Security & Strategic Review - May 2023

The dubious exclusion from the 25 June general elections of Thelma Cabrera, an indigenous presidential candidate for the Movimiento para la Liberación de los Pueblos (MLP), who enjoyed the backing of leading indigenous group Comité de Desarrollo Campesino (Codeca), underlines the marginalisation of Guatemala’s indigenous sector which accounts for nearly 44% of the country’s population – the highest proportion in Central America. The dire situation facing the sector was recently highlighted by a group of international legal experts (IDIL) which carried out an independent fact-finding mission to Guatemala’s Alta Verapaz region, as well as other recent reports by institutions like the United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).