Killings soar as elections loom in Guatemala

Guatemala draws a wide variety of visitors; backpackers, eco-tourists, chocolate and coffee aficionados and even Star Wars fans exploring the Mayan temple featured in the very first movie.

If you Google “Livingston, Guatemala”, your computer screen will fill with stunning pictures of pristine beaches, river and waterfalls landscapes and a colourful town that blends African and indigenous cultures, offering a unique Central American experience.

But this tropical arcadia also harbours a dark side that Hollywood has yet to put on screen. Livingston has become the main killing zone for human rights defenders in Guatemala.

Half a dozen murders this year took place in the surrounding department of Izabal, five of them in Livingston itself. All the victims were indigenous and peasant activists working to defend their land from outsiders.

The killings, mainly concentrated in the north east region of the country, have placed Guatemala, according to a recent Global Witness report, as the world's deadliest country for land rights defenders per capita.

The killings, mainly concentrated in the north east region of the country, have placed Guatemala, according to a recent Global Witness report, as the world's deadliest country for land rights defenders per capita.

A presidential election campaign in recent months has intensified the violence because of the identity of one of the candidates. 

Thelma Cabrera, a Maya Mam indigenous rights defender, ran for the presidency with the support from grassroots members of CODECA, a social organisation that mobilises peasants for the defence of their land and the nationalization of electric energy supplies. Most of the rivers in Guatemala have been privatised for hydroelectric schemes which use up local water supplies to create energy which the local communities can’t afford.

CODECA’s strong leadership and ability to organise nationally has sparked a vicious backlash against the group. Of 12 killings this year, 7 targeted CODECA members, in what appears to be an orchestrated campaign to maintain the status quo in Guatemala.

 “They are trying to frighten the defenders to attack our cause. The attack is rooted in the battle we are fighting from within our territories. Since CODECA was founded to work for the rights to mother earth and labour law, there have been murders, imprisonment and persecution” says Thelma Cabrera.

UDEFEGUA, an NGO that works to protect HRDs in Guatemala, has documented 327 attacks against human rights defenders so far in 2019. The number, which includes assassination attempts, assaults, legal accusations, imprisonment and killings, is close to the 392 attacks they documented in the whole of last year.

Cabrera didn’t make it to the run off vote next Sunday. It is a battle between two establishment candidates, Sandra Torres and Alejandro Giammattei. But her ability to overcome multiple obstacles to come fifth in the first round showed strong enough political muscle to pose a real threat to the establishment.

Indigenous people comprise 41% of Guatemala's 16.9m population yet they have little influence over the elite of politicians, business leaders and military officials that have ruled Guatemala since the end of the civil war in 1996.

Even though the electoral campaign is now finished the violence against human rights activists is expected to continue and intensify, due to the lack of response and atrocious flaws in the scant investigations of the killings.

In a joint declaration this week, UDEFEGUA and El Observatorio, an NGO that works to prevent repression against human rights defenders state: “In many cases of murder, the authorities have not appeared at the scene of the crime until after 4 to 12 hours, jeopardizing the evidence and the crime scene itself, which basically guarantee impunity for these crimes.”

There had been one effective investigative agency; the CCIG, a UN backed Commission to Investigate Corruption and Impunity in Guatemala. Its work contributed to a 50% drop in attacks in 2014, according to Jorge Santos, General Coordinator of UDEFEGUA, but the government has expelled the head of the agency and is preparing to shut it down in September. “This is a devastating scenario for human rights defenders”, said Santos.

Most cases remain unresolved even though many news reports include the full names of the alleged aggressors. Jorge Juc Cucul (77) was attacked with a machete in front of his 8-year-old son, while working his land. His wife and son recognized the man who attacked him. Isidro Pérez (85) and Melesio Ramírez (70) were ambushed and shot dead when re-entering a farm claimed by a politician from which they had been evicted.

Although the most recent victims were activists members of CODECA, other organizations such us environmental FUNDAECO have been hit by the violence.

Most indigenous and peasants in Guatemala don’t expect much from the upcoming presidential election.

Most indigenous and peasants in Guatemala don’t expect much from the upcoming presidential election. “The situation for us, defenders is much more risky now … We will have to endure 4 more years in an abyss,” says Thelma Cabrera.