Forty years after surviving state violence, Maya Achi women return to court to demand justice, challenging a long legacy of impunity for crimes against humanity. Jo-Marie Burt, Paulo Estrada and Keily Colíndres write in NACLA Report about the long struggle… Read More ›
Resource Extraction
Guatemala: Indigenous Leaders Face Terrorism Charges
International Scrutiny Needed as Attorney General Ramps Up Abusive Prosecutions Human Rights Watch recently issued a News Release concerning the criminalisation of Indigenous leaders by the Attorney General’s office. Guatemala’s Attorney General’s Office has detained two Indigenous leaders on spurious… Read More ›
Arrest of Indigenous Leaders Threatens Rights to Free Assembly and Democracy in Guatemala
In Guatemala, what we had feared would happen is beginning to happen. Indigenous leaders who put their safety on the line for democracy are being arrested. Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) posted a piece on the criminalisation and arrest of… Read More ›
GHRC – Blog: Update on Recent Developments in Guatemala
Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) posted an update last month on the latest news from Guatemala. The topics covered included: State Department Certifies Guatemala’s Efforts Against Corruption Semilla Party Official Arrested as Efforts to Weaken Arévalo Continue Constitutional Court Annuls… Read More ›
Ongoing Struggles for Justice: Criminalisation of Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Defenders in Guatemala
Members of the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa stand in solidarity against the mining on their land An article was recently published on the website of Peace Brigades International UK (PBI-UK) highlighting the criminalisation of Indigenous defenders in Olopa…. Read More ›
Mayans in Guatemala call on multinational companies to stay away
Una Kelly writes on the RTÉ website about the struggle of Indigenous Q’eqchi Maya in their opposition to multi-national resource extraction in eastern Guatemala. Indigenous Mayans in Guatemala have called for a halt on multinational companies coming to their communities… Read More ›
The Voices Of Those Who Live Among Mountains
Resistance Of The Communities Of Guatemala Against Dispossession “We are Ral Ch’och, that is to say: we were born, we live and we are on our lands. We cannot go anywhere else other than our own.” Pascual Miranda, Río Cristalino… Read More ›
In defense of Atitlán Lake
María Guarchaj and Teresa Gonón write in Ojalá about the challenges facing communities that live by, and depend on, Lago Atitlán. While it is true that the lake has been suffering from environmental degradation, attempts to profit from technical responses… Read More ›
GHRC: July Update
The July Update from the Guatemala Human Rights Commisison (GHRC) was recently shared. In hopeful news, Indigenous land rights activist Lolita Chávez has returned to her home in the K’iche after seven years of exile. In 2017, she suffered an… Read More ›
Honouring Indigenous resistance in Totonicapán: interview with Maya K’iché exile Lucía Ixchíu
Linda Etchart, for Latin America Bureau, interviewed environment defender Lucía Ixchíu, of the K´iché Maya of Totonicapán, a community famous for its ‘48 Cantons’ resistance movement. Totonicapán was the second most important city of the K’iché and the headquarters of… Read More ›
