Lilian Angélica Juárez Batz

Organization
Kaqla, Mayan Women’s Network

Activity
Women’s Rights and Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Attack experienced
Attempt on life

THE FACTS – At 17:45 h. on November 8th, Lilian Angélica Juárez got into a taxi near the Guatemala City Loop, Zone 7, but never arrived at her destination. The following day, November 9th, she was located in a hospital in the capital city, unconscious with a number of wounds.

Lilian Juárez is Kaqla’s Coordinator of Community Work, and her main responsibility is training and backup for actions implemented by the ancestral authorities ––a men’s group and a women’s group–– in Pueblo Viejo, Momostenango, Totonicapán.

Kaqla is a network of Mayan women based in the West, Center and North of Guatemala, whose mission is to engender actions for the well-being and the creation of a fulfilling life without violence for Mayan women and their peoples. Their work is based on a methodology validated by their own experience and a focus defined by a re-created and contextualized Mayan cosmovision.  Their specialty is mending historic storylines and healing both individual and collective traumas, as well as strengthening capacities for the life mission of Mayan women, men, youth and children.

We of IM-Defensoras, the National Network of Women Defenders in Guatemala and UDEFEGUA express our wholehearted support and desire for the speedy recovery of Lilian Angélica Juárez and demand a thoroughgoing investigation by the Public Prosecutor; moreover, we demand guarantees for the safety and security of the defender and the Kaqla women’s collective.