https://znetwork.org/category/place/latin-america/central-america/guatemala/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:51:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/place/latin-america/central-america/guatemala/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalas-ongoing-memory-battles/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalas-ongoing-memory-battles/#respond Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:51:40 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296508 As a human rights activist, Angélica Macario was used to the hubbub and noise of protests and to seeing her people take their clamor for justice from the mountains of El Quiché to the streets of Guatemala City. For the past 20 years, however, she has carried on that legacy in another way—one which began [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalas-ongoing-memory-battles/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-acts-like-pirates-in-the-caribbean/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-acts-like-pirates-in-the-caribbean/#respond Wed, 08 Oct 2025 18:10:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289648 In reading historian Marcus Rediker, one can learn a great deal about the “Golden Age of Piracy.” Far from being cruel brutes, pirates often practiced an egalitarian proto-socialism, with loot being spread more or less evenly between the captain and crew. Pirates also did not discriminate on the basis of race. Many pirates were Black [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-acts-like-pirates-in-the-caribbean/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalan-women-fought-for-democracy-now-they-have-to-make-it-work-for-them/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalan-women-fought-for-democracy-now-they-have-to-make-it-work-for-them/#respond Sun, 15 Sep 2024 14:34:45 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1272387 Outside the window, a storm gathers over Lake Atitlan. Inside, more than 50 women activists, including Guatemalan indigenous land defenders, international feminist leaders and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, listen attentively. Mayan ancestral authorities are telling the deep story of how a recent popular uprising mobilized by indigenous organizations held on for 106 days, defying [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalan-women-fought-for-democracy-now-they-have-to-make-it-work-for-them/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-defense-of-atitlan-lake/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-defense-of-atitlan-lake/#respond Fri, 23 Aug 2024 17:28:22 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271250 The blue of Lake Atitlán fades into the dark green vegetation on the slopes of the Atitlán, Tolimán and San Pedro volcanoes in the department of Sololá, Guatemala. Over one hundred thousand people live in Kaqchikel, Tz’utujil and K’iche’ villages around the lake and they depend upon its water to live. The lake has faced [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-defense-of-atitlan-lake/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-backed-canadian-mine-in-guatemala-threatens-water-supply-for-millions/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-backed-canadian-mine-in-guatemala-threatens-water-supply-for-millions/#respond Tue, 28 May 2024 18:06:24 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1267071 Asunción Mita is a town of roughly 40,000 people in the hills of southeastern Guatemala, near the border with El Salvador. It’s dusty and hot in the dry season — located in the Central American dry corridor, which is particularly vulnerable to climate disasters. And it has become the center of a battle over the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-backed-canadian-mine-in-guatemala-threatens-water-supply-for-millions/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-israel-facilitated-the-guatemalan-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-israel-facilitated-the-guatemalan-genocide/#respond Mon, 08 Apr 2024 16:00:57 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264766 It was on the streets of Guatemala City in 1987 that I began awakening to Israel’s partnership with the United States in facilitating genocide. Today we are “seeing genocide” — a decades-long cumulative “genocidal condition” — being played out, as Israeli modern culture and media professor Ariella Aisha Azoulay argues. We see it in the US/Israeli [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-israel-facilitated-the-guatemalan-genocide/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-months-of-protests-will-democracy-prevail-in-guatemala/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-months-of-protests-will-democracy-prevail-in-guatemala/#respond Thu, 08 Feb 2024 16:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1261889 Do you think I’ll be able to take a collectivo to Guatemala City tomorrow?’ I ask Esau Rosa, a humanitarian worker from San Salvador. Rosa shrugs his shoulders and pulls out his phone. ‘A friend from the frontera,’ he clarifies after a brief, hurried conversation. The highways were still being blocked, his friend had said, leaving hordes of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-months-of-protests-will-democracy-prevail-in-guatemala/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/indigenous-leaders-saved-guatemalas-fragile-democracy/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/indigenous-leaders-saved-guatemalas-fragile-democracy/#respond Sat, 27 Jan 2024 14:37:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1261301 Guatemala City’s Central Plaza was a sea of cautious optimism on Jan. 14. But just up the street, a march organized by Indigenous leaders set out to walk towards the plaza as part of the commemoration of the inauguration of Bernardo Arévalo as the country’s next president.  