In Guatemala, the conditions of access to housing, land and property (HLP) are fragile for the majority of the population. Access, construction, and occupation mechanisms are irregular, and generally with little state intervention, especially with populations displaced in recent decades.
Indigenous communities face barriers to access to land tenure security, mainly due to legal insecurity and low recognition of the protection of indigenous and native peoples. Agrarian conflicts have been generated mainly by the Internal Armed Conflict CAI, and more recently, by violent forced evictions. As a result, those who defend land rights are currently being attacked by violent and stigmatising acts.
This document summarises the research ‘Now we have nothing left: a study on housing, land and property of displaced indigenous communities in Guatemala’ carried out during the second semester of 2023 and the first semester of 2024. A legal analysis was carried out using a mixed methodology with quantitative and qualitative research techniques, including focus group discussion with 11 participants, 20 interviews with representatives of civil society organisations, governmental civil society, governmental and humanitarian actors, and a survey of 267 households.
This study builds on three case studies on the conditions of access to rights faced by the country's largest population group, indigenous peoples, and provides a legal analysis of key VTP institutions; it gives an overview of the reality on the ground for the indigenous peoples of Guatemala; and it provides a legal analysis of the situation on the ground.
