For instance, the Committee of Peasant Unity (CUC) reported that three community leaders were arbitrarily arrested by the national police on April 9, near the city of Coba, in Alta Verapaz department. They are still detained.

The arrested men are: Jesus Yat, 55, Alvaro Barahona, 20 and Oscar Manuel Xol, 45. They are peasant leaders of the Saquimo Sataña community, which comprises 47 families facing an eviction warrant.

The CUC said in a communiqué that the move is part of a “persecution process” against peasant leaders carried out by large estate owners, in collusion with the judiciary. For this reason they demand the General Attorney’s Office the immediate verification of the role of the officials acting in this process and call for the release of the trade unionists that are still under arrest.

Leader Daniel Pascual, of the CUC told Real World Radio that behind this agrarian conflict there is a dispute over land to destine it to harvest palm oil and sugar cane for agrofuel production.

Meanwhile, Pascual said the peasant committee opposes the decision of the Guatemalan state of not calling community consultations to decide on the viability of the mining projects in the country, which represents a “systematic violation” of Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization.

Besides, Alvaro Colom’s administration did not respect the international agency’s resolution demanding his government to stop the extractive activities, and granted it a deadline for the moratorium that expired on April 16.

Since none of this happened, now the social organizations are intensifying their mobilizations and denunciation at the international level facing what they believe is a “cowardly attitude” of the government, which only “facilitates the transnational corporation’s pillage” of the resources, Pascal told Real World Radio.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elcanche/