Afro-Descendant & Indigenous: News & Updates

criminalized: Maya Poqomchi' leader Sofía Tot Ac

Sofía Tot Ac, age 53, is a representative of the Maya Poqomchi' people before the Departmental Development Council of Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz. She is a coordinator with the Mayan Peoples’ Council of the Achi’, Q’eqchi’, Poqomchi, and Kaqchikel communities. She is the founder of the Motherhood Home in Salama, Baja Verapaz. She is also the coordinator of social outreach for the Catholic church in Purulhá.

She is falsely charged with ursurpation for aiding the campesino families of San Juan de las Tres Cascadas, a communal farm located on a larger tract of land that is claimed by private owners. A warrant for her arrest was issued in 2021. She was arrested in 2022. Released on bond, she is scheduled to appear before a judge to face the charge of usurpation later this month.

We are urging that authorities 1) initiate a registry investigation of the Finca Chiquiwital to determine whether the farm has historically belonged to local campesino families as communal land, 2) create a Special Prosecutor's Office against Usurpation, and 3) drop the false charge of usurpation against Sofía Tot Ac and terminate all criminal proceedings.

Tolupán Indigenous communities (whose 26 tribes are organized in the Federation of Xicaques of Yoro Tribes, or FETRIXY), have been defending their ancestral lands from the economic interests of outsiders for decades. In recent months, three tribes elected new boards of directors with clear leadership that seek the liberation of Tolupán territories, the defense of the common goods, and the vindication of their rights. However, these transitions have angered the logging and mining companies and landowners, accustomed for years to dispossession and imposing their will with impunity. Threats, persecution, and violence have increased. 

On May 9 in San Francisco de Locomapa, Indigenous defender Amilcar Vieda was viciously murdered, alongside community member Naún Ismael Chacón; they were shot to death, and then their bodies were burned. In the same Tolupán community, Ramon Santiago Matute the new president of the board of directors, and José María Pineda, coordinator of the Tolupán Tribal Preventive Council of San Francisco de Locomapa (and his daughters) received death threats (cf our letter 26 May 2023). In Las Vegas de Tepemechín, some of the Indigenous leaders have been forced to flee from their homes because of threats, and the previous president of the board of directors, Reynaldo Barahona, suffered several physical attacks. And in Mina Honda a similar situation is playing out involving the newly elected president of the board of directors, Santos Lucas, due to the fact that he opposes the extraction of minerals, felling of trees and contamination of water sources in the area. 

We are urging that the government of Honduras: (1) comply with the United Nations recommendation to take necessary measures so that Tolupán leaders and tribal members can carry out their work in defense of their territories and cultural heritage in a propitious and safe environment, and (2) investigate ALL reports of threats and violence against Toulpán leaders—including the assassinations of Amilcar Vieda and Naún Ismael Chacón—and hold accountable those responsible.

We have written at least five letters over the past two years in support of the Azacualpa Environmental Committee, which has been organizing to shut down the San Andrés gold mine in La Unión, Copán Department. The Indigenous Maya Chortí residents of the community have suffered many negative effects of the mining operations: destruction of hills and forests, contamination of waterways, exhumation of graves from their ancestral cemetery, destruction of housing and illnesses (skin rashes, hair loss, cancers).

Miami-based Aura Minerals operates the mine through its subsidiary MINOSA. Aura Minerals has routinely mischaracterized its operations in reports to shareholders and other business partners. The company is subject to numerous criminal, civil, and administrative complaints, and adopts business practices that violate human rights standards. It uses coercive tactics (harassment, threatens, and criminalization) against community leaders. Even after such flagrant violations of corporate responsibility, Asahi Refining USA (a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Asahi Group Holdings) and Auramet International LLC continue to conduct business with Aura.

We are urging that (1) Asahi and Auramet immediately suspend their ties with Aura Minerals, (2) MINOSA terminate its mining operations at the Azacualpa cemetery, and (3) the government of Honduras conduct a public consultation process with local communities about the future of mining projects in the area

A recent shooting that left two Q’anjob’al Mayan farmers dead is only one spike in the ongoing conflict taking place in the community of Kumatz (Barillas municipality, Huehuetenango Department) between land occupiers and the Indigenous families trying to reclaim their ancestral lands. More than 130 of the families who had been displaced to Mexico during the armed conflict returned last year to Barillas to reclaim their ancestral lands. They have since been met with harassment, surveillance, and armed violence by private landowners (occupiers) who now claim the lands as their own. A legal dispute is pending.

In the early morning hours of June 13,  while on their way to tend to their crops, several Indigenous campesinos from Kumatz were ambushed by private security forces who arrived in multiple pick-up trucks, armed with various caliber rifles and guns. The attackers fired guns into the community.  A farmer managed to disarm one of the attackers but was shot in the back. The shooting lasted for a few hours, killing community members Carlos Fernando Calderón Herrera and Juan Francisco Artola Chub. Others were injured and taken to a hospital in Ixcán, Quiché Department. Hours later the National Civil Police (PNC) mobilized to regain control over the territory, with additional backup from army helicopters.

We are urging that authorities in Guatemala disarm the private security forces who are inflicting harm on the Q’anjob’al Mayan families and that they legally settle the land dispute. We are also calling for justice for the two farmers who were killed in the attack.

The communal land rights of Afro-descendant and Indigenous peoples are often disputed by private landowners, leading to violent conflicts and illegal evictions. The Lenca Indigenous Council of Nueva Palestina in Marcala, San José municipality, La Paz Department, knows this story all too well. Beginning on June 2, private landowner Juan Gabriel Argueta Montoya and his workers have been coming to the community with insults and threats to harm the families. At particular risk is Benjamín Cruz Bonilla, president of the Indigenous Council.

In 1999 the National Agrarian Institute (INA) gave property title to 229 hectares of ancestral land to the Lenca Council of Nueva Palestina.  However, a private landowner, Juan Gabriel Argueta, has an ongoing land dispute with the Lenca campesino cooperative. The community received a favorable ruling from on June 8 when the Court of Appeals of Comayagua ruled in favor of several members of the Indigenous Council who had been subjected to an illegal judicial process, accused of aggravated usurpation and alteration of terms or boundaries. Now, both the court and the Public Ministry agree with the Indigenous Council of Nueva Palestina that there is no aggravated usurpation or alteration of terms or boundaries.

We are urging that authorities (1) instruct the private landowner to abide by the June 8 court ruling in favor of the communal land title and (2) clarify any other land titles in dispute.

The 26 tribes of the native Tolupán peoples who live on ancestral lands throughout Yoro Department are organized in the Federation of Xicaques of Yoro Tribes (FETRIXY). The Tolupán communities are constantly organizing to defend their ancestral lands from the economic interests of outsiders: large private landholders, hydroelectric dam companies, mining companies, and the timber industry. After the election of new tribal leaders on March 26, there has been increased pressure from logging companies to threaten and discredit the Tolupán tribes. The newly leadership has asked the National Institute for Conservation and Forest Development (ICF) to not receive or process any requests for forest management plans in the territory that corresponds to the tribe of San Francisco de Locomapa. This has angered logging industry executives.

At particular risk is Tolupán tribal leader José María Pineda and his family in San Francisco de Locomapa, Yoro. Criminal groups at the service of the timber industry have publicly stated that they would look for José María Pineda and his daughters to attack them and burn down their house.