The march marked the culmination of the Indigenous-led [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/indigenous-leaders-saved-guatemalas-fragile-democracy/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-coup-for-now-is-over-arevalo-sworn-in-as-guatemalas-president/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-coup-for-now-is-over-arevalo-sworn-in-as-guatemalas-president/#respond Tue, 16 Jan 2024 17:06:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260842 Anti-corruption activist Bernardo Arévalo was sworn in as Guatemala’s president early Monday after months of fierce opposition from the Central American nation’s right-wing political establishment, obstruction that progressive campaigners and other leaders in the region decried as a coup attempt. Arévalo’s inauguration was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, but the proceedings were delayed for hours as conservative legislators [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-coup-for-now-is-over-arevalo-sworn-in-as-guatemalas-president/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/communal-strategy-drives-indigenous-led-uprising-in-guatemala/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/communal-strategy-drives-indigenous-led-uprising-in-guatemala/#respond Fri, 15 Dec 2023 16:11:40 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1259349 Over the past 10 weeks, the communal political system in Guatemala has turned party politics on its head. An energetic Indigenous rebellion has shaken the government to its core by mounting a challenge to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has used arcane and irregular investigations to facilitate dispossession, impunity, war crimes and crimes against humanity, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/communal-strategy-drives-indigenous-led-uprising-in-guatemala/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-pedagogy-of-communal-politics-in-guatemala/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-pedagogy-of-communal-politics-in-guatemala/#respond Mon, 06 Nov 2023 14:15:27 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1257011 A communal mobilization of national scope has brought everyday impunity and extractivism in Guatemala to a halt and revealed the vulnerability of the entire political and social structure.  This Indigenous-communal uprising began on October 2nd, organized and sustained nationwide communal governance structures, which although negated both in legal and political terms, have brought to the fore the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-pedagogy-of-communal-politics-in-guatemala/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/an-uprising-for-democracy-in-guatemala/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/an-uprising-for-democracy-in-guatemala/#respond Mon, 23 Oct 2023 15:46:22 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1256202 The kitchen tent was bustling with activity as volunteers prepared tortillas, scrambled eggs, doled out portions of beans and cheese, and poured coffee. It was just before eight in the morning at the protest outside the public prosecutors’ office in Guatemala City, where a dedicated crew has been serving Indigenous leaders and other demonstrators around [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/an-uprising-for-democracy-in-guatemala/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/protests-in-guatemala-shut-down-the-country-for-more-than-a-week/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/protests-in-guatemala-shut-down-the-country-for-more-than-a-week/#respond Sun, 15 Oct 2023 14:25:21 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1255784 The crumbling, pothole-filled highways and roads across Guatemala have been shut down, blocked, and barricaded by protesters for more than a week . These protests in defense of democracy and against the country’s embattled Attorney General María Consuelo Porras, and her anti-impunity prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, show no sign of slowing down, despite the threats of the deployment [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/protests-in-guatemala-shut-down-the-country-for-more-than-a-week/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-promise-of-spring/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-promise-of-spring/#respond Mon, 11 Sep 2023 17:06:49 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1253873 On the evening of August 20, election day for Guatemala’s second round of presidential voting, Alba Noe Muñoz’s family was afraid she would have a heart attack. The 90-year-old, mostly blind matriarch listened to the television, rapt, as the results came in and Bernardo Arévalo, progressive candidate for the Semilla party, took a commanding lead. She [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-promise-of-spring/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-conservative-stronghold-guatemala-elected-a-progressive-president/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-conservative-stronghold-guatemala-elected-a-progressive-president/#respond Sat, 26 Aug 2023 14:53:25 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1252620 The victory on Sunday of progressive politician Bernardo Arévalo in Guatemala’s presidential runoff suggests that voters’ primary concerns are corruption and poverty – rather than