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2007 has begun with a series of alarming attacks against Guatemalan human rights organizations. Send an email to the Guatemalan government today. more >>> | |
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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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2007 NISGUA Speaking Tour
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Emilio Tojín
López
Emilio
Tojín López is a leader of the Association for
Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), an association of
witnesses from 22 indigenous communities in Guatemala.
The AJR has brought criminal charges in Guatemalan
courts against former military leaders for genocide and
other crimes committed against Mayan communities in the
early 1980s. The AJR is also involved in an
international case being pursued in Spain, which
recently issued an international arrest warrant against
three former Guatemalan presidents and other former
government officials. One of the officials named in
the warrant, the former dictator General Ríos Montt, has
announced his intention to run for the Guatemalan
Congress in this year’s elections, in the intention of
claiming legal immunity if he were to win. Emilio will
speak about the AJR’s latest legal strategies to
prevent this as well as new developments in both the
international and domestic cases.
A long-time community leader from the town of Santa María Tzejá in the Ixcán region near the Mexican border, Emilio played a key role in the community’s return to Guatemala after over 12 years as refugees in Mexico. Since then he has led a variety of community groups in addition to serving on the Board of the AJR for the past four years. A father of 6, Emilio was separated from his wife after she and several of their children were captured by the military. Emilio and one of their daughters fled to Mexico not knowing the rest of the family had survived until many years later.
NISGUA has been accompanying the AJR since 2000.
Tour Action:
Show your support for AJR's efforts to obtain justice for genocide! Respond to online alerts to move the genocide cases forward and protect human rights defenders working on the genocide cases.
Download a 2-page flyer on the genocide cases (PDF)
Download Emilio's presentation (PDF, 4MB)
Related info:
CALDH (legal representative of AJR)
Previous NISGUA Tour Speaker from AJR, Edwin Canil Vicente
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