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Guatemala

María and her mother Adela (41) in the Polochic Valley in northern Guatemala.

Overview
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Overview

Guatemala experienced four decades of civil war. Peace was declared in the late 1990s. Despite more hopeful times, significant challenges remain in the country.

Today, Guatemala has one of the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition in Latin America. This is especially the case in rural areas and among the indigenous population. Large business projects have led to environmental destruction and land grabs, while attacks against human rights defenders are common. Violence against women is a serious problem in the country. Guatemala is also vulnerable to natural and climate related disasters.

Thanks to your support, Trócaire is helping communities in Guatemala to protect their land in the face of corporate greed. Our work helps to tackle violence against women and to support female survivors of abuse. We are also saving lives by supporting communities to prepare for and respond to disasters.

Guatemala

Human Development Index:
Ranked 126 out of 189 countries

Malnutrition:
Highest rates in Latin America

Poverty:
Half the population live in poverty

Child marriage:
30% of marriages before age 18

Impact in 2020

21,000

people supported with humanitarian assistance

15,000

people supported through human rights programmes

5,000

people supported through women's empowerment

11,000

people supported through resource rights projects

Contact Details

Martin Larrecochea

Country Director

Why we are working in Guatemala

Guatemala still bears the scars of civil war. More than 200,000 people were killed in the conflict which ran from the 1960s to 1990s. The vast majority of those killed were indigenous.

Today, indigenous communities remain marginalised in Guatemala. At the same time, a powerful minority keep a firm grip on the country’s political and economic power.

Private companies, with the support of the Guatemalan State, are taking over indigenous territories. Agribusiness, energy projects and mining have led to forced evictions and environmental destruction. Those who resist are often criminalised, attacked and murdered.

Progress has been made in the area of justice for survivors of sexual abuse during the civil war. However, violence against women remains a major problem in Guatemala. Deeply rooted beliefs about the role of women in society means that discrimination against women is pervasive.

Guatemala is exposed to recurrent disasters such as droughts, floods and hurricanes. Earthquakes, forest fires, erupting volcanoes, and landslides also pose a serious threat to life.

How are we responding

Trócaire began working in Guatemala in the 1980s during the worst moments of the civil war. We supported thousands of Guatemalans who fled the violence. Our country office was established in 2001.

Our work in Guatemala is focused on human rights and democratic space, resource and land rights, women’s empowerment, humanitarian response and emergency preparedness.

Trócaire works in four programme areas in Guatemala

1. Human Rights and Democratic Space
We help indigenous women and men to seek their political, social and economic rights. This supports better governance in Guatemala by making authorities more accountable. We also help to ensure the rights of human rights defenders and of victims of human rights violations are respected and protected.

Our actions include:
- Training communities so they are better equipped to defend their social, political and civil rights.
- Using litigation and advocacy to protect human rights defenders, and to tackle impunity.
- Supporting access to the justice system for vulnerable groups, particularly indigenous women
- Strengthening civil society networks and popular support for human rights defenders
2. Land and Resource Rights
We support vulnerable communities to increase food security and resilience to climate change. We also support indigenous communities to gain access to and control over natural resources, in particular land and water.

Our actions include:
- Supporting people, particularly rural indigenous women, to adopt agro- ecological production systems, to increase and diversify their incomes.
- Supporting grassroots movements that protect people’s rights to access and use resources, with a special emphasis on reinforcing indigenous organisations and indigenous women’s leadership.
- Supporting communities to adopt land management measures that enhances their resilience to climate change and other threats.
- Lobbying to ensure that laws and policies are implemented to improve access to resources for indigenous communities
3. Women's Empowerment
We work to ensure women are free from violence and its associated risks. We support women to become leaders in public and private life. We empower them to have a voice in decisions that affect their lives.

