James Rodríguez wrote an article for Latin American Perspectives on El Estor, looking at the history of the mine, including the history of state violence against those that live in the Q’eqchi’ Mayan territory. The violence goes back to at… Read More ›
Women Resisting Violence – Podcast
‘The government wants to erase our children’s memory and I can’t allow it as a mother looking for justice.’ On 8 March 2017, 56 girls were locked in a classroom of their state-run children’s home just outside Guatemala City when… Read More ›
Guatemala: Peaceful resistance to illegal mining under siege
A Joint Statement was released in response to the state of siege and the violence of state actors against the peaceful demonstrations being held in El Estor. Errors in translation are mine. JOINT STATEMENT – THE OBSERVATORY / UDEFEGUA /… Read More ›
Demand That State Cease Excessive Violence
In response to the events at El Estor, the above statement was released jointly, yesterday, by Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network (ARSN), Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network (BTS-RES), Human Rights Defenders Project, Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC), Guatemalanetz Bern, Protection International… Read More ›
“We weren’t dreaming of a coffin… now our family is just trying to survive”
Daniela Rea wrote in Pie De Página about the murder of 19 year old Santa Cristina García Pérez and eighteen others, for which Mexican state police officers have been accused by the State Attorney General. There tends to be plenty… Read More ›
Guatemala’s growing palm oil industry fuels Indigenous land fight
Sandra Cuffe writes in Al Jazeera about the ongoing land struggles in Guatemala primarily focusing on palm oil production, its destructive legacies, and Indigenous resistance. Anibal Agurtia blows into the conch shell tied to a red string around his hand,… Read More ›
Could Indigenous demonstrations against corruption lead to lasting change in Guatemala?
Eduardo Campos Lima wrote recently in America: The Jesuit Review about the increasingly active response to government and elite corruption especially as seen through Indigenous mobilisations. Interestingly, in presenting a ‘split’ in the opposition in, for example, town and country,… Read More ›