Rumors of closed-door agreement signed between town government officials and Spanish hydroelectric company Hidro Santa Cruz sparked confusion and unrest among community members in Barillas, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

By Febna Caven

"Today is the beginning of a new era" -- Alma Gloria Temaj Morales, Mam Maya spiritual guide from Guatemala

Today is December 21, 2012, the end of the Oxlajuj Baktun cycle, the end of the "long-count" calendar that finishes up a 5,129-year cycle in the Mayan calendar. The ancient Maya people were master astrologers and timekeepers, tracking the stars and planets and developing a cyclical calendar. Today is also the Winter Solstice.

On November 15th, two more political prisoners were released from jail after more than six months in prison without evidence against them.  They were detained on May 4th in Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango after riots broke out protesting the damming of a river by a Spanish company Hydro Santa Cruz.  Eight more men remain in prison in Guatemala City.  The Independent Media Center of Guatemala released the following statement:

The Community Radio station Radio Damasco of San Pablo, San Marcos, was raided by Guatemalan police on November 15th.

The Congress of Guatemala approved a bill in a closed-door session on November 20th reforming the Telecommunications Law to extend the current commercial radio licenses for another 20 years.

The UN issued a statement in response stating their concern over these new changes that were made without any discussion with affected populations and with what has been called “unusual speed,” according to the national newspaper the Prensa Libre.

A roundtable has been established by the government of Guatemala to dialogue towards an agreement that would allow for the installation of a hydroelectric dam on the Cambalam river in the town of Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango.

In early October, the military government of Guatemala’s president Otto Perez Molina massacred a peaceful protest held by Indigenous K’iche protestors from Totonicapán, resulting in the death of seven men and leaving thirty-four others injured.   Totonicapán, a department in the western highlands of Guatemala, holds an Indigenous K’iche majority population.  Despite being one of the poorest and most malnourished of the departments in Guatemala, it also has been ranked as one of the most peaceful, ranking third to last for rates of violent crime.

On October 12^th the government of Guatemala commemorates the Dia de la Hispanidad, the day Colombus arrived to the Americas.