#WHRDAlert GUATEMALA / Break-in at home of defender and social communicator Norma Sancir

Norma Sancir

Organization
Ch’orti’ New Day Indigenous Campesino Organizations

Activity
Community rights, Territorial defense, Right to information, Freedom of expression

Attacks experienced
Home break-in and robbery

THE FACTS – Norma Sancir is a journalist, social communicator and human rights defender of the Ch’orti’ people in Chiquimula. In the early morning hours of November 1st, unknown persons broke into her home while she and her companion Ubaldino García were asleep; he is also a human rights defender and member of the New Day work team.

The break-in and robbery occurred after they had returned from a press urging government officials to close the “Cantera Los Manantiales” mine in Olopa, Chiquimula. New Day members have previously been subjected to other acts of intimidation, criminalization and persecution due to their defense of human rights and territory.

This is not the first attack Norma Sancir herself has experienced; as IM-Defensoras has denounced, she was the target of arbitrary arrest and criminalization in 2014, because of her work as a social communicator.

We of IM-Defensoras and the Women’s Defender Network in Guatemala, denounce and condemn these acts and demand an immediate, diligent investigation that does not discard any hypothesis, especially one related to the work in defense of human rights engaged in by Norma Sancir and Ubaldino García; moreover, we demand guarantees for their protection and that of other New Day members.


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