PBI-Guatemala visits Maya Q’eqchi’ community of Lajeb Kej and hears about life under the threat of forced eviction

Published by Brent Patterson on June 15, 2024

PBI-Guatemala has posted:

In early April we visited the Lajeb Kej community in Tucuru, Alta Verapaz. The inhabitants of the Q’eqchi’ Peoples shared their experiences with us.

“We lived here before, our grandparents died here, but the bosses came to take us out. Four years ago, we returned because there was nothing here and the Land Fund said it was wasteland. Since then, we have encountered many problems, they threaten to remove us, to evict us, in fact they already tried.”

“On April 7, 2021, at 6 in the morning a group of 25 men, teachers from the neighboring community, tried to evict us, they came to shoot. They wounded 3 companeros. They could not go out to see a doctor because they have an arrest warrant for usurpation and aggravated robbery. We filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the capital but there was no investigation. And the threats continue.”

“The children are left in their minds, when they hear a rocket they get scared, they say that the teachers are coming. We can’t make a work plan, nor a study plan for the children because we are always waiting for the eviction. What are we going to do? Where are we going to go with the children, the elderly?”

“We are 29 families, 182 people between 6 tables and 70 years old. We take some corn and beans, but it is little, because of the sun. Nothing to sell, just for ourselves. There is no income in the community, because of the arrest warrants we can’t go out to work. Quite a few companeros have migrated to earn something to support their families.”

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Further reading: PBI-Guatemala accompanies media conference denouncing attacks and evictions of Maya Q’eqchi’ communities (PBI-Canada, June 13, 2024).