After eight months in prison, local courts in Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango, Guatemala have declared innocent the final eight men that were arrested following protests on May 4th in the town of Santa Cruz Barillas against a proposed hydroelectric dam, along with three others already freed.  

This is a major victory for the Q’anjob’al Mayan community who has suffered violence, threats, and criminalization due to their opposition to the Spanish company Hydro Santa Cruz.

Rumors of closed-door agreement signed between town government officials and Spanish hydroelectric company Hidro Santa Cruz sparked confusion and unrest among community members in Barillas, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

By Febna Caven

“In a gentle way you can shake the world”--Mahatma Gandhi

Nasako Besingi, the director of Struggle to Economise Future Environment (SEFE), one of our coalition partners on the ground in Cameroon, was arrested November 14th along with five others in the town of Mundemba, Cameroon.

Local and international pressure was successful in releasing the activists after being held for two days with no charge.

On November 15th, two more political prisoners were released from jail after more than six months in prison without evidence against them.  They were detained on May 4th in Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango after riots broke out protesting the damming of a river by a Spanish company Hydro Santa Cruz.  Eight more men remain in prison in Guatemala City.  The Independent Media Center of Guatemala released the following statement:

Officials have called the approval of the open-pit mine “unlikely” during this government’s tenure, which will last until late 2013 or early 2014.

This comes as great news for the broad movement of people opposed to the Phulbari open-pit coal mining project in northern Bangaldesh, who have been successful in holding off the project for the past six years thus far.

Karuturi Global Ltd, a company responsible for brutal landgrabbing in Gambella, Ethiopia, announced their quarterly results, showing continuing erosion in its core operations.

The Community Radio station Radio Damasco of San Pablo, San Marcos, was raided by Guatemalan police on November 15th.

The Congress of Guatemala approved a bill in a closed-door session on November 20th reforming the Telecommunications Law to extend the current commercial radio licenses for another 20 years.

The UN issued a statement in response stating their concern over these new changes that were made without any discussion with affected populations and with what has been called “unusual speed,” according to the national newspaper the Prensa Libre.