Just before dawn on August 9, International Day of Indigenous Peoples, Guatemalan police attacked and burned an indigenous community in Nueva Jerusalem near Iztapa, Escuintla province. Police burned the homes before most community members were able to remove their belongings.
Now 54 families are without anywhere to live.
Videos sent from community members to Café Justicia and the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), our partners in Guatemala, to which the indigenous community is affiliated.
Nueva Jerusalem is one of the threatened communities accompanied by the CCDA through the "Strengthening Social Justice, Respect for Human Rights and Links for Democracy" project. In 2018, police executing an eviction order burned the community.
The families spent eight months living under plastic sheets on the roadside until the CCDA obtained an injunction against the eviction that enabled the community to return to its lands and rebuild. Since then, Nueva Jerusalem has been one of the several CCDA communities seated at the negotiating table with various branches of the state to resolve the land conflict. The CCDA also requested protective measures for the community with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. Nevertheless, police, executing an eviction order issued by a different judge, which shows the community in a completely different location, burned Nueva Jerusalem's homes again and destroyed its crops.
The CCDA reports that attacks on its communities have increased since Guatemala's June 25 first-round elections. They believe that local authorities in the pockets of landlords and agro-industry are taking advantage of the focus on the elections to drive Mayan farmers off the land.
It is now crucial for our international allies to extend their support to provide emergency shelter, food assistance, medicines, construction material and other essential supplies to the families affected by this cruel violation of human rights.
We kindly appeal to your generosity to donate any amount to aid this cause!
Your contribution will have a significant impact on the work for social justice in Latin America!