On January 24, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies CCDA Verapaz and got updated on the latest activities.”

PBI-Guatemala has explained: “The CCDA is a peasant organization that accompanies and advises communities, mostly indigenous, that fight for access to land and ownership to create dignified living conditions in the face of eviction and dispossession of their lands where these communities have lived for many generations.”

The CCDA accompanies some 150 Q’eqchi communities, supporting them in the resolution of conflicts related to the possession of the land they inhabit.

Last month, PBI-Guatemala posted: “Communities unionized in the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) of the Verapaces struggle for their territory in spite of death threats and criminalization. Learn about the struggle of Don Lorenzo and Don Pedro of the Santa Elena Samanzana II community, Cobán, Alta Verapaz.”

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In their December 2021 update, PBI-Guatemala also noted:

“As part of our accompaniment of the Community Council of the Highlands (CCDA) – Las Verapaces Region, we visited Jorge Coc Coc and Marcelino Xol Cucul in Cobán prison. They are human rights defenders and community leaders from Choctún Basilá, who have been criminalized and imprisoned since 2018, We also maintained regular contact with Lesbia Artola and Imelda Tuyul, coordinators of the organization.”

And earlier this month, the German newspaper Junge Welt reported:

“The agricultural workers’ organization Peasants’ Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) speaks of a total of 962 arrest warrants against its members and other agricultural workers in connection with resistance to land grabbing and major projects. Another drastic case of criminalization also occurred in the Department of Alta Verapaz. Jorge Coc Coc and Marcelino Xol Cucul, local indigenous authorities from the Choctun Basilá community in Cobán County and members of the CCDA, were sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2019 on fabricated charges of murder and attempted murder.”

On January 14, CCDA Nacional posted: “We condemn that the State of Guatemala, instead of resolving conflicts, speeds up arbitrary evictions to dispossess the ancestral lands of the original peoples.” In the photo below, PBI-Guatemala is seen accompanying the press conference that highlighted these concerns.

You can find Comité Campesino del Altiplano CCDA on Twitter and Ccda Nacional on Facebook.

PBI-Guatemala began to accompany the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) Verapaz in July 2018.

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