![Maria Soto and other Ixil women celebrate on May 11, 2013 after former Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt was found guilty of genocide against the indigenous Ixil people. Trócaire's partners had fought for almost 30 years for justice for the Ixil people. (Photo credit Elena Hermosa).](https://towardfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Guatemala_4_GHR_16_9269372204-326x245.jpg)
The New Colonization: UN Expert Urges Guatemala to End Structural Racism Against Indigenous People
“In the end, the [mining] company is a new form of colonization and exclusion,” Sister Maudilia López Cardona, who works with the Catholic parish in her western Guatemalan community, told Toward Freedom. “The system has worked to erase the historical memory of our people and teach us not to think,” she continued. “These thoughts, these ideas, these preconceptions have soaked into our people’s bones … We have to work to return our hearts to their place.”