Domingo Choc Che was a Mayan spiritual guide, a medicine specialist and a traditional healer. He was murdered in his hometown of Chimay, in the Municipality of San Juan in Petén, some 230km north of the capital, Guatemala City. He… Read More ›
Violence
Three years after the fire that killed 41 girls in Guatemala
By Frauke Decoodt – this English translation courtesy of Confidencial. “I don’t want anyone to wish me a Happy Women’s Day on March 8th,” recently said Brendy Cuy Urizar. Elsa Siquín Montafúr doesn’t celebrate this day either. Brendy is the… Read More ›
Guatemala: violence against women
On International Women’s Day gender equity is still a long way off. Nathalie Mercier, of Christian Aid, writes in LAB – Latin America Bureau. The 8th March is celebrated as International Women’s Day. However, in Guatemala for the past three… Read More ›
Commemoration of the Xococ Massacre
Laura Robinson, from Breaking the Silence (BTS), accompanied the Rabinal Legal Clinic and The New Hope Foundation School to what had been used as a clandestine cemetery in Xococ, a town outside of Rabinal. It was the 38th anniversary of… Read More ›
Canada: The Other Imperial Power in Latin America
“In 2020, more than a decade after assailants hacked her husband with a machete and shot him in the head, Angelica Choc is still fighting for justice. A teacher and respected leader in their Maya Q’eqchi community in eastern Guatemala,… Read More ›
Anniversary of the fire in the Hogar Seguro
It is now just three years since the fire in the Virgin of the Assumption ‘Safe/Secure’ Home (Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción) in San José Pinula, some 25 km from Guatemala City. While their lives can never be returned,… Read More ›
Drugs, mining, monoculture threaten Guatemala’s mangrove ecosystems
On Guatemala’s Caribbean coast, criminal activity is destroying mangroves and the livelihoods of families who depend on them. Yet Guatemala’s mangrove ecosystems are connected to those of Honduras, Belize and Mexico. What happens to one affects the others. Francelia Solano… Read More ›
What the CICIG Taught Guatemala
Irma A. Velasquez Nimatuj writes on the Americas Program website about the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG by its acronym in Spanish). It is a timely piece, as President Morales is about to step down from his role… Read More ›
'Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are everything but safe.'
Belén Fernández writes in Al Jazeera. This year, US President and xenophobe-in-chief, Donald Trump finagled “safe third country agreements” with Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, allowing the United States to deport aspiring asylum seekers to the very region many of… Read More ›
Guatemala – CICIG’s Legacy
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) have done a series of short reports looking at Trends of the Decade. Guatemala features in various themes, but I thought to concentrate on the Fight Against Corruption and CICIG’s legacy. Since 2007, Guatemala’s… Read More ›