September 23, 2022
A/A Mr. José Manuel Albares
Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation
Government of Spain
Dear Mr. Minister,
More than a hundred civil society organizations are writing to you to show our concern about the risk situation in which people, organizations and communities defending land and territory in Guatemala find themselves, and to urge that the Government of Spain acts to promote their protection. Through the following statement, the signatory organizations carefully ask you to actively follow up on cases of forced evictions of communities that defend the right to land, and on the criminalization processes to which defenders are subjected.
COMMUNICATION ON FORCED EVICTIONS AND CRIMINALIZATION OF PEOPLE
DEFENDERS OF THE LAND AND TERRITORY IN GUATEMALA
December 29, 2021 marked 25 years since the signing of the Peace Agreements in Guatemala. Despite the commitments included in relation to addressing the structural causes of the Internal Armed Conflict (CAI), the conditions that gave rise to the conflict essentially remain today. Deep social inequities, the high concentration of land, and the expansion of mega investment projects - hydroelectric, mining and agro-industrial - shape the socioeconomic reality of this country, which ranks ninth in the world in terms of inequality. To date, there are at least 1,400 unresolved agrarian conflicts in Guatemala that mainly affect indigenous peoples.
In this context of conflict over land, communities that defend the right to land and the defense of territory face criminalization processes and forced evictions that violate international human rights standards. In its 2017 report, Human rights situation in Guatemala, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) notes the existence of “a pattern of human rights violations when evictions are carried out, which includes the violation of the right to consultation, and the lack of prior notification, which are usually carried out in a summary and violent manner by members of the National Civil Police, the Army and the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP), and involve the burning and destruction of homes, food, animals, without provision for return or relocation, without real possibilities of due process or access to justice.” In the same report, the IACHR identified that leaders who defend the rights of indigenous peoples, the territory and the environment are especially exposed to criminalization.
According to the records of the Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit -Guatemala (UDEFEGUA), in 2021, 1,002 attacks were committed against people, organizations and communities defending human rights, and during the first six months of 2022 589 attacks have been reported. Likewise, the climate of high territorial conflict sponsored by the extractive development model that the State of Guatemala has opted for, has left a total of 179 attacks in 2021.
against peasants and people who defend the land, the territory and the environment. Those who defend the land, the territory and the environment continue to be one of the most persecuted groups today. The most used types of criminalization, according to UDEFEGUA records, are acts of defamation and stigmatization, unfounded judicial complaints and illegal detentions.
These data are in line with the global trend. According to Front Line Defenders, arrests and detentions were the most common ways used by States to stop the work of defenders in 2020. The 2019 report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warns about the criminalization suffered by human rights defenders based “on the improper use of criminal law against them,” which especially affects those who defend land and natural resources.
The patterns of misuse of criminal law against defenders, community leaders, as well as indigenous peoples and peasants are characterized by serious deficiencies in the criminal process, lack of evidence, fabrication of accusations, lack of individualization of the facts and unjustified delay of processes, which increase the economic, social and emotional wear and tear of defenders, their families, communities and organizations. At the root of these situations are conflicts over access to land, the protection of natural commons and territorial rights.
of indigenous communities.
Currently there are numerous cases of judicialization of defenders in Guatemala that exemplify these patterns of criminalization, such as the cases of the Council of Communities of Retalhuleu (CCR), the Verapaz Union of Peasant Organizations (UVOC), the Peasant Committee of the Altiplano (CCDA), the Chortí Nuevo Día Peasant Coordinator (CCCND) or the Pacific Resistance of Cahabón.
Last May 2022, two Guatemalan defenders from Alta Verapaz, representatives of the CCDA and the Pacific Resistance of Cahabón, toured the Spanish State, in which they explained the situation regarding the conflicts over access to land. , the defense of natural assets and water, and the criminalization of land defenders in Guatemala. In the case of the CCDA, there are currently 1,024 arrest warrants against members of the CCDA, of which 375 are women, imprisonment of 5 leaders, eviction orders, attacks with weapons against families and 12 people murdered in the last 10 years.
On July 12, they had a hearing for the resolution of the extraordinary appeal of Jorge Coc and Marcelino Xol, indigenous authorities of the Choctun Basilá community, in the municipality of Cobán, department of Alta Verapaz. Both are members of the Altiplano Peasant Committee (CCDA), imprisoned since 2018 in the Cobán Preventive Detention Center for Men and Women. The process is marked by multiple violations of due process, the inconsistency of witnesses and evidence of their innocence. They are still waiting for the Court's resolution.
In the case of the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón, within the framework of its fight for the defense of the territory and the right to prior, free and informed consultation, the Resistance has suffered multiple abuses, threats and intimidation. The best-known act was the criminalization and sentencing of Bernardo Caal Xol, leader of the Resistance. He suffered a serious process of defamation, criminalization and judicialization, which led to the very controversial sentence, handed down by a Cobán court in November 2018, which sentenced him to 7 years and 4 months in prison for alleged crimes of illegal detention and aggravated robbery. . Representatives of the United Nations considered the legal process against Bernardo Caal Xol as a clear case of criminalization. On March 24 of this year, after 4 years in prison, Bernardo Caal was released for good behavior. Hearings are still pending in a second case opened against him.
