source: Diario de los altos
According to a report published in Diario de los Altos, in the first few months of 2026, forced evictions, which primarily affect Indigenous and rural communities, have increased in Guatemala. Behind each eviction order lies a complex web of land concentration, disputes between communities and economic elites, and a justice system accused of serving private interests. The report details numerous evictions, starting with the eviction March 28th of about 30 families from the community of Las Viñas in Flores, Petén. The community, which has lived on the land since the 1970s, is facing a claim by a hotel company that claims to be the owner.
Between May and June 2026, a series of evictions of Q’eqchi’ families took place on lands in Izabal and Alta Verapaz, prompting the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) to file a petition for injunctive relief against the Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights to prevent the use of violence against the evicted families. These regions are at the center of the conflict over the expansion of oil palm plantations. On June 19, the Constitutional Court upheld the eviction of the Plan Grande community in the Sierra de Santa Cruz.
Apart from these, the Campesino Unity Committee (CUC) has documented six major evictions during Bernardo Arévalo’s administration—three judicial and three extrajudicial—which have affected hundreds of families. President Bernardo Arévalo, who signed an Agrarian Accord in February 2024 with campesino organizations, is facing growing pressure. The Campesino Unity Committee filed a constitutional appeal against him for breach of the agreement, noting that multiple evictions have occurred during his administration and that commitments have not been fulfilled. According to CUC, the justice system is being used against the victims of historical dispossession.
Last year, during a visit to Guatemala, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing documented a rise in evictions–from 18 in 2023 to 130 in 2024–carried out with military force, at night, and without notice. His report lists the burning of homes, crops and personal possessions during evictions as a common practice, echoing the scorched-earth tactics employed by the military during Guatemala’s civil war, and meeting the threshold of cruel and inhuman treatment under international law.The Special Rapporteur urged Guatemala to enact an immediate moratorium on collective evictions until legal protections are strengthened and a national dialogue on land is established. He also recommended that any public or private actor who carried out illegal evictions, including for the burning of homes or destruction of personal property, be held accountable.
On July 22, the Cleveland-based Inter-Religious Task Force on Central America, in a letter to the Guatemalan ambassador to the US, called on Guatemalan officials to fulfill the commitments of the 2024 Agrarian Agreement, including establishing a functioning permanent dialogue speech with Indigenous and campesino organizations; to respond to CUC’s and CCDA’s pending requests for an urgent audience with President Arévalo, as required by Article 28 of the Constitution; to immediately halt extrajudicial evictions and ensure that any court-ordered evictions comply with international human rights standards protecting rural farming communities; and to direct relevant institutions, including the Land Fund, the Cadastral Information Registry, and the Ministry of Agriculture to take concrete steps toward resolving agrarian conflicts and regularizing land tenure rights for affected communities.
