New website for the campaign for Justice Nueva Linda who are seeking justice in the forced disappearance of Hector Reyes. You can find more about the case of Hector Reyes on this blog here.
Justicia Nueva Linda: In their own words
¿Quien SOMOS?
El grupo campesino pro justicia en Nueva Linda es una expresión de lucha y resistencia contra la represión del Estado y la impunidad de los latifundistas, se origina por el secuestro del compañero Héctor René Reyes Pérez el día 5 de septiembre de 2003, hasta entonces administrador de la finca Nueva Linda de Retalhuleu.
En dicho acto resulta directamente involucrado el propietario de la finca, Carlos Vidal Fernández y su escolta de seguridad, quienes hasta la fecha, no solamente siguen en total libertad sino además se han incrementado los actos represivos en contra de la familia de Reyes y los campesinos que le apoyan.
¿Qué QUEREMOS?
Aspiramos la justicia y la paz para la familia de Héctor Reyes y las demás familias campesinas que le acompañan solidariamente en esta lucha, para que los autores materiales e intelectuales de la persecución, agresión, secuestro y asesinato de varios campesinos del Movimiento Pro Justicia Nueva Linda, tanto por parte de las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado, así como los terratenientes, sean juzgados y castigados con todo el peso de la Ley.
¿Qué HACEMOS?
A partir del secuestro del compañero Héctor Reyes hemos exigido justicia en todas las dependencias del Estado, sin embargo, lejos de obtenerla, hemos sido víctimas de agresiones de finqueros latifundistas en su mayoría de nacionalidad española y de la criminalización de nuestra lucha de parte del gobierno; por ello ocupamos pacíficamente la finca Nueva Linda durante varios meses, pero fuimos desalojados violentamente en dos ocasiones.
Desde el 21 de noviembre de 2004 instalamos nuestras viviendas a la orilla de la carretera, frente a la entrada principal de la finca, como medida de protesta por la falta de aplicación de justicia, habiendo sido desalojados en dos ocasiones y perseguidos por los latifundistas y la policía nacional civil. Además estamos dándole seguimiento a 4 procesos judiciales que comprenden:
- Secuestro de Héctor Reyes el 5 de septiembre de 2003, - Muertes extrajudiciales en desalojo violento de la finca el 31 de agosto de 2004, - Secuestro, tortura y asesinato de Eufemia López Morán 25 de abril de 2004, - Agresión e Intento de Secuestro de René Eustaquio Reyes el 2 de abril de 2004, - Intento de asesinato en contra del grupo campesino el 21 de noviembre de 2004, - Lesiones graves producidas por arma de fuego a varios campesinos del grupo.
Nuestra lucha se ha fortalecido gracias a la solidaridad de organizaciones nacionales e internacionales como: el Comité de Desarrollo Campesino, Bloque Anitimperialista, ACOGUATE, Collectif Guatemala y Action Rights.
OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GUATEMALA, THE HONORABLE ALVARO COLOM CABALLEROS
Dear Mr. President:
We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, on January 31 2008, would like to render a worthy tribute to the victims of the Spanish Embassy massacre, by working to clear their names and vowing to carry on with their just struggle for which they lost their lives.
As you know, January 31st has been declared International Day of Solidarity with the People of Guatemala. This year we commemorate the 28th anniversary of the tragic events which culminated in the burning of the Spanish Embassy by members of the Guatemala security forces.
As a result of this act of repression, a total of 41 people perished in this Embassy and in the public events related to these acts of cowardice. Many national and international organizations have demanded justice and punishment for those responsible.
Despite this, the response of successive Guatemalan governments these past 28 years has been one of concealment, allowing the perpetrators of these criminal acts to continue to enjoy protection, move with impunity across the national territory, hold public positions and even enjoy sanctuary and privileges in various countries in the region.
It is necessary, Mr. President, that firm and consistent steps be taken to move forward, in the spirit of the Peace Accords, and that conditions to reach a strong, authentic, and long lasting peace be created. Full respect for human rights and the diversity of its people are necessary to enable the reconciliation of the Guatemalan people.
We believe that it is important to respond to the demands of the different organizations of the Guatemalan popular movement as well as the recommendations of the Commission for Historical Clarification. It will also be of vital importance to fully support the work of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala.
We consider that your government has a historic opportunity to take effective and concrete actions for the implementation of the rule of law and the governability of the nation, and in so doing, make real the hope of ending over half of a century of impunity and human rights violations which have “cast shadow over” the country and which has turned it into a refuge for those who committed genocide and a paradise for organized crime.
For these reasons, we request that your government:
First: Prosecute those who were intellectually and physically responsible for the massacre in the Spanish Embassy and the genocide in Guatemala, in accordance with national and international laws.
Second: Ensure justice and respect for all the women and men who work in the construction of a tolerant, just, and dignified new Guatemala.
Sincerely,
Asociación de Estudiantes para el Bienestar Internacional, Lund, Suecia Asociación Guatemalteca de Lund, Suecia Asociación Guatemalteca Americana de los Angeles California -AGUA- USA Asociación Salvadoreña Canadiense –ASALCA- Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network – Canada Café Justicia – Ottawa, Canada Canada-El Salvador Action Network –CELSAN- Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives –KAIROS- Canadian Student Fair Trade Network Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario Division International Solidarity Committee Comité de Base del Frente Amplio-Uruguay "El Ceibo", Toronto, Canada Comunidad Rutilio Grande – Toronto, Canada Church of the Brethren Supporting Community for Guatemala Accompaniment Program, Eldora, IA, USA Denver Justice & Peace Committee –CAMINOS- USA Francesca Lupo – Italia Guatemala Community Network, (GCN) Canada Guatemala Solidarität Österreich – Solidarity with Guatemala-Austria Guatemalan Working Group of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group, Mcmaster University, Hamilton, Canada. Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice, Canada Kickapoo/Guatemala Accompaniment Project, SW Wisconsin, USA Kitchener-Waterloo Mayan Project, Canada Lakes Area Group Organizing in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala –LAGOS- St Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Latin-American Canadian Solidarity Association –LACASA- Canada London-Guatemala Solidarity Committee, Canada Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network, Canada Mothers for Justice, Hamilton, Canada Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala –NISGUA- USA New Democratic Party (NDP) Latin-American Ethnic Committee (Ontario), Canada No One is Illegal – Toronto, Canada Ontario Coalition Against Poverty – OCAP – Canada Organization of Latin American Students -OLAS- Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada Organización de Estudiantes para una Globalización Positiva, Lund, Suecia Punto de Encuentro CKCU Universidad de Carleton, Ottawa, Canada Rights Action – Canada SALVAIDE, Canada Shawna Greenberg, World Literacy of Canada Sisters of St. Joseph, Office for Systemic Justice, London, Ontario Suzanne Rumsey, LA/C Program Coordinator, PWRDF/Anglican Church of Canada The Social Justice Committee, Canada Tzijolaj - Cross Cultural Communication, Ottawa, Canada Unitarian Universalist Central America Network –UUCAN- Seattle, Washington USA
Central America Report UK is a bi-annual magazine put together by journalists and activists working for social and economic justice in Central America. It has close ties with UK-based Central America solidarity organisations, including the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, the Guatemala Solidarity Network and the El Salvador Network.
After many years in print, it's now online. It's hoped that this website will allow many more people to find out about, and get involved with, solidarity work in Central America and the UK.
I came across this interesting interview of a man called Abraham Ajiataz. His story reminded me of many other courageous Guatemalans I've met who've battled against the odds to get the education the deserve. Abraham now supports others to have the opportunity to do the same and have access to education. Here's more on the work of the Guatemala Friendship School Foundation:
The Guatemala Friendship School Foundation is a non-profit organization working to provide a quality education for those who otherwise couldn't afford to learn.Construction began in 1998 and since 2001 we have been operating a school called Instituto K'amawanik' in the highland village of Momostenango.
The school gives all students the opportunity to learn regardless of age, income, religion, or gender. We have educated over 100 students and our numbers are growing each month. The Guatemala Friendship School Foundation is dedicated to the support and continued growth of Instituto K'amawanik'.
We just received this information from our colleagues at the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign. We're cross posting it as it's a great opportunity to find out more about Fairtrade in Nicaragua:
Fair trade and community tourism study tour to Nicaragua (28 June-13 July 2008).
"Fairtrade means conserving and improving our land and the air that we breathe. It also means education for our children, healthcare for our families and better opportunities - above all for women - to organise and take decisions. It means producers and consumers working together… Fairtrade is not just a question of money."
Blanca Rosa Molina, fair trade producer & president of the Organisation of Northern Coffee Cooperatives (CECOCAFEN), Nicaragua
The trip will give you a unique opportunity to:
* Get to know the people who produce the coffee you drink every morning * Gain an understanding of fair trade from the perspective of producers particularly women and the young people * Learn about the coffee chain and how small producers confront the problems they face * Enjoy the beautiful forested mountains of northern Nicaragua, where there are trails, waterfalls, rare birds, animals, and flowers * Understand the importance of community based rural tourism as a means of diversifying the income of small scale farmers, protecting the environment and providing tourists with a unique opportunity for cultural exchange and interaction with a community. * Learn how fair trade has empowered producers, opened up opportunities for community organisation and development and how tourism is part of that * Use the experience to promote the Nicaraguan producers’ perspective on fair trade on your return
What will the programme include?
* Visits and talks to enable you to gain an understanding of the impact of globalisation on Nicaragua and the effects of trade injustice and global warming on small scale farmers particularly women * A six day stay with the families of fair trade producers an opportunity to participate in the daily life of the community and a community based tourism project * Visits to other rural development projects, part of the Sandinista government zero hunger program. * Trips to some of Nicaragua’s historic towns and the spectacularly beautiful coast and countryside * Other visits and talks will be organised depending on the particular interests of the group.
‘The study tour gave me new understanding of lives of coffee producing families and the organisation of fair trade cooperatives. We shared experiences with coffee producers and also met fair trade organisations and civil society groups. These meetings not only highlighted the importance trade justice for the producers, but gave a context of the issues in wider Nicaraguan society.’
Josina Calliste, member of women’s fair trade study tour to Nicaragua, 2007
How much will it cost?
Ground and admin costs: £640 including UK/Nicaragua preparation and all costs in Nicaragua except insurance and airport taxes. Flight costs approximately £650. It is advisable to book as early as possible. Maximum size of group: 10
Se acordó hacer la mesa de diálogo en la banqueta de la calle, en frente del edificio ocupado.
We received this press release from CUC:
LAS POLITICAS IMPLEMENTADAS DE ESTE GOBIERNO NO RESUELVEN LA CONFLICTIVIDAD AGRARIA.
Durante este gobierno se ha dado una oleada de desalojos violentos, asesinatos y persecución de los dirigentes de las comunidades que luchan por la recuperación y defensa de la madre tierra.
La política de desagrarización de la conflictividad Rural no se resuelve con la creación de otros fondos como el caso de la reactivación de la economía campesina, la compra de fincas rápidas sin profundizar en la certeza jurídica de la propiedad, los programas de arrendamiento de tierras, por parte del MAGA; por otra parte está la política de créditos individuales por parte del Fondo de Tierras, la creación de los centros de arbitraje agrario que sólo vienen a generar dispersión y gastos innecesarios para evadir de fondo la crisis agraria.
Por otra parte, la compra de tierras improductivas, la sobrevaloración de tierras, la falta de capital de trabajo, la facilitación de los medios de producción que han accesado a la tierra ha agudizado más pobreza y extrema pobreza en el campo y la ciudad. Por lo anteriormente expuesto,
SOLICITAMOS
1.Suspender las amenazas de desalojos a las comunidades que han accesado a tierras por parte del Fondo de Tierras y Banrural. 2.La renegociación de los créditos atorgados a través del Fondo de Tierras, en base a un nuevo avalúo de las fincas. 3.La condonación de las deudas de algunas fincas que no tienen posibilidades de pago.
¡La tierra es Nuestra Madre, no se compra ni se vende, se recupera y se DEFIENDE!
Comité de Unidad Campesina CUC, miembro de CNOC, MICSP, WAKIB’ KEJ, CLOC Y Vía Campesina
You can see more photos of the occupation and protest organised by CUC and CNOC at FONTIERRAS here.
Thanks Mikkel Moldrup-Lakjer for this information. The copy of the Act that was signed by FONTIERRAS, CNOC and CUC is attached.
INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS WANTED in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Indonesia and Nepal.
Peace Brigades International is a human rights organisation which was created in 1981. It's aim is to help create a breathing space in conflict zones so that the civilian population may organise to defend its rights without fear of reprisals and violence. PBI is an independent organisation not affiliated to any religious or political institutions.
It's recruiting International Observers to work in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Indonesia and Nepal to protect organisations and individuals who have requested our involvement. You must be fluent in Spanish for Latin America, for Indonesian and Nepal you will have time to learn before joining the team. You must be able to make a minimum time commitment of 12 months.
The next PBI orientation weekends in the UK for potential volunteers are:
Friday 28th – 30th September 2007 London Friday 2-4th November 2007 Peak District
The Orientation Weekend is the first step in the preparation and training of potential volunteers and provides an opportunity for those interested to explore the possibility of joining a field team.
The orientation weekend is designed as an informative and enjoyable weekend for anyone wanting to learn more about the work of PBI, both in Britain and abroad. as a general introduction to PBI’s philosophy, aims and work & explore issues such as non-violence, consensus decision-making and conflict resolution through discussions, role-plays, team exercises, workshops and games.
The weekend runs from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon and has a cost of £65 waged, £55 low-waged and £45 un-waged.
Information pack, application & booking form is on the PBI website or you can email: Lani Parker: outreach [at] peacebrigades.org.uk
We've just received the following information for our friends in the USA- we know a lot of readers of this blog are based in the USA and just wanted to do our bit to make sure the word gets out- volunteer accompaniers are needed now. You can also volunteer as accompaniers if you're based in the UK- contact us for more information.
Next training: October 14-21, 2007 Application deadline: August 17, 2007 Training will take place in San Francisco, CA
• Accompaniers act as human rights observers, providing a constant international presence to Guatemalan witnesses involved in precedent-setting genocide cases.
• NISGUA trains volunteers and matches them with U.S. sponsoring communities that support (financially and personally) the accompanier’s stay.
• Accompaniers share in everyday rural life, observe and report on conditions, and monitor the human rights situation.
***
Training includes the following: • Workshops focused on anti-oppression themes and accompaniment philosophy • Role-plays that train participants to live and work as accompaniers in rural Guatemalan communities • Background on Guatemala and updates on the current political situation.
*** A candidate for G.A.P. should have:
- A familiarity with the history of Central America/U.S. relationships and the current situation in Guatemala - A basic understanding of accompaniment and nonviolence, and a willingness to continue developing that understanding - Previous experience in Latin America, especially rural areas (strongly preferred) - A high level of verbal and written Spanish or the ability to develop it with six weeks of intensive study - The ability to document and analyze events and conditions to prepare reports Cultural sensitivity ? Excellent judgment skills ? Physical stamina, good health - Six months to commit, not including training and language study - Awareness of security issues and willingness to work in a situation which might involve some risk - Residency in the U.S., or a strong connection to a community in the U.S.
Benefits include: accommodation and food in community, a small stipend, health insurance, a re-entry stipend, and a contribution toward international travel.
NISGUA is one of many organizations around the world that employs accompaniment as a vital tool in the global struggle for the respect of human rights. In the Guatemalan context, accompaniment creates a non-violent response to the threats, harassment, and violence faced by survivors of Guatemala’s 36-year-long civil war and grassroots organizations working for justice and human rights. To this end, NISGUA places long-term volunteers side-by-side with people in rural communities and with organizations in an effort to deter human rights violations. The dissuasive physical presence of these volunteers, known as accompaniers, provides a measure of security and creates space for Guatemalan communities and groups to organize in defense of their rights. Accompaniers also monitor and report on the human rights situation and alert the international community to abuses. In the U.S., twelve G.A.P. Sponsoring Communities are committed to immediately responding to abuses and providing ongoing support to accompaniers.
Why is accompaniment necessary?
In the early 1980s, the Guatemalan military swept through rural communities in a counter-insurgency campaign that uprooted more than a million people – many of whom fled to neighboring Mexico – and led to an estimated 200,000 dead and disappeared. According to the independent Historical Clarification Commission, these actions constituted acts of genocide against Guatemala’s indigenous population.
In 1993, organized groups of refugees began returning home and internally displaced groups started to come out of hiding. Two years later, G.A.P. formed in response to requests from these returnees for trained international observers to accompany communities as they rebuilt after 36 years of violent civil war, which formally ended with the signing of peace accords in 1996.
As the returned communities grew stronger, their need for accompaniment diminished. At the same time, more individuals and organizations began stepping forward to denounce the atrocities of the past. In a deteriorating human rights climate, their actions, along with ongoing impunity in Guatemala, put them at a high level of risk for human rights violations. Recognizing this, members of communities and organizations involved in such efforts requested accompaniment, and G.A.P. responded by gradually shifting our mandate to accompany them.
