land

“After 9 days and 212 kilometers, the Indigenous, Campesino and Popular March for the defense of Mother Earth, against evictions, criminalization, and in favor of Integrated Rural Development, arrived to the center of the Capital City. According to members of the Committee for Campesino Unity (CUC), it is estimated that about 15,000 people participated in the ninth and final day of the march”.

Here is another great set of human interest photographs from James Rodríguez of MiMundo.

“The movement leaders have issued a press statement, “Declaration of the March for Resistance and Dignity, in Defense of the Earth and Territory” in which they have made the following demands– reiterations of longstanding grievances of the Indigenous and campesinos in Guatemala:

• Elimination of agrarian debt imposed by the state on farmers; a just redistribution of land, allowing farmers at least a terrain to provide subsistence crops.

• Termination of forced relocations, in particular the ongoing problem in the Polochic Vally, Alta Verapaz, where hundreds of families were violently evicted from their homes to make way for African palm and sugar plantations in March of 2011.

• End to persecution and criminalization of Indigenous people fighting for their rights, including the 8 Indigenous women of San Miguel Ixtahuacán who have orders for capture for speaking out against the Marlin Mine.

• Cancellation of the concessions for mining, petroleum, hydroelectric, and mono-culture agriculture.

“The villagers had no idea that their land had been nationalised in‭ ‬1984‭ ‬– a fact that was concealed from them for‭ ‬28‭ ‬years.‭ ‬They are perplexed,‭ ‬shocked,‭ ‬and angry. In the‭ ‬1980s the area was scorched with genocide and state repression and the majority of Ixiles were forced to flee their land.”

So writes Frauke Decoodt in her article “!!!This land is ours!!! - A tale of land theft through violence and laws”

You can read more here.

 

Here is tribute to a young woman who had been part of the struggle for equality and justice in Guatemala. Catalina Mucú Maas was an outspoken and impressive young woman, a born leader with a warm smile. Catalina was murdered in February, along two other student activists, campaigners, and human rights defenders, Alberto Coc Cal and Sebastian Xuc Coc. They were returning to their community from a day’s studying at university. A friend who joined them, Amilcar Choc, was also found murdered. Catalina Mucú Maas was the first girl in her community to graduate from high school.

She graduated from Ak’ Tenamit and led their women’s handicraft program. Alberto, also an Ak’ Tenamit graduate and Mayan Spiritual guide, was helping his community, Quebrada Seca, develop an agroforestry project. Sebastian was the Director of Quebrada Seca’s elementary school.

Last year in Guatemala almost 6,000 people were murdered. However these people are not just statistics. They were all deeply loved by someone.

The news from Guatemala, especially from Alta Verapaz, is something to dread in this year of election, especially with the notion that this will impact on the popular vote come November. The situation provides the ideal opportunity for someone to present themselves as the ‘hard man’ of Guatemalan politics in becoming the answer to the threat of violence unleashed by the incursion of the Zetas and the response of the Guatemalan state. Many commentators have described these events as a widening of the Drug Wars that were initiated in 2006 by the Mexican government of Felipe Calderón, and supported by, if not at the behest of, the United States. This is a war that has claimed more than 30,000 lives in Mexico and its measure of success seems to be on the number, still very few, of gang leaders either caught or killed. The number of dead seems to be unaffected by these ‘successes’. These, though, do seem to get the media into a bit of a lather. The beheadings, rapes, and other forms of violence dominate the news pages for the briefest of times before disappearing to await the next worthy capture or bout of monstrous brutality. Now the news is that Guatemala, that failed State to the south, has been invaded and taken over by the drug gangs. At least, that’s the story.