Guatemala: Raids on peasants’ organizations and human rights defenders

By mid May, various attacks on peasants’ organizations and human rights defenders were carried out in Guatemala. On the 8th of May, the office of the National Coordination of Peasants’ Organizations (CNOC) was raided. On the 11th of May, the house of Christina Buczko, coordinator of the project “Acompañamiento de Austria – ADA”, and Byron Garoz, member of CONGCOOP, was raided. In both cases, the main intention of the raid obviously was not to rob items of value, but to take away important information and to leave traces in order to intimidate the victims.

Regarding this occurrence of violence, it is very important to pressure the Guatemalan authorities to take urgent measures to detect the authors of the intimidating actions and to assure the integrity of the members of the peasants’ organizations and of the human rights defenders. Please send this letter to the Guatemalan President, in which you express your concern about this situation. Also ask the President to adopt measures to end the repression of the peasants’ organizations and the human rights defenders.