Amnesty International has just recently declared the Q’eqchi’ Maya Indigenous leader and Guatemalan human rights defender, Bernardo Caal Xol, a prisoner of conscience, for having been wrongly imprisoned for more than two years. He had been defending the rights of… Read More ›
Violence
Working in fear
Gildaneliz Barrientos writes on the D+C Development and Cooperation website about the challenges facing journalists in Guatemala including murder, threats and acts of intimidation. This is compounded by the lack of protection from the police. In what is unfortunately a… Read More ›
#GuateRacista: Little stories that reveal the depth of racism in Guatemala.
This was a recent, and timely, post from Jody García on the Nómada website. Any errors in translation are mine. The murder of the Mayan spiritual guide, Domingo Chuc, stirred a twitter dialogue on racism directed at indigenous peoples in… Read More ›
Domingo Choc Che – Savage Christianity in Petén
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 ›
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 ›
