Updated: Guatemalan human rights leader to speak Apr. 10, 11

HANCOCK -- The Copper Country Guatemala Accompaniment Project (CCGAP) is sponsoring a presentation on Guatemala by Jerónimo (pronounced Heh-RO-nemo) Osorio Chen at 7 p.m. on Friday, Apr. 11, following a 6 p.m. potluck at Little Brothers, 527 Hancock Street, Hancock.

Jerónimo Osorio Chen (holding paper) chats with a fellow Guatemalan. Osorio will speak on resource use and development in Guatemala. (Photo courtesy NISGUA, Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala)

Osorio represents the grassroots Ixcán Referendum Commission, which supports the struggles of the indigenous Maya people of Guatemala to determine their own resource use and development in the face of overwhelming pressure from international corporations. A human rights leader from rural Ixcán, Quiché, Guatemala, Osorio has worked for more than a decade to promote indigenous rights, cooperative economics and citizen participation in the face of threats from corporate-led development schemes, including mega-projects and free trade.

A former elected official in the local government, Osorio has played a key role in organizing and doing follow-up work on a 2007 referendum in which people in the Ixcán voted against the Xalalá hydroelectric dam and oil exploration in the region.

Citizens of Santa Maria Tzeja, Guatemala, vote in a referendum about the proposed dam project at Xalalá. (Photo © 2008 and courtesy Kim Kern)

Osorio is an Achi Maya from Río Negro, where the Guatemalan government committed several massacres in the 1980s against communities that opposed the building of the Chixoy dam on their lands. He will speak about people’s struggles to oppose the Xalalá Dam and the importance of avoiding a repeat of the Chixoy tragedy, including the repression, loss of lands and damage to the ecosystem associated with massive dam projects.

Children of Ixcán express their opposition to the dam project with signs. (Photo courtesy NISGUA)

Call 482-6827 for more information.

Osorio to speak at Michigan Tech Apr. 10

Osorio will give a similar presentation on resource use and development in Guatemala at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Apr. 10, in Room 641 of the Dow Building on the Michigan Tech campus. Anyone interested in the topic may attend either presentation.

"The topic is relevant to those who are interested in water resource management policies and sustainable future initiatives and, in general, to those interested in the issues of the development of the 'third world' and how this affects small communities," said Rudiger Escobar Wolf, Ph.D. student in Michigan Tech's Department of Geological Engineering and Sciences.