Citizen Participation

The Community Development Councils are communities organized within the framework of the Social Development Laws, emanating from the peace agreements, signed in December 1996 in Guatemala.

To constitute a permanent instrument of participation and representation of the Maya, Xinca, Garifuna peoples and the non-indigenous population,without exclusion or discrimination, within the framework of a functional, effective and participatory democracy in the decision-making processes in the planning and execution of public development policies, to facilitate the process of decentralization in public management at the municipal level,  departmental and national.

With the purpose of making effective the participation of the communities in decision-making, for a just and equitable social transformation, starting from a baseline at the departmental level, where it is reflected that 82.5% of the COCODES Development Councils do not know the Social Development Laws that govern them, so they are used and manipulated by the politicians of the day.

A process of organization in law is initiated in the municipalities of the department and its empowerment through guidance and advice in the spirit of the laws in question, currently there is intervention in 8 municipalities, through representatives in a Departmental Coordinator of COCODES, which is consolidating its presence and advocacy actions in the Department of Chimaltenango and at the municipal level.

We dream of a prosperous, united and inclusive department, with a new comprehensive vision, acting with fear of God, social justice and in law, through the empowerment of community leadership.