Our actions include:
- Providing legal and psychological support to female survivors of gender based violence
- Working with men to change attitudes that impact negatively on women
- Increasing the visibility of women leaders in communities
- Advocating for better public policies for the prevention of violence against women and appropriate support for survivors.
4. Humanitarian
We work to ensure that communities affected by crises receive appropriate humanitarian assistance. We support people, especially women, to have the necessary capacity to respond to, prevent and recover from disasters.

Our actions include:
- Coordinating with national institutions and humanitarian networks
- Supporting initiatives such as reforestation and soil-protection practices which increase resilience to natural events like floods and landslides
- Mobilising communities in order to strengthen their preparation, response and recovery from crisis.
- Providing emergency aid when disaster strikes.

Highlighted Resources

Trócaire Guatemala Plan Estratégico 2016–2020

Download

Guatemala Resources

Title		Resource Type	Year
	Economías de Desposesión: Mujeres de Honduras y Guatemala en la Lucha Global por la Tierra	Policy and Programmes	5 Aug 2020	Download
	Economies of Dispossession: Women from Honduras and Guatemala in the Global Scramble for Land	Policy and Programmes	5 Aug 2020	Download
	Agroecology in Western Guatemala	Policy and Programmes	5 Aug 2020	Download

View More Resources

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Latest Guatemala News

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813 days in prison for protecting his community’s land in Guatemala

Trócaire 15 July 2021

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Press releases

Trócaire dismayed by ongoing criminalisation of Abelino Chub Caal

Damien 08 March 2021

...

Guatemala

Delivering justice & human rights: 5 key take-aways from Trócaire’s Strategic Litigation research

Damien 15 February 2021

...

Humanitarian

Trócaire responding to second Central America hurricane

Damien 19 November 2020

...

Guatemala

Learning Good Practices from Trócaire’s Disaster Risk Reduction Work in Guatemala

Damien 18 November 2020

...

Humanitarian

Trócaire responding to Hurricane Eta devastation

Damien 06 November 2020

...

Humanitarian

5 ways Trócaire protects Mental Health around the world

Damien 09 October 2020

...

Guatemala

Trócaire condemns murder of French activist in Guatemala

Damien 17 August 2020

...

Business and Human Rights

Trócaire concerned by threats made to Guatemalan Migrant House

Damien 24 January 2020

...

Climate change

Environmentally friendly farming in Guatemala

Damien 06 November 2019

...

Business and Human Rights

Guatemalan activist wins Trócaire human rights award

Damien 02 October 2019

...

Business and Human Rights

President Higgins visits Trócaire’s award-winning Bloom garden

Damien 30 May 2019

...

Business and Human Rights

Trócaire back at Bord Bia’s Bloom festival

Damien 28 May 2019

...

Business and Human Rights

María’s family “hopeful for the future” thanks to your support

Damien 02 May 2019

...

Business and Human Rights

Land rights defender finally walks free in Guatemala

Damien 29 April 2019

Having been wrongfully imprisoned for over two years, Abelino’s trial lasted less than five days last week as he was c...

Business and Human Rights

808 days of wrongful imprisonment

Damien 18 April 2019

...

Business and Human Rights

‘Please keep walking with us’

Damien 11 April 2019

Like many people in Ireland, I’m familiar with reports about the caravans of displaced people moving through Central A...

Guatemala

Trócaire pays tribute to Sally O’Neill

Damien 08 April 2019

...

Guatemala

Voices from the Migrant Caravan

Damien 31 January 2019

“There is no way to live there, we don´t know how to survive” says Margarita, 34. She has left her home country of ...

Guatemala

“It has been 5 years without rain”

Damien 19 November 2018

In a country where violence, corruption and discrimination towards indigenous people is common, people are trying to sur...

Climate change

Brazil election: why we need to stand with human rights defenders

Damien 01 November 2018

...

Guatemala

John McColgan launches photography book in aid of Trócaire

Damien 12 June 2018

John visited both countries in his role as Trócaire Ambassador. Best known for his work with Riverdance and Tyrone Prod...

Guatemala

Rios Montt death closes bloody chapter for Guatemala

Damien 06 April 2018

For others, particularly the survivors and victims of the genocide, his death represents a denial of justice from t...

