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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).

The New Colonization: UN Expert Urges Guatemala to End Structural Racism Against Indigenous People

Heather Gies June 5, 2018 Heather Gies

“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.”

Eight Things I learned About Palestine While Touring Eight Western Nations

Ramzy Baroud May 30, 2018 Ramzy Baroud

On February 20, 2018, I embarked on a global book tour that has, thus far, taken me to eight nations. The main theme of all my talks in various cultural, academic and media platforms was the pressing need to refocus the discussion on Palestine on the struggle, aspirations and history of the Palestinian people. But, interacting with hundreds of people and being exposed to multiple media environments in both mainstream and alternative media, I also learned much about the changing political mood on Palestine in the western world.

Carlos Maaz, a Q'eqchi' fisherman shot and killed during a police crackdown on May 27, 2017 in El Estor. Hundreds of residents took part in his funeral procession across town the following day. Photo: Sandra Cuffe

Maya Q’eqchi’ Fishermen and Journalists Fight Back Against Criminalization and Mining in Guatemala

Sandra Cuffe May 24, 2018 Sandra Cuffe

Maya Q’eqchi’ fishermen faced deadly state repression last year for their opposition to transnational nickel mining and lake pollution in El Estor, Guatemala. Now they are confronting criminal charges for their protest. The court case highlights the ongoing environmental and human rights crisis in a country where corporate power regularly meets indigenous resistance. “Just for defending our rights as Maya Q’eqchi’, we’ve been criminalized,” fishers' union leader Cristóbal Pop told Toward Freedom.

Yemeni women walk through the debris of a housing block allegedly destroyed by previous Saudi-led airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen on Sept. 29. 2017. Photo credit: Yahya Arhab / EPA-EFE

US Bombs and Sanctions Deepen Humanitarian Disaster in Yemen

Kathy Kelly May 22, 2018 Kathy Kelly

Three years of U.S.-supported blockades and bombardments have plunged the Yemen into immiseration and chaos. “Civilians, including children, were killed and maimed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said João Martins, Doctors Without Borders head of mission in Yemen. "We are seeing civilian victims of airstrikes fighting for their lives in hospitals.” Lacking access to food, clean water, medicine and fuel, over 400,000 Yemeni children are at imminent risk of starvation.