October Solidarity Update 2019
2019 NISGUA Delegation: Environmental Indigenous Leadership Exchange
This March, NISGUA partnered with New Mexico State University to host a week-long exchange between Indigenous undergraduate students and Maya Q'eqchi', Mam, Q'anjob'al, and K'iche' environmental defenders. Ten NMSU students visited with NISGUA partners in the Chixoy and Copón Rivers watershed to learn about their grassroots organizing model that [...]
Solidarity Update: March 2019
News recap: Survivors Achieve Tentative Victory against Proposed Amnesty Law; ACODET Leaders, Indigenous Authorities Hold Press Conference in Defense of Community Consultations; NISGUA and New Mexico State University Organize Indigenous Environmental Leadership Delegation to Guatemala
NISGUA partners with New Mexico State University for Indigenous delegation to Guatemala
This March 23-30, NISGUA is partnering with New Mexico State University to host a week-long exchange between Indigenous undergraduate students and Mayan environmental defenders. Ten NMSU students will visit with NISGUA partners in the Chixoy and Copón Rivers watershed to learn about their grassroots organizing model that builds community-level [...]
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 and sustainability of the Guatemala Accompaniment Project (GAP). The Needham Congregational Church/Guatemala Partnership is one of [...]
Sí a la vida! Las comunidades del Ixcán conmemoran 10 años desde la consulta de buena fe que dijo ‘no’ a la extracción de recursos
Hace diez años, las comunidades del Ixcán practicaron sus tradiciones y derechos ancestrales como pueblos indígenas, celebrando una consulta de buena fe en el municipio donde 89.7% de las y los 21.555 participantes votaron en contra de permitir que las empresas extractivas ingresaran a sus territorios. El 20 de [...]
Yes to life! Communities in the Ixcán commemorate 10 years since the referendum that said ‘no’ to resource extraction
Ten years ago, community members from the Ixcán exercised their ancestral traditions and rights as indigenous peoples, holding a municipality-wide community referendum in which 89.7% of the 21,555 participants in the referendum voted against allowing resource extraction companies into their territories. On April 20, 2017, Ixcán communities celebrated 10 [...]
Solidarity Update: April 2017
Photo credit: Roderico Díaz. News recap: Honoring the life of Miguel Ramírez Matóm, witness in the Ixil genocide trial; Take action: Denounce impunity for attacks against environmental defenders; Communities in the Ixcán commemorate 10 years since the referendum that said ‘no’ to resource extraction; Announcing our fall tour: "Guatemala youth in defense of [...]
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 grappling with the deeper questions of structural injustice. Current accompanier Chris Shorne shares a poignant [...]
Public declaration of the Maya Q’eqchi’ of Los Copones, Ixcán, Quiché
The following is a translated statement made by the Maya Q'eqchi' authorities from Los Copones, Ixcán on August 13, 2016, to mark the third anniversary of the State recognition of their rights as indigenous peoples. NISGUA, through ACOGUATE, has accompanied many community members from Los Copones since 2006, as they [...]
ACODET reaffirms peaceful resistance to the Xalalá Dam amid threats to environmental activists
Let us wake up! Let us wake up, humankind! We’re out of time. We must shake our conscience free of the rapacious capitalism, racism, and patriarchy that will only assure our own self-destruction. The Gualcarque River has called upon us, as have other seriously threatened rivers. We must answer [...]
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 of our current accompaniers, Kayla Myers, about the violence of the past and the ongoing [...]
Reflections on the “Rivers for Life: Cultural Resistance to the Xalalá Dam” fall speaking tour
Tour speaker, Víctor Caal Tzuy, shows NISGUA's Rivers for Life solidarity banner to ACODET members from Las Margaritas Copón. The goals for the 2014 NISGUA speaking tour were much like those which have guided us during our 33 years as a human rights, solidarity organization: amplify Guatemalan voices and [...]
The Q’eqchi’ and the Duwamish
This article was originally published in Spanish, online at elsalmon.org By Alejandro Echeverría October 13, 2014 Indigenous leaders Víctor Caal Tzuy and Ken Workman Ken Workman is a Seattle native who despite his tall stature, has characteristics that evoke his famous 19th century ancestor - the indigenous Chief of [...]
ACODET denounces attempt to militarize communities opposing Xalalá dam
According to a secret contract signed between Guatemala's National Electrification Institute (INDE) and Brazilian Intertechne Consultores S.A., geological studies necessary to begin construction on the Xalalá dam are to begin in March 2014. Communities organized in defense of territory, who have opposed the dam's construction for years, denounced the [...]
ACODET denuncia un intento de militarizar las comunidades que resisten la construcción de la represa Xalalá
Según el contrato firmado secretamente entre el Instituto Nacional de Electrificación (INDE) y la empresa brasileña Intertechne Consultores S.A., los estudios de factibilidad para la represa Xalalá debería comenzar en marzo de 2014. Las comunidades organizadas en defensa de su territorio, que por muchos años han luchado en contra [...]
Pressure to construct Xalalá hydroelectric dam; Local opposition remains strong
The following is a summary of an in-depth report published by ACOGUATE on January 22, 2014 and translated by NISGUA. Read the full report, Pressure to Construct Xalalá Hydroelectric Dam; Local Opposition Remains Strong. Cultivated fields would be flooded by the Xalalá dam. Nearly two years after the Guatemalan [...]
Xalalá geological feasibility studies, an emergency contract?
The monitoring committee of the community consultation in the Ixcán writes to the public opinion, social organizations, indigenous organizations and human rights protection organizations with the purpose of informing about the situation created by the plans for the construction of the Xalalá hydro-electric dam. Last November 7, the National [...]
Estudios de factibilidad geológica Xalalá, ¿Una contratación de emergencia?
La Comisión de Seguimiento a la Consulta Comunitaria en Ixcán se dirige a la opinión pública, organizaciones sociales, organizaciones indígenas y organismos de protección a los derechos humanos con el fin de informar sobre la situación generada por los planes para la construcción de la hidroeléctrica Xalalá. El 7 [...]
Genocide on Trial, Day 12: Beatriz Manz, author of “Paradise in Ashes”
NISGUA continues live coverage of the trial in Guatemala of Efraín Rios Montt and Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez for genocide and crimes against humanity.Read our previous summaries: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4/5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10 and full archive of ongoing live Twitter coverage.Here we share the rush transcript of Beatriz Manz's testimony [...]
Communities denounce Xalalá dam and oil exploitation
The following press releases have been translated by NISGUA as part of its ongoing human rights accompaniment of communities threatened by the Xalalá dam project. Press Release 1 25 October 2012 Guatemala Imposition of Development Projects Threatens the Life of Communities in Ixcán Considering that the Ministry of [...]