The Ellen L. Lutz Indigenous Rights Award will be given to a courageous advocate who is pursuing the rights of Indigenous Peoples' with an Indigenous community. The Award is intended to recognize Indigenous activists for their dedication, passion, and commitment to human rights and their struggle for Indigenous Rights.   

A roundtable has been established by the government of Guatemala to dialogue towards an agreement that would allow for the installation of a hydroelectric dam on the Cambalam river in the town of Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango.

In early October, the military government of Guatemala’s president Otto Perez Molina massacred a peaceful protest held by Indigenous K’iche protestors from Totonicapán, resulting in the death of seven men and leaving thirty-four others injured.   Totonicapán, a department in the western highlands of Guatemala, holds an Indigenous K’iche majority population.  Despite being one of the poorest and most malnourished of the departments in Guatemala, it also has been ranked as one of the most peaceful, ranking third to last for rates of violent crime.

On October 12^th the government of Guatemala commemorates the Dia de la Hispanidad, the day Colombus arrived to the Americas.

The second annual national conference of community radio stations was held in Guatemala on October 10^th-12^th with the participation of over 30 community radio stations from around the country. The conference aimed to strengthen the identity of the movement of community radio stations in Guatemala as agents of social change in the face of an increasingly oppressive political regime.

On Thursday, October 11th, the community radio station Radio Doble Via, of San Mateo, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala was raided by police and equipment confiscated.

On September 22^nd, Ethiopia’s new prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn was sworn into office, one month after the death of former prime minister Meles Zenawi, who had ruled the country for over two decades. Hailemariam, a close ally of Meles as deputy prime minister and foreign minister since 2010, pledged to continue in the footsteps of his predecessor.

Marcos Mateo Miguel was released from jail on September 21^st after spending five months incarcerated with no evidence presented against him.  Miguel is a community leader that was part of the opposition against the construction of the Cambalam hydroelectric dam in Barillas, Huehuetenango.

Activists in Cambodia are feeling the heavy hand of the government. Threats, intimidation and, in extreme cases, even murder have been occurring in the country.

Hidralia Energia’s actions in Guatemala have drawn attention to the company back in its hometown of Galicia, Spain, where a protest was held on August 30th.