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Colorado/Maya
Accompaniment Project of the Sierra (CAMINOS) Program
To
download a Power Point presentation, CLICK
HERE
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| Guatemala's 36-year civil war
led to the death and disappearance of more than 200,000
Guatemalan civilians and created hundreds of thousands
of refugees and displaced people, most of whom were indigenous
Maya. |
CAMINOS was
created in 1996 to respond to a request for human rights
observers or accompaniers by the "Communities of Population
in Resistance of the Sierra" (CPR-Sierra).
The people of the CPR-Sierra are Ixil and K'iche' Mayas
who survived the Guatemalan Army's "scorched earth campaign"
of the 1980s and fled to remote forests and mountains.
For 15 years they struggled to survive; many died from
army attacks, illness, hunger and exposure. At the end
of the war, with the help of international support and
human rights accompaniers, the CPR-Sierra families came
out of hiding to establish new communities across the
country.
An international presence in Guatemala has become even
more important since 2000 as courageous survivors brought
legal cases to a Guatemalan court. They are charging
former military dictators with genocide against the
indigenous population.
The witnesses in these cases have formed the Association
for Justice and Reconciliation and have requested international
accompaniment. CAMINOS has shifted its focus to accompaniment
for these witnesses as long as it is necessary. |
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"We deserve
justice. We will continue to struggle until we have it.
As long as I'm alive, I will look to that day."
- Jacinta Raymundo, witness in genocide case
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The
PROMESA
Partnership
The
community of Tesorito in Suchitepequez, Guatemala is a group
of 136 indigenous Mayan families who were relocated from their
ancestral mountain home to the hot, humid coastal plain of
southern Guatemala at the end of the Guatemalan Civil War
(1940-1996). Today, after 5 years of re-settlement, these
families continue to struggle with physical and cultural survival,
complicated by local prejudices, different crops and climate,
lack of natural resources, adverse weather, coastal diseases,
limited access to health services and a declining
economy. The community is weakened, isolated, and extremely
impoverished.
Promesa is a partnership between CAMINOS in Denver, St.
Michael and All Angels' Guatemala Project in Tucson, Arizona;
and the CPR Directiva in Guatemala seeks to improve health
and primary health care delivery for the community of Tesorito
by supporting the community’s own existing health structures,
as well as the health workers who serve as volunteers in their
isolated home community in Guatemala.
Promesa seeks to affirm the Guatemalan community’s quest
for recognition as autonomous indigenous peoples; for dignity;
the right to health care; and delivery of basic medicines
and supplies identified by the community’s own health
workers. In Guatemala itself, Promesa works along with Tesorito’s
elected leaders, assuring oversight and strengthening local
structures. Emphasis is upon mutuality, cultural exchange,
indigenous self-determination, and self-sufficiency.
Delegations
Communities
of Population in Resistance of the Sierra (CPR-Sierra) Speaking
Tour
Read
the latest report from our CAMINOS Accompanier
Learn
More about the CAMINOS program in Guatemala
Please
help Support the CAMINOS program
Our
Culture is Our Resistance: Repression, Refuge and Healing
in Guatemala
a
new photography book by Jonathan Moller
DJPC
/ Caminos Delegation to Guatemala
CAMINOS
Program Update February 2008
CAMINOS
Program Update September 2007
CAMINOS
Program Update June 2007
CAMINOS
Program Update March 2007
CAMINOS
Program Update December 2006
CAMINOS
Program Update September 2006
CAMINOS
Program Update May 2006
CAMINOS
Program Update January 2006
CAMINOS
Program Update September 2005
CAMINOS
Program Update April 2005
CAMINOS
Program Update January 2005
CAMINOS
Program Update September 2004
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