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 [...]
photo credit: RudaGT Former anti-corruption prosecutor Virginia Laparra Rivas faced another hearing date today. The court was considering Laparra's release from detention. Laparra, who formerly worked with the Special Prosecutor's Office against Impunity (FECI), has been arbitrarily detained since February 2022. For the sixth time, court magistrates dismissed [...]
By Jim Hodgson An Indigenous Xinca community on the Pacific coast, south of the Guatemalan capital, has the support of a Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking The Silence Network (BTS) partner in its effort to remain on their land. The 53 families of Nueva Jerusalén (New Jerusalem) have the backing of the Comité [...]
President Arbenz achieves: ‘Farmer, here is your land. Defend it, care for it, cultivate it.’” (C.P.R. Urbana from LIFE magazine). President Jacobo Arbenz (Cubadebate). Bitter Fruit tells the story of the 1954 coup. Tanks in front of the National Palace after the coup (TeleSUR). Seventy years after land reform promise, [...]
By Laura Robinson and María Reyes The court room in Puerto Barrios where Maria Cuc Choc's trial was held. Photo Credits: Laura Robinson On April 21st, 2022, BTS accompanied María Cuc Choc, who for the past 16 years has dedicated her life to defending the land and [...]
(Street art depicting the violent reprisal against the Maya Q’eqchi’ communities of El Estor. Including the peaceful Indigenous mining resistance who faced violent reprisal of state forces, including the use of tear gas and the Maya Q’eqchi’ community of Chinebal, El Estor, who experienced the theft of their ancestral [...]
(Arte de la calle que representa la violencia en contra las comunidades maya q'eqchi' de El Estor. Incluyendo la resistencia minera indígena pacífica que se enfrentó a la represión violenta de las fuerzas estatales, incluyendo el uso de gas lacrimógeno y la comunidad Maya Q'eqchi' de Chinebal, El Estor, [...]
