Guatemala Accompaniment Project (GAP)
Providing a dissuasive presence at the request of Guatemalan organizations and communities who are at risk for their work
What is accompaniment?
NISGUA is one of the many organizations worldwide using international accompaniment as a strategy in the global struggle for the protection of human rights. Organizations, communities and activists under threat request an international presence as a security measure to dissuade attacks and create a safer space for them to carry out their human rights and social justice work.
How does accompaniment work?
In Guatemala, state and corporate actors, as well as parallel and clandestine power structures dating from the internal armed conflict and favored by the climate of impunity in the country, continue to exert power through intimidation, criminalization and violence. When human rights violations such as these take place, the monitoring and reporting done by NISGUA accompaniers through the Guatemala Accompaniment Project (GAP) serves to alert the international community. Our networks take action and pressure the Guatemalan government, transnational corporations and other actors to encourage the protection of human rights.
Who do we accompany?
We provide accompaniment to organizations and individuals involved in key legal cases seeking justice and accountability for genocide and crimes against humanity – including massacres, torture and forced disappearances – committed during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict. This includes one of our longest and most extensive accompaniment relationships, with the witnesses and communities of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR). A courageous group of survivors, the AJR filed charges in 2000 and 2001 against former military dictators Efraín Ríos Montt, Romeo Lucas García and their military high commands.
In the Guatemalan post-conflict context, international investment in large-scale mega-development projects like mining and hydroelectric dams increased. So, too, did the attacks against community leaders and organizations speaking out against these industries and in defense of life and territory. GAP provides ongoing accompaniment to individuals and organizations under threat and increasingly criminalized for their organizing in defense of their resources, communities, culture and human rights.
Sponsoring Communities
Our Sponsoring Community partnerships provide the resources, energy and political action required to ensure ongoing international accompaniment in Guatemala. Their long-term commitment to human rights and solidarity is an essential component of the longevity and sustainability of GAP. Sponsoring Communities provide financial support to an accompanier and are key members of NISGUA’s activist network. All NISGUA accompaniers are matched with a U.S. Sponsoring Community upon completion of their intensive training and before travel to Guatemala.
During the years GAP accompanied communities of returned refugees and displaced peoples, many Sponsoring Communities (which may be a faith-based group, a committee of former accompaniers or a group of concerned activists) developed deep relationships with sister Guatemalan communities, some of which continue to this day. Today, Sponsoring Communities are paired with volunteers who are selected, trained and go on to work in Guatemala with the international coalition providing accompaniment, called ACOGUATE. Some Sponsoring Communities support as many as two accompaniers in a year, while others pair up with another Sponsoring Community, or provide critical funds for program support.
In addition to being resource partners, Sponsoring Communities are key advocates in NISGUA’s grassroots initiatives to amplify the voices of our Guatemala partners and connect social justice struggles in Guatemala with the same struggles in the U.S. GAP is always looking to expand the base of support for solidarity with Guatemala and international human rights accompaniment through the creation of new Sponsoring Communities; if you are interested in forming a Sponsoring Community, please contact martha@nisgua.org.
Current Sponsoring Communities
Contact person Connie Vanderhyden can be reached at connie.vanderhyden@gmail.com.
You can be in touch with LAGOS through Kay Yanisch at kyanisch@yahoo.com.
For more information, contact Dale Sorenson at and learn more at www.mitfamericas.org.
Chris Hansen is the primary contact person and can be reached at marcuschristian@hotmail.com.
For more information, write to Brenda Metzler at bmetzler7@verizon.net or visit www.needhamcongregational.org.
For more information, contact the project coordinators, Chris and John Sutton, at: jds42cps44@verizon.net.
Barbara Fuchsman is the contact person for SEPA. She can be reached at bafuchsman@oberlin.net.
Ready to apply?
We believe international solidarity requires the participation of communities who are similarly impacted by the same global systems that violate human rights and threaten those working for true self-determination and justice in Guatemala, as well as their allies. Applications from people of color, indigenous/indigenous descent, poor/working class, women, LGBTQI people, and candidates with strong anti-racism/ally experience will be prioritized; all are encouraged to apply.
We are currently searching for people to join our next cohort of accompaniers. Our next application deadline is March 15, 2019 for June 2019 training.
Requirements include:
- The ability to document and analyze events and conditions in order to produce quality written reports and educational materials.
- Cultural sensitivity; excellent judgment skills; ability to work flexibly in dynamic, changing situations; resourcefulness in self-care and relational dynamics.
