ex POC Bernardo Caal Xol - 3 April 2024

Our Chair attended an online webinar run by AIUK and Peace Brigades International UK, which featured the human rights defender Bernardo Caal Xol from Guatemala.

Bernardo is a 50-year-old indigenous teacher, trade unionist and defender of the rights of the Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ people and of land, territorial and environmental rights, had been wrongfully imprisoned since 30 January 2018 for defending the rights of the Maya Q’eqchi’ communities affected by the construction of a hydroelectric project on the sacred Cahabón river, in the department of Alta Verapaz, northern Guatemala.

On 16 July 2020, Amnesty International adopted Bernardo Caal a prisoner of conscience. The Guatemalan human rights defender was one of the individuals included in Amnesty International’s annual and global Write for Rights campaign in 2021, during which people around the world took around half a million actions calling for Bernardo Caal’s release. He was eventually freed on 24 March 2022, after spending more than four years in prison.

Bernardo described in detail his work and what led up to his arrest and imprisonment for speaking out. At one point he had the whole of the business community and the press establishment trying to defame him, even after a court found in favour of the rights of the indigenous people he represented. Bernardo told us that he continues the fight against the hydroelectric companies, and that being imprisoned has made him even stronger in his determination to seek justice for his people. A very brave man indeed!

More about Bernardo’s case here https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/03/guatemala-bernardo-caal-…