Ten months after forced eviction, the Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol community is still landless

By Mélisande Séguin, CCDA Cooperant

On August 9, 2023, police and private security forces attacked the Xinka community of Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol and ruthlessly burnt people’s homes and possessions under the supervision of state authorities.

Ten months after the eviction, the 53 families of Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol are in a grave humanitarian crisis. Although the CCDA provided them tarps so they could build improvised houses, those have been destroyed by the first heavy storms of the rainy season. Once again, community members find themselves without a roof over their heads. Furthermore, water accumulating on the ground increases drastically their exposure to rampant and potentially deadly mosquito-related illnesses, such as Dengue. The community was already living in horrible conditions, but the rainy season and lack of concrete support from responsible state institutions has made their situation almost unbearable.

Improvised houses destroyed by a rainstorm in Escuintla, Photo credit: anonymous Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol community member

The recent damage to community members’ belongings are one event in the long list of hardships they’ve endured since the eviction. Although they have built a mechanical well, it provides far too little water to meet the community members’ basic needs, and people are forced to consume salt water. The women are especially worried about the health of their children, who are still suffering the physical and psychological consequences of the eviction and its aftermath. Community members report that the landowner now occupying the former site of the Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol community uses his private security to continually terrorize them. On several occasions, shots were fired toward the camp where the community is now located, only a few hundred meters away from where they used to live.

Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol is one of CCDA’s seven emergency cases because of the humanitarian crisis the community is facing. Since 2017, CCDA has been accompanying the community, working with them to establish their land ownership claims, as private landowners and local authorities sought to expropriate their lands. Since the eviction last year, CCDA’s coordination team has provided community members with materials to build temporary housing and has been advocating with state authorities.

Community members’ tarp houses and community centre, Photo credit: Mélisande Séguin

History of the community and pattern of land dispossession against campesino communities

The attack against Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol is part of a pattern of systemic dispossession and discrimination against Indigenous and campesino communities for the benefit of the extractive sector and private landowners. Practices such as evictions and criminalization, which are often state-led or endorsed, maintain populations in a perpetually vulnerable situation.

CCDA has been actively working to return lands to hundreds of communities throughout Guatemala. According to the CCDA, secure land rights are the only way to ensure the safety and prosperity of the Indigenous and campesino populations of the country.

Change of government and the role of the Presidential Private Secretary

Bernardo Arévalo’s government has shown greater interest in resolving agrarian conflicts in Guatemala. CCDA is one of four organizations that make up the Campesino Council, which has been negotiating an agreement on agrarian affairs with the Arévalo government. The Agreement includes four components: agrarian conflicts, access to land, campesino economy, and territorial articulation. As a result of the dialogue between the Campesino Council and Arévalo’s administration, the deliberately ineffectual Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights (COPADEH), has been reformed. It primarily focuses on questions related to peace and human rights, and agrarian conflicts are now under the responsibility of dialogue subsecretary of the Presidential Private Secretary (SPP). In the first months of Arévalo’s presidency, SPP officials met with several communities accompanied by the CCDA, including Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol. Their stated priority is to guarantee access to land for at-risk and evicted communities.

Meeting between CCDA, SPP and the Nueva Jerusalén’s community members, Photo credit: Mélisande Séguin

The opening of dialogue spaces between the campesino movement and the government gives hope that actions will be taken to help evicted communities like Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol. However, the government’s actions are limited since Consuela Porras is still at the head of the Public Prosecutor’s office and maintains the culture of corruption inherited from previous governments. Indeed, the corruption in Guatemala’s judicial system drastically increases Indigenous communities’ risk of evictions and criminalization.

Furthermore, Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol is just one of the SPP’s 500 prioritized cases. With more than five months since Arévalo came into office, not a single case has been resolved, raising questions about the government’s efficacy on this urgent issue. Further, the recent eviction of the Q’eqchi’ community of Buena Vista, El Estor has left the Campesino Council doubtful of the Arévalo government’s political commitment on this pressing issue. The Campesino Council immediately responded to this latest public-private attack on an Indigenous community calling for immediate care for displaced community members, the resolution of the land conflict, an investigation into the government actors who violated community members’ basic rights in favour of wealthy land-owning interests, and an end to all evictions and criminalization.

The State systematically fails to meet its obligations

Despite the new administration’s apparent willingness to meet with affected communities and to try to resolve agrarian conflicts in Guatemala, it is essential to remember that the situation of the Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol community is in violation of the vast majority of international treaties and covenants which Guatemala has signed, ratified or adopted and of national protocols on eviction. It also violates several of the Public Ministry’s eviction protocol rules. International law stipulated that evictions can only occur under exceptional circumstances and must be carried out in accordance with certain standards. In addition to the fact that the eviction of Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol  is unlawful, the state hasn’t followed any of the guidelines prescribed by international or national instruments to attend to the victims of forced eviction, including:

  • Providing community members with adequate time to retrieve and pack their belongings
  • Ensuring the relocation of the community to a safe and sustainable site that will not be subject to legal dispute.
  • Ensuring that the community’s basic needs are met.
  • Ensuring that the community’s livelihood is not affected.
  • Providing medical and educational facilities.
  • Compensating the community for additional costs resulting from relocation.
  • Ensuring that the community has transport and opportunities to sell their products.
  • Ensuring secure land rights for the community.

While the Arévalo government’s purported interest in resolving these land conflicts is a welcome change from previous administrations, the State is still in violation of its commitments to many communities, who are trapped in a no man’s land following an eviction. During recent meetings with CCDA and Nueva Jerusalen’s leaders, the SPP reiterated their intention to verify the information that was used to request the community’s eviction and to support the CCDA in finding a permanent solution to the conflict. However, the institution has not followed up on its promises yet.

Meeting between CCDA, SPP and the Nueva Jerusalen’s community members, Photo credit: Mélisande Séguin

The importance of addressing agrarian conflicts before evictions happen

Forced evictions are a human rights violation and must be avoided except in exceptional circumstances. Access to property should never be used to undermine the human rights to housing and a dignified life.

However, in Guatemala, communities accused of land occupation are often judicially and extrajudicially evicted. According to CCDA members, it is urgent to address structural agrarian conflicts before any further evictions happen. Agrarian conflicts like these are inherently political and reflect Guatemala’s history of systemic violence against campesino and Indigenous communities. The CCDA emphasizes that Guatemalan authorities must prioritize these structural reforms, rather than only intervening with insufficient and temporary humanitarian relief after a devastating and traumatizing eviction has occurred.  The CCDA urges the State to relocate the Nueva Jerusalén Wiscoyol community and the other 11 evicted communities it accompanies so that they can live in decent conditions and have access to lands they can cultivate.