ACTIVE: Community Consultations

Community Consultations: A model of resistance under attack in Guatemala

A bill currently before Guatemalan Congress seeks to co-opt the consultation process and violate the rights of indigenous communities to free, prior, and informed consent. Add your voice in calling on the Guatemalan government to respect the results of community-organized consultations.

Three ways to take action:

1. Print out the postcard and mail it to NISGUA’s office for delivery

2. Read more about the incredible role that consultations play in community organizing to protect land, life, and self-determination

3. Sign the extended action! Petition available here.

Photo: Graham Hunt

Download a postcard

Additional reading about community consultations

23January, 2015

Freedom of expression at serious risk in Guatemala

Today, alternative and grassroots media in Guatemala denounced attacks against Radio Snuq' Jolom Konob', a community radio station in the department of Huehuetenango that regularly transmits voices of the Q'anjob'al people living in and around the municipality of Santa Eulalia. The department of Huehuetenango, like many other areas in [...]

15January, 2015

2015 US Appropriations Act maintains restrictions on US military aid to Guatemala

When President Otto Peréz Molina was elected in 2012, he came with an agenda to fully re-instate US military aid and end the restrictions on funding to Guatemala in place to varying degrees since the Carter administration implemented a direct security aid ban in 1977. Even before the Peace [...]

14January, 2015

Interactive map shows scope of natural resource concessions in Guatemala

Those of you following NISGUA's work on defense of land and territory over the past seven years may remember the story of how Goldcorp's Marlin mine first gained access to indigenous lands in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, San Marcos. Company representatives told residents that they were interested in starting an [...]

9January, 2015

Interview with members of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation on the genocide retrial and suspension of proceedings

NISGUA sat down with several members of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) to ask them how they feel about the genocide retrial and the events of January 5th, when lead Judge Jeannette Valdés was recused from hearing the case and the retrial was suspended. The departure of [...]

6January, 2015

Genocide retrial: Recusal of judge leads to suspension of proceedings

"We know that genocide took place. The whole world knows it, but the truth has been denied." Juventino Caal, member of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) Yesterday, a new trial against Jose Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez opened in Guatemalan courts and once again [...]

5January, 2015

A solidarity message to the Association for Justice and Reconciliation as the genocide case goes to retrial

January 5, 2015 Dear members of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), During this moment in which the Guatemala justice system is retrying the case against Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez, we here at NISGUA want to acknowledge this long process in search of justice and particularly [...]