Global Justice and Peace Awards Night

This year we are recognizing the outstanding achievement of ACODET (Association of Communities for Development and the Defense of Land and Natural Resources) is a grassroots coalition of indigenous communities spanning three departments in Guatemala’s rural Ixcán region. For over a decade, ACODET has successfully organized to halt the construction of the proposed Xalalá megadam, which if constructed would displace multiple campesino communities, the majority of whom are indigenous Maya. The proposed hydroelectric project was suspended in 2014 by the Guatemalan government, but threats to the environment and community remain; national and international companies continue to seek ways to push people off the land and exploit nature for profit. Today, ACODET monitors mega-development projects that continue to threaten their territory and works to strengthen equitable and culturally pertinent organizational leadership through popular education initiatives with ancestral authorities and women’s committees in each community.

We have invited José Gómez to speak about their struggle to protect land and water, cultivate indigenous leadership, and build community power in the face of harmful corporate and state-led megadevelopment.

Saturday, November 10th
Reception: 6:00pm
Silent Auction: 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Program starts at 7:00 pm
Suggested Donation $20
(no one turned away)
Highlands United Methodist
Church at 3131 Osceola, Denver,
80212
Family friendly
Interpretation will be provided