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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
By Carlos Escalante Villagrán (Maya K’iche’), Judiel López Cabrera (Maya Mam) and Anna Aziza Grewe
By Cesar Gomez (Maya Pocomam, CS Staff)
April 21, 2026, New York
Statement presented at the 25th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Margarita Diaz, representing the Wuxhtaj Council; a partner in the 2025 Community Media Project, spoke at UNPFII 25, where she highlighted the lack of medical services for Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala. She also called on the Guatemalan government to stop criminalizing defenders of Indigenous territories and rights.
In October 2025, four Indigenous communities in Guatemala—Maya Kaqchikel de Sumpango, Maya Achí Chicaj, Mam de Cajolá, and Maya Mam de Todos Santos Cuchumatán—submitted an alternative report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), with support from the Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples Clinic at Suffolk University Law School and Cultural Survival.