This is a presentation (direct link to different video formats here) by Guillermo Chen, Director of the Fundación Nueva Esperanza (FNE) which he shared with many of us when he travelled to the UK, Germany (with Elote e.V.) and Spain in November-December 2006.

The presentation is currently in Spanish- but we're looking to transcribe and translate it. In the mean time if you're interested in finding out more, you can read our previous post on FNE. For more information on supporting FNE either financially or by volunteering, you can contact us directly for more on how to go about this.

Guatemala Solidarity Network
gsn_mail [at] yahoo [dot] com

It's ten years today that the final peace accords were signed in Guatemala, formally bringing to an end 36 years of civil war. BBC Mundo has posted an article marking this anniversary. They interviewed three of the participants of the panel discussion we organised in early December in London with Canning House: Yolanda Aguilar, Dominga Vasquez and Guillermo Chen.

We'll be tracking any other articles covering the passing of this moment and pulling together some of the assessments and analysis of what's changed in Guatemala since the signing of the Peace Accords a decade ago.

Reuters correspondent Mica Rosenberg certainly sums up the bleak side of the coin in the article: 'Violence plagues Guatemala decade after war's end'.

There has been a lot of coverage and reflection on what has happened in Guatemala over the last ten years in the Guatemalan media. These are various links to news stories we've found on the Peace Accords.

This post by Benetech's Communication Director, Ann Harrison, appeared on Benetech's blog. It gives a really insightful update on the work going on to digitize and organise the paper records of the secret police archives found in Guatemala.

The post highlights the issue of time and the imperative to record as much of the information as possible:

You can find out more about the important work of Benetech in Guatemala here and read about their initiative called the Human Rights Data Analysis Group which develops information technology solutions and statistical techniques to help human rights advocates build evidence-based arguments. Of particular interest as well is the Martus project.

Dr Patrick Ball through the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) did a lot of important work that made possible the CIDH (International Centre for Human Rights Research in Guatemala) and the statistical work of the CEH (Commission for Historical Clarification).

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Background

You can read previous reports on the discovery of the secret police archives here.

The story made the top story on the homepage of BBC Mundo. According to the report filed by the BBC, the Spanish Government is redoubling efforts for the extradition request of Gen Efrain Rios Montt (amongst others) made by Spain highest court, the Audiencia Nacional Española. The proposal made by Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Spanish Justice Minister, was agreed in cabinet.

In other news, reports in Guatemala now seem to suggest that the man detained by police in Panama was not Donaldo Alvarez after all. This from Siglo XXI:

The BBC has the same story in English now- and have transmitted the story via the BBC World Service. It's been covered now by all the Guatemalan daily newspapers. Rigoberta Menchú was quoted in Prensa Libre (23-12-2006):

It's now just over a year that Hurricane Stan struck Guatemala. What follows is an excerpt from the latest Rights Action newsletter (Dec, 2006) and gives an update on relief work that has been going on to support the rebuilding effort across the country. You can see the full newsletter here. We have been working closely with Rights Action from the UK and there is more information at the end of this post if you are interested in supporting their work.

In other news, you can find an article on water privitization, development and human rights violations: Xalala Dam Project= Chixoy Dam revisited. There is also an article on mines, development and human rights violations: Skye Resources Inc and Security Forces versus Mayan-Q’eqchi Communities [see full newsletter].

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Many thanks to all donors - individual and institutional - for your financial contributions over the past year, dating back to October  2005, for our emergency short-term relief and medium-term community rebuilding work in Guatemala in response to the deaths and destruction caused by Hurricane Stan.

The 'relief' part of the work is over and the 'rebuilding' work continues; in some regions, it has barely started.  

In early October 2005, Hurricane Stan devastated much of Guatemala, particularly the western highlands and ‘boca costa’ mountainsides leading down to the south-west pacific coast.  The number of persons killed or disappeared is over 2000.  It is still not known how many villagers were killed when mudslides buried the villages of Panabaj (departament of Sololá) and Piedra Grande (departamento of San Marcos).  At the writing of this report, the FAFG (the Forensic Anthropology Team, long supported by Rights Action to dig up mass graves of genocide and repression victims across the country) has initiated a massive exhumation process in the village of Panabaj where most of the village, and hundreds of villagers, were crushed in a mud-slide.

Throughout Guatemala, over 600 villages were negatively affected, to one degree or another; thousands of homes (mainly small huts) were destroyed.

