Land grab blamed in attack on Guatemala Indigenous community
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 21:03 EDT, 17 August 2020 | UPDATED: 00:08 EDT, 18 August 2020
The Altiplano Campesino Committee of Guatemala denounces that 40 Q'eqchi' Maya families in Cubilguitz, Alta Verapaz were attacked by armed groups on Saturday night.
Six houses were completely burned and destroyed, including the clothing and belongings of the victims. Other possessions were robbed by the armed criminals. The community fears a repeat attack as night falls.
The Campesino Committee is linking the violent actions to business sectors and says that these particular armed groups work at the service of the Dorothee Diesseldorff family as the persecution, evictions and dispossession of campesinos continues.
Those targeted in the evictions were workers on a farm owned by Diesseldorff who had been fired 15 years ago without receiving their salaries or benefits.
They have also said that this is part of a history of big landowners utilizing small paramilitary groups in order to violently and extrajudicially evict communities from their land in addition to criminalizing and jailing peasant workers.
The victims say that the attackers doused the home with gasoline before setting the homes ablaze.
More:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/guatemala-qeqchi-maya-peasant-families-suffer-attack-20200816-0011.html
