Afro-Descendant & Indigenous: News & Updates

On June 27, 1954, a coup d’état deposed the democratically elected Soldado del Pueblo (Soldier of the People): President Jacobo Árbenz Guzman. He was the face of Guatemala’s democratic revolution, which began in 1944. The agrarian reform of 1952, redistributing unused land to landless Indigenous peasants, impacted the United Fruit Company (UFCO), the largest land owner in Guatemala, and U.S. foreign policy, as Cold War tensions grew. Collaborating with Guatemalan fascists, they plunged Guatemala into decades of U.S. backed dictatorships. On its 70th anniversary, we invite you to reflect with us on this counter-revolutionary event and what it might mean for Guatemala and the world today.

Giovanni Batz’s carefully researched text examines how the Ixil and K’iche’ Mayas have resisted attacks on their land, state violence, and extraction since Spanish colonization.

From February 1-6, 2025, Marco Rubio traveled to Central America for his first official visits as U.S. Secretary of State. With the exception of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Belize, every country hosted Rubio. His stated aim was “to advance President Trump’s America First foreign policy.” The four axes of this policy for the region are: migration, organized crime, China, and U.S. economic investment. These are part of his administration’s broad strategy to re-assert exclusive U.S. political and economic dominance in the region it has long considered its “back yard.”

The people of Guatemala continue to face the systematic and manufactured dispossession brought by capitalism and U.S. imperialism.

As Rubio’s visit demonstrates, the life of the people of Guatemala and the people of the United States is tightly interconnected—economically, (geo)politically, socially, ecologically. What happens here impacts there, and what happens there impacts here. For better or for worse. 

It’s time for a renewed internationalist solidarity movement with the people of Guatemala

As Trump returns to power, our new analysis exposes how U.S.-Guatemala agreements threaten vulnerable communities through mass deportations and exploitation of resources. Through powerful testimonies from Indigenous leaders fighting for territorial rights and messages of solidarity with the Guatemalan diaspora, we illuminate the transnational resistance taking root. From ADH’s fight for community water rights to CODIDENA’s successful resistance against mining extraction, these stories reveal how communities are protecting vital resources despite increasing pressure. Join our movement for justice that transcends borders — dive deeper into Guatemala’s ongoing struggle for sovereignty and dignity.

By Melissa Berkey-Gerard

Bryan Stevenson says, “Everyone is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.” Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, defends those who are unfairly imprisoned, especially those wrongfully condemned to death row in the US. He has dedicated his life to ending the injustice that is the death penalty. If we start with the belief that each person is deserving of grace and dignity, regardless of what they have done, we can imagine a different approach. A premise that people deserve a second chance, a real opportunity for transformation and restoration, healing from trauma and a way out of poverty. An outlook that recognizes that the current system both criminalizes poverty, and profits from incarceration. 

The undersigned concerned individuals, scholars, human rights organizations, environmental organizations, and representatives of the tourism sector in Rio Dulce are writing to express our serious concerns over mining activities planned to be carried out by the Canadian company Central America Nickel (CAN) via their subsidiaries Rio Nickel S.A. and Nichromet S.A in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Guatemala.

As you will see in the news articles and timeline below, opposition to mining in this region is vehement and virtually unanimous by Indigenous Q’eqchi’ Maya communities. Moreover, community members, tourism sector representatives, environmental experts, public health authorities, leading scholars, and human rights NGOs see any form of mining in the Santa Cruz Mountains as a fundamental threat to Indigenous sovereignty, to human rights, and to the local water supply.

The Garífuna, an Afro-Indigenous people with a profound historical and cultural presence in Honduras, continue to be targeted for defending their rights to territory, culture, and life. Despite legal victories, the Honduran government has failed to implement structural reforms or offer protection for these communities.

On April 10, the Garífuna community, which lives primarily along the Atlantic coast, led mobilization in the nation’s capial,  Tegucigalpa. They demanded that the Honduran government comply with binding rulings issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (2015, 2023)  in favor of three Garífuna communities in Colón (Punta Piedra) and Atlántida (Triunfo de la Cruz, San Juan). 

Barely two days later, in the early morning hours of April 12, Max Gil Castillo Mejía, brother of the president of the community council of Punta Piedra was kidnapped from his home in San Pedro Sula (Cortés Department) by armed individuals who identified themselves as police officers. Just two days later, prominent Garífuna leader Miriam Miranda and other members of the Garífuna community of El Triunfo de la Cruz received threats.

Silencing Indigenous and Afro-descendant voices through fear and violence is a violation not only of human dignity but of binding international commitments.  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has already warned that this violence will persist as long as the Honduran State refuses to uphold international legal mandates. IRTF calls on the government of Honduras to implement the rulings of the Inter-American Court to ensure that justice, reparations, and peace are no longer deferred for the Garífuna people.

Read IRTF’s recent letter demanding justice for Max Castillo here. To add your name to these urgent human rights letters, see https://www.irtfcleveland.org/content/RRN/join-RRN .

Members of the Parliament of the Indigenous Xinka People (PAPXIGUA) gave a press conference on May 8, 2025 in front of the Government Palace in Guatemala City after delivering the results of the community consultation ordered by the Constitutional Court in 2018. The consultation process lasted 7 years, but the resistance against the El Escobal mine, that was arbitrarily installed in the territory, has been ongoing for more than 15 years—with intense moments of repression, including states of siege, attacks and assassinations of their members. Throughout the struggle, the state and corrupt local and international forces have intervened in the consultation process, worked to delay it, spread misinformation, and attempted to modify the results.

This mine has passed through several companies, finally remaining in the hands of the Canadian mining company Pan American Silver, which has yet to respond to the refusal of mining extraction by the Xinka people of Santa Rosa, Jalapa and Jutiapa. The Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), the state body in charge of this process, must respond to the will of the Xinka people.

Despite community opposition since 2010, the Ministry of Energy and Mines granted the exploitation license in 2013. Communities organized demonstrations in protest. On May 1, 2013, President Otto Pérez Molina declared a State of Siege, deployed 8,000 soldiers and police, suspended constitutional guarantees, and made numerous arrests. Police and protesters were killed during the State of Seige.

 Resistance continued on the streets and in the courts. Judges issued injunctions to suspend mining operations; other judges undid those injunctions. Finally, the highest court of Guatemala (Constitutional Court) ruled on September 3, 2018 that the government must conduct a proper, thorough and transparent consultation with the Xinka people.  After stalling by the Ministry of Energy of Mines and the Ministry of the Interior, the consultation was conducted 2019-2025, and the Xinka people have now formally announced their decision. No to silver mining !

With the persistence that characterizes the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala, the Xinka people said NO!  In their statement, PAPXIGUA said: “We deny our consent to the Escobal mining project.” We are now awaiting the response from the corresponding entities, as well as actions and calls for solidarity from the Xinka people.  #TheRightToConsentIsRespected