Two more human rights defenders from Huehuetenango imprisoned for opposing megaprojects
Since 2011, communities in northern Huehuetenango have organized more than 50 peaceful protests and dozens of community referenda in which they have actively expressed their opposition to the expansion of hydroelectric dams and other megaprojects in their territories. This demonstration of community strength and self-determination has been met with violence, state repression, criminalization, and re-militarization. Currently, there are seven community [...]
A report-back on NISGUA’s Rivers for Life Delegation
When Víctor Caal Tzuy came to the U.S. last fall to speak about indigenous peoples’ fight for self-determination in Guatemala, he ended many of his presentations by inviting people to his home to see for themselves how and why more than 50 communities have united in opposition to the Xalalá hydroelectric dam. Last month, NISGUA responded to that invitation [...]
ACOGUATE turns 15!
This year, ACOGUATE honors 15 years providing a physical international presence to threatened Guatemalan human rights defenders as they work towards social justice and transformation. In 2000, NISGUA joined international accompaniment organizations from Canada and Austria to form ACOGUATE, drawing from experiences accompanying refugee communities during their return to Guatemala from Mexico in the mid 1990s. Since that time, [...]
Civil Society Organizations Speak Out on US Central America Plan
Honorable: President Barack Obama, President Otto Pérez Molina President Juan Orlando Hernández President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, President Enrique Peña Nieto We, the undersigned civil society organizations and groups, wish to address you as your meetings begin at the Summit of the Americas in Panama to express our urgent concerns about the Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity of the Northern [...]
How a quasi-military project was created to protect the Escobal mine
An affidavit given on November 24, 2014 by Donald Paul Gray, vice president of the Canadian mining company Tahoe Resources Inc., has shed light on the strong interests at play since 2011 in contracting private security companies for the Escobal mining project in San Rafael Las Flores, Santa Rosa. His affidavit points to the relationship between private security companies, [...]
Wiretap transcripts raise troubling questions about Tahoe Resources’ militarized security detail
Source: Amnesty International Canada – MiningWatch Canada - Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) April 7, 2015 (Guatemala City/Ottawa/Vancouver) Wiretap transcripts ordered by Guatemala’s Public Prosecutor of Tahoe Resources’ former head of security, Alberto Rotondo, in connection with an April 27, 2013 shooting outside its Escobal mine provide strong evidence that he targeted peaceful protesters, tried [...]