PBI-Guatemala accompanies BDH lawyer as Maya Q’eqchi’ resist appropriation of ancestral territory for tourist site

Published by Brent Patterson on July 12, 2024July 12, 2024

PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“Today #PBI accompanies the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) in Cobán, for a delivery of memorials to the Sixth Room of the Court of Appeals. They are presented on behalf of the seven criminalized people, for their peaceful resistance against the appropriation of their lands in Semuc Champey.

After the submission of the documents, a press conference was held to raise awareness of the case, explaining to the media that the sentence that acquitted the seven people in 2023 must be recognized.

Now the 15 day period to receive a response from the Court begins, they hope to be summoned to a public hearing in the capital.”

Factor 4 has also explained:

“Injustice and Dispossession: The Struggle of the Q’eqchi’ Communities of Semuc Champey against Criminalization and Impunity.

The criminalization of the community authorities of Semuc Champey began in 2015 and 2016, when the State of Guatemala used excessive police force against the communities of Chicanuz, Semil, Chisubin and Santa María Semuc, affecting girls and boys. These events went unpunished, with no punishment for the responsible officials. In contrast, community authorities have been punished through judicial processes for the defense of their sacred territory.

Since 2016, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) have sought to criminalize ancestral and community authorities by accusing them of usurpation of protected areas. Despite these historical precedents, the representatives of the Q’eqchi’ communities, in an act of good faith, submitted to the constitutional and ordinary legal system, even though it was not their own.

Throughout history, a series of dispossessions have been evidenced by the imposition of a legal system alien to the peoples of Mayan origin that inhabit the Guatemalan territory. The situation of the Mayan Q’eqchi’ communities of Chicanuz, Semil, Chisubin and Santa María Semuc is a clear example of land dispossession, discrimination and criminalization. One of the many evidences of this dispossession is the promulgation of Decree 25-2005, which declared Semuc Champey a Natural Monument without prior free, informed, and culturally relevant consultation on the management dispositions and the area. This decree designated a sacred site of the Maya Q’eqchi’ people as a tourist site, affecting their way of life.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) since 2013.

Video: “Communities near Semuc Champey. LIVE| Attorney Fabiola Rodriguez, provides information on the situation of four communities near Semuc Champey.”

Photo by Factor 4.