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 ›
Poverty
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 ›
The struggle for water, forests, land and the defence of the collective does not end with criminalisation
ACOGUATE has published a piece about the struggle of the Maya Ch’orti’ people in the face of continuous attacks, both physical and legal, the latter especially through the criminalisation of activists in defence of land and water. For defending water,… Read More ›
GHRC Updates: State Accountability – Laguna Larga, and the Massacre at La Cumbre de Alaska
The Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) has recently posted a couple of updates we wanted to share. The first is on the situation at Laguna Larga, and the second on the massacre at La Cumbre de Alaska, which took place… Read More ›
GHRC – Human Rights Update
GHRC recently published (18th Sep ’21) its latest Human Rights Update. Constitutional Court Ruling Leaves Judge Erika Aifán Open to ChargesOn September 16, the Constitutional Court rejected an injunction filed by high-risk court judge Erika Aifán, a ruling which leaves… Read More ›
Guatemala’s Indigenous Communities Are Still Fighting for Their Rights
Jeff Abbott writes a column in The Progressive, The Other Americans, and this is from his latest piece. September 15 marks 200 years since the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica gained independence from… Read More ›
Guatemala’s National Strike Demands Structural Change
Giovanni Batz writes in NACLA about the latest protests in Guatemala which build on years of popular struggle and which deepen demands for a plurinational state. In the last decade, national protests throughout Guatemala have symbolized a growing anger and… Read More ›