A surprise decision was made by courts in Guatemala on September 11, 2013 as two former employees of the Spanish dam company Hydro Santa Cruz were declared innocent of the assassination of  Q’anjobal community leader Andres Fransisco Miguel who was killed on the night of May 1, 2012.

On August 21 – 23, leaders and representatives of twenty Maya Q'anjob'al communities in northern Huehuetenango and Chiapas, Mexico, gathered in San Juan Ixcoy, Huehuetenango to discuss the ongoing imposition of large-scale development projects on their territory and to continue generating strategies for unified resistance moving forward.

In order to resolve the conflict generated by the installation of the Spanish company Hidro Santa Cruz’s Cambalam I Hydroelectric Project in Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala, the organized civil society, groups related to the company, and government representatives intend to hold dialogues mediated by Catholic Bishop Álvaro Ramazzinni, a long-time supporter of communities’ rights in conflicts with foreign companies and the government.

After spending over two months in prison under charges of terrorism, Rubén Herrera, community leader and outspoken activist against the Hydro Santa Cruz dam in Barillas, Huehuetenango, was released on Thursday May 30^th due to a lack of evidence to the charges against him.

On the anniversary of the death of Andres Fransisco Miguel, community leader of Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango, the people of Huehuetenango and neigboring areas in Guatemala came together in protest May 1st. They denounced the disrepect of their right as Indigenous Peoples to be consutled on development projects, by the State of Guatemala and foreign companies like Spanish dam company Hidralia Energia.

Another community leader from Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango has been captured by the Police and incarcerated in Guatemala City as a result of his outspoken opposition to the Spanish company Hidro Santa Cruz’s construction of a hydroelectric dam in the Q’anjob’al Mayan community. Rubén Herrera was captured on March 15^th in the city of Huehuetenango, and charged with kidnapping, terrorism, coercion, arson, among many other crimes.

The town of Barillas welcomed home the final eight community leaders who were arrested for being outspoken against the hydroelectric dam project by Hydro Santa Cruz after being declared innocent on January 9th.   A total of 12 men were held for up to 8 months in prison in Guatemala CIty under false charges. 

After eight months in prison, local courts in Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango, Guatemala have declared innocent the final eight men that were arrested following protests on May 4th in the town of Santa Cruz Barillas against a proposed hydroelectric dam, along with three others already freed.  

This is a major victory for the Q’anjob’al Mayan community who has suffered violence, threats, and criminalization due to their opposition to the Spanish company Hydro Santa Cruz.

Rumors of closed-door agreement signed between town government officials and Spanish hydroelectric company Hidro Santa Cruz sparked confusion and unrest among community members in Barillas, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

On November 15th, two more political prisoners were released from jail after more than six months in prison without evidence against them.  They were detained on May 4th in Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango after riots broke out protesting the damming of a river by a Spanish company Hydro Santa Cruz.  Eight more men remain in prison in Guatemala City.  The Independent Media Center of Guatemala released the following statement:

A roundtable has been established by the government of Guatemala to dialogue towards an agreement that would allow for the installation of a hydroelectric dam on the Cambalam river in the town of Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango.

Marcos Mateo Miguel was released from jail on September 21^st after spending five months incarcerated with no evidence presented against him.  Miguel is a community leader that was part of the opposition against the construction of the Cambalam hydroelectric dam in Barillas, Huehuetenango.