Guatemala & Honduras: Report reflects on gender impacts of land grabbing by agribusiness & role of women as defenders
“Women in Honduras and Guatemala defend their communities from land grabbing by agribusiness”, 6 Dec 2016
“We live right next to the plantation and the guards are always passing…They threw tear gas at us once when I was pregnant.” These are the words of Cecilia who, along with hundreds of other families was forcefully evicted from land in Bajo Aguan, Honduras. Across the border in the Polochic Valley in Guatemala, 769 Maya-Q’eqchi families have also been forcefully evicted. Their land has been grabbed to make way for the expansion of industrial scale sugar cane and African palm plantations for the production of food products, cosmetics and bio-fuels…In both cases, women in these communities face multiple forms of discrimination…However, the report highlights that these women are not simply victims. They play a crucial role in the community resistance to the land grabbing…[Refers to Chabil Utzaj and the Dinant Corporation]