The work of assassinated CODECA leader Luis Marroquín

Community Action FrontPage assassination, campesino, CODECA, development, Guatemala, Guatemala, human rights, jalapa, marroquin, mining, xinca EntreMundos 16 June, 2018 0 Comments

The work of assassinated CODECA leader Luis Marroquín

Learn about the work of Luis Marroquín, a Xinca organizer from Jalapa, Guatemala, who was the Jalapa regional coordinator of the Committee for Campesino Development (CODECA). He was killed on May 9, 2018, one of seven indigenous human rights activists murdered in 30 days in Guatemala. CODECA is best known for fighting high electricity prices charged by I Squared Capital, the US company that owns Energuate, an electricity distributor.

The organizing CODECA does around this issue creates strong networks that allow communities to confront other power brokers like land owners, politicians, and transnational companies over pressing issues like land and water grabs and underfunded social programs.

Luis trained and accompanied over 100 communities in the province of Jalapa in the defense of their rights as part of CODECA. Before he began his work, CODECA had no presence in the province.

In addition to lower electricity prices, CODECA seeks the nationalization of electricity distribution and a popular constitutional assembly to establish a plurinational state that gives greater autonomy to the country’s indigenous people and guarantees basic rights.

See more about water conflict in Guatemala here.