Jorge Juc Cucul

Jorge Juc, 77, was attacked with a machete by an unknown man in the municipality of Livingston, about 225 km north-east of Guatemala City, on the shores of the Caribbean, said CODECA in a statement.

“The incident occurred when he was in his cornfield very close to his home. His eight-year-old son was with him when a man came to kill him,” the statement said.

Juc presided over the directive of CODECA in the village of Paracaidista, Livingston and had been in the peasant organization for five years. There is no information available about the motives of the crime.

A few weeks earlier CODECA leaders Isidro Pérez, 89, and Melesio Ramírez, 70, had been murdered in the same town during an ambush carried out by about 15 armed men, while visiting a farm from which they had been evicted.

(Based on an original AFP report via La Prensa)


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Region:Americas

Country:Guatemala

Department/Province/State:Izabal

Sex1:Male

Age:77

Date of Killing:25/07/2019

Previous Threats:Yes

Type of Work:Community leader

Organisation:CODECA

Sector or Type of Rights the HRD Worked On:ESC Rights

Sector Detail:Environmental Rights, Indigenous Peoples' Rights, Land Rights

More information:Front Line Defenders

1This database records an individual's chosen gender identity. If they do not self-identify as male or female they can use the option of recording other/neither or use the term NBGI (non binary gender identity).