Guatemala

Human rights activist falsely imprisoned in Guatemala

Damien 17 January 2018

Abelino Chub Caal, a human rights activists who Trócaire supports in Guatemala has been imprisoned since Feb 2017 under...

Guatemala

International Human Rights Award acknowledges Indigenous women’s historic legal victory in Guatemala

Damien 23 November 2017

Last year history was made in Guatemala as former Lieutenant Esteelmer Reyes Girón and military commissioner Heriberto ...

Guatemala

Corruption-accused President of Guatemala given reprieve by Congress

Damien 12 September 2017

Jimmy Morales was voted President of Guatemala in 2016. He campaigned on a platform of honest governance, after the prev...

Guatemala

EU and Latin America: Human rights cannot be the cost of trade

Damien 07 September 2017

The EU has increased its imports from Latin America by 50% in the last decade. It is the region’s third largest tr...

Guatemala

Meeting genocide survivors in Guatemala

Damien 04 May 2017

Lisa Naughten, a Trócaire supporter, shares her experiences of travelling with Trócaire to Guatemala in February ...

Guatemala

Trócaire condemns the murder of Jeremy Barrios, staff member at our partner organisation CALAS, Guatemala

Damien 17 November 2016

November 12, 2016 On November 12, 2016, in Guatemala City at around 5:30 pm, Jeremy Abraham Barrios Lima was shot twice ...

Guatemala

Historic victory for women’s rights and justice in Guatemala

Damien 07 March 2016

The plaintiffs at the trial. Photo: Mujeres Transformando el Mundo The accused and their lawyers at the Su...

Guatemala

“No one can shut me up for being a woman”

Damien 02 November 2015

I visited Doña Tina Velasquez Garcia, who is 65 and who lives in a rural community just outside the town of Pochuta, ab...

Guatemala

Time of change in Guatemala: a new era of justice and democracy

Damien 30 September 2015

The 2nd of September 2015 will be remembered throughout Guatemala as an historic victory for the Guatemalan people in th...

Climate change

Diversity determines destiny: Trócaire partners in Guatemala working to secure land and food supplies

Damien 12 June 2015

Rose Hogan, Trócaire’s policy advisor on sustainable agriculture, reports from Guatemala on the global lessons that c...

Guatemala

President of Ireland marks retirement of Trócaire’s Sally O’Neill

Damien 25 March 2015

Yesterday, the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, marked the retirement of leading human rights advocate and ...

Guatemala

Land for 110 violently evicted Guatemalan families

Damien 21 August 2014

As the sun rose on the Polochic valley 525 women, men and children belonging to various communities began a twelve hour ...

Guatemala

A testimony of survival and dignity in the face of genocide

Damien 15 July 2014

A CIDSE delegation of European bishops and priests has travelled to Guatemala to show their solidarity with survivors of...

Guatemala

Celebrating life in Guatemala one year on from the historic genocide trial

Damien 16 May 2014

By Sally O’Neill, Head of Region, Latin America “We truly believe that in order for peace to exist i...

Guatemala

Reclaiming historic memory and public space in Guatemala

Damien 27 February 2014

by Aisling Walsh, Guatemala The 25th of February 2014 marked the 15th anniversary of the publication of ‘Memory...

Guatemala

Food Not Fuel: Evicted families in Guatemala still face an uncertain future

Damien 27 February 2014

Manuel Laj Ical and his daughter Wilma at their house in 8 de agosto. Right: Juana Laj Ical finishing one of her handmad...

Guatemala

The Gift of Safe Motherhood: transforming and saving lives in Guatemala

Damien 16 December 2013

by Michelle Hoctor Small hands grab the breezy pink curtain which hangs over the low entrance door to the house of 57 ye...

Climate change

Food Not Fuel – make your voice heard ahead of critical MEP vote

Damien 02 September 2013

People are going hungry because crops are being used to fill our petrol tanks instead of feeding families. Biofuel...

