PBI-Guatemala accompanies Mayan Poqomchi’ environmental defender David Alejandro Maxena at court hearing

On June 7, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“PBI accompanies David Alejandro Maxena of UVOC at his hearing, in which he seeks to demonstrate his roots in order to obtain alternative measures. Maxena is indicted for the crime of aggravated usurpation, criminalized for his defense of the territory and land of the Chintú community to which he belongs.”

UVOC has previously posted: “Months in prison without committing any crime. Since last February 14 this year, the Mayan Poqomchi’ community leader David Alejandro Maxena Caal, defender of human rights and mother land, was detained.”

UVOC adds: “The Santa Teresa Hydroelectric and the Shintun Agriculture S.A. municipality of San Miguel Tucuru, are the main plaintiffs against the communities that were stripped of their land that was an ancestral belonging to them.”

In January 2017, Avispa Midia explained: “In the case of the Santa Teresa hydroelectric plant, it belongs to the company Agro Comercializadora del Polochic, SA (AGROPOLOCHIC), a member of the CM [Corporacion Multi Inversiones] consortium.”

That article adds: “EGI Guatemala was involved in the construction of the Santa Teresa hydroelectric plant, located in the Polochic region, in the municipality of Tucurú, which is owned by the Agropolochic company, a member of the CM group.”

It further notes that EGI Guatemala is the main subsidiary of ENEL in Guatemala, which owns the El Canada hydroelectric dam. That dam has been described as a “controversial carbon finance project”.

The Santa Teresa dam is situated on the Polochic River, which discharges 70 per cent of the total freshwater input to Lake Izabal.

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Union of Verapaz Campesino Organizations (UVOC) since 2005.