Afro-Descendant & Indigenous: News & Updates

Indigenous rights defender Julio Gómez Lucas is currently facing false criminal charges of incitement to commit crimes, participation in illegal gatherings of armed persons, protests, assault and attempted murder. The criminalization of environmental and indigenous defenders in Guatemala must end. Julio Gómez Lucas, a leader of the Maya Chuj community of San Mateo Ixtatán, is a member of the Peaceful Resistance of the Microregion of Ixquisis, an organization of indigenous communities formed in response to human rights violations committed by a hydroelectric company. He and his family members have previously been kidnapped and tortured because of his work in defense of land, water, and indigenous rights.

Attacks continue on Garífuna territory defenders in Honduras. Karla Ignacia Piota Martínez was the 70-year-old sister of Amada Piota Martínez, a Garífuna spiritual leader and member of the governing board of OFRANEH (Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras). She died on January 11 from seven bullet wounds inflicted during an assassination attempt on December 28, 2019. This is the third killing of a Garífuna community member in Masca in recent months. The assassinations of Garífuna leaders is part of a strategy to expel the Garífuna people from their ancestral territories by dividing communal Garífuna territories into individual lots and selling them to land speculators. The National Agrarian Institute (INA) continues to illegally issue land titles to third party investors. The Garífuna people are watching their beaches, swamp forests, and lagoons taken away by force, with Garífuna leaders assassinated in the process.