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PBI-Guatemala accompanies Mayan Poqomchi’ environmental defender David Alejandro Maxena Caal at court hearing

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Mayan Poqomchi’ environmental defender David Alejandro Maxena Caal at court hearing

On April 18, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies David Alejandro Maxena member of UVOC at the hearing of coercion measures at the Cobán court.”

Earlier this month, UVOC posted: “Almost 2 months in prison without committing any crime. Since last February 14 this year, the Mayan Poqomchi’ community leader David Alejandro Maxena Caal, defender of human rights and mother land, was detained.”

UVOC adds: “The Santa Teresa Hydroelectric and the Shintun Agriculture S.A. municipality of San Miguel Tucuru, are the main plaintiffs against the communities that were stripped of their land that was an ancestral belonging to them.”

In January 2017, Avispa Midia explained: “In the case of the Santa Teresa hydroelectric plant, it belongs to the company Agro Comercializadora del Polochic, SA (AGROPOLOCHIC), a member of the CM [Corporacion Multi Inversiones] consortium.”

That article adds: “EGI Guatemala was involved in the construction of the Santa Teresa hydroelectric plant, located in the Polochic region, in the municipality of Tucurú, which is owned by the Agropolochic company, a member of the CM group.”

The Santa Teresa dam is situated on the Polochic River, which discharges 70 percent of the total freshwater input to Lake Izabal.

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Union of Verapaz Campesino Organizations (UVOC) since 2005.

On April 12, PBI-Guatemala also posted: “PBI accompanies David Alejandro Maxena, member of UVOC, Jorge Coc Coc and Marcelino Xol Cucul, members of the CCDA Verapaz The three defenders find themselves criminalized at Cobán prison.”

 

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