We share with you our Bulletin No. 53, which contains the following articles: 40th anniversary of GAM, an inspiration in the struggle for human rights in Guatemala - The struggle for the right to water on the southern coast: “Water is life, not a commodity” - News of our work: New historic sentence in the Maya Achí women’s case: perpetrators convicted of crimes against humanity in the form of sexual violence.

The beginning of the trial in the criminalization process against members of the Ch’orti’ Maya Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula was suspended and re-scheduled for August 22.

We present our Annual Report 2024, which summarizes our activities over the past year. We draw special attention to our accompaniment of campesino and indigenous organizations in Alta Verapaz, made up of communities that live under constant threat of eviction, as well as the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa that defends their rights, and those of the territory they inhabit, against mining activities that have never been consulted.

We publish our new Bulletin No. 52 which is dedicated to the fight against impunity and for historical memory. It contains the following articles:

March 22nd is World Water Day. This year, representatives from Guatemala’s diverse indigenous peoples and territories presented their findings and demands regarding the water situation to the government of Bernardo Arévalo. This was the result of 24 assemblies for water and life, held during the first quarter of the year in different regions. Over 600 people from more than 35 community organizations, including ancestral authorities, participated in these assemblies.

A Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice delegation visited Guatemala on November 6 and 7, 2023. The purpose of this visit was to analyze and address the current situation in Guatemala from a legal perspective and to offer recommendations from this group of  nternational law experts to support restoration of public confidence in the Guatemalan judicial system, institutionalization of an independent judiciary, alignment with international democratic standards, and strengthening the rule of law.

(published in the News of our work in the Bulletin no. 48)