Guatemala: Stop treating indigenous human rights defenders like criminals – UN experts
GENEVA (27 July 2021) – UN rights experts* have expressed concerns over the criminalisation, violations of due process and health rights of an indigenous human rights defender in Guatemala.
"Mr. Bernardo Caal Xól has been criminalised because he, on behalf of his community, took a case all the way to the Supreme Court to try to halt the Oxec hydroelectric project," the experts said. "Sadly, this is not an isolated case; too often in Guatemala those who defend land and the environment are considered criminals."
Bernardo Caal Xól is a leader of the peaceful resistance of Cahabón, a collective of 38 Maya Q'eqchi' communities in the northern department of Alta Verapaz in northern Guatemala. In 2015, he organised peaceful opposition to the Oxec hydroelectric project, which the communities said endangered their sacred Cahabón River.
In retaliation, smear campaigns were launched in newspapers, on television and social media to discredit his work and to portray human rights defenders in a negative light, the experts said.