Who is Ramiro Choc, and Why is He in a Guatemalan Prison?

"I am Ramiro Choc, kidnapped by the government of Guatemala since February 14, 2008, through today and until who knows when they free me, but what is certain is that I am suffering the worst tortures that they can do to me."

Three years ago, on February 14, 2008, Guatemalan indigenous rights leader Ramiro Choc was pulled off a bus and nearly executed by six armed military soldiers. When plans fell through for his less-than-legal disposal, he was taken to a judge in Guatemala City. He has been detained in a prison ever since and sentenced to six years in prison on unfounded charges of aggravated robbery, land stealing, and kidnapping.

If it wasn't so tragic, the irony would be quite amusing. You see, Ramiro was trying to help his Q'eqchi' brothers and sisters fight the exact crimes he was charged with.

The theft of the indigenous group's land started long ago, when indigenous Guatemalans (who trace their ancestry back to the great Mayan empire) were robbed of their land and forced to work on plantations. But the most grievous crimes were enacted by the state itself during the civil war that raged from 1960-1996. In the height of conflict in the 1980s, the state murdered hundreds of rural Indigenous communities and dislocated thousands more - an act that is now considered a genocide.

Free Indigenous Leader and Political Prisoner Ramiro Choc

"These two periods of repression are publicly acknowledged," Palmer Legare, director of the Guatemala Solidarity Project, told Change.org, "What is not publicly acknowledged is that in recent years this repression has heightened, and hundreds of indigenous communities have been violently attacked." Though the four-decade long conflict ended 15 years ago, the repression of indigenous people in Guatemala is far from gone.

Ramiro Choc has been a leading figure in the fight for indigenous land rights and become a mediator for indigenous q’eqchi’ and other peasant communities in agrarian conflicts with ladinos (land owners) and the government. That's exactly what he was trying to do when he was called to the community of Buena Vista, where the a group of peasants had detained armed henchmen sent by a wealthy land owner to harass the community and forcefully evict them from their ancestral land) and several policemen.  Upon his arrival, Ramiro quickly set up a negotiation and arrived at an agreement with the police, successfully defusing a potentially bloody conflict.

As a special thank-you for Choc's skillful mediation, an arrest warrant was issued for him, claiming he had been the organizer behind the dispute.

Choc's case certainly isn't unique. He is one of many Guatemalans that have been subject to persecution for fighting for the human rights of their communities. The Unidad de Defensores/as de Derechos Humanos en Guatemala (UDEFGUA) reports 592 cases of criminalization of defenders of human rights between 2004 and 2009.

"Because he is a person of great prestige in these communities, the state works against him," says his lawyer, Sergio Manfredo Beltetón. "So they criminalize the peasants of this region by going after him."

This Valentines Day will mark three years since Ramiro was illegally arrested for defending the rights of his community. Under Guatemalan law, he should now be eligible for release on parole (arresto domiciliario); however, the government is trying to add an additional two years to his sentence, a sentence that was based on entirely unsubstantiated accusations.

The Guatemalan organizations Community of Peasant Unity and Encuentro Campesino have been pressuring for Ramiro's release, but their resources are very limited.

The Guatemala Solidarity Project is one of the only international organizations that has taken up Choc's cause, and now Change.org is joining in the fight.

Please sign the petition below urging the government of Guatemala to release Ramiro Choc immediately. Starting on February 14, activists will also begin a hunger fast to pressure for Choc's release. If you are healthy and able, you can join them in solidarity, pledging to abstain from food for one day.

Winning this and similar campaigns depends on our ability to quickly call on thousands of supportive folks like you. After signing the petition below, please click here to follow us on Facebook - just click ‘Like’ at the top of the page.