CCDA National Assembly: 43 years of resistance in the struggle for agrarian reform

CCDA National Assembly: 43 years of resistance in the struggle for agrarian reform

The CCDA celebrated its 43rd anniversary with a General Assembly in Quixayá.

On March 2nd, 2025, the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) held their 43rd annual General Assembly in the community of Quixayá in San Lucas Tolíman. Affiliate members and collectives travelled from as far as Huehuetenango, Petén, and Alta Verapaz to gather with the CCDA, sharing updates on the progress of their work and discussing strategies for ongoing organizing around land and campesino (farmer) rights in Guatemala.

Member affiliate collectives are composed of Maya, Mestizo and Ladino people that use their collective energies and voices to work towards a Guatemala that respects their right to a life of dignity through agricultural practices. Each member affiliate collective has a different approach towards exercising their campesino and land rights, but intersect in their conviction to fight for land access that guarantees their right to autonomously determine their livelihoods. Among the member affiliates present were people of Mam, K’iche’, Poqomchi’, Kaqchikel, Tz’utujil and Q’eqchi’ communities, bringing to the forefront issues that revolve around land, but also around the racism and discrimination they face. Notably, member affiliate collectives were composed of both men and women, with the presence of their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews as well.

The Assembly began with a recognition of the day in the Maya sacred calendar known as the Cholq’ij. The Assembly fell on the 12 I’x, a day that represents the strength and energy of the feminine nature inherent in every person and living being on Earth. An Ajq’ij (or daykeeper) from Comalapa, Chimaltenango, opened the day by recognizing the need to connect with those feminine energies present in each person and also emphasized that it is a day to be in tune with Mother Earth because she is the element that gives us life. I’x days are auspicious days for recognizing the responsibility we have to ourselves by understanding the responsibility we have to be in sync with the Earth for a prosperous future.

Following the invocation of the day, Leocadio Juracán gave a detailed history of the CCDA, tying in the current context and touching on numerous issues while always returning to the notion that without land reform that acknowledges and favours the country’s small agricultural producers, there will not be rural development in Guatemala. He highlighted the fact that Guatemala’s campesinos are the backbone of the Guatemalan economy given that they not only feed the nation, but also work on the land and produce those products that are then exported internationally. The caveat is that land is in the hands of a few, powerful families that continue to exploit campesino labour as they have for generations, generating wealth for the country’s rich and powerful, without bringing development to the rural areas.

For this reason, Leocadio mentioned that the CCDA requested that the national government create a council to consult local communities on their land-based needs. Though they proposed this initiative to the Arévalo government at the start of their administration, the government has yet to respond. Additionally, Leocadio highlighted the disdainful response from the government in regards to the criminalization of campesino organizers, land usurpation, and communal violence that affiliate member collectives continue to face (most recently in the community of Río Tebernal). Despite these challenging realities,  Leocadio did reiterate the fact that the organization continues to grow and remains steadfast in its efforts to expand land rights for campesinos.

Everyone then split up into small breakout groups to workshop some of the challenges that affiliate collectives across the country are facing. Community members talked through topics revolving around the involvement of women in their collectives, ways to strengthen agricultural food systems, how to develop rural areas more robustly, and methods for implementing the agrarian agreement implemented by the new government. CCDA staff proposed 3-4 questions to each group centred on these issues and then community members talked through the questions, drawing on their experiences in their respective communities.

Everyone came together once again, with each group sending 2-3 representatives to the front to share their responses. Community members mentioned the need to break down barriers within local communities that exclude women, including the need to address instances of machismo through educational initiatives that work with both men and women to emphasize and promote women’s rights in organizing spaces. Particularly, some of the women present also talked about the need to erase the idea or stigma that women cannot participate in agricultural and organizing spaces. More than anything, they mentioned the need to protect and defend their bodies and dignity in the same way that they protect and defend their lands.

Regarding food systems, community members mentioned the need to protect their local seeds, use organic fertilizers, strengthen ancestral knowledge, and learn more about the function that bees hold in an organic farm ecosystem. They also mentioned the need for implementing training programs that can strengthen their knowledge around the previously mentioned topics. Additionally, they emphasized that the agrarian agreement is not widely understood in local communities for a variety of reasons, so they also requested more educational initiatives around this agreement to bolster their ability to claim their rights as small-scale farmers and producers.

Overall, the CCDA General Assembly was a testament to the perseverance that small-scale agricultural producers in Guatemala have as they face a wide ranging set of issues and challenges. The linguistic, cultural, and social diversity of the groups present showed that campesino and campesina-led initiatives are multifaceted, complex, and regionally specific to the different areas that community members come from. That being said, the CCDA did show a commitment to understanding these divergent and overlapping complexities to find instances of common ground that can work towards building a more just agrarian reform program in Guatemala, despite all the challenges and barriers that the Guatemalan oligarchy and government places before them.