conservatives’ fear-mongering about abortion and LGBTQ rights. Arévalo, a 64-year-old sociologist who ran for the centre-left Semilla (Seed) party, secured a resounding win, with 58.01% of the vote, while his contender [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-conservative-stronghold-guatemala-elected-a-progressive-president/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bernardo-arevalo-victory-is-a-turning-point-for-guatemala/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bernardo-arevalo-victory-is-a-turning-point-for-guatemala/#respond Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1252460 Progressive social democrat César Bernardo Arévalo de León of the Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement Party) won the runoff election for Guatemala’s presidency on August 20, a surprising result that few could have predicted before the first round of voting on June 25. Arévalo previously served in Guatemala’s congress, and his father was the country’s first democratically-elected president in the mid-1940s. His [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bernardo-arevalo-victory-is-a-turning-point-for-guatemala/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/a-turning-point-in-guatemalan-history-bernardo-arevalo-wins-in-landslide-rejection-of-ruling-elite/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/a-turning-point-in-guatemalan-history-bernardo-arevalo-wins-in-landslide-rejection-of-ruling-elite/#respond Mon, 21 Aug 2023 17:15:09 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1252356 In Guatemala, progressive presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo has won a landslide victory in a runoff election against former first lady Sandra Torres. Arévalo, a member of the Semilla party, took nearly 60% of the vote Sunday after months of political persecution. In June, Arévalo stunned many in Guatemala when he placed second in the first [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/a-turning-point-in-guatemalan-history-bernardo-arevalo-wins-in-landslide-rejection-of-ruling-elite/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalas-progressive-left-did-very-well-in-recent-elections/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalas-progressive-left-did-very-well-in-recent-elections/#respond Sat, 15 Jul 2023 14:03:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1249453 In the June 25 Guatemalan presidential election, Bernardo Arévalo shocked the country by winning 11.8 percent of the vote, according to Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). The success of Arévalo, who previously served in congress and is the son of one of Guatemala’s most important presidents—Juan José Arévalo, who was elected in 1945 and oversaw the country’s democratic spring [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalas-progressive-left-did-very-well-in-recent-elections/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/meet-the-indigenous-women-taking-on-corruption-in-guatemalas-elections/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/meet-the-indigenous-women-taking-on-corruption-in-guatemalas-elections/#respond Sun, 25 Jun 2023 12:30:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1248403 Guatemala’s upcoming general election on 25 June is a transformative moment for the country as Indigenous women activists seek to break into the political arena, in an attempt to promote women’s rights, environmental policies and other progressive measures that aim to help poverty-stricken Indigenous and rural communities. These candidates are also trying to preserve the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/meet-the-indigenous-women-taking-on-corruption-in-guatemalas-elections/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/doing-journalism-is-a-crime-guatemalan-publisher-jose-ruben-zamora-faces-40-years-behind-bars/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/doing-journalism-is-a-crime-guatemalan-publisher-jose-ruben-zamora-faces-40-years-behind-bars/#respond Sat, 17 Jun 2023 14:21:41 +0000 Transcript This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. We look now at how the internationally renowned Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora faces 40 years in prison at his verdict and sentencing hearing Wednesday in Guatemala [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/doing-journalism-is-a-crime-guatemalan-publisher-jose-ruben-zamora-faces-40-years-behind-bars/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mayan-leader-thelma-cabrera-runs-for-guatemalas-presidency/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mayan-leader-thelma-cabrera-runs-for-guatemalas-presidency/#respond Mon, 03 Apr 2023 15:49:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1242753 “I consider myself a defender of Mother Earth,” explains Thelma Cabrera, a Maya-Mam peasant leader whose bid for president –at the head of the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP)– was blocked again on March 25th when the campaign season was officially launched. She still hopes to prevail. “The Movement for the Liberation of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mayan-leader-thelma-cabrera-runs-for-guatemalas-presidency/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/they-are-afraid-of-the-people-guatemala-tribunal-bars-leftist-presidential-ticket-from-ballot/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/they-are-afraid-of-the-people-guatemala-tribunal-bars-leftist-presidential-ticket-from-ballot/#respond Sun, 05 Feb 2023 15:39:37 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1238726 Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal