PBI-Guatemala accompanies UVOC at technical dialogue table with the Public Ministry

On March 4, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies UVOC at the technical dialogue table with the public ministry and the prosecutors with several ministerial files.”

UVOC is the Union Verapancese de Organizaciones Campesinas (Verapaz Union of Peasant Organizations).

On Twitter, it describes itself as a “Q’eqchi’, Poqomchi’ and Achi’ Peasant Organization that fights for Resistance and Emancipation: Resistance to not stop being Original Peoples.”

The PBI-Guatemala website notes: “PBI has been accompanying UVOC since 2005, following threats and serious intimidation against some of its members.”

“In the few last years, the accompaniment of UVOC has been extended to some of the communities that the UVOC advises, with PBI carrying out regular visits to the communities of Finca La Primavera, San Miguel Cotoxjá, Nueva Seamay, Aldea de San Nicolás, Santa Inés and Tres Cruces.”

It adds: “These communities, which peacefully pursue the legal right to land they inhabit, suffer constant threats of eviction and intimidation by companies working in the region, as well as processes of defamation and criminalization.”

In terms of broader context, The Guardian has reported: “A peace agreement in 1996 should have led to land redistribution, but a handful of powerful families still dominates the economy, and Guatemala remains one of the world’s least equal and most violent countries, with the largest 2.5% of farms occupying more than 65% of the land.”

That article notes that foreign-backed mining, dams and other extractive industries have meant the continued dispossession of lands from Indigenous peoples.

The UVOC website can be found here, their Twitter feed here, and heir Facebook page here.