Accomplishments | Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala

Our Accomplishments
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From promoting ground-breaking struggles for women’s and indigenous rights, to challenging the destruction wrought by large-scale dams and open-pit mines, NISGUA celebrates the accomplishments we have achieved together as a strong and active U.S. grassroots network.

Read more about what we have achieved together: NISGUA's Achievements 2010 and NISGUA's Achievements 2011 n PDF.

Thanks to our supporters and U.S. network, NISGUA is:

Providing a Dissuasive Presence against Repression. In communities, courtrooms and public protests, NISGUA's presence in Guatemala has enabled activists to advance their work more publically and effectively than the they could without accompaniment. NISGUA's Guatemala Accompaniment Project (G.A.P.) has provided more accompaniers - over 60 in the past five years - than any other member of the international accompaniment coordinating body ACOGUATE. Our accompaniers cover twenty-one communities in four regions and we are central to the coordination's stability and efficacy. In the last five years, GAP has accompanied well over 70 cases involving at-risk defenders; including covering the long-term needs in over 20 communities involved in the genocide cases. Since 2004, accompaniers have published nearly 30 articles in 10 local and national media sources on the issues of entrenched impunity and large-scale development projects. Accompaniers serve as a vital source of on-the-ground information and crucial elements in NISGUA's campaign work. As evidence of G.A.P.'s effectiveness in deterring violence, in our 15 years of providing accompaniment, no one has been harmed in the presence of our accompaniers.

Supporting Efforts to Bring Human Rights Violators to Justice. As the Guatemalan people have As the Guatemalan people have sought to bring to justice those responsible for egregious human rights violations, NISGUA has provided accompaniment, advocacy and public education for precedent-setting human rights lawsuits. Our primary focus is the series of cases against former military dictators Ríos Montt and Lucas García and their military high commands who are charged with genocide in Guatemalan courts. When NISGUA was asked to grant political support and accompaniment to these cases in 2001, G.A.P. launched long-term accompaniment with the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), an organization comprised of witnesses to atrocities committed during the bloodiest years of the armed conflict. In the past five years, NISGUA has also accompanied witnesses and their advocates in other watershed cases, such as the 1978 Panzós massacre; the first two Guatemalan cases of forced disappearance, Choatalúm and El Jute; and the first conviction of a police officer for the rape of a prisoner.

In the U.S., NISGUA’s grassroots policy advocacy work related to the genocide cases has successfully drawn widespread media and activist attention. In 2007, NISGUA organized a sign-on letter in the U.S. House of Representatives against the Congressional candidacy of former dictator and genocide-case defendant Efraín Ríos Montt. This effort received extensive media coverage in Guatemala’s major news outlets, prompting both the Attorney General and Ríos Montt to respond. Additionally, in response to the Guatemalan Constitutional Court verdict that obstructs the genocide trials in Spain, NISGUA spearheaded a prominent paid ad signed by 38 international organizations that appeared in the Guatemalan daily newspaper Prensa Libre in February 2008. We very recently delivered hundreds of letters to President Colom and contributed to a joint letter to the U.S. Embassy demanding compliance with a court order mandating the release of documents from the military archives that could allow the genocide cases to move forward in the Guatemalan court system. We promptly received a written response from the Embassy, and news coverage on Pacifica Radio highlighted NISGUA’s vital contribution. These efforts have contributed to mounting pressure on all branches of the Guatemalan government to immediately release these crucial documents.

Integrating Indigenous and Environmental Rights into Human Rights Monitoring. In 2008 alone, we placed accompaniers with indigenous groups in the San Marcos region opposed to open-pit mining; communities in the Ixcán fighting the Xalalá dam; a Chorti Maya association fighting the privatization of a local forest; and local leaders in Coatepeque organizing communities around issues of food security and access to water. We have provided international observation to numerous community consultations across the country in which local indigenous populations resoundingly rejected oil exploration, open-pit mining and dam mega-projects. Moreover, we played a central role in expanding the mandate of the umbrella accompaniment organization, ACOGUATE, to include accompanying those who are at risk for their work defending social, economic, and cultural rights, especially as they relate to natural resource extraction. NISGUA’s accompaniment related to natural resource development in the Ixcán has served as a model that is being replicated in other regions.