ruled earlier this week that a leftist presidential ticket headed by Indigenous human rights defender Thelma Cabrera should be barred from the June ballot, prompting fury and vows of mass protests from Cabrera’s supporters. Thursday’s ruling—which Cabrera’s young political party, the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP), is vowing [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/they-are-afraid-of-the-people-guatemala-tribunal-bars-leftist-presidential-ticket-from-ballot/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-mining-lawsuit-in-guatemala-shows-how-trade-courts-put-locals-last/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-mining-lawsuit-in-guatemala-shows-how-trade-courts-put-locals-last/#respond Tue, 06 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1233804 A Nevada-based mining firm is suing Guatemala for more than $400 million, the first suit of its kind for the impoverished Central American country. The company complains that the Guatemalan government didn’t do enough to protect its investments in the country. But that’s news to my community and others who faced violent police repression when [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-mining-lawsuit-in-guatemala-shows-how-trade-courts-put-locals-last/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/indigenous-women-in-guatamala-are-defending-weavings-from-cultural-appropriation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/indigenous-women-in-guatamala-are-defending-weavings-from-cultural-appropriation/#respond Fri, 21 Oct 2022 11:59:13 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1223305 The vibrant colors of the Indigenous weavings from Guatemala that appear on the traditional blouses known as huipiles, skirts and other items hold a deep symbolic meaning for communities across the Central American country, but they are also deeply intertwined with the promotion of tourism in Guatemala. The intricate designs greet tourists in promotional material [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/indigenous-women-in-guatamala-are-defending-weavings-from-cultural-appropriation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-other-americans-central-american-anti-corruption-activists-are-facing-criminal-prosecution/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-other-americans-central-american-anti-corruption-activists-are-facing-criminal-prosecution/#respond Sun, 09 Oct 2022 14:32:13 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1222472 Three activists are facing criminal charges for allegedly painting graffiti on the walls of the Guatemalan congressional building during protests on November 21, 2020. But the case against these protesters has been marked by the manipulation of information and due process.  “This case represents revenge [from the authorities]; there is no other possible explanation,” Claudia [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-other-americans-central-american-anti-corruption-activists-are-facing-criminal-prosecution/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalas-attacks-on-press-have-reached-new-heights/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalas-attacks-on-press-have-reached-new-heights/#respond Tue, 16 Aug 2022 15:52:27 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1199400 In the late afternoon of July 29, Guatemalan National Police raided the home and office of the founder of one of Guatemala’s daily newspapers under orders from the country’s public prosecutor’s office. In the raids, El Periódico’s founder, internationally renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora, was arrested.  At least eight members of the staff of El Periódico were also detained for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalas-attacks-on-press-have-reached-new-heights/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-hidden-story-of-a-notorious-guatemalan-nickel-mine/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-hidden-story-of-a-notorious-guatemalan-nickel-mine/#respond Tue, 29 Mar 2022 11:24:40 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1056575 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-hidden-story-of-a-notorious-guatemalan-nickel-mine/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/general-strike-in-guatemala-denounces-corruption-mishandling-of-pandemic/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/general-strike-in-guatemala-denounces-corruption-mishandling-of-pandemic/#respond Sun, 01 Aug 2021 09:01:41 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1048873 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/general-strike-in-guatemala-denounces-corruption-mishandling-of-pandemic/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalan-communities-turn-out-for-indigenous-led-nationwide-shutdown/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalan-communities-turn-out-for-indigenous-led-nationwide-shutdown/#respond Sun, 01 Aug 2021 09:01:07 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1048871 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guatemalan-communities-turn-out-for-indigenous-led-nationwide-shutdown/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-guatemala-harris-should-address-u-s-policies-that-put-corporations-over-people/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-guatemala-harris-should-address-u-s-policies-that-put-corporations-over-people/#respond Sat, 12 Jun 2021 09:01:11 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1047489 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-guatemala-harris-should-address-u-s-policies-that-put-corporations-over-people/feed/ 0