[Indigsol] Guatemala-Biofuel Corp Kidnaps CUC Leaders.

[Ben Powless]

--- On Thu, 7/10/08, Rights Action
<info at rightsaction.org<http://ca.mc309.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=info@rightsaction.org>>
wrote:
> From: Rights Action <info at rightsaction.org<http://ca.mc309.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=info@rightsaction.org>
>
> Subject: Guate- Biofuel Corp Kidnaps CUC Leaders
> To: robertoxelaju at yahoo.com<http://ca.mc309.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=robertoxelaju@yahoo.com>
> Received: Thursday, July 10, 2008, 11:32 PM
> July 10, 2008
>
> You have not heard from Rights Action for a few days as we
> had
> problems with our email server. But, as you can see, we are
> back on
> line, and today distribute an urgent action that was a bit
> slow in
> coming out because of out e-problems.
>
> We are extremely concerned for the safety and land rights
> of
> communities affected by the new bio fuel industry being
> promoted by
> the Inter American Development Bank in Guatemala. Please
> read this
> urgent action and write to the IDB.
>
> Please redistribute this info far 'n' wide. If you want
> on or off
> this elist, or have anything to say about this urgent
> action:
> info at rightsaction.org<http://ca.mc309.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=info@rightsaction.org>
.
>
> ----
>
> CUC National Committee Members Attacked by Gunfire and
> Kidnapped
>
> Biofuel Agrobusinesses Violently Repress Communities
>
> Rights Action is extremely concerned for the safety of
> members of the
> National Committee of CUC (the Campesino Unity Committee),
> and for the
> safety of members of the Maya Keqchi communities of La
> Isla, Caserio
> el Mirador Semao, Corazon de Mais, and Teleman Punto 15,
> all in the
> municipality of Panzos, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.
>
> Historically the area known as Finca Los Recuerdos has been
> farmed by
> the above mentioned communities as it pertains to their
> territory.
> Approximately three years ago a bio fuel agribusiness,
> Ingenio
> Guadelupe, began cutting forests and planting large
> extensions of
> sugar cane for ethanol production. The indigenous farmers
> have been
> extremely concerned about the damage to the environment
> provoked by
> this business, not to mention the invasion of their
> territory.
>
> June 30, 2008 a group of approximately 60 Keqchi families
> entered the
> Finca Los Recuerdos at approximately 7 am to establish
> temporary
> shelters and once again begin planting in the area.
>
> The families were viscously attacked by paramilitary
> security forces
> associated with Ingenio Guadelupe. The group of men, women
> and
> children were fired upon and a helicopter property of the
> company
> attacked them flying over the families while only
> approximately three
> to four feet off the ground. In this way the group was
> forced to
> abandon the lands. One 35 year old father for three
> children,
> Cristobal Coc Cuc, was shot and hospitalized.
>
> July 1, at approximately 9 am, the families and
> representatives CUC,
> approximately 200 people total, gathered in Panzos to
> protest the
> violence perpetuated against the communities, and demand
> prosecution
> of those responsible and the clarification of the land
> title
> situation. The peaceful group was again attacked by the
> paramilitary
> forces with the direct participation of Carlos Withman and
> Guillermo
> Urrutia, two managers of the ethanol agro business.
>
> The two company managers, and members of the paramiltary
> security
> force that accompanied them, fired into the peaceful crown,
> dispersing
> them, and seeking out the CUC National Committee members.
> They shouted
> that they intended to kill Aparicio Perez and Rafael
> Gonzales, both of
> whom were able to escape. They then proceeded to kidnap two
> women,
> Maria Martin Domingo and Fabiana Ortiz, members of CUCs
> National
> Committee. The crowd identified the house they were taken
> to, and held
> for several hours. Only CUC initiated legal actions in
> Guatemala City
> did a judge and the police enter the house to liberate the
> women. The
> assailants continue to operate in the region with absolute
> impunity.
>
> The situation in Panzos is emblematic of the agrarian
> situation in
> Guatemala in which the Guatemalan government acts with
> complicity with
> large landholders and agro businesses to illegally obtain
> land
> belonging to indigenous communities. Violent force either
> committed
> directly by State security forces, or paramilitary illegal
> actions
> tolerated by the State, are used to violently evict
> communities
> without establishing clarity in terms of land rights or
> much less
> protecting the special rights of indigenous communities as
> guaranteed
> by international human rights standards.
>
> The agrarian conflict has become worse in recent years with
> massive
> investment in bio fuel production, both in ethanol via
> sugar cane and
> in bio diesel through african palm production. The rapid
> growth of bio
> fuel industries in Guatemala was stimulated by the interest
> of the
> Inter American Development Bank in bio fuels.
>
> In January 2008, the Inter American Development Bank
> approved a
> technical grant to help Guatemala develop plans to promote
> the
> bio-fuel industry. Over the past several years Inter
> American
> Development Bank and the World Bank have promoted bio-fuels
> as an
> alternative to slow global warning. Communities around the
> world
> immediately began denouncing the deforestation and
> desertification
> bio-fuel production causes. Over the past year the same
> institutions
> promoting bio-fuels began warning that bio-fuels contribute
> to the
> globally rising cost of food. Communities affected by bio
> fuel
> plantation know that the environmental destruction they
> cause must
> contribute to global warming rather then help combat it,
> not to
> mention increasing hunger.
