The government of Guatemala has restricted some civil rights for fifteen days in the Indigenous region where five people were shot dead on Saturday, President Bernardo Arévalo reported today. The area of Sololá, west of Guatemala City, has for years been the scene of clashes over a land dispute between the Indigenous communities of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán and Nahualá.
However, according to Arévalo, this week’s violence, which has left five people dead, is the work of organized crime groups seeking to take control of the area for their criminal operations. “These criminal groups want the Guatemalan army to withdraw from the area. Their goal is clear: to keep control of the territory so they can operate freely and continue extorting and carrying out illegal activities,” he said at a press conference.
For that reason, the government decreed a “state of prevention” in the area, an extraordinary measure that allows authorities to limit the rights of assembly and demonstration, among others. “We are at a critical moment for the department of Sololá and for security in the national territory,” Arévalo said, adding that since Thursday “organized crime groups have maliciously taken advantage of a community conflict.”
On Saturday, the mayor of Nahualá, Manuel Guarchaj, said that at least four people from his community were killed and dozens were wounded after an “ambush” by “hitmen from Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán. ”Arévalo, for his part, said that criminal groups, which he did not identify, attacked a military detachment for hours, wounding seven people, and he distanced these events from the historic conflict between the two Indigenous communities.
“In this case there was no attack between the communities; this is an intentional attack against the military detachment,” he maintained. On Thursday, four soldiers were wounded in an exchange of gunfire in another clash between the two communities, which are fighting over a zone with water reserves and forests.
The dispute, which has at times forced authorities to declare a state of siege, persists despite several governments having pushed for dialogue between the parties. In December 2021, one of the bloodiest clashes was recorded, leaving 13 people dead, including three children and a police officer.
Indigenous people, many of whom live in conditions of extreme poverty, make up more than 40% of Guatemala’s 18.7 million inhabitants, according to official figures.
