COMMISSIONS: The Curse of Palm Oil in Guatemala: 05-20180211palm0087

EL ESTOR, GUATEMALA. February 11, 2018 – In October 2016, Candalaria Baj, 50, a Maya Q'eqchi, watched the police set their home on fire and cut her crops with machetes, in the Nuevo Esperanza Tunico community in the Polochic Valley, Guatemala. About 80 families from three communities resisted a court ordered eviction from a banana plantation company, Inversiones Cobra SA, that sought to kick out workers and their families after they allegedly occupied land procured to produce bananas and African palm. The farmers won. A rare success among indigenous people’s struggles with land rights in Guatemala. They were armed with their tools - machetes and pesticides sprayers. In Guatemala, only four percent of producers control 80 percent of the land. Approximately 60 percent of citizens live in poverty but rises to 80 percent among the indigenous communities.

EL ESTOR, GUATEMALA. February 11, 2018 – In October 2016, Candalaria Baj, 50, a Maya Q'eqchi, watched the police set their home on fire and cut her crops with machetes, in the Nuevo Esperanza Tunico community in the Polochic Valley, Guatemala.  

About 80 families from three communities resisted a court ordered eviction from a banana plantation company, Inversiones Cobra SA, that sought to kick out workers and their families after they allegedly occupied land procured to produce bananas and African palm.  

The farmers won. A rare success among indigenous people’s struggles with land rights in Guatemala. They were armed with their tools - machetes and pesticides sprayers. In Guatemala, only four percent of producers control 80 percent of the land. Approximately 60 percent of citizens live in poverty but rises to 80 percent among the indigenous communities.