Guatemala Solidarity Project

 We are a volunteer run organization that has been collaborating with indigenous communities in Guatemala for nearly 20 years. We focus on documentation of human rights abuses, and also support education, healthcare, agricultural and related efforts while following the lead of our partners in Guatemala. Most of our members are from Guatemala and the United States, but we also have members in other countries. We often lead international delegations, such as one in August that provided basic health care to over 500 people.

We are a collaboration of activists, organizers and leaders from around the world, mostly the United States and Guatemala. We began primarily as an effort between School of the Americas Watch activists and peasant leaders associated with the Committee of Peasant Unity.

In Guatemala countless indigenous and peasant communities continue to protect their culture, language, rivers and forests from centuries of genocidal violence. Government, paramilitary and private security use extreme violence and legal persecution to support the economic interests of a small national and international elite. Entire communities are burned to the ground, indigenous lands are stolen for their natural resources, rivers are poisoned, forests are cut down. Mining, export agriculture, oil and related companies profit enormously while the majority of Maya children are left with chronic malnutrition. One of the world’s most heavily forested and bio-diverse countries is converted into a major emitter of carbon dioxide.

Despite such systematic repression our partner communities continue to organize nonviolently to recuperate and defend Mother Earth. The GSP is fighting genocide and environmental destruction by building relationships of solidarity with communities and organizations in the struggle for peace and justice in Guatemala. We use nonviolent organizing to build long term solidarity with several dozen indigenous and peasant communities and organizations.