SHORT-TERM EMERGENCY RELIEF

Immediately after Stan hit, Rights Action appealed for donations and began channelling emergency grants for deliveries of emergency food and water, bedding and clothing, and medical attention. Coordinated from our Guatemala City office, this work was done with numerous community-based groups that we have long supported and worked with. The short-term emergency relief phase lasted into early January! We sent out a summary report early in 2006.

VISION OF WORK

As we have written, it is RA’s understanding that while Stan was a devastating storm of torrential rains (resulting in floods, mud-slides, etc), the underlying issue to be addressed is the eradication of endemic poverty (caused by an unjust development- economic model) that leaves a majority of Central Americans subsisting in conditions of great vulnerability.

Starting in early 2006, Rights Action began channelling relief grants to medium-term relief and community reconstruction projects that we summarize here.  While there is, in these projects, a continuing component of emergency material relief, the main thrust of this work is to re-build, or (in some cases) relocate and rebuild healthy and safe living communities.

All of the work summarized below is based on an ‘integral community development vision’, with integrated components of:

- Community design of, control over and participation in the reconstruction and rebuilding project
- Integral vision of ‘development’, including protection of the local environment, including water sources, and reforesting steep hill and mountains sides
- Prioritizing clear title to and community and family ownership of lands
- Implementing productive projects that prioritize community and local food security and local and regional markets

PROJECTS FUNDED

- funds granted and spent, short-term emergency relief phase : $110,000;
- funds granted, to date, medium- and long-term rebuilding phase : $500,000;
- further funding is needed – long-term rebuilding proposal available on request.

PARTNER GROUPS

1 - CCDA – COMITE CAMPESINO POR EL DESARROLLO DEL ALTIPLANO / CAMPESINO COMMITTEE FOR DEVELOPMENT IN THE HIGHLANDS

For many years, RA has supported and worked with CCDA on a range of community development projects, including production and selling of fair trade coffee. In response to Stan, CCDA is working directly in Mayan-Tzutujil communities of the department of Solola, and Mayan-Mam communities of the department of San Marcos .  The main focuses of this work are:

- planting and replanting organic coffee that they will sell via their international trading relations for fair trade coffee;
- planting and replanting basic subsistence crops of corn and beans.

2 - ASECSA - ASOCIACIÓN DE SERVICIOS COMUNITARIOS DE SALUD/ ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES

RA has long supported and worked with ASECSA – a leading community health/dental/ midwifery organization - on a range of community health projects. In response to Stan, ASECSA is supporting the design and building of “granjas integrales” (integral farms) in Mayan-Quiche communities of Tziamjuyub, Pakoval II and Xeabaj II, in the municipality of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, department of Solola.

3 - CODECA - COMITE DE DESARROLLO CAMPESINO / CAMPESINO
 DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

RA has long supported and worked with CODECA on community development and human rights issues in various departments of the south-coastal and Boca Coast regions.  In response to Stan, CODECA is designing and supporting projects in 3 communities:

- In the Mayan community (a mixture of Quiche, Mam, Kakchikel, Tzutujil, ladino)
 of Monsenor Romero (105 families; department of Suchitepequez) , CODECA is developing a 5-tank Tilapia fish farm, as well as the reproduction of their staple crops – corn and sesame

- In the camepsino community of Rancho Alegre (280 families; municipality of Mazatenango, department of Retalhuleu), CODECA is developing two community projects : a milk cow project and a watermelon and bamboo production project, as well as the re-production of their traditional corn and sesame crops
- In the campesino community of Nueva Linda (department of Retalhuleu), CODECA is developing a craft and agricultural production project.

4 - AGEMA - ASOCIACIÓN DE DESARROLLO INTEGRAL Y SALUD COMUNITARIO “GENERACION DEL MAIZ” / ASSOCIATION OF INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNITY HEALTH “GENERATION OF CORN”

RA began working with and supporting AGEMA, in response to Stan. In the municipality of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan (department of Solola), AGEMA is working with a new community of some 100 families of a total of some 405 families from 8 different communities that lost homes, land and crops (corn,beans, coffee) to Stan.  The communities were : Xoljá, Pacutamá sector I, Pacutamá sector II, Chajuab, Chiucutamá, Pacorral I, Pacorral II, Tzamjuyup and Xeabaj II.  For months, these families were in temporary shelters supported by government and non-government (including Rights Action) funding sources.

A new living community is being built called “Nuevo Asentamiento Chiquizis”. There are three components to this work : providing “techo minimo” – supplies to build minimal housing structures with simple but sturdy walls and roof; planting a variety of fruit trees (Apples, Cherries, Peaches, y Avacados); building and planting 3 community gardens.

