Since its establishment in Guatemala City, the Peace Brigades International – Guatemala Project (PBI-Guatemala) has been providing steadfast accompaniment and protection to human-rights defenders, indigenous communities, environmental activists and grassroots organisations working in one of Latin America’s most fraught and urgent contexts.
Guatemala’s rich Maya and Indigenous heritage, its diverse ecosystems and its courageous social movements contrast starkly with a deeper history of colonialism, internal armed conflict, state and paramilitary violence, resource-extraction pressures and the criminalization of dissent. For decades, Indigenous and rural communities have faced threats of land‐grabs, mining and quarrying projects, forced displacement, and judicial harassment in defence of their territories. For example, PBI-Guatemala documented the criminalization of Maya Ch’orti’ authorities in Olopa, Chiquimula, who are being prosecuted for opposing a quarry-licence. see more
In this challenging landscape, PBI-Guatemala works to bring international presence to the side of local actors — offering physical accompaniment, supporting legal-monitoring, facilitating connections with international advocacy spaces, and helping to shine a spotlight on the structural forces behind rights violations. At the same time, the project supports the meaningful participation of Indigenous leaders, human-rights defenders and civil society as key agents in shaping Guatemala’s future.
For Canadian supporters, this country-page offers a gateway into understanding how global issues of extractivism, corporate accountability, human‐rights protection and transnational solidarity play out in practice. Whether it’s the court hearing of environmental defenders, the approval of a national public policy to protect rights-defenders, or the everyday work of accompaniment in rural and urban Guatemala, these are the stories of lives and voices under pressure — and the alliances that aim to build safety, justice and long-term change. see more
Below is a list of our articles and reports relating to Guatemala — each one is a lens on the struggles and victories of civil society, and on the ongoing efforts to build a just and viable peace.
