Traditional Mayan authorities from Huehuetenango, Guatemala traveled to Spain in early July on a tour to raise awareness about the systematic human rights abuses experienced by their peoples at the hands of Spanish companies including Hydro Santa Cruz, a hydroelectric company operating in Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala. The Plurinational Government of the Q’anjob’al, Chuj, Akateka, and Popti’ and Mestizo peoples of Huehuetenango, including a representative of the community of Santa Cruz Barillas, and Santa Eulalia, visited Madrid and Barcelona on their tour.

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Jumping right into her new position as program assistant, Cultural Survival’s newest team member, Ingrid Sub Cuc, visited three community radio stations in Sololá and one in Sumpango this past week. Her first stop was in San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá where she visited Radio Sembrador and Radio La Voz de San Pedro. The day was filled with information, history, discussion and new friendships. 

Over the last two weeks of May, residents of Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala have been surprised on three separate occasions by military presence in their communities. The area has been under high surveillance ever since a state of martial law was declared in the month of May 2012 and community members active against a hydro-electric dam were named “terrorists and drug traffickers” by the Perez Molina administration.

On June 23, 2014, 7 Toj in the Mayan calendar, Indigenous groups from all over Guatemala took part in national protests and roadblocks to bring attention to the continued discrimination and injustice faced by the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala. Among the main priorities on the list of grievances were the discriminatory telecommunications laws and the mining and hydroelectric companies exploiting Indigenous territories.

Through a generous donation by the Swift Foundation, Cultural Survival had the pleasure of providing equipment to eight Guatemalan community radios in need. On May 3^rd and 4^th, our entire community radio program team went on a journey to the first four community radios in the south west part of the country to deliver computers and consoles to radios most in need. 

On May 10, 2013, Guatemalan ex-dictator Jose Efraín Rios Montt was sentenced to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity in an historic case. This victory occurred after an unwarranted suspension of the trial and many other delay tactics utilized by Montt’s representation.

The following is an intervention by Alma Temaj and Alberto Recinos of Guatemala at the 13^th Session of the UN  Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

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By Ava Berinstein

When I first began my journey, it was 36 years ago. There, in the highlands of Guatemala, in the region of Alta Verapaz where Q’eqchi’ is spoken and traditional Maya ways are (still) practiced, and the mountains are alive...there, in the “land of the true peace,” (Jessup and Simpson, 1936); that is where my journey began.

La Buena Gobernanza  y los medios de comunicación de los pueblos indígenas de  Guatemala