Guatemala farmers lose to Europe biofuel demand

Ethnic Maya Q'eqchi communities of smallholder farmers say they are being violently evicted by state security forces from land they had farmed for generations.

Over four days, at least 10 villages were cleared. By the end of March 2011, around 800 families – about 3,200 people from 14 communities – had been forced off land they believed they had a right to live and work on.

Within months, hundreds of hectares of the lush valley in the province of Alta Verapaz were being planted with sugar cane that would be turned into ethanol for European cars.


Source: The Guardian