Guatemala

Photo Exhibition – ‘The long struggle for justice in Guatemala’

Damien 15 July 2013

‘The long struggle for justice in Guatemala’ is a photo exhibition highlighting Trócaire’s work on hu...

Guatemala

This land is Mayan – actor Aidan Gillen reports from Trócaire project in Guatemala

Damien 04 June 2013

‘Food Not Fuel’, a video about the Rio Frio community featuring Aidan Gillen Food Not Fuel from Trocaire on Vimeo. T...

Guatemala

The long fight for justice in Guatemala

Damien 27 May 2013

By Sally O’Neill, Head of Region, Latin America Sally O’Neill reflects on Trócaire’s groundbreakin...

Guatemala

Justice in Guatemala as Rios Montt found guilty of genocide

Damien 13 May 2013

By Elena Hermosa, Human Rights and Governance A tense silence gripped the room as Judge Jazmin Barrios began to read the...

Guatemala

Rebuilding homes in Guatemala

Damien 11 April 2013

Last November, an earthquake struck the San Marcos region of north-western Guatemala, killing 41 people and leaving over...

Guatemala

Women challenging oppression in Guatemala

Damien 21 December 2012

by Lorraine Keane. My visit to Guatemala with Trócaire was a week of incredibly mixed emotions; delight at seeing how T...

Guatemala

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Guatemala

Overview

Guatemala

Impact in 2020

21,000

people supported with humanitarian assistance

15,000

people supported through human rights programmes

5,000

people supported through women's empowerment

11,000

people supported through resource rights projects

Contact Details

Martin Larrecochea

Why we are working in Guatemala

How are we responding

Trócaire works in four programme areas in Guatemala

Highlighted Resources

Guatemala Resources

Economías de Desposesión: Mujeres de Honduras y Guatemala en la Lucha Global por la Tierra

Economies of Dispossession: Women from Honduras and Guatemala in the Global Scramble for Land

Agroecology in Western Guatemala

View More Resources

Latest Guatemala News

Funding Partners in Guatemala

Irish Aid

Electric Aid

EU ECHO

European Commission

Local Implementing Partners

Pastoral Social - Cáritas, Diócesis de la Verapaz

Pastoral Social, Diócesis de San Marcos

Pastoral Social, Diócesis del Quiché

CODIDENA, Diócesis de Santa Rosa de Lima

Casa del Migrante

Parlamento del Pueblo Xinka de Guatemala

FGT - Fundación Guillermo Toriello

Red Kuchub'al

CALDH - Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos

UDEFEGUA - Unidad de Protección a Defensoras de Derechos Humanos

MTM - Mujeres Transformando el Mundo

ADIVIMA - Asociación Desarrollo Integral de Victimas de la Violencia en las

Verapaces Maya Achi

ACOGUATE - Coordinacion del Acompañamiento Internacional en Guatemala

CERNE - Centro de Educación y Recuperación Nutricional Emmanuel

COPAE - Comisión Pastoral Paz y Ecología

ODHAG - Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado de Guatemala

Brigadas de Paz Internacional, Proyecto Guatemala

ADICI - Asociación de Desarrollo Integral Comunitario Indígena "Wakliiqo"

AGEMA - Asociación de Desarrollo Integral y Salud Comunitaria Generación de Maíz

ACCSS - Asociación Coordinadora Comunitaria de Servicios para la Salud

Asociación por Nosotras Ixmukané

Asociación Caja Lúdica

GGM - Grupo Guatemalteco de Mujeres

ECAP - Asociación Equipo de Estudios Comunitarios y Acción Psicosocial

Asociación Nuevos Horizontes

Movimiento de Mujeres Indígenas Tz'ununija'/Ixtzunun

REDMUSOVI

CUCG - Asociación Consejo de Unidad Campesina de Guatemala

SERJUS - Asociación Comunitaria para el Desarrollo / REDSAG

Asociación Civil El Observador

CEPREDENAC - Centro de Coordinación para la Prevención de los Desastres

Naturales en América Central