Biofuels Land Grab: Guatemala’s Farmers Lose Plots and Prosperity to “Energy Independence”

Scientific America: Echoes from armed raids still seem to resound in this valley, eight hours north of the capital city. In early 2011 military and paramilitary forces forcibly evicted 13 communities of indigenous Mayan peasants—some 300 families were dispossessed of disputed land they had been living on for three years to secure the property rights of one powerful local family, the Widmanns, and its agribusiness company Chabil Utzaj. "They came in great numbers and heavily armed," says 18-year-old Tecla Kuxh while......

Read Complete Article at Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.