The recently published “Global View of the Mayan Juridical System” consolidates the principles and values of the millenniums-old Mayan culture, says Santos Mendoza, leader of the Waqxaqi'Noj Indigenous Defense Office. “Our aim is to show the Guatemalan people how the Mayan system existed, which has specific characteristics, and which are different from the official legal system,” Mendoza told Tierramérica.

“Traditional Mayan law has an integral and flexible focus, whose essence is to seek solutions to compensate the victims,” he said.

Sixty percent of the more than 11 million Guatemalans are indigenous, and in many native communities trials of Indians, many of whom do not speak Spanish, take place without translators.