An offering to the respected fire and to the ancestors: Honouring the lives of those who came before us By Javier Every March 13th, in the area called Pak’oxom in the community of Río Negro, community members, students, activists, spiritual leaders known as Ajq’ijab’, and elders gather to commemorate the [...]
Río Negro Presente: Honouring the lives of family members lost at the hands of the state By: Cristina Jerez, Rabinal Community Legal Clinic Intern On March 13 1982, the Guatemalan army and Civil Defense Patrollers (PAC) murdered 177 innocent people from the community of Río Negro. 43 years later, the [...]
We remember so that it does not happen again By: Cristina Jerez, Rabinal Community Legal Clinic Intern In February 1982, a group of armed men set fire to the market in Xococ and killed five people. The Guatemalan army associated this event with the guerrilla and the community of [...]
Artistic call-and-response, Guatemala-Canada: BTS at Antigonight By: Janette Fecteau, BTS Antigonish Committee member; Romi Fischer-Schmidt, New Hope Foundation Cooperant; and Ally Lord, New Hope Foundation Intern Saturday, September 14: Antigonight Art After Dark Festival in Antigonish/Nalikitquniejk unfolds, starring a spectacular installation exhibiting a months-long call-and-response between local and Maya Achí [...]
BBC Witness History interview with Jeremias Tecu More than 200,000 people were killed during Guatemala's 36-year internal armed conflict and of these, an estimated 45,000 people were forcibly disappeared. BTS Network member, Jeremias Tecu's two brothers were among the disappeared. They went missing after a family party in 1981. Jeremias [...]
Altar honouring the 177 victims of the March 13th, 1982 massacre at Pak’oxom in Rio Negro (photo credit: ADIVIMA) Sabrina Jeria, a cooperant at the Rabinal Community Legal Clinic, shares her reflections following the March 13th commemoration of the Río Negro massacre. On March 13, I accompanied a [...]
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 [...]
Seven lay catechists and three priests murdered four decades ago in Quiché were beatified by the Roman Catholic Church on April 21, 2021. Among them was Fr. Juan Alonso (right), a Spanish missionary priest who served the parish in Lancetillo. Second in a series by Jim Hodgson Read [...]
Laura Robinson is a BTS Cooperant based in Rabinal. She's doing work with the Rabinal Legal Clinic and the New Hope Foundation. I arrived in Rabinal seemingly at one of the busiest times of year as the annual fair was beginning. Everyday the streets filled with more and more [...]
November 13th, 2019 By: Scott Smith It's 5:15 AM - “time to get up folks” is the voice that echoed through the house. Late into the evening last night, we arrived by boat to Rio Negro. The power was out on our arrival and so we didn't get to get [...]
