Monday, February 6, 2012

Info night & Documentary: Mayas from Guatemala defending their land

Documentary 'Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth'; round table with Maya-representative Mauro Cosojay, Guatemalan food and drinks.


A combined Noticias & Peace Brigades International event, in which the documentary 'Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth' will be the introduction to a discussion with Mauro Cosojay. Mauro is the representative of 12 indiginous Maya Ka-algo tribes from Guatemala, acompanied by PBI. He will tell about the struggle of the communities to block a quarry from the cement company Cementos Progreso from their living area. Since 2006, the communities have been demanding their right to participate in the decision making about the project, but instead, they have received various violent interventions in the community, mainly by the national police, the army and individuals allied to Cementos Progreso. Several community members are in prison, others have received dead threats. Non of the offenders has been judged. The case of the communities is an illustrive example of the reality shown in the documentary, in which the interests of indiginous Maya-communities conflict with those of transnational companies, exploiting the natural resources of the ground on which the Mayas have lived for centuries.

'The land doesn't belong to us, we belong to the land'

Program:

18:00 Typical food of Guatemala
20:00 Documentary: Heart of Sky
21:30 Debate with Mauri Cosajov representative of indigenous communities

No comments: