Juan LEóN

Juan León is Maya K’iche from Guatemala. From a young age, he participated in cultural and political youth movements. He was actively involved in several Maya organizations supporting human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples. He was a negotiator for the Agreements on Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala. He also contributed to the 1996 peace agreements in Guatemala. He has been one of the promoters of the strengthening, recovery, and practice of the Legal and Justice System of the Maya People with his legal organization “Defensoría Maya.” He actively participated in the negotiations of the content of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as in the drafting of the OAS American Declaration. He was a founding member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He has served as Alternate Ambassador of Guatemala to the OAS and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ecuador, Norway, Denmark, and Cuba. He is currently the representative of the International Indian Treaty Council for Guatemala and the Latin American region.