The Palm Oil Industry and Its Violent Impact on Maya Women’s Lives

Lourdes Gómez Willis is a Maya-Q'eqchi'- Afro-descendant legal researcher and member of the Amaq’ Institute. She has conducted research on extractive industries, rural women's land rights, collective intellectual rights, genetic resources, and food sovereignty.

In this public webinar, Gómez Willis will speak about the ways in which the palm oil industry, which includes national and international capital, affects the lives of Maya communities through land dispossession, forced displacement, criminalization, and the destruction of the environment. In addition, Gómez-Willis will address the ways in which Maya women have organized in defense of their ancestral territories and the environment.