Mayans evicted for biofuels in south Guatemala living in dire conditions - Guardian

The Guardian reports on living conditions for ethnic Maya Q'eqchi communities of smallholder farmers who were evicted last year by state security forces from land they had farmed for generations in the Polochic valley in southern Guatemala to make way for plantations of sugarcane for biofuels.

Displaced families are living by the side of the road with no access to shelter or food, the paper reports. "The men fled to the mountains, the women had to find a way to live. People lost everything; they became nothing but cheap labour," says Maria Josefa Macz, a human rights worker from the Guatemala Campesino Unity Committee (CUC).

Read John Vidal's report on the Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jul/05/guatemala-land-...