5 -  CLINICA MAXENA

RA begain working with the Clinica Maxena (that has a long term relation with ASECSA) in response to Stan, in the municipality of Santo Tomas la Union , department of Suchitepequez. The integral health Clinica Maxena is working in the Mayan-Quiche communities of Pala and Patzaj to build community and family gardens.

FUTURE PLANS – REBUILDING AND RECONSTRUCTING AFTER STAN

Upon request, Rights Action can send a proposal “Rebuilding and Reconstructing after Stan” setting out our future and on-going reconstruction and rebuilding plans. 

TAX-CHARITABLE DONATIONS

To make tax-charitable donations for “Rebuilding and Reconstructing After Stan”:  

- Credit card donations can be made going to www.rightsaction.org
- In the UK contact Jane Pelly de Jocolt at: rightsactionuk [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold, Conservative) | Hansard source

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what her policy is on the proposed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala; and whether the UK plans to offer any support to this body.

Paul Flynn (Newport West, Labour) | Hansard source

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment she has made of the human rights situation in Guatemala.

Just spotted this really great interview of Helen Woodcock, volunteer accompanier with Peace Brigades International and Dominga Vasquez, Mayoress of Solola. The interview (broadcast 13-12-2006) was as part of the BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour programme.

See more on this in a previous post on this blog.

Yesterday The Guardian published an article I wrote about the recent media coverage regarding Pinochet's death- and lack of any mention of Guatemala - despite the similarities. I referred specifically to The Guardian's coverage- but I think you could include pretty much all the media and their coverage of Pinochet's legacy.

Update 16-12-2006

Rooting around on different media networks- it was interesting that Lord Lamont (Norman Lamont former Chancellor of the Exchequer) in his 'defense' of Pinochet refered to Guatemala:

Niall Ferguson in the Sunday Telegraph (17-12-2006) expands on this variant of the Pinochet apology brigade- in a way that Lamont would probably sympathise with. The tired argument goes something like: Pinochet, Rios Montt are better because they're our "sonsofbitches" not theirs (communist).

The Guardian has also published (16-12-2006) an article "The time expiring for dirty war prosecutors" which discusses the legal cases across Latin America that have been discussed or developed against state-sponsored repression. It refers to the situation in Guatemala in passing:

The issue of the fate of Ríos Montt in the light of the death of Pinochet has sparked interesting discussions on a number of blogs. One of the largest and most exhaustive was this one on the Daily Kos where Meteor Blades was kind enough to cite my above article.

In Guatemala, the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission reported the following reactions to the death of Pinochet:

There are a large number of events planned to mark the passing of ten years since the signing of the Peace Accords in Guatemala. We recently received an extrememly comprehensive report from Orlando Blanco of the International Centre for Human Rights Investigations (CIIDH).

The report, which was begun in 2003, was presented formally by DESCGUA, CONGCOOP and CIIDH on the International Human Rights Day (10-12-2006). The report looks at the current situation in Guatemala of economic, social and cultural rights almost ten years since the signing of the accords. Specifically, it looks at wide ranging issues including: housing, poverty, food security, domestic violence, land reform, health, education, social security and work.

An interview with Jennifer Harbury author of "Truth, Torture and the American Way" and "Searching for Everardo: A Story of Love, War and the CIA in Guatemala". The interview is from about a year and a half ago and has just been posted by Mike - talkingsticktv.

The Guatemalan state recently recognised its responsibility in the death of Guatemalan guerrilla leader Efrain Bámaca- Jennifer Harbury's husband.

George Monbiot has just written this article in The Guardian on the US's attitude to torture- to take the debate up to the present day.

This old film footage from 1968 gives a glimpse at some of the many cultural traditions in Guatemala -still very much present unchanged forty years later. The clip has been posted by François Luis Blanc. It includes the Palo Volador from Chichicastenango and the 'Baile de la Conquista'.

And while we're also on the topic of culture - Giacomo Buonafina has just upped a whole load of top quality video clips from a marimba concert "Concierto de Bellas Artes".

Washington, DC: The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) urges the Guatemalan judicial system to order and carry out the committal order issued by the Spanish courts for the arrests of ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt and former official Benedicto Lucas García, with prompt extradition or domestic prosecution.  

