Email Newsblasts
Q’eqchi’ land & environment defenders vs Mining: A 60-year human rights & justice struggle
Greetings. I just finished an 18 day trip, mainly in the mining-harmed territories of the Maya Q’eqchi’ people in eastern Guatemala.
As I was completing this report / funding appeal, yet another Q’eqchi’ land and rights defender – Cristobal Pop (who Rights Action has been supporting since 2017) – has been (arbitrarily, of course) jailed.
Swiss mining operation in Guatemala as corrupt and illegal as Swiss cheese is hole-ey
“The Fenix Mining Project in Guatemala, of Swiss company Solway Investment Group, has operated illegally with the complicity of the governments of Presidents Jimmy Morales and Alejandro Giammattei”
Criminalización de María Choc, defensora de derechos humanos y territorio Q’eqchi’ María corre riesgo de siete años de prisión
María Choc es colega y amiga desde hace algo más de una década. Es una mujer Q’eqchi’ y defensora de derechos humanos e indígenas. Los Q'eqchi'es, una de las 23 naciones indígenas de Guatemala, viven en las tierras altas y bajas del norte del país.
Stop the criminalisation of Guatemalan Indigenous human rights defender María Choc
Maria Choc is sister-in-law of Adolfo Ich, a land and rights defender killed in 2009 while denouncing mining related harms and violations. She is sister of Angelica Choc, widow of Adolfo Ich, now leading justice struggles in Guatemala and Canada for the death of her husband. And, Maria is the sister of Ramiro Choc, who spent 6 years in jail as a political prisoner – criminalized on malicious charges for his land and rights defense work.
Ramiro Choc ~ Gracias Duelo del pueblo Q’eqchi’
El 23 de mayo 2022, falleció el defensor de la madre tierra y de territorio, Ramiro Choc, en El Estor, Izabal, a sus 54 años de edad.
Note of mourning: We remember and honor Ramiro Choc
Today, May 23, 2022, Ramiro Choc, Q'eqchi defender of indigenous rights and territory, and of mother earth, has died in El Estor, Guatemala.
Safe supply is the future ‘War on Drugs’ wrong on all fronts, criminalizing and demonizing drug users, militarizing Latin America
“The call for a safe supply, coming from drug user activists in Canada, is a brave intervention that could have far-reaching consequences – first, in stopping deadly overdoses, but also in ending the harms of militarized prohibition in the South.” (Dawn Paley)
Maria Cuc Choc, criminalized Q’eqchi’ land defender in Guatemala, speaks to international community
Maria Choc is sister-in-law of Adolfo Ich, a land and rights defender killed in 2009 while denouncing mining related harms and violations. She is sister of Angelica Choc, widow of Adolfo Ich, now leading justice struggles in Guatemala and Canada for the death of her husband. And, Maria is the sister of Ramiro Choc, who spent 6 years in jail as a political prisoner – criminalized on malicious charges for his land and rights defense work.
14 de mayo: 40º aniversario de las masacres de la presa Chixoy/Río Negro en Guatemala
En 1981-1982, los regímenes genocidas guatemaltecos, respaldados por Estados Unidos, llevaron a cabo cinco masacres a gran escala contra el pueblo maya achí de la aldea de Río Negro, para dar paso a la presa hidroeléctrica de Chixoy del Banco Mundial y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), un proyecto de inversión en energía que fue financieramente rentable para ambos bancos de "desarrollo" y que dio lugar a una muerte masiva y a la devastación de Río Negro, y de docenas de pueblos mayas a lo largo del río Chixoy.