Our Contributors
Jeff Abbott is an independent journalist based in Guatemala, where he has lived for the past five years. He reports on human rights, immigration and forced migration, politics, community defence struggles, and environmental issues.
Twitter: @palabrasdeabajo
Miguel Ángel Bámaca is a Maya Mam farmer and member of FREDEMI (San Miguel Ixtahuacán Defense Front), resisting and denouncing harms and violations caused by Goldcorp Inc.’s Marlin mine. He has suffered attacks, criminalizations, and threats for his community defence work.
Angélica Choc is a Maya Q’eqchi’ community / human rights / territorial defender and widow of Adolfo Ich, killed September 27, 2009, by security guards working in Guatemala for the Canadian mining company Hudbay Minerals. Angelica is a plaintiff in the Hudbay Minerals lawsuits and co-prosecutor in a criminal trial in Guatemala against Mynor Padilla, Hudbay’s former head of security.
José Choc Ich is the son of Angélica Choc and Adolfo Ich. José is a witness to the attack against his father that resulted in his death. José is a witness in the Hudbay Minerals lawsuits and Mynor Padilla criminal trial.
German Chub is a Maya Q’eqchi’ farmer who was shot and left paralyzed on September 27, 2009, by security guards working in Guatemala for the Canadian mining company Hudbay Minerals. German is a plaintiff in the Hudbay Minerals lawsuits and a victim-witness in a criminal trial in Guatemala against Mynor Padilla, Hudbay’s former head of security.
María Magdalena Cuc Choc is the sister of Angelica Choc, and also a courageous Maya Q’eqchi’ woman who, in early 2018, was criminalized and jailed on trumped up charges for her community, human rights, and territorial defence work.
Sandra Cuffe is a freelance journalist based in Guatemala. She has lived in Central America for 15 of the past 20 years. She reports on human rights, politics, social movements, resource conflicts, and migration.
Twitter: @Sandra_Cuffe
Nathan Einbinder recently completed his doctoral studies at the Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Chiapas, Mexico. His present research focuses on agroecology and development in the Maya-Achí territory in Guatemala.
Email: nathaneinbinder@gmail.com
Patricia Flores is a Toronto-based human rights activist, artist, and data analyst who does solidarity work in relation to Honduras and Latin America. She uses her art to support human rights work. She holds an International Comparative Studies degree from Huron University–UWO and is currently pursuing Data and Predictive Analytics at Ryerson University.
Twitter: @patfloTO
Heather Gies is a writer and editor whose reporting on politics, human rights, and the environment in Central America has appeared in Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Intercept, National Geographic, and other outlets. She is currently managing editor of the NACLA Report, a quarterly magazine of progressive analysis on Latin America and US-Latin American relations.
Twitter: @HeatherGies
Simon Granovsky-Larsen is an Associate Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Regina. He is author of Dealing with Peace: The Guatemalan Campesino Movement and the Post-Conflict Neoliberal State (University of Toronto Press, 2019) and co-editor, with Dawn Paley, of Organized Violence (University of Regina Press, 2019).
Annie Hylton is an international human rights lawyer and investigative journalist from Saskatchewan, based in New York.
Twitter: @HyltonAnne
Sebastian Iboy Osorio is a Maya Achí farmer, and survivor of and eyewitness to the World Bank / Chixoy dam massacres that killed over 440 people from Río Negro, Baja Verapaz.
J. P. Laplante has worked for over a decade for Indigenous communities in Canada, focused on the protection of traditional lands and waters, environmental assessment for mining projects, and advancing the Indigenous right to free, prior, and informed consent for projects affecting Indigenous communities. In 2010, he lived in Guatemala and volunteered as a Commissioner for International Observers at the Consulta Comunitaria de Buena Fe held in Santa Cruz del Quiché, and was an International Observer at two other consultas that affirmed communities’ lack of consent for mineral development.