In light of recent threats against ECAP (Equipo de Estudios Comunitarios y Acción Psicosocial), an organization doing psychological/social work with survivors in Rabinal, Alta Verapaz, we also urge the protection of the members and workers of ECAP, as well as all survivors, witnesses, human rights defenders and organizations involved in promoting the prosecution of those responsible for genocide in Guatemala.  Since September of this year, ECAP has suffered various acts of intimidation and violence, including written threats, vigilance and attempted kidnapping.

On December 1, the Guatemalan Supreme Court received committal orders from Spain demanding the arrest and eventual extradition of these two ex-government officials.  The formal committal order issued by Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz cites the charges of genocide for the massacres that occurred during the armed conflict and specifies that the majority of these crimes occurred during the period of Rios Montt's government. The order reads, "During Rios Montt's reign, 69% of all executions took place, 41% of rapes and sexual assaults, and 45% of tortures of all the registered cases, as documented by the Commission for Historical Clarification." Overall, some 200,000, predominantly Maya, people were murdered during the 36-year-long conflict.

Ríos Montt and Lucas García are among eight former officials who face extradition to Spain for their crimes, as the result of charges filed by Rigoberta Menchú and other victims before Spanish courts in 1999.  Two others, Ángel Aníbal Guevara Ramírez and Germán Chupina Barahona, have already been detained by the National Civil Police on charges of terrorism, homicide and kidnapping.  Donaldo Alvarez Ruíz and Pedro García Arredondo have not been located and are considered to be refugees from justice.

On November 30, Guatemala's Vice-President Eduardo Stein stated, “it should not be justice systems from other countries which judge the crimes committed here.”  The Justice for Genocide coalition demands that genocide be tried by Spain under the principle of universal jurisdiction and that Guatemala create conditions which allow its justice system to function independently and efficiently.  NISGUA accompaniment coordinator Bridget Brehen comments, “If the Guatemalan judicial system handles the orders for Ríos Montt and Lucas García differently than the previous arrest warrants, we will be looking at a clear example of impunity.”

[For more: see NISGUA's website]

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Background: the case against Rios Montt et al yesterday (06-12-2006) headed towards the long grass of analysis by the Constitutional Court [El Periodico].

Siân James (Swansea East, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

What steps his Department is taking to reduce child labour in Latin America.

A really interesting short documentary about the work that MayaWorks does with Mayan artisans in Guatemala. MayaWorks is celebrating 10 years of strengthening Hope and Justice. 2006 is our 10th year of interweaving lives, empowering Mayan artisans, and creating global friends and partnerships. In this time, MayaWorks has not only developed a diverse line of colorful, attractive, and affordable Mayan products, but has helped strengthen Guatemalan communities through financial support and education.

Here's a prediction: with the imminent US release of Mel Gibson's new film Apocalypto media interest in Maya culture is going to be higher than normal. Not a hard one- but here's another: despite inciting a discussion of Maya history, there'll be very little accompanying airing of the challenges facing the modern day Maya living in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. In fact, partly due to how the film is being trailed, many may even believe that Maya culture is extinct.

This from Wikipedia: "Mel Gibson filmed Apocalypto mainly in Catemaco and Paso de Ovejas in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Gibson uses the Yucatec Maya language in Apocalypto, in the same way he used Aramaic and Latin for his religious blockbuster The Passion of the Christ. Apocalypto features a cast of unknown actors from Mexico City, the Yucatán, some Native Americans from the United States, and locals from Los Tuxtlas and Veracruz. While Gibson is financing the film himself, Disney has signed on to release Apocalypto for a fee in certain markets."

Reservations about Gibson and Disney producing a film about Maya history aside, this is a rare example of a large distribution film looking at Central American history (pre-European colonisation). But we'll have more to say on this once we've seen it!

For all the ins and outs on the production of the film: check out the Apocalypto Watch blog.

UPDATE: (05-12-2006)

The reviews are starting to roll in. No mention of Maya culture here on the BBC. If this one from The Guardian is anything to go by - doesn't appear to be much hunger to actually talk about the film- and not the filmmaker (tempting as it is):

However, this new piece in The Guardian (Mark Stevenson - Associated Press Writer) comes closest to contradicting my prediction of an absence of discussion of the present day:
For a different take on the film read this review from Traci Ardren who is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Miami:

UPDATE: (09-12-2006)

Mysteriously, a report from Reuters used the above quote we pulled out three days ago on this blog, and attributed it to Ignacio Ochoa, director of the Nahual Foundation that promotes Mayan culture. These articles appeared in The Guardian, BBC, Channel 4, and ITN under the title 'Mayans slam film'. Now the BBC appears to have corrected this and quoted Traci Ardren directly -and changed it to 'film angers Mayan groups'. The BBC even links directly to Traci's article. Slow papers like the Independent are way off the pace and using the old attribution for the 'racist' quote (09-12-2006).

