I am always pleased to share posts from friend and activist, Jim Hodgson, who lives just down the road from me in Summerland. Now retired from global justice work with the United Church of Canada Jim has a special passion for human rights respect in the Americas. He is currently working on a major book that will share both history and present-day possibility for the region. Leocadio Juracán and so many others are working for justice on the ground at great personal risk. They deserve our support and action.
[Jim Hodgson’s post with accompanying notes is here]
Friends and allies of Leocadio Juracán, Agrarian Reform Coordinator of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), are protesting his arrest Wednesday as he was about to fly to South Africa for an international conference.
“He is being criminalized for his work as a land and human rights defender,” said the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking The Silence Network (BTS) in an urgent action request. He faces multiple charges, including aggravated trespass (usurpación agravada), directly related to his advocacy for Indigenous and farming communities across Guatemala.
I worked with Leocadio and other members of CCDA in May 2022 and March 2023, travelling with them to communities in Quiché and Izabal departments that face threats from people or companies purporting to be the true land-owners. In those communities and in scores of others across Guatemala, CCDA works with Indigenous and small-farmer communities to document their history on the land and to submit legal justification for their claims.
Leocadio and other CCDA members are known in many parts of Canada because they work with coffee farmers whose product is sent to roasters linked to in British Columbia and Just Us! in Atlantic Canada in a “fair trade plus” arrangement. [I personally support Café Justicia and love their coffee KJG]
On August 13, Leocadio Juracán, Agrarian Reform Coordinator of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), was detained at La Aurora Airport as he was leaving the country to participate in a Translocal Social Movement Learning conference in South Africa.
Leocadio is being criminalized for his work as a land and human rights defender. He is currently facing multiple charges, including Aggravated Trespass (usurpación), directly related to his advocacy for Indigenous and campesino communities.
We need your immediate action:
Private Secretariat of the Guatemalan Presidency, Ana Glenda Tager Rosado informacion@secretariaprivada.gob.gt
Guatemalan Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez Irungaray despachoministerial@mingob.gob.gt
Advisor to the Guatemalan Interior Minister, Claudia Samayoa ddhh3@mingob.gob.gt
With the following Canadian officials copied:
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand, Anita.Anand@parl.gc.ca
Ambassador to Guatemala, Olivier Jacques, Olivier.Jacques@international.gc.ca
Member of Parliament, Heather McPherson Heather.McPherson@parl.gc.ca
Member of Parliament, Elizabeth May elizabeth.may@parl.gc.ca
In your message, please call on them to:
Ensure his protection until such time as he is released.
Follow recent UN Special Rapporteur advice to enact an immediate moratorium on evictions and grant amnesty for all criminalized land defenders.
End criminalization of the members and leadership of Indigenous and campesino communities and organizations.
Many of these government officials are Spanish speaking. If possible, write this letter in Spanish. Otherwise, you can also send it in English.
Hoping to simplify things as much as possible go here for my own draft text based on the contacts and context Jim has provided above. Please share this direct action with several of your friends and contacts. Our voice could make the difference between life and death. Thank you so much for your urgent support to help get Leocadio Juracán free.
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Take Note - Reflections on life, music, politics, retirement and more by Ken Gray 
I remember Jim and would like to know when his book is published. I worked with some of our ecumenical coalitions and there were at least 3 of them concerned with Latin America. And Canadian Churches were engaged in a significant way in those days. Now we know them as a possible cruise ship stop or as places we sail by. Sad! Our attention span for social Justice is so short that we just move on to the next thing or give up altogether. At one time we knew who in the House of Commons would carry the torch for various issues and to whom protest and solidarity letters could be addressed. Does anybody do that anymore. I know that the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada does but more for other types of issues. Just asking? In our churches the former social activists are a dying breed. People like me who met in the Scarborough Foreign Mission house surrounded by posters of Latin American Martyrs. Alas!
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I remember Jim and would like to know when his book is published. I worked with some of our ecumenical coalitions and there were at least 3 of them concerned with Latin America. And Canadian Churches were engaged in a significant way in those days. Now we know them as a possible cruise ship stop or as places we sail by. Sad! Our attention span for social Justice is so short that we just move on to the next thing or give up altogether. At one time we knew who in the House of Commons would carry the torch for various issues and to whom protest and solidarity letters could be addressed. Does anybody do that anymore. I know that the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada does but more for other types of issues. Just asking? In our churches the former social activists are a dying breed. People like me who met in the Scarborough Foreign Mission house surrounded by posters of Latin American Martyrs. Alas!
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