Photo: PBI-Guatemala with Leocadio Juracán, July 2026.
The Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network is organizing a speaking tour in the Maritimes this coming October 20-23 with Leocadio Juracán, the agrarian reform coordinator of the Campesino Committee of the Altiplano (CCDA).
The Network highlights: “Leocadio will share updates about the ongoing realities that campesino (small farmers) and Indigenous communities in Guatemala are facing, their fight against illegal evictions and land dispossession, and the ongoing criminalization of those defending their lands, territories, and human rights.”
The tour schedule is as follows: Tuesday October 20 at 4pm: Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick; Wednesday October 21 at 6:30pm: Trinity United Church, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; Thursday October 22 at 6:30pm: Sisters of St. Martha Centre, Antigonish, Nova Scotia; and Friday October 23 at 12pm: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
In August 2025, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted on social media: “We stand in solidarity with Leocardio and CCDA Guatemala for repressive actions taken against the defender of human rights and access to land for indigenous communities and farmworkers This action shows what Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Rapporteur of the United Nations on the Right to Adequate Housing, that in Guatemala there is ‘a clear pattern of criminalization and intimidation towards those who attempt to protest or report these forced evictions.’”
This past summer, PBI-Guatemala also posted on social media: “On 8 July, #PBI accompanied community journalist Carlos Choc whilst he was covering proceedings at the Puerto Barrios Magistrates’ Court, where the interim hearing was held in the case against Leocadio Juracán, leader of the Altiplano Peasants’ Committee (CCDA), who was arbitrarily detained in August last year and released on alternative measures a few days later. He is currently facing trial for the alleged offence of aggravated trespass.”
Peace Brigades International accompanies the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) of the Verapaces in the departments of Alta and Baja Verapaz, the municipality of El Estor in the department of Izabal and the Zona Reina in Quiché.
