The community radio station La Voz de Palestina is located in the highland community of Palestina de los Altos, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Founded just over a year ago, the station is has been little by little gathering the equipment and personnel to broadcasting. Nestled into a tiny room in the corner of the town’s public library, the radio station has just enough to get by, but no more.
On May 8th, in the village of San Miguel Chicaj, Baja Verapaz, the Achi-Mayan community radio station, Uqul Tinamit "The Voice of the People," was raided by national police forces; their equipment confiscated and one member of the station arrested and fined.
The president of Guatemala declared a state of martial law in the town of Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango, suspending civil liberties as a result of unrest in the community instigated by proposed hydroelectric project "Cambalam." The town has been invaded by 600 military and police, arrested 17 people and invaded more than 20 homes, under the pretense of combating drug-trafficking.
On May 8, 2012, at 10:30 AM, Uqul Tinamit community radio station, a Cultural Survival Community Radio Program Partner, that serves the Achi Maya village of San Miguel Chicaj, Baja Verapaz was raided by the Guatemalan police and the Ministerio Publico. Bryan Cristofer Espinoza Ixtapa, the radio station volunteer who was on the air at the time on the raid, was detained by the police. In addition, the radio station’s transmitter, computer, and sound mixer were seized.
The following is a guest blog post by anthropologist Lisa Maya Knauer, who does fieldwork with Cultural Survival's Guatemala Radio Project and the larger community radio movement in Guatemala.
The newly elected President of Guatemala, Otto Perez Molina and the 158 members of the Guatemalan Congress took office in February of this year. Since then, conflicts between the major political parties have paralyzed the Congress. Six pieces of legislation, backed by a broad coalition of Indigenous and small farmer’s organizations, remain pending from the previous congress. These bills would protect sacred sites, promote community controlled rural development, and create broadcast licenses for community radio stations.
The president of Guatemala met with leaders of the community radio movement and participants in the Indigenous and Campesino March on April 19th in follow-up to the demands brought by marchers during their nine-day trek from Coban, Alta Verapaz to Guatemala City at the end of
On March 13th the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay, visited Guatemala, giving an audience to the grievances of the Indigenous peoples in the country during a visit to the highland town of Totonicapan.
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