Supporting Grassroots Opposition to Large-scale Mining. Newly-signed mining concessions between the Guatemalan government and transnational corporations pose increasing threats to rural communities. Communities in San Marcos have heightened their level of protest against the Marlin mine project of Goldcorp, a company with both U.S. and Canadian ties. In 2007-08, as opposition to open-pit mining and large-scale dams continued to grow in Guatemala, NISGUA redoubled its efforts to contribute to movement building around these issues. We:

Played a key role in convening a three-day anti-mining forum prior to the 2008 Social Forum of the Americas by facilitating the participation of international ally organizations and formulating the methodology for the forum.

Introduced community members to organizations such as the Bank Information Center in Washington D.C., which led to a face-to-face meeting with World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and an investigation by the Ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank Group.

Secured a partnership in 2008 with E-tech International to embark on ongoing water and environmental monitoring of the Marlin mine.

Produced an urgent action in response to the criminalization of protest in San Marcos, where arrest warrants were issued against eight women for their activities in protest of the Marlin Mine. Soon after we distributed the urgent action, Goldcorp issued a defensive press release and paid ads in an attempt to delegitimize local resistance.

Provided essential political support and protection to the emerging social movement against mines through the accompaniment of at-risk groups such as the Association for the Integral Development of San Miguel Ixtahuacán (ADISMI).

Met regularly with the U.S. Embassy in 2008 and organized letter-writing campaigns to elected officials in which we expressed

concerns about human rights violations related to mega-development and emphasized the government’s legal obligations under the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 to acquire free, prior and informed consent from indigenous populations regarding proposed projects.

Supporting Grassroots Opposition to the Xalalá Dam. Dozens of rural communities in the Ixcán, Quiché region ardently oppose the humanitarian and environmental disaster likely to occur if the Guatemalan government continues to pursue its plans to build the Xalalá hydroelectric dam. This dam will permanently displace over thirty indigenous communities from their lands, resulting in massive environmental, social and cultural disruption to the region. In 2008, NISGUA strongly advanced our work against plans to move forward with the dam. We:

Connected Ixcán representatives to the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University, which now provides critical research on the involvement of International Financial Institutions in the Xalalá hydroelectric dam.

Provided emergency accompaniment to remote communities such as Las Margaritas Copón, Copalá and San Juan Chactelá where leaders who have been vocal in opposing the Xalalá dam have received numerous threats.

Facilitated a tour to the Ixcán with the International Rivers Network in which hundreds of local mayors and community members discussed international anti-dam campaigns.

Joined in the creation of a new international coalition aimed at coordinating Xalalá dam strategies.

In an astonishing victory in late 2008, initial bidding to acquire the Xalalá dam project failed. Significantly, one of the companies cited local opposition as a primary disincentive to submitting a bid. As Jerónimo Osorio Chen, a lead organizer against the dam and 2008 NISGUA tour speaker, expressed, “The presence of accompaniers allowed our communities to organize and strengthen their unity and position.” We are proud to share in this movement’s success. NISGUA remains vigilant and ready to act, as the Guatemalan government has expressed its intentions to seek funding for construction from the World Bank.

Educating the U.S. Public about the Impacts of Resource Extraction. In the last five years, NISGUA has brought Guatemalan activists on five U.S. tours to speak on mining and dam-related issues. These tours established invaluable connections between Guatemalan movements and indigenous peoples in the U.S. and Canada who are also fighting the destruction of their communities by mining companies. Our 2008 speaker attended Goldcorp’s annual shareholders’ meeting where he provided testimony on the detrimental environmental and social effects of the Marlin mine and responded to questions from investors, many of whom expressed great concern about what they learned. Overall, each of our tour speakers reached thousands of people in the U.S. through interviews with the press, advocacy meetings with elected officials, and presentations in colleges, churches, and community centers.

Additionally, NISGUA has drawn on our unique on-the-ground access to information in remote areas to report on the impact of natural resource extraction in a variety of print and electronic media. Key publications have included a front-section article in the San Francisco Chronicle during the bidding process for Xalalá and an in-depth report in The Guardian. We also operate a mining listserve that enables organizations and activists to share information and coordinate their work.

