Transportation workers and delegations representing Indigenous peoples gathered near the Congress of the Republic and the National Palace of Culture in the Guatemalan capital, Guatemala City, to express their dissatisfaction with the rising cost of fuel.Protests reignited following the legislature’s approval of a 1.5-billion-quetzal subsidy—approximately US $324 million—intended to set reference pump prices for diesel and regular gasoline through December 31.Although the measure aims to cushion global market fluctuations, activists maintain that the mechanism is insufficient given the accumulated erosion of purchasing power.Speaking to the multi-platform news outlet teleSUR, Sonia Gutiérrez Raguay (a lawmaker representing the Winaq–URNG coalition) explained that Indigenous communities and vulnerable families are facing the direct impact of rising costs for essential goods.The legislator noted that the increase in freight and transport costs directly affects the price of basic food basket items.Gutiérrez Raguay emphasized that the country is suffering from a dual structural problem: total dependence on refined fuel imports amidst international instability in West Asia, on the one hand, and the oligopolistic concentration of the domestic market by a business sector dominated by importers on the other.The legislator described the compensation package approved by Guatemala’s Congress as a short-sighted, stopgap measure that fails to transform underlying conditions. She asserted that Guatemala needs to begin a transition toward a sovereign and sustainable energy model that reduces the population’s economic vulnerability.Compounding this energy situation is the threat to food security posed by extreme weather events linked to the El Niño phenomenon—conditions that exacerbate the economic plight of the country’s rural areas.Gutiérrez Raguay highlighted the historic role played by ancestral authorities—such as the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán and the Indigenous Mayoralty of Sololá—in coordinating political action to defend community interests against state decisions.She underscored the importance of social movements and Indigenous peoples occupying public space to demand comprehensive solutions, asserting that collective well-being requires prioritizing the addressing of historical exclusion gaps that affect the majority of the population.Protests in Peru Force Fujimori To Subsidize Fuel for Transporters (Telesur)Translation: Orinoco TribuneOT/CB/SL