Anti-Mining Activist Daniel Pedro Mateo Kidnapped and Murdered in Guatemala 23rd April

Anti-min­ing com­mu­ni­ty leader Daniel Pedro Mateo

In the midst of an ongo­ing geno­cide tri­al against a for­mer pres­i­dent of Guatemala, which is now being sus­pend­ed by the cur­rent pres­i­dent who is also impli­cat­ed in the war crimes, vio­lence against indige­nous envi­ron­men­tal activists con­tin­ues, with anoth­er per­son found dead last week in Hue­hue­te­nan­go.  

On April 16, 2013, the body of Qanjob’al com­mu­ni­ty activist Daniel Pedro Mateo was found mur­dered in San­ta Eulalia, Hue­hue­te­nan­go, Guatemala.   He had been kid­napped for 12 days and his body showed signs of tor­ture. Haz clic aquí para la ver­sión en español.

Daniel, a founder of the com­mu­ni­ty radio sta­tion Snuq Jolom Konob, dis­ap­peared on Sun­day, April 7^th  in the vil­lage of El Quet­zal, Hue­hue­te­nan­go on his way to host a work­shop on Indige­nous rights in the com­mu­ni­ty of San­ta Cruz Bar­il­las. His fam­i­ly was con­tact­ed by kid­nap­pers and demand­ed a ran­som of Q150,000 in return for his safe­ty. Despite the efforts of his fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty to gath­er mon­ey to pay the ran­som, Daniel’s body was found last night in his vil­lage of San­ta Eulalia.

Daniel Pedro Mateo was a painter, teacher, a founder of Radio Snuq Jolom Konob, and a leader in the com­mu­ni­ty resis­tance to min­ing and hydro­elec­tric activ­i­ties in Hue­hue­te­nan­go. Child­hood expe­ri­ences that exposed him to the grave inequal­i­ties and injus­tices con­fronting poor and indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties in Guatemala moti­vat­ed his life­long com­mit­ment to work for a more just and humane soci­ety.  After the armed con­flict end­ed, he joined with oth­er Qanjob’al Maya lead­ers in San­ta Eulalia to start a radio sta­tion that would give voice to their com­mu­ni­ty that formed the major­i­ty of the local pop­u­la­tion, but were nonethe­less mar­gin­al­ized and silenced. Daniel was no longer involved in the day-to-day work of the sta­tion, but main­tained close ties with many of the cur­rent vol­un­teer staff and lead­er­ship.

Many in the com­mu­ni­ty believe this vio­lent act to be a reper­cus­sion of Daniel’s envi­ron­men­tal activism. Loren­zo Fran­sis­co Mateo, Daniel’s cousin and fel­low mem­ber of Radio Snuq Jolom Konob stat­ed, “The only crime he was ever guilty of was fight­ing in defense of the envi­ron­ment.” Daniel was an out­spo­ken orga­niz­er against the Hydro San­ta Cruz dam in San­ta Cruz Bar­il­las, a dam in his town of San­ta Eulalia, and a log­ging com­pa­ny Maderas San Luis that had forced evic­tions of local Indige­nous peo­ples. He was a mem­ber Cul­tur­al Survival’s part­ner orga­ni­za­tion Asem­blea de Pueb­los de Hue­hue­te­nan­go, and a mem­ber of the polit­i­cal par­ty WINAQ, found­ed by Nobel prize win­ner Rigob­er­ta Menchu.

Daniel’s death comes in a series of recent mur­ders in Guatemala of Indige­nous activists. Just last year, anti-dam activist and com­mu­ni­ty leader, Andres Fran­sis­co Miguel, was shot and killed by secu­ri­ty guards of Hydro San­ta Cruz in Bar­il­las, where Daniel was head­ed to host a work­shop. In March, Exaltación Mar­cos Uce­lo, an Indige­nous Xin­ca leader active against Cana­di­an Tahoe Resources’ sil­ver mine in Jala­pa was found beat­en to death, after being abduct­ed along­side three oth­er Xin­ca lead­ers. Six months ago, sev­en Indige­nous pro­tes­tors were shot and killed by Guatemalan mil­i­tary in Totonicapan.These events reflect the dan­ger­ous state that Indige­nous lead­ers and envi­ron­men­tal activists find them­selves in Guatemala.

Com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions in San­ta Eulalia are call­ing for con­tri­bu­tions to cov­er funer­al expens­es and to sup­port Daniel’s fam­i­ly in this dif­fi­cult time. He leaves behind an ail­ing wife and eight chil­dren.