The Guatemalan government is cracking down on the country’s hundreds of pirate radio stations. Indigenous leaders say the 1996 Peace Accords give them the right to broadcast.
Without a license, broadcasting is illegal, says Eduardo Mendoza, secretary of Guatemala’s Chamber of Broadcasting. He explains that there are at least 800 pirate radio stations in Guatemala. While many of these do profit from broadcasting or serve a political or religious group, community-run stations like Radio Ixchel are deemed to be as menacing as the others.
But Radio Ixchel and the other community stations claim that they have a right to the airwaves, and that the current law is discriminatory. They cite the Guatemalan Peace Accords, which were signed in 1996 and ended 36 years of bloody civil war between the military government and leftist guerillas.
