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 [...]
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 Highlands Small Farmers Committee (CCDA) Shifting Seasons Come April, fireflies flit through San Lucas Tolimán at dawn. Community members [...]
Third in a series by Jim HodgsonRead the second post here Many supporters of Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking The Silence Network (BTS) and other solidarity groups across Canada know Leocadio Juracán and the organization he has been part of since 1989: the Comité Campesino del Altiplano – CCDA (Highlands Committee of Small [...]
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, [...]
Meeting at the CCDA's office, holding publications of the CCDA's 2nd national agrarian congress. By: Lisa Rankin Last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Lake Atitlan and visit BTS’s partners, the Highland Small Farmers Committee (CCDA) and the Mesoamerican Institute for Permaculture (IMAP). One of [...]
Photo taken during a protest for the political prisoners arrested during the 2021 mobilization for the Chicoyogüito community. Signs read “We demand the return of our land that the state evicted us from July 28th 1968.” “We only demand what is ours.” “Freedom for the 21 political prisoners from Chicoyogüito.” [...]
VER LA CARTA EN ESPAÑOL AQUI April 29, 2020 STAND UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN GUATEMALA The Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network (BTS) supports the efforts of Guatemalans struggling for political, social, and economic justice. In the context of COVID-19 and the current state of emergency declared by the Guatemalan government, [...]
On Friday, January 20, 2018, Maria Cuc Choc made her first appearance in front of a judge in Puerto Barrios for her arraignment hearing. Maria is no stranger to the legal system in her town. For years she has supported communities in the struggle to secure legal certainty for ancestral [...]
ONCE AGAIN, COMMUNITIES ARE VIOLATED BY THE REPRESSIVE GOVERNMENT OF PEREZ MOLINA To read the original statement in Spanish, click here. On the morning of August 14, the community of Monte Olivo in Cobán Alta Verapaz once more had their rights violated. This time, a large contingent of police forcibly [...]
