Edwin Juan Colindres is the leader of the Committee for Peasant Unity (CUC). CUC members appear to be targeted by paramilitaries because of the organization’s role in organizing peasant farmers to claim or retain lands which they believe are theirs by law. CUC has also pressed for implementation of the land rights components of Guatemala’s 1996 United Nations (UN)-brokered Peace Accords.
In May 2003, Edwin Juan Colindres is reported to have been intimidated by local paramilitaries in Guatemala because of the assistance he provided to farmers involved in land disputes with local cattle-owners in Izabal. Earlier, two farmers in the Morales area, both of whom were CUC members and had been involved in the dispute with local cattle-owners, were murdered.