>
> CUCs National Committee member Aparicio Perez has also been
> directly
> affected by violence from the bio fuel industry as his home
> community
> of La Ayuda, Coatepeque is being devastated by the
> contamination and
> desertification caused by neighboring African Palm
> plantations, and as
> a consequence of their protests he has been subject to
> death threats.
> On March 20, 2008 his two sons were pursued by a pick up
> truck with
> tinted windows in an apparent attempt to attack them.
>
> ON July 7 a member of CUC in their Coatepeque region was
> gunned down
> and killed in a public mini bus, a public assassination
> that
> demonstrates the degree of impunity and violence in the
> area which
> leave activists vulnerable.
>
> CUC is a long time partner of Rights Action, it is one of
> the longest
> standing land rights organizations in Guatemala, and has
> maintained a
> clear and constant struggle for the respect for fundamental
> human
> rights for over three decades. Rigoberta Menchu won the
> Nobel Peace
> Prize while working as a member of CUC.
>
> Aparicio Perez has traveled to the United States twice with
> Rights
> Action, first in a speaking tour focused on denouncing the
> killings of
> land rights activists in Eastern Guatemala and most
> recently to attend
> the United States Social Forum. Both Aparicio Perez and
> Rafael
> Gonzales have been active in planning for the Hemispheric
> Social Forum
> scheduled to occur in Guatemala in October 2008.
>
> - SAMPLE LETTER -
>
> Luis Alberto Moreno, President
>
> Inter American Development Bank
>
> 1300 New York Avenue, N.W.
> Washington, D.C. 20577, USA
> Tel: (202) 623 -3096
>
> Dear President Moreno:
>
> I am extremely concerned that the Inter American
> Development Bank is
> supporting the development of biofuel industry in Guatemala
> when the
> communities affected by bio fuel agro business are under
> attack,
> literally, by biofuel agribusinesses. The Guatemalan
> government
> permits these businesses to perpetrate violence and
> contaminate and
> steal water form the communities.
>
> Example of this is the June 30 attack on the Maya Keqchi
> communities
> of La Isla, Caserio el Mirador Semao, Corazon de Mais, and
> Teleman
> Punto 15, in Panzos by paramilitary security forces
> associated with
> Ingenio Guadelupe, and the violent attack on members of the
> national
> committee of the Comite de Unidad Campesino CUC, the
> following day.
>
> Bio fuel production in Guatemala only increases
> deforestation,
> desertification and global warming. It also increases
> hunger, and
> violates land rights of indigenous communities and
> increases violent
> repression. Please immediately suspend your support for the
> bio fuel
> industry in Guatemala.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> ___
>
> DENUNCIA URGENTE
>
> GUILLERMO URRUTIA DISPARA CONTRA CAMPESINOS Y SECUESTRA A
> MIEMBRAS
> DEL COMITÉ NACIONAL DEL CUC
>
> Today, July 1, when various campesino communities gathered
> to protest
> in Teleman, Alta Verapaz, in protest of the ataque suffered
> June 30 in
> Finca El Recuerdo in which one member of CUC was injured,
> at about 9
> am, , managers of the business Chabil Utzaj, SA, took out
> their guns
> and fired against campesinos and campesinas who were
> peaceful
> protesting in the exit from Teleman to Panzos.
>
> The members of the security force for these men also fired
> and
> kidnaped two women members of the National Committee of
> CUC, Maria
> Martin Domingo and Fabiana Ortiz Sales. The women are
> detained in a
> house with a yellow wooden door located next to the
> gasoline station
> next to the Texaco in the exit of Teleman. They are
> currently
> attempting to capture Rafael Gonzales, Coordinator of CUC,
> and
> Aparicio Perez, both members of CUCs National Committee.
>
> We hold Withman and Urrutia and their paramilitary guards
> responsible
> for our fellow members of CUC who have been injured in the
> indiscriminate attack and for the kidnappingg of our fellow
> members of
> CUC already mentioned.
>
> We call on national and international solidarity to
> pronounce on the
> acts.
>
> TO CONFRONT HUNGER
>
> OCCUPY, RESIST AND PRODUCE
>
>  Clear Head, Solidarity Heart, and Combative Fist
>
> Of the Farm Workers
>
> Comité de Unidad Campesina
>
> CUC
>
> --------------------
>
> Coatepeque, July 7, 2008
>
> CUC Central
>
> Information about the Assasination of Balvino Chávez
>
> He was assassinated today, Monday Duly 7, close to Caserio
> los
> Cerros, in the highway from Coatepeque to the Pacaya area,
> at 11:30
> am. Our compañero was traveling from Coatepeque to San
> Vicente
> Pacayá in a collective transport minibus he owned. Two men
> that
> traveled on the minibus took out guns and killed him with
> gunshots,
> then fled. According to witnesses, he received 5 of the 10
> bullets
> fired and two other people were injured, whose names we do
> not know,
> and they were transported tot he Coatepeque hospital.
>
> Below we send photographs of the acts. CUC condemned the
> act in a
> direct interview in Despertar Occidental in which we asked
> the
> authorities to investigate this situation.
>
>
>
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-- 
"In life we meet extraordinary people who follow us wherever we may go" -
Trisha Nagpal
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