Ignacio Ochoa kindly responded to us and has categorically denied this is his quote. Ochoa doubts the film will increase stereotyping of the Maya beyond what it is already. Ochoa's concern is that the "ancient Maya civilization" commonly referred to is more an ideological construct. This constructed concept has been used by the likes of the Guatemalan State as a kind of systematic colonialism to control indigenous movements in Guatemala during the civil war up to the present day. The real danger for the present day Maya is that Guatemalan politicians are blocking their participation in local development. Ochoa cites the COCODE system as an example of this. Ochoa agrees that any hint by Gibson in the film, just as in the school books many Guatemalans have to read, that it took the Spanish conquest of the Mayas to 'civilize' them is totally unacceptable.

Wouldn't it be great if the media could go beyond the mudslinging (the need for controversy) and examine the issues at stake for a change? They might even check with the people they're quoting- rather than just recycling the news.

Traci has also brought to our attention the film The Fountain which has recently had a US release (22-11-2006) and is also influenced by Maya culture. The film's director Darren Aronofsky has described how concepts in the film such as the Tree of Life and the Mayan underworld Xibalba come from the Popol Vuh. This is certainly another film worth comparing and contrasting with Apocalypto in terms of how big budget films are depicting Maya culture at the moment. So what made Aronofsky interested in Maya culture?

"I've always been fascinated by the Mayas. I was a sophomore in college, and me and some friends drove a cheap car to Palenque, Mexico, to the Mayan ruins. We were in the abandoned Mayan plaza, and there were these huge anthills. I was standing in the center of a huge dead civilization that had been taken over by another civilization of another species. It was a moment of chaos. I realized that civilizations die and others take over. I went back to school and took some classes on Mayan culture. I've been fascinated ever since by their first Adam and their tree of life, so that made me want to connect them to this story."

UPDATE: (10-12-2006)

As more people are watching Apocalypto in the US (we still haven't in the UK) there seems to be an increasingly stronger reaction against it. Professor Gerardo Aldana is the latest to enter the fray with a pretty damning critique. NISGUA appear to be beginning a campaign to boycott it.

Can't help but feel though that it would be better to counter the inaccuracies presented by Gibson through informing potential audiences, as Gerardo Aldana and others are doing. Never had Mel down as a stickler for historical accuracy ever since Braveheart- nor as a filmmaker is he the first to present a cinematic vision at odds with known historical fact. But it's probably better to use this current spike in public interest in Maya culture and history to educate and not lecture.

UPDATE: (17-12-2006)

Another interesting take on the film this time from Robert Parry on Consortiumnews.com. Parry turns the tables and points out the US's role of the more recent Apocalypto of the Maya in Guatemala. There's also this great review by Kanishk Tharoor in Open Democracy: "Mel Gibson's Mayan blockbuster is an imperialist Christian dream but otherwise an imaginative, historical and cultural worst nightmare".

UPDATE: (31-12-2006)

With the approach of the UK release date- the reviews are flying thick and fast. Philip French in the Guardian loves it- but doesn't mention Guatemala. The Times' Cosmo Landesman thinks it's bloody fantastic. Philip Sherwell in the Sunday Telegraph has this interesting article, which concludes 'They're nothing like us' after conferring with Professor Bartolomé Alonzo Caamal who has pursued 'his mission to keep the Mayan language and culture alive':

The book by Miquel Dewever-Plana makes an important contribution to the recuperation to historical memory and dignifying of the victims of one of the most tragic conflicts in Latin America. Here's more information from the press release on the website:

There's a low quality video clip with the book's author and Ana Maria Menchu Tum speaking about the book in a recent press conference.

This just in from our compañer@s in Guatemala with an update on the extradition order for Gen Efrain Rios Montt et al... looks like there could be some movement in the next few days. Watch this space...

Here's the news as reported in Prensa Libre and Siglo XXI (01-12-2006). Or CERIGUA (02-12-2006). The Spanish authorities have corrected the mistake about missing out reference to Rios Montt:

Also in the news was the revelation that Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz recently visited Guatemala (El Periodico):


Perhaps we may even have news on the case before Guatemalans 'burn the devil' (Quema del Diablo) on 7th December - a day reserved, according to tradition, for the burning of the old and bad to make way for the new.