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Did You Know?
> Attacks against human rights defenders in Guatemala have doubled over the last five years. NISGUA's teams of on-the-ground international human rights monitors work to deter violence in communities, courtrooms and at public events. > Former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who ruled during the bloodiest period of the war, currently holds a seat in the Guatemalan Congress. He is wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity. > The Xalalá hydro-electric dam is rejected by 90% of the local population because it would displace thousands of indigenous people and damage farmlands and forests. > Almost 400 mining concessions have been granted to transnational gold, silver, nickel, and zinc companies in Guatemala, posing severe threats to rural communities' social and environmental well-being. | |
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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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