Bernardo Caal, indigenous leader from Guatemala: "Florentino is killing the most sacred river of my people"

Coban (Guatemala)Sunday is visiting day in Cobán prison, capital of the Alta Verapaz department of Guatemala. In the center of the city is the penitentiary where political prisoner Bernardo Caal awaits us. He has been incarcerated for two years for defending the Oxec River from a mega hydroelectric project called Oxec SA. Sentenced to seven years and four months in prison, he gives us two hours of his visiting time for the interview. His wife has made an eight-hour bus trip to bring him food. She says she has to cook twice as much so that the officials keep half of what she brings him. After going through a very strict search and entering the director's room with only a camera, notebook and pen, a voice is heard shouting: "Caal Xol, Caal Xol!". "Thanks for coming"he tells us, as they remove his handcuffs.

Why do you say that he is a political prisoner for defending a river?

The verdict says that I stole cables, construction materials and personal belongings from the company in charge of building the Oxec hydroelectric plant. However, the complaint says that this happened on October 15, 2015, the same day that I was in the capital, Guatemala, to go get some papers. Also, why do I want cables? I'm a teacher!

However, the robbery complaint was received in 2017, two years after the events. Why?

It is no coincidence. It is the same year that the Constitutional Court of Guatemala (CC) ruled in favor of the appeal that I had filed to stop production at the Oxec hydroelectric plant. I had won, but the reprisals serve to silence the people.

How do you stand up to these companies?

We only demand that international law be respected and that Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO) be complied with, which gives autonomy to indigenous peoples to decide on their territory through free, prior and informed consultation.

In 2017, you organised a referendum in which almost 30,000 people participated, with a clear no to the hydroelectric plant. Why was the result not taken into account by the State?

At the same time, the Ministry of Energy and Mines organised its own consultation, with only eleven communities. Each family was given up to 200,000 quetzales (23,000 euros).

And the result?

He was in favor of hydroelectric power.

But you are not defending the water, but the river. What is it about the river?

It is the survival of my culture, it is as if I were the owner of the Nile River or the Jordan River. That is why I defend it, out of dignity for myself, as the Mayan Q'eqchi people. Five hundred years ago they stripped the indigenous peoples and they continue to do so.

But it is this defense of the river that you say has led you to jail. Do you regret it?

I have spent 14,000 hours here enduring the torture of prison. In any case, I am proud of it, because if I had not raised my voice, no one would know what is happening to the river. It is a suffering that I find meaningful.

What has been the hardest thing about prison for you?

The closure. I have a daily agenda and that way the day doesn't seem so heavy. I write letters and during visiting days they take them and we post them on social media. We have to take advantage of social media to communicate to the world and say how things are seen from prison.

Your fellow resistance fighter, Ana Rutilia, has also won an appeal she filed with the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) to stop production at the Renace hydroelectric plant. Do you think they will succeed?

We do not expect a clear future for human rights defenders in Guatemala, but this does not mean that we are giving up. One of the objectives of going to court was to make the issue known. In particular, to make it known that businessman Florentino Pérez has allied himself with the Guatemalan oligarchies in order to install these hydroelectric projects on the Cahabón River. Florentino is killing the most sacred river of the Q'eqchi people.

In October, the organization Guatebelga awarded you the Quetzal Prize for Human Rights and Democracy in Guatemala. Is this a recognition of the Q'eqchi people?

I represent the struggle inside the prison and also all the people who are running out of water and who cannot access the most sacred river of all the indigenous peoples of Guatemala. We can no longer bathe, have fun or go fishing.

*This text is part of the project 'Water is life', by AlterNativa Exchange with Indigenous Peoples, with the support of the DevReporter 2019 Grant, promoted with funding from the Frame, Voice, Report project by the European Union, LaFede.cat, the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation and the Barcelona City Council.