CONIC - Coordinadora Nacional Indígena y Campesina - Guatemala
GU014H07

In Guatemala, poverty is essentially of an rural, indigenous and peasant nature. According to UNDP figures for 2000, 56.7% of the population lives under poverty conditionsand 26.8% under extreme poverty conditions. The proportion of indigenous people in the country ranks 65%, and only a 2.7% of them can be considered belonging to higher social levels. Agricultural land is monopolised (2.6% of landowners own 65% of the total land area, generally the best land for agricultural production), and a large portion of it is maintained idle and tax-exempt. Landless peasants or those who gradually lose the land they have, constitute a surplus of agricultural labour that cheapens labour during the period of greatest demand at agro-exporting farms, having to work under sub-human conditions. CONIC is one of the organisations with the greatest amount of credibility among the peasant movement, due to a very consistente political work, a large base of members --100.000 people in 16 Departments of the country-- and a couragious attitude to defend the rights of indigenous people in teh country. CONIC also has fierce opponents, mainly in governmental quarters and at the top echelon of the agro-entrepreneurial and oligarchic complex. It continues to be a vital organisation for the democracy building process, and the struggle against poverty in the Guatemalan rural areas. It participates in popular, indigenous and peasant movement initiatives at the national level (CNOC, Agricultural Platform, Waqib Kej) and at the international level (CLOC, organization of the III International Indigenous Summit in 2007).
In the last CONIC book "11 Años de Lucha" is seen a fight and modality mobilization accomplish in the last decade by farmer and indigenous movement, in where CONIC participates with an autonomous speech, in which "force and the fight decisions rest in the will and cohesion of members communities." By these characteristics, Hivos has decided to incorporate CONIC to the limited group of counterparts that count with more of ten years support.