La vida es lucha. Life is struggle. For many Guatemalan human rights defenders, activists and community leaders, struggling to defend their rights is a fact of life. Those who bravely stand up against war, political violence, inequality and elite economic interests are regularly attacked, and the impacts reverberate across communities, generations and movements. Since 1981, members of the NISGUA network have stood alongside many of these human rights defenders, amplifying their voices and showing cross-border solidarity in the struggle for social and global transformation.

In recent decades, a physical international presence through international accompaniment has been used as a tool to dissuade the threats against human rights defenders and open up political space for them to continue their work.