The Indigenous Leader Targeted for Protecting His People’s Land

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"Why am I in jail? For denouncing what they are doing to the rivers, defending what little is left?”

Bernardo Caal Xol, a Q'eqchi' Maya Indigenous Leader and Guatemalan human rights defender, has been unjustly imprisoned for alleged acts of violence against contractors of a hydroelectric plant in Guatemala. A crime he didn’t commit.

Bernardo’s incarceration is representative of the wider problem of human rights abuses against Indigenous people across the Americas. They safeguard 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity, but their safety is often at risk from big corporations looking to exploit natural resources. As of November 2021, Bernardo has been imprisoned for a total of three years and nine months.

Bernardo’s case is featured in the 2021 edition of Write for Rights, Amnesty International’s annual global letter-writing campaign. You can join their campaign to demand Bernardo’s release here:



Presented by #AmnestyInternational #W4R21

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