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

3September, 2013

The Council of Maya and Xinca Peoples denounces the Guatemalan State in the IACHR

The Council presents their demand on September 3, 2013. Photo: CPO THE COUNCIL OF MAYA AND XINCA PEOPLES DENOUNCES THE GUATEMALAN STATE IN THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS On February 28, 2013, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court dismissed the Council’s challenge of unconstitutionality filed against the mining law on [...]

29August, 2013

Urgent Communique: Detention of Leaders from Santa Cruz Barillas

On Tuesday, August 27, Saúl Aurelio Méndez Muñoz and Antonio Rogelio Velásquez López, community leaders opposed to the imposition of the Cambalam hydroelectric project, operated by Hidro Santa Cruz, property of Spanish company Hidralia S.A., were arrested outside of a Guatemala City courthouse. Saúl and Antonio had traveled to [...]

29August, 2013

Comunicado urgente por detención a lideres de Santa Cruz Barillas

A LA OPINIÓN PÚBLICA NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL MANIFESTAMOS: El pueblo Q'anjobal de Santa Cruz Barillas a pesar de la represión y violación a sus derechos humanos a defendido su territorio a través de las consultas comunitarias ante la instalación de la hidroeléctrica propiedad de la empresa española Hidralia S.A. [...]

28August, 2013

Declaration of the Second Gathering of the Q’anjob’al Nationalities

On August 21 – 23, leaders and representatives of twenty Maya Q'anjob'al communities in northern Huehuetenango and Chiapas, Mexico, gathered in San Juan Ixcoy, Huehuetenango to discuss the ongoing imposition of large-scale development projects on their territory and to continue generating strategies for unified resistance moving forward. The three [...]

28August, 2013

Declaración del segundo encuentro de las nacionalidades Q’anjob’al

Durante el 21 - 23 de agosto, representantes de 20 comunidades Maya Q'anjob'al del norte de Huehuetenango y Chiapas, México se reunieron en San Juan Ixcoy, Huehuetenango para el Segundo Encuentro de las Nacionalidades Q'anjob'al. Los participantes discutieron la imposición de proyectos de desarrollo en sus territorios y estrategias [...]

26August, 2013

Three years since the kidnapping and murder of Tat Lisandro Guarcax González

Lisandro Guarcax González, a visionary artist, teacher and founding member of Grupo Sotz'il, was kidnapped and murdered three years ago on August 25, 2010. NISGUA, along with dozens of international and national organizations, denounced Lisandro's murder, demanding a full investigation of his death. In 2012, we accompanied his case [...]