Article by PBI-Canada

Photo by Comité de Unidad Campesina (CUC).

On August 16, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “We reiterate our concern about evictions of indigenous peasant families in the Verapaces!”

The Committee of Peasant Unity (CUC) says that 40 Indigenous Q’eqchi’ families occupying the Cubilgüitz coffee farm have fled after an armed group set fire to their homes in the municipality of Cobán in the department of Alta Verapaz.

The families who had been workers on the farm were laid off 15 years ago without full severance and have occupied part of the farm in protest of this.

The CUC says the armed group has acted against other land occupations by campesinos. The CUC notes: “The actions of this group are allowed by the farmers because it serves to justify repression against the peasants.”

The land the Q’eqchi’ families were living is owned by Dorothee Dieseldorff, whose family founded the coffee brand Dieseldorff Kaffee. The company reportedly sells its products throughout Guatemala and owns an upscale cafe in Cobán.

PBI-Guatemala accompanied Verapaz Union of Campesino Organizations (UVOC) has also stated: “We repudiate and demand justice after the cowardly extrajudicial eviction [by] workers and private security of local landowners.”

And PBI-Guatemala accompanied Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) has similarly posted: “We repudiate the extrajudicial eviction that occurred at Cubilgüitz.”

In their report on this attack, Reuters provides the context that: “Peasant farmer groups involved in land occupations frequently suffer violence in the Central American nation. Advocacy organization Global Witness in 2019 called Guatemala one of the world’s most dangerous places for land rights defenders.”

That articles also notes: “The UN High Commission for Human Rights has raised alarm over an increase in killing of mainly indigenous rights defenders in Guatemala. In a report last year it counted 39 such killings in 2017 and 2018 alone.”

La Hora now provides the update that: “The Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH) reported that the Alta Verapaz departmental office opened a file for the violent eviction [and] that it will send a complaint to the Public Ministry and also to the National Civil Police.”

The CUC statement calls for “solidarity with evicted families and the attention of national and international bodies that care for human rights.”