On June 11, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies UVOC and the Campesino/Peasant Council, formed by CCDA, CUC, New Day and UVOC, at their press conference in which they denounced the complicity of the authorities of Alta Verapaz with the farmers to evict Indigenous and peasant communities.”
Factor 4 further explains: “The Peasant Council – the Verapaz Union of Peasant Organizations (UVOC), the Committee for Peasant Unity (CUC), the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) and the Nuevo Dia Ch’orti Indigenous Association (Nuevo Dia) — condemns the evictions and threats against rural communities that fight for their right to land and a dignified life. …They regret the loss of lawyer José Alberto Domingo Montejo on June 5 and Marcelo Yaxon, both activists of the Committee for Peasant Unity (CUC).”
Photo of UVOC coordinator Carlos Morales by Rony Morales.
Killings of CUC lawyer and activist
Grassroots International also provides this context: “Tragically, on June 5, armed paramilitaries assassinated José Alberto Domingo Montejo, human rights lawyer and legal counsel for our partner the Comité de Unidad Campesina/Peasant Unity Committee (CUC), and fatally wounded CUC activist Marcelo Yaxón Pablo, who died on June 10. They also severely wounded CUC activist Gustavo Yaxón.”
The Associated Press has also reported: “A Guatemalan lawyer who worked closely with organizations representing farmworkers and Indigenous groups was killed in an apparent ambush. José Domingo was with two members of the United Farmworkers Committee [CUC] when they were shot by a group of men Wednesday [June 5] south of the capital, said Daniel Pascual, a leader of that organization. …Domingo was helping to legalize a land title in the area… The Council of the Wuxhtaj Peoples also condemned the attack and said Domingo was of the Popti or Jakalteko people and a ‘defender of Mother Earth.’”
Photo: José Domingo.
Still from video clip.
Eviction of two Maya Q’eqchi’ communities
Grassroots International adds: “The brutal attack on these peasant rights defenders took place on the very same day that members of Guatemala’s National Civil Police (PNC) — which acts at the behest of local judicial authorities and their private interests — forcibly displaced 35 families of the Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ living in the community of San José el Tesoro in the Alta Verapaz department. Weeks prior, on May 22nd, the PNC also expelled dozens of Indigenous Mayas Q’eqchi’ from traditional territories in the community of Buena Vista in the Izabal department.”
Still from video:” Burning of houses in violent eviction in the community of San Jose el Tesoro, Coban, Alta Verapaz.”
Prensa Comunitaria has also reported on the two forced evictions:
“Homes turned to ashes, burned crops and displaced Q’eqchi’ families is the scenario that remains in the community of San José El Tesoro, in Cobán, Alta Verapaz, after an eviction involving more than a thousand agents of the National Civil Police (PNC). On Wednesday, June 5, some 1,500 PNC agents mobilized to Cobán to evict the families who live on the farm known as “El Tesoro,” located at the entrance to the villages of Las Pacayas and Chitocán.
This is the second eviction reported during the government of Bernardo Arévalo, since, last May in Buena Vista, in El Estor, Izabal, women who were accompanied by their daughters and sons were evicted from the Tz’inté farm. Simultaneously with the state security forces, Arriaza Migoya’s crews and private security agents from the company VIP Security SA participated, who could have destroyed the houses and crops of the families. The families who lived in the Buena Vista community sought refuge during the night in the Santa Rosita community, others spend the night on the side of the road.”
Grassroots International comments: “This violence follows conflicts in late 2023 and early 2024 during which social movements mobilized against the ruling elite as it attempted to cling to power after being ousted from the presidency through democratic elections. While the current presidency represents a break from the Corrupt Pact (Pacto de Corruptos), the right-wing regime continues to hold on to power in parts of the government, including the legislative and judicial branches, the latter of which can decide on PNC [National Civil Police] actions. According to CUC [Committee for Peasant Unity], the ‘Covenant of the Corrupt’ is doing everything in its power to force a rupture between the recently-elected Semilla Party and progressive forces nationwide.”
Accompaniment
The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) of the Verapaces since July 2018 and the Union of Campesino Organizations for the Verapaces (UVOC) since 2005.
We continue to follow this situation.
Tweet: “The Peasant Unity Committee -CUC- With deep regret and sadness, we unite to mourn the vile murder of our dear brother, friend and companion José Alberto Domingo Montejo.”
Tweet: “With deep regret, sadness, and indignation, for the vile murder of our dear brother, friend and companion: Marcelo Yaxón Pablo, community leader and member of the CUC structures.”
Published by Brent Patterson on