The Union of Campesino Organisations for the Verapaces (UVOC)

The UVOC was founded in the 1980s and includes over 200 campesino communities in the departments of Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Izabal, and El Quiché in Guatemala. It works principally on access to land for campesinos and to provide support in the process of legalisation of the communities’ land titles. The organisation also offers training to communities affiliated to the UVOC and supports development projects within those communities.

PBI started accompanying the Union of Campesino Organisations for the Verapaces  (UVOC), and in particular its leader Carlos Morales, in May 2005. In April that year the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (PDH) had taken him into hiding following a serious increase in personal death threats. When Carlos Morales left the safe house, PBI started accompanying him 24 hours a day, which continued for several months.

One of the main problems faced by the communities is land evictions. According to Carlos Morales, “In some cases the communities that are evicted have been living on the land for hundreds of years and from one day to the next the police present a notification that gives the community a maximum of one hour to leave the land with all their belongings. If the community does not comply, their houses, schools, churches, and belongings are burnt, their crops destroyed and their animals killed and in many cases members of the community are beaten. Following the eviction the community is forced to live on the streets or in temporary shelters.â€?. 

One of the most serious cases over the last few years was that of the plantation ‘La Mocca’, affiliated to the UVOC, where the campesino families living on the estate were violently evicted in February and April 2006, leaving several people with gunshot wounds. In July 2006 there was a confrontation between two groups of campesinos, one allegedly armed by the estate owner, with the result of one fatality and 38 people injured on the side of the evicted campesinos, who are currently still living on the side of the road leading to La Mocca. The UVOC has provided support and legal representation for the evicted campesinos of La Mocca, and the case was included in the Report for Mr. Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, compiled by 10 Guatemalan civil society organisations for the visit of Philip Alston to Guatemala.

Carlos Morales’ security situation improved after PBI started 24-hour accompaniment for him in 2006, and this was stepped down after several months, however, shortly after, he and other members of the UVOC again began to experience surveillance and intimidations, resulting in the PBI Guatemala team intensifying the level of accompaniment at the end of April 2007. 

When asked in February 2006 during an interview with Projet Accompagnement Québec Guatemala what obstacles or threats he had been faced with in his role as leader of the UVOC, he answered, “I have been invigilated very closely. I have been threatened and attacked. It’s a constant worry to have to hide day and night and not having any freedom to leave. This also affects my family, who can’t even go out in the street. We have had to resort to all possible security strategies�. With the accompaniment of PBI it has been possible for him to resume most of his normal activities and carry on fighting for campesino rights. He also participated in a tour of Europe organised by PBI in April 2006 to raise awareness of the situation many campesinos live in and to publicise the work of the UVOC.