‘Activists for life’, Gervasio Sánchez vindicates human and environmental rights threatened with death in Central America

40 men and women “who fight for their territory and their nature – for the wealth of their lands and rivers – and for the rights of women and civil liberties“they are the protagonists of the exhibition ‘Activists for Life‘of the well-known photojournalist Gervasio Sánchez and that you can enjoy in Barcelona until March 14 of 2021.

The exhibition is organized by the international solidarity association Entrepueblos and documents, through photographs, text and video interviews, “the situation of defenders of nature and of social and human rights in Guatemala and Honduras“A defense that crashes.”with the interests of investors, companies or transnational groups that extract natural resources and raw materials from these countries with impunity to sell them on the world market“.

“The laws of Honduras and Guatemala —They continue— They favor the rights of these companies, while eliminating the rights of their citizens. This situation, linked to the persecution and constant death threats, the high rate of violence and police, political and legal corruption in the regions, means that thousands of families have left the territories. However, there are indigenous and peasant communities that fight against these powerful interests and manage to protect their lands“.

Gervasio Sánchez’s project (which was working four months in the field to make this exhibition) “tells the life of some of these men and women who, even under death threats, continue to fight for their rights […] The reality that is told in this photographic project has to do with the daily lives of people who can be killed at any time”. Therefore, the author continues, “One of the things that has surprised me the most is the bravery with which activists, men and women, fight against a criminal world full of hitmen who kill without a second thought”.

By the way, the exhibition (which in 2021 will travel to Vilafranca del Penedès, Tarragona and Valencia, and in 2022 it will travel to other places in Spain) has a virtual classroom with pedagogical material for high school students; a didactic material that will be available at the end of the year for free on the Entrepueblos website. On the other hand, the project ‘Activists for Life‘is also available in book format edited by Blume.

‘Activists for life’

From November 4, 2020 to March 14, 2021

Arts Santa Mònica

La Rambla 7

08002 – Barcelona – Spain

Between villages

Photographs by Gervasio Sánchez reproduced with permission for this article