Educating the U.S. Public about the Effects of “Free Trade” on Guatemala. NISGUA has continued to educate the public regarding the impact of corporate-led globalization on communities across Guatemala. Through information-sharing, U.S.-based advocacy, grassroots activism and media attention during the past several years, NISGUA has supported local movements that are challenging the effects of corporate-led globalization. We worked in coalition with other organizations to oppose CAFTA and put particular effort into disseminating information about the massive protests in Guatemala against CAFTA. Although in 2005 U.S. Congress passed CAFTA by one vote, our collaborative effort nearly resulted in the agreement’s failure. It was in fact the closest Congressional vote ever on a free trade agreement.

NISGUA has continued to closely monitor the effects of the trade agreement, and in 2008, we met with U.S. Embassy representatives to raise concerns about the alarming rise in attacks on unionists following the passage of CAFTA. We have worked with the new Central America sub-group within the Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART) to produce three annual CAFTA monitoring reports that serve as tools for educating and lobbying the U.S. Congress for changes to the agreement. In the 2008 report, NISGUA contributed a key chapter on the detrimental social and environmental impacts of open-pit mining projects.

Opposing and Monitoring Increased Militarization. NISGUA has long been involved in the struggle to maintain a ban on U.S. International Military Education and Training (IMET) and Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to Guatemala. From 1991 to 2006, NISGUA successfully pressured Congress to prohibit IMET funding to Guatemala and continues to play a key role in educating and activating our grassroots base regarding the status of military funding.

NISGUA has become increasingly concerned about joint police-military patrols, the re-opening of military bases, and the criminalization of protest that threatens a return to the militarized state of the past. Accompaniers and staff in Guatemala are continually monitoring and determining security and solidarity strategies around these acts of intimidation. As an example, we responded to a 2007 incident in Ilom, Chajul, Quiché, a community accompanied by our G.A.P. program that is involved both in the genocide case as well as in local struggles against mega-development. When armed military troops entered the community purportedly as part of a recruitment exercise, NISGUA led the international call to ensure that the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior respect the community’s rights. Then-Minister of Defense Marco Tulio Garcia responded directly to our urgent action, promising that these recruitment techniques would not be used in the future.

Advocating for Fair Elections. During the 2007 elections, NISGUA produced two in-depth analyses that critically examined the candidates, parties, and behind-the-scenes actors while delving into the exclusion, violence, and intimidation that mar the political process. Guatemala-based staff also granted interviews with the press regarding the electoral process and outcome.

Blocking Guatemala’s bid for the UN Security Council. Through the support of the United States, Guatemala sought a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2006. NISGUA, together with the Guatemalan NGO Security in Democracy (SEDEM), organized an international effort to address the continued issue of human rights abuses in Guatemala, as well as the legacy of past abuses that remain unaddressed. We created a letter signed by 90 organizations in 8 countries urging U.N. members not to award Guatemala the seat. Ultimately, Guatemala’s bid for the seat was not granted. We remain attentive to the issue, as the Guatemalan government recently expressed its intention to bid again in 2010.

Building on our long-term relationships and achievements.

Through annual fall tours of Guatemalan grassroots leaders, justice advocates, and human rights defenders, NISGUA has raised and contributed nearly $325,000 to organizations struggling for justice in Guatemala since 1987.

Guatemala Accompaniment Project staff have trained and placed more than 145 human rights monitors in returned refugee and internally displaced communities, with human rights organizations, and with genocide survivors since the project first began in 1995.

Responding to a request from massacre survivors, in 2000 NISGUA began expanding our accompaniment work to cover nearly 20 communities of survivors and eyewitnesses who risk their lives by charging former Guatemalan dictators with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

From 1991 to 2006, NISGUA successfully pressured Congress to maintain a ban that prohibits Guatemala from receiving international military education and training (IMET) from the U.S. In 2002, Congress lifted a similar ban against Indonesia – the only other non-"rogue" nation against which the ban had been placed.

In 2000, when the UN threatened to pull its human rights monitoring mission out of Guatemala, NISGUA accompaniment volunteers gathered testimonies from rural communities affected by political violence. These declarations, which NISGUA submitted to the UN, attested to the communities’ profound desire for a continued UN presence. As a result of our efforts, along with those of our colleagues, the UN’s mandate was extended for an additional three years.

Over the years, NISGUA has provided emergency evacuation support as well as temporary resettlement assistance to individuals and families threatened due to their participation in sensitive human rights (Mack case, 2002) and labor cases (SITRABI, 2001).