Haz clic aquí para la versión español
Community organizers in Guatemala, especially those who stand up against corporations that exploit their natural resources, are more and more often being unjustly detained for their efforts to protect their lands and the wellbeing of their communities. In San Juan Sacatepéquez, three community leaders are currently under arrest for their participation in protests against Cemento Progreso and Anillo Regional’s failures to receive Free, Prior and Informed Consent from the Indigenous communities where they are undertaking environmentally detrimental projects. Twelve communities from the municipality of San Juan Sacatepéquez have organized to raise awareness about these human rights violations and resist this terrorism by the State. Below is a press release from the twelve communities against the unwarranted arrests of community leaders from the municipality of San Juan Sacatepéquez.
Illegal Arrests in San Juan, Sacatepéquez
Community Leader Mariano Camey, member of the Municipal Corporation has been detained. Twelve communities from San Juan, Sacatepéquez have denounced the arrest. Public opinion, modes of communication, human rights organizations and communities of San Juan Sacatepéquez would like to make it known that:
• Mariano Camey Car, from the community Santa Fe Ocaña, was arrested on July 6th of 2013 at 2a.m., at the market of the Terminal in Guatemala City, while he was delivering flowers. Mariano, who acts as the Tenth Councilman for the Municipal Corporation of his municipality was apprehended by security forces and brought to the tribunal towers.
• When community members of Santa Fe Ocaña found out, they delegated a commission to investigate the events, arriving at the tribunal towers at 5:30a.m. Later Lorenzo Car Hernández and Margarito Camey Zet, who hold positions as community authorities from Ocaña were apprehended as well.
• The three people who have been detained are honorable community members who hold public positions in their communities. In spite of this, the members were accused of illicit association for their presence in the events of 2011, when the twelve communities were peacefully opposing the illicit deforestation, demonstrating the illegalities of the licenses extended by the INAB. It is evident that there is an increasing criminalization against those who defend the rights of their Indigenous communities, concretizing the systematic racism that exists in this country. The UN Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhaguen, has denounced the systematic discrimination against Indigenous communities.
• We believe these apprehensions to be directly related with government authorities, as a result of a protest that took place on July 5th with the participation of 12,000 individuals from these communities. The protests were held to denounce an offensive, pseudo Mayan ceremony that was held by Cemento Progreso, to inaugurate the mining exploitation of our territory. We see this as a blatant disrespect for the obligation that is ordered by the Constitutional Court to provide free, prior and informed consent before undertaking any project that affects the lands of the people who inhabit them.
• This civil gathering was also held to voice the rejection of the construction of a road section by Anillo Regional, for which these communities were also not consulted. Likewise, we declare our repudiation and indignation for the participation of Tomas Calvo Mateo and other pseudo Mayan leaders from Chichicastenango in the undertaking of this faulty ceremony, making them allies with this Cement Works Company, which openly betrays the Indigenous communities that they claim to serve.
• The new attacks on our communities by the state and these businesses make it clear that when Indigenous communities exercise our free determination and demand respect for our rights and our dignity, we suffer an upsurge of criminalization. These new arrests are another example of this fact. Now we have a total of 83 of our community members in jail, one of whom is condemned to 150 years in prison, 3 of whom are condemned to 80 years in prison, a countless number of current captures, an illicit State of Prevention, and sexual violations against various women from our communities.
• All of these events can be interpreted as terrorism by the State, aimed at dismantling our social movement, accusing us of being criminals, when those who have been arrested are community authorities, whose practices have been protected by the Political Constitution and the Municipal Code. At the same time, the State has been violating the law by approving megaprojects without consulting the Indigenous communities that these projects affect, while the businesses like Cemento Progreso and Anillo Regional threaten honest citizens and bribe authorities, taking part in white-collar crime.
We Demand:
1. That the Attorney General and the Central Government cease the penal persecution against our brothers and sisters whose only intension is community organization for the defense of our rights and the rights of the environment.
2. That the human rights organizations investigate and intervene in the case, because it is a violation of the collective rights of Indigenous communities and agreement 169. That these organizations make statements at the national and international levels denouncing this new state of intimidations and the criminalization of indigenous movements in defense of their territories.
3. That the Mayan, Xinca, Garífuna and Latino communities demand to the operators of justice of Guatemala that LORENZO CAR HERNANDEZ, MARGARITO CAMEY ZET and MARIANO CAMEY CAR be set free immediately as well as all of the other political prisoners of San Juan Sacatepéquez; that they reject this new wave of repression and intimidation against our fights in defense of our lands.
4. That the international community demand to the State of Guatemala that these people be freed immediately since there is no crime that they have committed other than raising their voices in defense of their rights and the rights of their communities.
5. That the general population express their indignation at the situation and come together with the more than 12,000 citizens of San Juan Sacatepéquez who have been protesting and fighting to free these community leaders and to stop the installation of the cement works plant.
6. That the Indigenous communities of Guatemala reject Tomas Calvo Mateo as an Indigenous authority for taking advantage of our fighting and suffering and going against the principles and values of Cosmo vision that are contradicted by this Cemento Progreso project.
We Reiterate:
1. That our fight is for the life and dignity of everyone and everything; that our aspiration is that equilibrium and harmony return to our lives. That our organization is peaceful, but in firm opposition to projects that are detrimental to the life within our communities and Mother Nature in general, which is why we make this call to the communities to stay united in solidarity with the families of the indicated political prisoners.
That political persecution in the communities of San Juan
Sacatepéquez stop and that the fight of Indigenous communities in defense of our territory be respected!
San Juan Sacatepéquez, Guatemala, July 6th 2013.
