A pilot survey of 11 stations was performed in August 2007. Survey teams consisting of one volunteer from a community radio station, one Guatemalan communications student/professional, and one international observer, collected information about each station's broadcast schedule, income, expenses, skill level of volunteers, and equipment. We are planning a complete survey of all 168 stations in January 2008.

Looking for a hands-on way to help the Guatemala Radio Project? Have you already donated? See where your money is going - be a driver! The Guatemala Radio Project's next step is to assess radio stations across the country. You can participate first-hand in this important assignment by traveling to Guatemala and helping drive our survey assessment teams to their stations. We ask that you bear the cost of the vehicle rental (approximately $800) plus your own travel expenses.

If you attended our Bazaar in Amherst, MA on June 2-3, your attention might have been caught by the marimba music, live translated broadcasts from Guatemala, or kids making colorful kites. It was all part of our "Simul-Fiesta," an effort to raise funds for a new transmitter at a radio station in Sumpango, Guatemala, that had been raided several weeks earlier. When Sumpango residents decided to hold a festive fundraiser to replace their transmitter, we decided to mirror it.

A Maya man was shot to death last week after a heated discussion with workers from a mine that has opened on his community’s land.

Workers from the Glamis Gold Marlin mine are being held responsible for the March 12 death of Alvaro Sánchez, a Sipakapense villager from Pie de la Cuesta, Guatemala.

Since the controversial mining project began, tension has risen in the area and both community members and outside mine workers have started carrying arms on a regular basis.

On March 15, the United Nations General Assembly voted 170–4 to create a new Human Rights Council, effectively dissolving the oft-criticized Commission on Human Rights. Candidates for the Council will need to be elected by an absolute majority of 96 votes in order to secure a position, and once elected members can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms.

Representatives of three Guatemala Radio Project partner organizations were in Washington, D.C. from March 7–11 as part of the Project’s effort to promote changes to Guatemala’s telecommunications law.

The World Bank has been heavily criticized by its own ombudsman for breaching protocol in its funding of the Marlin Project, a $45 million gold mine project in San Miguel Ixtahuacán and Sipakapa, Guatemala. According to an August 22 article in the Financial Times, the ombudsman drafted a report accusing the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the arm of the World Bank that made the loan, of failing to allow sufficient time to conduct an ‘informed consultation’ prior to establishing the mine.

On July 18, several leading civil society organizations along with the mayor of San Miguel Ixtahuacán unanimously decided to conduct direct consultations with community members regarding the impacts of the Marlin Project, an operation of Canadian company Glamis Gold, Ltd. in the department of San Marcos. The Guatemalan government awarded Glamis a license to practice open-pit mining for gold and silver and to use up to 250 liters of water per hour from the local aquifer according to the organization, Instancia Maya MAM AJPOP.

On August 6, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court ruled against the creation of a U.N.-led International Commission to Investigate Illegal Bodies and Clandestine Security Forces (CICIACS).