Thread by @Sandra_Cuffe

* * State of siege declared in Guatemala * *
#Guatemala president Jimmy Morales just declared a state of siege in Izabal & areas of other departments. Three soldiers were killed yesterday in Izabal. There are multiple contradictory versions of events and most contradict Morales'.

The state of siege covers the entire department of Izabal plus 9 municipalities in Alta Verapaz, 4 in Zacapa, 2 in El Progreso, and 1 in Baja Verapaz. It is a huge swath of territory in eastern Guatemala. Much of it is Maya Q'eqchi' territory. Guess I'm doing a thread now... /2

The state of siege, established by executive decree following an emergency cabinet meeting, will last 30 days, but could be cut short or extended. The decree states that it both (a) is in effect immediately, & (b) needs to be ratified by congress (just sent) within three days. /3

#Guatemala has five different kinds of state of exception, laid out in escalating order in the constitution and public order law: 1) prevention 2) alarm 3) public calamity 4) siege 5) war. The degree of suspension of constitutional rights and freedoms also escalates. /4

In the case of this state of siege, constitutional rights and freedoms suspended in a huge swath of Guatemalan territory include the freedoms of movement and assembly and the right to bear arms. It's hard to read, but the government posted these images of the decree online. /5

Three members of the military were killed yesterday in Semuy II, El Estor, Izabal. Others & and an unknown # of locals were injured. According to different accounts, it was a clash with (a) drug traffickers (b) the local community (c) insurgent-ngo-community-drugtraffickers? /6

At this point there are more questions than answers. If you want to read one piece now about the situation, I'd pass on news reports focusing on any one version (most reports present the army's) and instead read this list of key questions by @nomadagt: nomada.gt/pais/actualida… /7

@nomadagt Whatever actually happened, the incident occurred in one specific location. But the state of siege covers very roughly 10% of Guatemala. The region is home to longstanding conflicts and Maya Q'eqchi' community resistance movements re land rights, mining, palm oil, etc. /8

@nomadagt I'd also note: (1) El Estor is home to CGN/Solway's currently suspended Fenix nickel mine linked to decades of repression. For > a decade I've covered related criminalization towardfreedom.org/archives/ameri…, killings news.mongabay.com/2017/04/ex-min…, land rights news.mongabay.com/2017/04/the-la… & more. /9

@nomadagt & (2) Over the past decade, #Guatemala's gov's have declared states of siege almost exclusively in regions of transnational mining and hydroelectric project conflicts. I've covered that here upsidedownworld.org/archives/guate… & here news.mongabay.com/2015/07/dammin… & here news.mongabay.com/2015/07/milita… /10

@nomadagt Speaking of my work, I'm going to go do some, because twitter threads unfortunately don't pay the bills. But I hope this one helps provide a bit more clarity or at least some context with regard to the alarming and confusing news. /end