As Dual Storms Hit Central America, AJWS Grantees Work to Keep Communities Safe
Hurricane Iota hurtles towards the same coastlines just battered by Tropical Storm Eta, as Central America braces for more catastrophic damage.
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Activists in Conversation: How COVID-19 Is Impacting Guatemala’s Indigenous Communities
Across the world, COVID-19 is ravaging low-income communities unprepared to take on a global pandemic and its economic effects. This crisis is compounded by authoritarian governments who are both refusing to lead with the public’s interest in mind and capitalizing on this global pandemic to assert and strengthen their power. To learn more about how …
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AJWS Decries State of Siege Across Guatemala
Human rights group calls on Morales government to end 30-day state of siege affecting indigenous communities American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the leading global Jewish human rights organization, strongly denounces Guatemala’s decision to impose a 30-day state of siege across 22 municipalities in five provinces in response to the killings of three Guatemalan military officers. …
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In Their Own Country, Landowners for the First Time.
In the hot, rural plains of Altaverapaz, Guatemala, there is a small agrarian community, 81 families strong. They’ve only just arrived at La Flecha in the last year, trickling in to this neglected farm after being displaced from different lands in the region. Life in La Flecha isn’t easy. Small cinderblock houses with tin roofs …
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Land, environmental activist killings surge in Guatemala
Global Witness finds Guatemala experienced sharpest increase in number of land, environmental defenders murders in 2018.
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As activists speak out, UDEFEGUA helps them stay safe
This award-winning NGO helps activists stay safe, so they can keep speaking out against injustice. In recent years, activists who defend human rights in Guatemala have faced a rising wave of targeted violence that aims to crush their growing movements for social change. From 2008 to 2011, there were 1,286 reports of attacks against human …
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Youth make strides for reproductive health in Guatemala
In Guatemala, very few young people have access to quality reproductive health care and sexual health education. Only 44 percent of women of reproductive age use any kind of contraceptives. The maternal mortality rate—the proportion of pregnancies that end in the mother’s death—is the second worst in Latin America and is especially high among indigenous …
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