Women and the agrarian resistance in Guatemala By: Mélisande Séguin, Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) Cooperant CCDA women activists, planning and organizing. Land dispossession as a historical root of the latest wave of evictions Guatemala has one of the most unequal land distribution and titling systems in [...]
CCDA leadership reads a statement denouncing corrupt actors threatening communities with eviction. After receiving information indicating that even more forced evictions may be carried out in the next few days, the CCDA shared the following: Statement from the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) Greetings to the people [...]
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 [...]
Public Prosecutor's Office Continues Criminalization of Popular Dissent, Election Winners Four of those detained yesterday continue to call for an autonomous USAC. Photo credit: Still from Diego España video. Yesterday morning, the Public Prosecutor’s office (MP) went on a criminalization rampage, announcing 27 arrest warrants, detaining five peoples [...]
More than a Hundred Organizations Demand Justice for Assassination of Xinka Leader Noé Gómez Barrera A sign commemorating Noé Gómez Barrera's life says, "Martyr of the social struggle: Human Rights Defender Noé Gómez Barrera. We will follow the example of his struggle." Following the murder of Xinka human [...]
This action was updated on December 10 to reflect worsening attacks on Guatemalan democracy, after the Public Prosecutor's office (MP) held a press conference threatening to annul election results, an act which the Organisation of American States (OAS) called "an attempted coup d'etat." In light of ongoing attacks on democracy [...]
Over the past decade in Guatemala, criminalization has increasingly served as a strategy to stifle public participation in civic life. In most cases, Guatemalan authorities have collaborated with both business and military interests to criminalize those who seek justice and fight against impunity. Unending criminalization of Indigenous land defenders Early [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Guatemala will hold presidential, congressional, and municipal elections on Sunday, June 25. The outgoing administration, led by President Alejandro Giammattei, has been marked by corruption scandals, the dismantling of judicial and accountability systems, the criminal prosecution of judges, prosecutors, and journalists, and the ever-increasing criminalization of land defenders and entire [...]
