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Did You Know?
> Guatemala has the most unequal land distribution in the Western Hemisphere, with large landholders who comprise only 2% of the population possessing 70% of the productive lands. > Attacks against human rights defenders in Guatemala increased between 2004 and 2005. In 2005, El Movimiento Nacional por los Derechos Humanos documented 224 attacks against human rights defenders, in comparison with 122 attacks in 2004. > On March 30, 2006, the 11th anniversary of the signing of the indigenous accord, tens of thousands of workers, farmers and indigenous people marched in Guatemala City to demand the strengthening of indigenous rights, restriction of open pit mining licenses, and funds for the Ministry of Agriculture to purchase land for redistribution. | |
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2006 NISGUA Speaking Tour
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Introduction
In November 2006, NISGUA hosted two Guatemalan
activists in the U.S.
Edwin Canil Vicente of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) discussed efforts to hold Guatemala’s former military officials accountable for genocide and crimes against humanity. For more than five years, AJR has been working on domestic legal cases against the former Guatemalan Military High Commands for genocide and other crimes committed against indigenous communities in the early 1980s. The AJR is also a co-plaintiff in a legal case in Spain against former Guatemalan military officials, which recently resulted in an international arrest warrant against three former Guatemalan presidents and other government officials. Three officials named in the warrant – former President Ríos Montt, Minister of Defense Guevara Rodríguez, and Director of the National Police Chupina Barahona – were trained at the School of the Americas. Edwin spoke at events across the Midwest and at the annual vigil to close down the School of the Americas (now renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) in Fort Benning, Georgia.
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Genaro Fabián Gregorio from the Pastoral Social office of the Ixcán spoke about the highly controversial Xalalá hydroelectric dam, which threatens to displace communities and disrupt the ecosystem, yet remains shrouded in secrecy. He also described the series of regional corporate-driven megaprojects included in the Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP) and their likely impacts on society. Genaro traveled along the East Coast of the U.S.
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