Email: jlaplante@tsilhqotin.ca
Aniseto López Díaz is a Maya Mam farmer and leader of community movements resisting and denouncing harms and violations caused by Goldcorp Inc.’s Marlin mine in western Guatemala. He has suffered attacks, criminalizations, and threats for his community defence work.
W. George Lovell is a professor of geography at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and visiting professor in Latin American history at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain.
Jackie McVicar has accompanied human rights social movements and land protectors in Central America for more than fifteen years. She has worked in communications, advocacy, and adult education with the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC), United for Mining Justice (UMJ), and the Maritimes–Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network (BTS), in addition to her work as a freelance writer for publications such as America Magazine, NACLA Report on the Americas, and GHRC.
Twitter: @pajarolindo
Yuri Melini (Dr. Yuri Giovanni Melini) is a professor in the Escuela de Ciencias Políticas de la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC). In 2000, Yuri founded CALAS (Centro de Acción Legal-Ambiental y Social de Guatemala) and worked there until 2016. He has suffered attacks and threats, including one attack when he was struck by seven bullets, for his work with CALAS.
Email: yurimelini@gmail.com; Twitter: @yuri_melini
Cyril Mychalejko is a writer who covers human rights, international trade and development, and US foreign policy. He was an editor at UpsideDownWorld, an online magazine covering activism and politics in Latin America, for over a decade.
Twitter: @cmychalejko
Alexandra Pedersen received her PhD in Geography from Queen’s University, Kingston in 2018. Her dissertation focused on geographies of violence related to Canadian mining operations in Guatemala. She co-instructs a yearly seminar course in the Queen’s Faculty of Law on mining law, policies, and communities.
Email: a.pedersen@queensu.ca; Twitter: @Alex_Pedersen0
Alfredo Pérez is a Maya Sipakapan farmer and leader of community movements resisting and denouncing harms and violations caused by Goldcorp Inc.’s Marlin mine in western Guatemala. He has suffered attacks, criminalizations, and threats for his community defence work.
James Rodríguez is a documentary photographer based in Guatemala since 2006. James’s work focuses on social issues in Latin America, but primarily post-war Guatemala: transitional justice processes, land tenure conflicts due to extractive industries, human rights abuses, and the effects of the internal war in its daily life. James is currently represented by Panos Pictures.
Website: mimundo.org; Twitter: @mimundo_org
Alvaro Sandoval and Ana Sandoval are father and daughter, Guatemalan community members at the forefront of the “La Puya” community movement resisting harms and violations caused by the KCA mining company. They both have suffered attacks, criminalizations, and threats for their community defence work.
Rachel Schmidt is an award-winning Canadian documentary film producer and director. Rachel has travelled the globe to work with organizations like the Nobel Women’s Initiative, African Women's Millennium Initiative, and Rights Action to document important women’s rights and community defence stories.
Email: rschmidtfilms@shaw.ca
Emilie Smith is an Argentine-born, Canadian Anglican priest and theologian. Since 1984 she has walked with the peoples of Guatemala. Emilie is the co-president of SICSAL (Servicio Internacional Cristiano de Solidaridad con los Pueblos de América Latina - Óscar Romero / the Oscar Romero liberation theology network), a Cristian solidarity network with the people of Latin America founded in the months after St. Romero's death.
Email: emilietsmith@gmail.com
Cory Wanless and Murray Klippenstein are Toronto-based lawyers who represent thirteen Maya Q’eqchi’ in precedent-setting lawsuits (chocversushudbay.com) against Canadian company Hudbay Minerals regarding human rights abuse in Guatemala.
Emails: cory@waddellphillips.ca, murray.klippenstein@klippensteins.ca
Caren Weisbart has been an active member of the Maritimes–Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network (BTS) since 2001, and an organizer with the Toronto-based Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN). She is the former Coordinator of ACOGUATE, an international human rights accompaniment project in Guatemala, which provided accompaniment to survivors and witnesses of the Guatemalan genocide as well as land defenders impacted by Canadian mining projects.
Twitter: @carenweisbart