- A high level of verbal and written Spanish or the ability to develop it with six weeks of intensive study.
- A familiarity with the history of Central America/U.S. relations, the current situation in Guatemala, and a basic understanding of human rights/accompaniment.
- Previous experience in Latin America (especially rural areas) strongly preferred.
- Awareness of security issues, willingness to work in a situation which might involve risk, interest in individual and team analysis.
- Familiarity with or willingness to learn strategies for grassroots fundraising and education in the US.
- A minimum six month commitment
- A U.S. passport and a strong connection to a U.S. community.
Benefits include:
- Lodging provided at our main office in Guatemala City.
- A small monthly stipend to cover health insurance and most in-country travel expense (Individual fundraising also required).
If you have additional program questions, please contact us.
The Power of Presence
Reflections from more than 20 years providing international accompaniment to threatened human rights and environmental defenders in Guatemala.
GAP Brochure
“The work is ours. It is our country and is for us to do. But you help open the space for us to do that work. Your presence is important.” – Genocide case witness from the Ixcán. Read more about the history of GAP and who we accompany.
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 [...]
Accompanier Perspectives: Extraction, Destruction, and Immigration – In Honor of Claudia Patricia Gómez González
Accompanier Claire Bransky dedicates this article to Claudia Patricia Gómez González and the many other victims of the United States' imperialism and racialized violence. The US's funding and training of genocidal dictators and its imposition [...]
Accompanier Perspectives: land, genocide, and gentrification in Guatemala and the US
In her final letter as a human rights accompanier in Guatemala, Clara Lincoln draws connections between the US and Guatemalan governments' violence against indigenous peoples and people of color, through genocide, sexual violence, state brutality, [...]
Accompanier Perspectives: Guatemalan History – The coup, the conflict, and the consequences
In her first letter from Guatemala, Claire Bransky provides a brief history of Guatemala and how its people have been affected by forces of racism, exploitation, and the US's imperialism. As a volunteer with [...]
Sponsoring Communities: Needham’s Guatemala Partnership celebrates 30 years of solidarity
NISGUA's Sponsoring Community partnerships provide the resources, energy and political action required to ensure ongoing international accompaniment in Guatemala. Their long-term commitment to human rights and solidarity is an essential component of the longevity [...]
La Resistencia a las Represas Hidroeléctricas en Guatemala: Una Cuestión de Vida y Muerte
Foto: Nómada El siguiente artículo fue escrito por Zia Kandler y publicado en inglés en la revista electrónica, Upside Down World. Fue traducida a español por la autora y publicado aquí con permiso de la [...]
Accompanier Perspectives: From Huehuetenango to Omaha, NE
The Maya Q’anjob’al Nation takes their defense of land and life in Huehuetenango transnational through community organizing in both Guatemala and the U.S. Caya Simonsen worked for 6 months as a NISGUA accompanier in Huehuetenango [...]
Accompanier Perspectives: 2017 Political Crisis in Guatemala
Guatemala plunged into a political crisis this month as President Jimmy Morales attempted to circumvent a criminal investigation into his campaign finances by declaring the head of the UN-sponsored Commision (CICIG) persona non grata, [...]
Accompanier Perspectives: Ixil
While international accompaniment is at its core a response to the requests of Guatemalan communities and a tool for the protection of human rights, it is also a radical practice of showing up in solidarity and [...]
Step into the House of Memory
Earlier this year, the Center for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH) inaugurated the permanent installation of the Casa de la Memoria, an art exhibit that empowers youth to reconstruct their historical memory through the [...]
Accompanier Perspectives: Huehuetenango
Dear Family and Friends, Thanks to those of you who’ve responded to my recent call for action in solidarity with political prisoners in Huehuetenango and for financial support in NISGUA’s successful May Match campaign! [...]
Accompanier Perspectives: Ixcán
Since the mid-1990s, members of the NISGUA network have provided a physical international presence to threatened human rights defenders and communities in the Ixcán. We invite you to read the following reflection piece from one [...]
Disappeared but Not Forgotten: A Guatemalan Community Achieves a Landmark Verdict
The following was written by Amanda Kistler, an international accompanier from 2008 - 2009 with NISGUA. She was based out of Guatemala City and accompanied the plaintiffs in the Choatalúm trial. This article originally [...]
Guatemala: Forced Disappearance and the Search for Justice in El Jute
The following was written by Josh McLeod, an international accompanier with NISGUA who accompanied the plaintiffs in El Jute. This article originally appeared on UpsideDown World. Original article can be found here. "We are fighting [...]