Afro-Descendant & Indigenous: News & Updates

Attack on Rolanda de Jesús García Hernandez, an indigenous Mayan K'iche journalist working for teleSUR, an international television network, who was reporting on environmental destruction.

Attacks against indigenous leaders in Colombia, particularly in the Southwest (departments of Valle del Cauca, Cauca, Nariño). According to human rights organizations in Colombia, more than 120 social leaders have been assassinated in the first six months of 2018, 40% of them in the Southwest.

Beating, arrest, and arbitrary detention on August 14 of Edwin Choc and Martín Chub, local leaders of the Farmer’s Committee of the Highlands (CCDA). Police detained them in Cobán, Alta Verapaz Department, after they attended a meeting with government authorities that was part of the Permanent Dialogue between authorities, campesino and indigenous communities.

Murder of Ángel Estuardo Quevado on July 12 in the municipality of Santa Rosa de Lima, Santa Rosa Department, Guatemala. He resided in the municipality of Casillas and was a member of the Peaceful Resistance movement of Santa Rosa, Jalapa, and Jutiapa that is demanding the permanent closure of the Escobal silver mine, owned by your company and operated by your subsidiary, Minera San Rafael, S.A.

assassination of indigenous and environmental human rights defender Ángel Estuardo Quevedo in Santa Rosa de Lima, Santa Rosa Department, on July 12. He was a member of the Peaceful Resistance of Santa Rosa, Jalapa and Jutiapa. The group has been organizing community opposition to the Escobal silver mine, owned by Canada-based Tahoe Resources and operated in partnership with Guatemala-based Minera San Rafael, S.A.

Indigenous community leader Rolando Crispin López has been assassinated in the community of Álvaro Obregón in the municipality of Juchitán de Zaragoza in Oaxaca State. He was a member of the Assembly of Indigenous People of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Defense of Land and Territory (APIITDTT), the Peoples' Assembly of the Juchiteco People (APPJ), and the Peoples' Assembly of Álvaro Obregón.

Environmental defenders have been subjected to smear campaign, threats, and police violence.

Human rights defender Bernardo Caal Xol is in prison for being an indigenous Q’eqchi’ leader who has spoken out against the illegal construction of massive hydroelectric dams in indigenous territory, which were built without consulting the indigenous population as required by law and have resulted in the destruction of local ecosystems, clear cutting of old growth forests and decimation of mountain ridges sacred to the Q’eqchi’ people.

More than 200 indigenous Nasa Embera Chamí people from La Delfina reservation in Buenaventura (West), Colombia, have been displaced following an armed attack on a member of their community. The National Indigenous Organization (ONIC) reports that 80 women (5 pregnant), 90 men, and 80 children are are currently confined in a nearby school. They are in need of food, clothing, medicine, basic shelter items (tents, blankets), and access to health services.

On May 17 there was an attack on the binational indigenous Yukpa people living in Cúcuta, Norte de Santander Department. Jesuit Refugee Service has reported that 106 indigenous people, including 56 children, were forced to move in search of refuge and assistance from the local authorities. Some were subsequently displaced to the Venezuelan border.