Who does NISGUA accompany?
Association for Justice and Reconciliation: In 2000 and 2001, a courageous group of war survivors brought legal cases to a Guatemalan court against former military dictators Efraín Ríos Montt and Romeo Lucas García, as well as their military high commands, on charges of genocide against the indigenous population. The witnesses in these cases formed the Association for Justice and Reconciliation and requested international accompaniment. G.A.P. has responded to this request with accompaniers in the Ixcán, Ixil, and Rabinal regions.
Grassroots Organizations: Since the beginning of 2000, threats and direct attacks have increased against Guatemalan labor unions, indigenous groups, exhumation teams, and other organizations working for justice and human rights. In response to this situation, NISGUA initiated its Organization Accompaniment Program. A team based in Guatemala City responds to short-term requests for accompaniment for organizations and individuals.
Abby Weil is currently working through a fellowship with the Advocacy Project at ADIVIMA. She's blogging about her experiences in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. She kindly contacted us and it's great to have the opportunity to flag up the great work of the Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of the Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi. From their website:
"The Association is directed by the mission to: seek solutions to social, economic, education and political problems caused by the internal armed conflict of the 1980´s that widows, orphans, survivors, and victims face; help ensure the carrying out of the Peace Accords signed by the Guatemalan government and the United Revolutionary National Guatemalans and the completion of reports by the Commission of Historical Clarification and REMHI (Recooperaction of Historical Memories); construct momuments in honor of the 49 massacres in different communities in Baja Verapaz; facilitate the process of reflection and healing; empower the communities so that they can be influential in governmental and social affairs and in the solutions to their own needs."
ADVIMA is a non-profit organization that seeks to find solutions to the social, economic, educational, and cultural problems caused by the internal conflict. We'll continue to read Abby's blog about living and working in Rabinal with interest.
These last four months living in Guatemala and working as a human rights accompanier with the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) has already been an amazing experience. The relationships I have formed, with other accompaniers from around the world and especially the families of Santa Maria Tzejá (SMT) have opened my eyes and my heart. I hope that the stories, history and current political information that I send in these letters inspires y’all to action in the fight for justice, not just globally, but in your own communities where you see blatant injustice.
The Story of Marta
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with Marta about children and childbirth. The average age for a woman to become a mother here is 15, so obviously, a 27 year-old woman with no husband or children is very strange. Nine times she has experienced the excruciating pain of giving life, but today she only has seven children. When I asked what happened to them she told me her story…one of many similar stories:
“When the army came that day in 1982, we ran for our lives though the jungle… some people had no shoes… we couldn’t see anything in the dark… the branches tore our skin… but we couldn’t stop, it was life or death so we kept moving,” she remembers.
For months and months, Marta and the group she travelled with roamed blindly through the mountains of northern Guatemala, escaping many close encounters with the army which was constantly hunting them. Most of the time, they had no idea which direction they were going.
After wandering for weeks and months, she remembers being at an encampment of people who saw the army coming and they decided to move the group, yet again. She was so weak, she couldn’t go.
“I decided that I wouldn’t walk anymore… I couldn’t walk anymore… I was starving. I sat down on the ground with my two babies and said this is where I’m going to die, me and my babies.”
She doesn’t know exactly what it was that made her lift herself up and keep moving, but she suddenly found the strength to keep going. The decision to flee to Mexico was a point of conflict among the wandering group. Many people thought the war would end soon or the army would give up searching for them. Many people suffered terribly and two of Marta’s children died in the mountains of malnutrition during those months of indecision.
Her strength to move forward, not just that day in the mountains, but her constant positive activity in her community, is an inspiration to me. She is a woman who was never given the opportunity to receive an education, so she cannot read or write. But she broke away from her expected role as a soft-spoken woman and mother and became a leader in her community. She says, “I have a lot of opinions and think they should be heard.” She is inspiring to other women in the community as well because she isn’t afraid to stand up and speak, something which she, as in indigenous woman, has worked to overcome her whole life.
Before the massacre, she was married to a man who was physically abusive and never let her get involved outside of their house. He was killed the day of the massacre and as a refugee in Mexico, Marta was introduced to a woman’s organization called Mama Maquin. From this experience, she brought back a wealth of knowledge to SMT and is a strong force in the woman’s union there. In Mexico, she also found a man who is extremely supportive of her community activity and she created a new life and a new family with him.
