Lagos (Lakes Area Group Organizing in Solidarity With the People of Guat)

We provide funds to place volunteers side-by-side with Guatemalans and their communities working on sensitive issues in Guatemala.

We here in Minnesota have dear friends and colleagues in Guatemala who, daily, carry on a dangerous struggle to bring justice for the many crimes to their communities that were committed during Guatemala's long civil war (1960-1996). In addition, they work to save their villages from current environmentally disasterous mining and hydroelectric projects. They do this in the face of many threats to their lives. They continue this struggle despite the many family members and friends that have been murdered for carrying on this very struggle. The rate of impunity, or exemption from punishment for wrongdoing, is exceedingly high in Guatemala--reportedly 98% for attacks against human rights defenders. These defenders are safer when they are accompanied by North Americans as they go about their work and daily lives. This is where we come in.

We are LAGOS (Lakes Area Group Organizing in Solidarity with the people of Guatemala) and we walk with Guatemalans both literally and figuratively: we provide monetary and moral support from afar to North Americans on the ground in Guatemala, who are there at the request of Guatemalans. These US citizens who literally walk with them are called 'Accompaniers,' and they accompany Guatemalans to court trials, to meetings and sometimes even in their homes.

A former president of Guatemala, implicated in many war crimes, is on the run as a result of this courageous struggle by Guatemalans, and we need to continue our support. This model of accompaniment has yielded results.

Won't you help us? Be a Supporter of Human Rights in Guatemala!