The Maya Ixil people of Guatemala are defending their ancestral lands against hydroelectric projects imposed without prior consultation. In San Juan Cotzal, community members say these developments, like the Palo Viejo plant, disrupt local rivers and livelihoods while profits largely benefit foreign companies. Chicana and Chicano Studies Assistant Professor Giovanni Batz documents this ongoing resistance in his book The Fourth Invasion, highlighting centuries of dispossession faced by the Ixil.

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