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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
By Raphael Freston Water is ubiquitous this time of year in San Lucas Tolimán. Streets become streams; fields become swamps. The sky, the silvery sky, feels ever closer and heavier. Fog creeps into every corner, burying San Lucas in one vast cloud. You can see no more than an arm’s [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Abner Peréz giving certificates of appreciation to organizations and individuals who have supported the CCDA during the past four decades. On March 1st, 2022, the Highland Committee of Small Farmers (CCDA) held a National Assembly to celebrate their 40th anniversary. To commemorate four decades of fighting [...]
In Guatemala, human rights defenders continue to face threats of violence and criminalization for their human rights work. Many of them are Indigenous farmers who are working on issues of access to land and in defense of territory, like BTS partner: the Highlands Committee of Small Farmers (CCDA). Risks faced [...]
~Please distribute widely. Many of you know Angelica and she and others need your support now! Individual and organizational sign-ons needed! Angelica Choc has denounced the murder of her husband, Maya Q'eqchi' activist and leader Adolfo Ich, in Europe and Canada. Dear friends, We’re looking for individual and [...]
By Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.ca/sites/default/files/2012-12-07transformingpainintohope.pdf Human rights defenders play a fundamental role in helping to create a world where the promise of human rights becomes a reality for all. Drawing on decades of work with defenders in the Americas region – Central, North and South America and the Caribbean – this [...]
