Delegations to Guatemala
Every year, NISGUA supporters have the chance to visit Guatemalan communities and organizations that seek justice & accountability, an end to impunity, and stand in defense of life and territory. The 8-day visit to Guatemala offers the opportunity to deepen our understanding of the realities faced by Guatemalan and indigenous communities in their struggle for dignity, self-determination, and human rights. NISGUA delegations express international solidarity with Guatemalan social justice movements as a part of a multi-faceted strategy to widen political space and secure greater security for local community-organizing efforts.
Participants will return home having had the opportunity to deeply reflect on the importance of cross-border solidarity, equipped with new resources to effectively and strategically stand with Guatemalan human rights defenders as an international community that continues to work for social change from within the U.S.
Announcing our 2017 delegation: “Women and the Work of Liberation in Guatemala”
Across Guatemala, women are leading transformative movements for justice, accountability, self-determination, dignity, and respect for the Earth—and their work is making global impact. This April 22-29, we invite you to join NISGUA on our 2017 delegation to Guatemala to explore the dynamic strategies, resilience practices, and forms of organizing that Guatemalan women use to address the interlocking systems of capitalism, racism, and patriarchy while building visions for a world free from gendered violence, state repression, and environmental degradation.
This delegation will be a unique opportunity for organizations and individuals from the U.S. to engage in horizontal exchange with women-led social movements in Guatemala, while building capacity for organizing and advocacy across borders. Together, we will:
- Visit communities and organizations struggling for justice and accountability for crimes committed during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict, focusing on the integral role that women play in forging paths toward justice while deepening our understanding of many meanings of justice, memory, and healing.
- Build an understanding of the ongoing impacts of U.S. imperialism in Guatemala and the strategies that Guatemalan communities use to build resilience and work toward social justice.
- Reflect on the importance of international solidarity and cross-border organizing, returning home better equipped to work for global social change from within the United States.
The week-long delegation costs $1,200 per person, covering all related expenses except airfare, which is covered by each participant. NISGUA strongly encourages all delegates to engage in grassroots fundraising to cover theses expenses. Limited scholarships may also be available to interested participants with demonstrated commitments to social justice, with priority given to members of similarly-impacted communities, especially people of color and indigenous people.
We invite participants with demonstrated, active commitments to gender justice who are interested in developing or strengthening an internationalist lens for their local work to apply. We strongly encourage women, trans, and gender nonconforming people, queer people, people of color, and indigenous people, and working class/low-income people to apply to participate in this delegation. Applications due March 1, 2017.
Past delegations:
NISGUA’s 2016 delegation visited the communities in resistance to the U.S./Canadian-owned Escobal silver mine in southeastern Guatemala. From March 5-12, 2016, delegates learned about the creative forms of community organizing and popular education strategies that communities use to defend their right to self-determination and to combat the threats of criminalization, militarization, and the destruction of their territory and natural resources by transnational resource extraction companies. The delegation carried out strategic meetings with environmental and human rights organizations in Guatemala City who are working to support the local movements against mining.