On September 28, Cultural Survival and Sobrevivencia Cultural, (our sister organization in Guatemala), submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), to appeal the decision of Guatemala's Constitutional Court which violates Indigenous Peoples' rights through the country's telecommunications law that excludes Indigenous Peoples from operating community radio stations.
A new bill proposed by the right-wing political party in Guatemala would criminalize the use of the radio spectrum for any actors not authorized to do so. The bill aims to take community radio stations that are fighting for legal recognition off the air.
As a result of a more than a week of protests in Guatemala, the leaders of 11 different political parties in Congress signed resolution committing to "dialogue on concrete legislative actions" on pending legislation, including bills regarding 1) Rural Development, 2) Agriculture, 3) Community Media, 4) Indigenous Rights, 5) Sacred Sites, 6) Indigenous Community Lands
Community radio has been a vital presence in Indigenous communities in Guatemala since the 1960s. Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala rely on community radio to keep their cultures, languages, and traditions alive as well as to inform their communities about issues and events relevant to their lives. Community radio also serves the vital function of distributing content to listeners in their own language, reaching even the poorest areas where radio may be the only affordable form of communication.
Riding the tides of Guatemala’s recent political uprising, congressional allies in Guatemala have managed to insert the Community Media Bill 4087 onto the agenda in Congress this week in Guatemala City.
La Iniciativa de Ley 4087 de Medios de Comunicación Comunitaria finalmente está avanzando en el Congreso de la República con el apoyo de la diputada Sandra Moran, (Bancada Convergencia) y el diputado Amílcar Pop, (Bancada Winaq). La Iniciativa 4087, que legalizaría la radio comunitaria en el país, fue presentado originalmente en 2009, pero se ha estancado durante años.
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Cultural Survival’s Community Radio Program in Guatemala is looking forward to some very exciting new developments at this moment. We have received three new grants for three new projects that will provide new programming for the radio stations in our network, strengthen relationships and improve programming for the radio stations, and expand our network to include radio stations in Belize and El Salvador.
On May 1, 2013, Otto Perez Molina, Guatemalan President and former general during the country’s 36-year armed conflict, declared a 30-day State of Siege in four municipalities surrounding the El Escobal Silver Mining Project, run by Canadian mining giants’ Tahoe Resources. The State of Siege suspended basic constitutional rights, prohibiting public assembly and peaceful protests, allowing unwarranted searches, and giving power to authorities to detain individuals at their whim.
On May 25, 2013, more than 25 community radio station volunteers from Cultural Survival’s radio network across Guatemala gathered for a workshop in the Mujb’ab’l Yol training center in San Mateo, Quetzaltenango. The focus of the workshop was on Indigenous People’s Rights.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
