On November 3, 2015 Radio Juventud staff, legal defense and supporters attended the hearing scheduled by the Sololá District Court to determine the legality of the radio. Last December 2014, Radio Juventud was raided by representatives of the Public Ministry and National Police which resulted in confiscation of all equipment and the community radio temporary shut down.

November 3rd, 2015-   Cultural Survival congratulates Lorenzo Mateo Francisco as he received an award on behalf of the independent media site Prensa Comunitaria, a small independent news collective covering grassroots social movements and Indigenous Peoples rights in Guatemala.

The Washington DC-based non-profit Guatemala Human Rights Commission presented the award, reporting:

Saul Mendez with his family at a peaceful demonstration in Barillas in 2013. 

Two Q’anjobal Maya community leaders who were imprisoned in Guatemala for the past two years, have finally been declared innocent and released. A regional criminal court in Guatemala found the two men to be absolved of all charges on October 28, 2015. 

On October 13, 2015 leading Indigenous organizations organized a meeting with the two aspiring vice-president candidates of Guatemala. The meeting had as a goal the discussion of the Indigenous Political Agenda and the work still to be done to improve the situation of over 40% of the population. The candidates are Mario Leal Castillo, vice-president candidate for the left-wing political party UNE and Jafeth Cabrera vice-president candidate for the right-wing political party FCN.

From October 4th to the 11th 2015, Teresita Mendoza, Cultural Survival’s Indigenous Community Radio Regional Promotor, began her visits through Central America to meet with Indigenous Radios across all seven countries. Her mission is to contact, invite and coordinate Indigenous Community Radios in Central America to unite and create an International Indigenous Community Radio Network. The initiative is in collaboration with various Indigenous rights and communications organizations in Latin America.

By The Guatemalan Human Rights Commission

The 2015 Alice Zachmann Human Rights Award will be presented to the community media group Prensa Comunitaria (Community Press) by the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (GHRC).

For Immediate Release

On September 28^th and 29^th, 2015 FundaMaya and Rights and Resources Initiative hosted the first International Workshop in Guatemala City addressing the opportunities available to Indigenous communities in their constitutional courts and the International Court of Human Rights. The workshop was a debate and reflection from various experiences in Latin America that analyzed and provided lessons learned on the social, political, and strategic use of constitutional courts and the International Court of Human Rights.

On Thursday September 10, 2015 the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and CONNECTAS in collaboration with Asociacion Sobrevivencia Cultural began a three-day Investigative Journalism training workshop in Guatemala City. The project is part of an ICFJ initiative to foster investigative journalism in Latin America. Guatemala is one of three countries in Central America to benefit from the training workshops Honduras and El Salvador have already hosted similar events.

The year 2015 was an eventful year for politics in Guatemala. In a report released on April 25, 2015 by the International Center Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), several high-ranking government officials were involved in customs fraud. The report pointed directly to the now ex-president and ex-vicepresident of the country as leading a secret group that stole millions from the country by negotiating customs taxes for various customers.

On August 22, 2015 Asociacion Mujb’ abl ‘yol celebrated the closure of a 9-month series of workshops and trainings for 40 community radio volunteers on “Democracy, Development and Community Media.” The project was partially funded by DEMOS Guatemala and the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) to benefit community journalists in Guatemala. It is the first time a project of its kind has been launched and has achieved 100% graduation rate. 40 participants proudly received their recognitions on Saturday in hopes of improving community media in their communities.