The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OMCT-FIDH) and UDEFEGUA released a denunciation following the assassination of Ramón López Jiménez, a community leader with CODECA – ‘Committee for Campesino Development’ (El Comité de Desarrollo Campesino) With the murder… Read More ›
Resource Extraction
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 ›
GHRC – Human Rights Update
GHRC recently published (3rd Sep ’21) its latest Human Rights Update. 2021 on Track to Be Worst Year for Human Rights Defenders in 20 Years According to the Unit for Protection of Human Rights Defenders of Guatemala (UDEFEGUA), in the… Read More ›
What difference does a union make?
In the Guatemalan banana industry the short answer is working about 12 hours a week less for over double the pay, and for women workers about one fifth the likelihood of being exposed to sexual harassment at work. Banana Link… Read More ›
Accompaniment updates from PBI Guatemala
PBI Canada recently posted a couple of pieces from PBI Guatemala highlighting the vital accompaniment work that they do. PBI Guatemala accompanied the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (el Comité Campesino del Altiplano – CCDA) at a Mayan ceremony for… Read More ›
Is this Guatemala’s Plurinational Moment?
Tim May writes in New Socialist about the recent demonstrations in Guatemala, including the recent Paro nacional and places the moment within a period of increasing grass-roots mobilisation. Indigenous authorities are increasingly finding their voice within national politics but still… Read More ›
“Fear has made me braver and that’s why I want to keep fighting”
ACOGUATE has published a piece about the struggle of the people of Ixquisis Microregion against the imposition of large megaprojects, through the words of María Hernández, a human rights defender. For the past three years, María Hernández has represented women… Read More ›
UN Human Rights – Stop treating indigenous human rights defenders like criminals
United Nations human rights experts have expressed concerns over the criminalisation, violations of due process, and health rights of Bernardo Caal Xól, a Q’eqchi’ Maya Indigenous leader and Guatemalan human rights defender. “Mr. Bernardo Caal Xól has been criminalised because… Read More ›
The community of Chicoyogüito and their struggle for justice
On the 28th July, 1968, the community of Chicoyogüito, in Alta Verapaz, was evicted from its lands in order to instal the former Military Zone 21 (ZM 21), which became a detention centre, as well as a site for massacres… Read More ›
Guatemala Solidarity Network 