Sign our Petition to Stop Violence Against Indigenous Families in Guatemala!

Esteemed President of the Republic of Guatemala and Honorable President of COPREDEH,

I am alarmed and deeply concerned about the hunger, illness, insecurity, and violence currently impacting the Maya Q’eqchi’ communities of the Polochic Valley who were victims of forced displacement last March. At this very moment, thousands of men, women and children are living in precarious conditions, lacking the ability to meet the most basic of human needs: food, health, shelter, security and work.

In June of 2011, at the insistence of a coalition of organizations from Guatemala and the United States, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures for the evicted communities and requested that the Guatemalan government act to prevent a humanitarian disaster. I am concerned about how little progress the Guatemalan government has made over the past six months in addressing these communities’ need for food, shelter, security, and physical integrity. So far there have only been two deliveries of food aid—and those were vastly insufficient.

The lack of governmental action will have deadly consequences for these indigenous communities. At least one infant has already died due to complications resulting from malnutrition, and hundreds of other children are at risk. In addition, community members continue to suffer threats, intimidation, and physical violence.

On January 5th, 2012, security forces, with national police and military protecting them, brought in several tractors to tear up hundreds of hectares of subsistence crops. Security forces also attacked two community members with machetes as police and soldiers stood by and watched.

The communities’ rights to food security, health services, housing, physical integrity, due process, and freedom of movement, among other human rights, continue to be violated. The Government must do everything possible to guarantee the rights of those affected.

I urge you to:

• Fully implement the precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. With no food and nowhere to farm, these families face malnutrition, sickness, starvation, and death.
• Put an end to the violence and intimidations directed at members of the affected communities.
• Fully investigate the recent deaths of community members Antonio Beb Ac, Oscar Reyes, and María Margarita Che Chub, and bring those responsible to justice.
• Provide land nearby on which the members of the Polochic communities can live and plant their crops.

Furthermore, I respectfully request that the government cease any further forced land evictions, and instead work with agrarian communities to find just, nonviolent, and sustainable solutions to land conflicts, in compliance with the State's international human rights obligations.

Sincerely,