{"id":7206,"date":"2020-08-19T17:56:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T01:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/?p=7206&lang=en"},"modified":"2020-08-19T17:56:51","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T01:56:51","slug":"dispossession-of-ancestral-lands-the-case-of-the-maya-qeqchi-catalji-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/economy\/megaprojects\/dispossession-of-ancestral-lands-the-case-of-the-maya-qeqchi-catalji-community\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Dispossession of ancestral lands: The case of the Maya Q’eqchi ‘Catalj\u00ed community"},"content":{"rendered":"

*By Cesar Bol<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Guatemala, as in many other countries in the world that have been invaded and colonized, Indigenous People have not been taken into account as part of development, and rather actions have been taken and laws have even been created to legitimize the dispossession of land and natural resources.\u00a0Some leaders who speak out against injustices are persecuted and imprisoned for crimes they have never committed.\u00a0Many of the communities that claim the lands and who are often accused of invading territory with the excuse of being evicted are families that have worked for years and generations for these lands.\u00a0This is the case of the Catalj\u00ed community, which is located in the municipality of Cob\u00e1n, department of Alta Verapaz.<\/p>\n

Catalj\u00ed is made up of forty families of Maya Q’eqch\u00ed descent, living in extreme poverty without access to piped water or electricity service.\u00a0At present, they are dedicated to agricultural work, mainly to the cultivation of corn and beans, and during other months of the year men migrate to monoculture farms to carry out work as day laborers.\u00a0Some young people who manage to finish their studies at the primary level are hired as security agents in the capital city.\u00a0Some young women also temporarily migrate to the city of Cob\u00e1n or the capital to do work at home.<\/p>\n

Until 1965, the families of the Catalj\u00ed community had had historical possession of their lands, and had not had the need to register them in the General Property Registry.\u00a0In that year, a person who identified himself by the name Manuel Reyes arrived in the community, and under different deceptions he converted all the men and women of Catalj\u00ed as his workers for the cultivation of sugarcane, who were never paid for their work in any way.<\/p>\n

In 1985, due to the internal armed conflict, these families had to move to another place to survive the repression of the army.\u00a0In the book\u00a0Ruptures, reconstruction and continuity in five Q’eqchi ‘communities: Women and access to land\u00a0, it is mentioned that in Catalj\u00ed, a Land Committee had been organized with the purpose of managing the ownership of land that until that moment they had in possession: \u00abThey were preparing the committee when the violence came\u00bb mentioned one of the interviewees.<\/p>\n

When they returned to their lands in 1983, they found the news that Mr. German Wasseen had sold their lands to the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism INGUAT, since Catalj\u00ed is settled in an area of \u200b\u200bcloud forests where it is possible to observe the Quetzal and other animals such as deer, saraguates and a great variety of birds and plants.\u00a0However, they were able to rebuild their houses and re-plant their crops.\u00a0Over the years, in 1993, INGUAT notified the families that it was the owner of a large area of \u200b\u200bthe farm (4 caballer\u00edas) and that it would grant them a temporary permit to stay, the cutting of large trees being prohibited.<\/p>\n

From 2014 to 2017, the community looked for institutions that would provide accompaniment to Indigenous communities, and thus demonstrate their historical possession.\u00a0With no other alternative, they asked the Secretary of Agrarian Affairs for support, and likewise, the Presidential Dialogue Commission, INGUAT and CONAP were involved in the case (it is worth noting that they are all government agencies), thus getting a commission to do a field trip.<\/p>\n

The oldest residents of the community presented copies of their identity cards, where it was stated that they had been born on said lands, having been born on said lands, but this was not taken into account.\u00a0It was very sad and disappointing for the community members, that after the visit, the government institutions concluded that the conservation of the forest is very important, the lands of the community should be declared as a reproduction center and sanctuary of the quetzal, leaving the inhabitants adrift.<\/p>\n

With deep regret, the families realized that the actions of the Secretary of Agrarian Affairs were based on the documents presented by the lawyers of the government institutions;\u00a0and they never took the testimony of the families of the historic possession seriously.\u00a0The community does not disagree with the conservation of the forests, but at no time was there any proposal to relocate the families to other lands.<\/p>\n

*Cesar Bol wrote this article with the testimony of community members and documents filed by the Catalj\u00ed community.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photo for illustrative purposes: Somewhere in Alta Verapaz, by Nelson Cetino.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*By Cesar Bol In Guatemala, as in many other countries in the world that have been invaded and colonized, Indigenous People have not been taken into account as part of development, and rather actions have been taken and laws have even been created to legitimize the dispossession of land and natural resources.\u00a0Some leaders who speak […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[425,417,453,412],"tags":[1340,2255,2268,2270,2269],"class_list":["post-7206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-action-en-2","category-forests","category-frontpage-en","category-megaprojects","tag-alta-verapaz","tag-catalji","tag-land-dispossession","tag-poverty-guatemala","tag-qechi-people"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/foto-nelson.jpg?fit=1875%2C1384&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ljt7-1Se","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12861,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/uncategorized\/indigenous-and-rural-women-defend-land-in-the-face-of-extractivism-in-guatemala\/?lang=en","url_meta":{"origin":7206,"position":0},"title":"Indigenous and rural women defend land in the face of extractivism in Guatemala","author":"EntreMundos","date":"21 mayo, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"By Just Associates (JASS) TRASLATED BY THOMAS LANG This is a summary of an outline published by Just Associates (JASS) with the goal of\u00a0sharing information about the fight for land in the face of extractivism in Guatemala. 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