We are concerned about the lack of legal land security that exists in many communities; the nonexistence of bodies in charge of promoting dialogue solutions to land conflicts, as well as the nonexistence of a comprehensive agrarian policy. All of this occurs in a context of deep fractures in the justice system and a strong weakening of the rule of law, which could lead to a further escalation of violent land conflicts and the imposition of the interests of powerful people and groups, in particular. detriment
of indigenous communities.
In a context of weakening public institutions and attacks against the independence of justice in Guatemala, the situation for criminalized defenders becomes very critical. In this sense, the recognition of the work of defenders by the international community, as well as the monitoring of their cases through the observation of trials, is essential to promote the guarantee of due process.
Given this situation, the signatory organizations subscribe to this urgent call:
1. Reaffirming our support for the work of people, organizations and communities defending the land, territory and environment in Guatemala, concerned about the criminalization processes that are articulated against the work of are. From the signatory organizations we will remain vigilant against
any violation of rights and violent repression of social protest and peaceful resistance by the Guatemalan Government.
2. Demanding that the Government of Spain monitor compliance with ILO Convention 169, ratified by the State of Guatemala, in areas where investments of Spanish origin are present, and that these investments do not violate the full effectiveness of social and economic rights. and cultural of those peoples,
respecting their social and cultural identity, their customs and traditions, and their institutions, as well as to carry out prior, free and informed consultations for all those actions that affect them in their ancestral territories, following the traditions of the affected indigenous people.
3. Requesting the Government of Spain, through its Embassy in Guatemala, to carry out observations of the hearings of the trials against the defenders of land and territory prosecuted, showing the concern of the international community to guarantee due process.
4. Demanding that the Government of Spain, in its bilateral dialogues with Guatemala, emphasize the urgency of reestablishing responsible institutions and mechanisms capable of promoting dialogue and peaceful solutions to land conflicts, and that know and enforce the rights and fundamental needs of rural and indigenous communities.
#Defensemlavida #Defendemoslavida
#LibertadJorgeCocyMarcelinoXol
#We are defenders
#We are defenders
#Nocriminals
Adhesions / Adhesions / Atxikipenak:
1. Valencian Coordinator of ONGD (CVONGD) – It brings together 102 NGDOs
2. Solidaritat amb Guatemala Platform of Barcelona
3. Ecofeminist Network
4. Amycos.org
5. Association for research and specialization on Ibero-American Issues (AIETI)
6. Palante Women Association
7. Asoc. Nourdine – La Paz Cultural Association
8. Association for Cooperation Between Communities (ACOEC)
9. Peace with Dignity Association
10. Association for Human Rights of Spain (APDHE)
11. Zehar-Errefuxiatuekin Association
12. Associació El Llibrell, local transformation groups
13. ATELIER ONGD- Association of technical specialists in research and studies on
the latin american reality
14. Berdinak Gara
15. International Peace Brigades (PBI) – Spanish State
16. CEDSALA (Center for Documentation and Solidarity with Latin America and Africa)
17. CIM Burkina – Collaboration with children and women in Burkina Faso
18. Col.lectiu de Teatre de les Oprimides – Guardians of the Earth
19. Col·lectiu Mariola Zapatista
20. Col·lectiu rural Benisterra (the Vall de Perputxent)
21. Popular Christian Community Valencia
22. Barcelona Youth Council (CJB)
23. Cooperation
24. CSAM Mas del Potro (Social Self-Management Center of Muntanya)
25. CSOA l'Horta
26. CuinaViva! agroecological menjars
27. Ecologists in Action
28. The Pa Sencer SCCL
29. Solidarity Schools
30. Musol Foundation
31. Euskadi Peace and Solidarity Foundation
32. Foundation for Justice
33. Greenpeace Spain
34. Almàciga Intercultural Group
35. ICID (International Cooperation Initiatives for Development)
36. Engineering Without Borders of the Basque Country – Euskal Herriko Mugarik Gabeko Ingeniaritza
37. Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders
38. Intersindical Solidària
39. Komun.org
40. THE HARVEST Communication
41. Lêgerîn Azadî
42. Liga dels Drets dels Pobles
43. Lumaltik Herriak
44. United Hands
45. Medicusmundi Mediterrània
46. Mugarik Gabe
47. ONGD Ensenyants Solidaris
48. Oscarte ONGD
49. Perifèries del Món
50. La Hoya de Buñol-Chiva Clean Air Platform
51. MOVILIZATE Platform
52. Save Farrajón Platform
53. Native Path Project
54. Food Sovereignty, Biodiversity and Cultures Magazine
55. INTER-UNION STEI
56. SETEM CATALUNYA