Stop the Evictions of Rural and Indigenous Communities in Guatemala

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GUATEMALA?

In rural Guatemala, a silent epidemic of evictions is ravaging peasant and Indigenous communities. Countless families have already been forcibly evicted from their territories by state-endorsed corporate farmers, who are attempting to establish monoculture plantations on the ancestral territories of local people. Perpetrators have enacted violence against communities and razed their ancestral lands. These abuses have worsened food security, poverty, and repression in a country deeply enmeshed in systems of racial and neocolonial exploitation.

Future prospects appear equally grim. As big agriculture, extractive industry, and the government consolidate power at the highest levels, thousands of family farmers risk losing their lands. Despite the dire humanitarian crisis in Guatemala, shockingly little about the evictions or human rights abuses in-country has made the headlines of international media.

An Epidemic of Evictions: Rural Guatemalans Face Violence and Repression in Their Fight for Land Rights

Into the Fire: A Conversation on Evictions and Climate Change in Guatemala with Carlos Morales

Land Rights Now recently spoke with Carlos Morales, the coordinator at UVOC (the Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas), who hails from the Verapaces region of Guatemala. In this region, Indigenous…

Ninety Seconds to Midnight: Guatemala Faces an Electoral Crisis on Land Rights

In 2020, human rights NGO Global Witness named Guatemala as one of the five most deadly countries in the world for land and environmental defenders. At least eighty individuals were killed between 2012 and 2021…

#1

An immediate halt to the evictions and the use of violence against peasant and indigenous families. It is urgent to establish a national dialogue and search for solutions within the framework of the agreements and declarations on peasant and indigenous rights, and, particularly, within the United Nations’ international standards in terms of human rights and the prevention of forced evictions.

We leaders of peasant and Indigenous communities and civil society organizations demand:

#2

A cease to extractive megaprojects and big agribusiness’ aggressions against indigenous territories and respect to the authorities and communal forms of organizations.

We leaders of peasant and Indigenous communities and civil society organizations demand:

#3

A quick and efficient justice for the people and communities criminalized for defending human rights.

We leaders of peasant and Indigenous communities and civil society organizations demand:

#4

Reintegration of the Agreement on Socio-economic Aspects of the Agrarian Situation to orient public politics and the execution of a Rural Development Policy, established in the Agreements of Peace.

Campaign photos

«The territory is where we maintain our culture. Where our ancestors lived. This is where we have learned to name what our world is, where we have been built as people, where we have grown from the wisdom of our elders. This wisdom, of our elders, of Mayan culture, is passed down as heritage to our children.»

Carlos Morales
(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

«So what is left of us? As Indigenous Qe’qchi, Poqomchi’, Achi, and peasant communities what remains is to resist and defend our territories, so they cannot destroy it, so we can continue living in them, and leave this as a legacy to our children. This is our fight.»

Carlos Morales
(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

«We have seen that in evictions the military, police, and armed citizens attack us with as many as 3000 soldiers, 2000 policemen, and 100 armed civilians. Many people have been injured during evictions and they have not been able to get medical attention because they are detained at the health post or in the hospital.»

Carlos Morales
(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

«For the families, it is hell after the evictions. First, they lose it all. They lose what little they have. Their corn is burnt, their animals are killed, they have to leave with the children and the women and they go seek for some relatives or friends to be able to plant what little they got to rescue.»

Carlos Morales
(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

«The Guatemalan government must stop violating human rights. And it must seriously address structural problems: the issue of development, food security and sovereignty, investment in the countryside. The peasant organizations have serious proposals, proposals that would solve the agrarian problems. The evictions only harm the rural communities and make them poorer. We need guarantees for our human rights, now!»

Leocadio Juracán
(political activist of the Comité Campesino del Altiplano y de la Coalición Nacional por la Tierra de Guatemala)

LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF INDIGENOUS AND PEASANT COMMUNITIES, IN SPANISH AND MAYA Q’EQCHI.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GUATEMALA?

An Epidemic of Evictions: Rural Guatemalans Face Violence and Repression in Their Fight for Land Rights

Into the Fire: A Conversation on Evictions and Climate Change in Guatemala with Carlos Morales

Ninety Seconds to Midnight: Guatemala Faces an Electoral Crisis on Land Rights

We leaders of peasant and Indigenous communities and civil society organizations demand:

#1

We leaders of peasant and Indigenous communities and civil society organizations demand:

#2

We leaders of peasant and Indigenous communities and civil society organizations demand:

#3

We leaders of peasant and Indigenous communities and civil society organizations demand:

#4

Campaign photos

Carlos Morales(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

«So what is left of us? As Indigenous Qe’qchi, Poqomchi’, Achi, and peasant communities what remains is to resist and defend our territories, so they cannot destroy it, so we can continue living in them, and leave this as a legacy to our children. This is our fight.»

Carlos Morales(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

Carlos Morales(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

Carlos Morales(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

Leocadio Juracán(political activist of the Comité Campesino del Altiplano y de la Coalición Nacional por la Tierra de Guatemala)

WITHOUT LAND RIGHTS AND JUSTICE FOR THE PEOPLE, THERE IS NO DEMOCRACY

#AltoALosDesalojos🇬🇹

Carlos Morales
(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

Carlos Morales
(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

Carlos Morales
(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

Carlos Morales
(coordinator of Unión Verapacense de Comunidades Campesinas)

Leocadio Juracán
(political activist of the Comité Campesino del Altiplano y de la Coalición Nacional por la Tierra de Guatemala)