Displacement in Guatemala and How Transnational Solidarity Must Impact our Local Organizing for Housing and Land Rights
Washington, D.C. local, Clara Lincoln is a recent NISGUA accompanier through the Guatemala Accompaniment Program. She spent ten months accompanying land and human rights defenders in Guatemala. Since returning, she has collaborated with ONE DC, an organization fighting for the rights to housing, wellness, and economic equity for low-income D.C. residents of color. Here, she shares perspectives on the [...]
Statement by the Mesoamerican Movement in Resistance to the Extractivist Model (M4) on state-regulated consultations
Español abajo. The peoples that form part of M4 who resist the capitalist and extractive model and are working towards social transformation DECLARE In Guatemala City’s historic center, on November 15, 16 and 17, we met to discuss and analyze current efforts to regulate prior consultation of our peoples in order to build collective strategies based on shared [...]
2018 NISGUA Tour stops in Duwamish and Coastal Salish Territories
As the kick-off to NISGUA’s 2018 tour, “How to Stop a Dam with Indigenous Resistance,” we travelled to Seattle on occupied Duwamish and Coastal Salish territories. Duwamish Tribal Chair Cecile Hansen and Jolene Hass generously welcomed Maya Mam activist José Gómez and members of the NISGUA network to the Duwamish Longhouse, to exchange strategies as Indigenous peoples and other [...]
Municipality of Mataquescuintla celebrates over six years of mining resistance
On November 11, 2018, six years after the municipality of Mataquescuintla voted “NO” in a referendum on mining, thousands of community members marched to uphold the results and re-affirm their resistance. The 2012 referendum, which saw 98.42% of participants reject mining, is one of several that have taken place in the area and has played a key role in [...]
Xinka Parliament denounces illegalities as court-ordered consultation process begins
The following article was co-written by the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network, Earthworks, and NISGUA. On November 19, 2018, the Xinka Parliament held a press conference to denounce the malicious behaviour of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), and Minera San Rafael at the outset of the court-ordered consultation [...]
Ríos para la Vida: ACODET Denuncia Criminalización, Ataques contra Defensores de los Ríos
En las últimas semanas, los defensores del agua en Guatemala se han enfrentado amenazas crecientes. El viernes pasado, el líder comunitario q’eqchi’ Bernardo Caal Xol fue injustamente sentenciado a siete años y cuatro meses de prisión en Cobán. Fue condenado por detención ilegal y robo agravado, a pesar de evidencia contradictoria e insuficiente presentada por el Ministerio Público. Caal [...]