Defense of Territory
We support the rights of Indigenous people in regards to access to land and determination over their territories including Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. Our efforts focus on supporting communities defending their territories, natural resources and livelihoods in the face of mining and other extractivist industries. We echo our Guatemalan partners who see the defense of ancestral and Indigenous language, culture, historic memory, as well as individual and collective bodies as an important continuation of the defense of territory.
Some subthemes in this area include support of communities impacted by Canadian mining companies and other extractive industries; food sovereignty; land access; and support for criminalized land defenders.
Related posts about defense of territory
Cooperant Update: Criminalization Continues to Threaten the Agrarian Movement
Criminalization Continues to Threaten the Agrarian Movement The CCDA speaks out against the criminalization of General Coordinator Neydi Juracán and the campesino movement. Photo credit: CCDA By Mélisande Séguin, CCDA Cooperant Criminalization is the malicious use of the criminal justice system to paralyze and repress movements for social [...]
Long Live La Puya: Organizations Around the World Celebrate 12 Year Anniversary of La Puya Peaceful Resistance
"La Puya Lives Because It Resists" reads a mural, Photo credit: Romi Fischer-Schmidt Organizations and individuals from around the world, including BTS, came together to offer words of admiration and solidarity with the La Puya Peaceful Resistance. For 12 years, the communities of San José del Golfo and [...]
Violent Eviction of Xinka Community, Nueva Jerusalen
Nueva Jerusalen homes burned in violent eviction, photo credit: CCDA On the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples - Wednesday, August 9th - police and private security forces attacked the Xinka community of Nueva Jerusalen and ruthlessly burnt people's homes and possessions. Located in Escuintla, the sugar-cane [...]
Xinka Parliament Recognized with Prestigious Human Rights Award
The Xinka Parliament accepts the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation's Human Rights Award, photo credit: Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation On June 6, the Xinka Parliament was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation's annual Human Rights Award. The award honors human rights defenders who face oppression [...]
Cooperant Update: As Seasons Change, the CCDA Builds Soil, Power, and Land Defense Cases
Members of the CCDA and BTS travel to Macho Creek to learn community members' ties to the land. Photo credit: Raphael Freston By: Raphael Freston, a cooperant with the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) Shifting Seasons Come April, fireflies flit through San Lucas Tolimán at dawn. Community [...]
Macho Creek: “We love this place”
By Jim Hodgson After a drenching ride along Guatemala’s Atlantic coast from the city of Livingston, our boat approached Macho Creek. It’s a small, mangrove-lined river that leads inland to the Indigenous Q’eqchi’ community also known as Macho Creek. This day, March 21, the river was overflowing its banks [...]