COBAN, Guatemala (AFP) — An indigenous community in Guatemala that suffered an arson attack on their village by an armed group has called for further help despite authorities sending police to protect them.
Some 40 families were forcibly evicted from their homes, which were then set alight by armed raiders in the early hours of Sunday.
“We ask for help for these families and also for ourselves (because) unfortunately they robbed us and left us without money,” Carmen Yalibat, 37, told AFP.
“The companions whose houses were burned have been left without clothes, without food and without money.”
Authorities are investigating the events in the village of Balbatzul, inhabited by members of the Mayan Q’eqchi tribe, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital Guatemala City.
“What these people did was terrible, they burnt homes. I got my daughters out and left them in the mountains. I went back to see my house and they had set fire to it,” added Yalibat.
“I risked my life, I gave my life to save my house and because of that I put out the fire.”
The villagers fear that the attackers’ aim was to occupy the land, which is owned by the Dieseldorff family, which has denied any link to the attack.
Edgar Choqui, president of a community development group, told AFP that the attackers were from nearby communities and wanted to take control of cardamom plantations in the territory.
“They bombed with mortar and shot with various caliber weapons. If (the villagers) hadn’t left their homes here, everyone would have died,” said Choqui, who escaped to the mountains with his wife and daughters.
He said six homes were totally destroyed, while another 11 were partially affected.
“They were shooting and we heard the bullets. They brought gasoline and set my home on fire and burnt everything,” he said.
Authorities sent around 20 police to protect the affected families as President Alejandro Giammattei vowed to step up security in the area.
Indigenous people represent 42 percent of Guatemala’s 17 million population. They mostly live in poverty and are landless.
The government has recorded more than 1,000 conflicts over land.
© Agence France-Presse
