Series of Reflections: Solidarity, Looking Forward

As part of NISGUA’s 45th anniversary, we are publishing a series of reflections from current and former accompaniers on the present and future of international solidarity. These essays draw from lived experience and honest questioning. They ask: What does it mean to show up today? What do we carry from four decades of work? How do we sustain this commitment for the years to come?

Together with our timeline and anniversary report, these articles invite us to honor the path walked while imagining the road ahead.

Accompanier Perspectives: The Long Road to Foster International Solidarity

After hours of winding dirt roads and canceled taxis, an accompanier arrives in a community with no press conference, no delegation, no security incident to justify the trip—just a cup of coffee and a presence to hold. From that quiet discomfort comes a deeper question: What is the value of accompaniment when there is nothing to “deliver”?

This essay traces that question from a highway overpass to the history of Guatemala’s internal armed conflict, from the theory of protective presence to its cracks and limitations in today’s political landscape. It is an honest reckoning with the privilege carried by a U.S. passport, the erosion of international norms, and what remains when deterrence is no longer enough: the slow, unglamorous work of building and sustaining relationships of solidarity.