This article was orginially posted in Swedish by my collegue Tamara Vocar.
Posted on May 3, 2012 by Tamara Vocar
On Tuesday afternoon Guatemala's Home Secretary, Mauricio López Bonilla, declared a state of seige in Santa Cruz Barillas, in the western province of Huehuetenango, after nearly 200 armed men took a military base and demanded justice for a local leader's death, and two others who were injured, earlier that day.
During the afternoon of May 1st three local civil society leaders were subject to an ambush as they were returning to their village near Posa Verde, where the company Hidro Santa Cruz is planning to construct a hydroelectric power plant. One person died as a result of the attack and two were injured. One of the surviving men have previously refused to sell their land to the company, something for which he has faced legal harassment. The two survivors report that their attacker drove vehicles similar to those owned by the company Hidro Santa Cruz, so it is assumed that the attack was carried out by persons associated with the company.
It was this event that triggered the rancorous atmosphere that led to 200 men armed with handguns and machetes seizing the local military base. According to Rony Urizar, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, several soldiers were beaten and wounded, one seriously. Afterwards, the men set fire to several buildings in the city. Guatemalan President and former General Otto Pérez Molina called the conduct of the rebels an attack on the military, and accused the participants in the riot of collaborating with drug cartels. According to reports, the Home Secretary López Bonilla in addition to the state of emergency also ordered the strengthening of military and police forces from Guatemala City to restore order in the province.
The events mark the culmination of a conflict between local people who oppose the construction of a hydroelectric power plant near Posa Verde. The company Hidro Santa Cruz has begun construction with approval from the government despite the fact that the municipal council took a vote on the construction of the power plant in 2007 which rendered a Nay.
Several human rights defenders in the area have been subjected to persecution and harassment, including threatening phone messages, because of their resistance to the hydroelectric power plant. As recently as two weeks ago, residents discovered that the company possessed homemade explosives and a report was filed against the company.
The local civil society condemned the violence in a statement, but says that it is necessary to see the riots in their context, something that Guatemalan media have so far turned a blind eye to, considering the one-sided reporting of the event.
The conflict in Santa Cruz Barillas is one of several which have arisen in relation to the exploitation of natural resources in Guatemala.
Tamara Vocar, Peace observer for SweFOR 2012-2013