Rios Montt runs for Congress…again
Unfortunately Rios Montt, a man who currently has an international genocide case against him in the Spanish Courts, registered to run for the Guatemalan Congress on May 18th. This, of course, is major news here on the ground and work will continue around the national cases against Rios Montt and his military high command. If you have not signed this letter to move the case forward, please take a moment of your time and sign it here.
If you have already signed, it would be helpful to send this link to five people that you think would like to support the people who suffered terribly during a brutal civil war and are fighting for justice.
Another interesting piece of news came out in the national newspaper, “Prensa Libre,” which undeniably links Rios Montt to several massacres that took place in 1982. This link, called “Plan Sofia,” is a military document that outlines the plans for the eradication of indigenous communities in the Quiché region of Guatemala. "The documents detailing Plan Sofia clearly illustrate an explicit chain of command, with Rios Montt at its head, through which orders of mass extermination were communicated at the height of the conflict" said Catherine Norris, an organizer with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) in Washington D.C.
"Since the demands for justice from survivors have yet to compel the Guatemalan judicial system to prosecute those responsible for genocide, we hope such brazen documentation of planning and responsibility for atrocities will prove impossible to ignore and bolster the survivors' case," Norris told Upside Down World. Another accompanier wrote a detailed article about this plan and the effects of this news on the case.
Consulta Comunitaria (Community Referendum)
On April 20th, a very interesting and exciting action took place here in the Ixcan region of Guatemala: a vote concerning the construction of new hydro-electric dams (namely the Xalala Dam) and the exploration and exploitation of oil by foreign interests. Since a majority of land is owned and utilized by indigenous communities in the Ixcan, a popular vote was taken to see if the people that would be most directly affected by these projects were in favor of them or not. After many information sessions and talk throughout the region, a vote was taken and 91% of the region said “NO” to the projects.
The day of the Consulta was an inspiring day for SMT. Everyone was very excited to be part of this historical process and have their voice heard. In Guatemala, the government never asks their opinion on anything, so this vote made them feel very empowered. I felt privileged to be present as an observer.
Semana Santa (Holy Week)
Semana Santa is extremely important here in Guatemala. In SMT, the students that are usually away studying high school or college all return for this one week festival extraordinaire. At first, when everyone was talking about Semana Santa, I thought it was going to be more of a party, but with religion so deeply intertwined in the local culture, I should have known better. I went to Catholic mass more times in the last month than in the last ten years. Other than going to mass and participating in processions of the Stations of the Cross, the two main traditions here in SMT are making bread and spending a day at the river. These two traditions also mirror the traditions of the church. Bread is made early in the week to eat during the time between Good Friday and Easter (many people in the states fast during this time). On Thursday (the Last Supper), everyone goes to the Tzeja River all day with their families and cooks enormous amounts of food.
On the Tuesday of Semana Santa, I was invited to make bread with a family. The bread is prepared in small portions with unique swirls or other decorations. At 7am we stared a fire inside a huge cob oven. It is about 10 feet high with a diameter of about 6 feet. While the oven heated, we mixed large amounts of flour and sugar in a wooden box about 8 feet long. The process, as many of you know, is a long one… the dough rises and gets kneaded again and again.
At 8am we started making little balls of dough that eventually turned into little decorative creations with the help of many women. By 10am the wood had become ash and coals inside the oven which was swept to the side to keep the heat in. The bread was put on metal pans and placed into the oven for about ten minutes. From the batch, we produced about 200 portions. The smell of fresh bread is only slightly beat by the taste. While we were outside baking the bread, another family had come to mix their own batch. Only three families have cob ovens, so they are shared with the neighbors.
The tradition is to eat the bread with honey, but there is also another topping called panela which is derived from sugar cane. I prefer the honey, myself.
On Thursday, we packed three horses with pots, pans, watermelons, food and hammocks and headed to the river to relax. When we got there around 8am, we gathered firewood and started making soup which cooked slowly all day. Until then, people ate bread and watermelon, fished in the river, swam and bathed, played games, listened to music and caught up with family member’s home for the holiday. I definitely missed my family a lot during this week, seeing all the smiling, laughing families together. But I am feeling more and more comfortable in SMT and have found people I consider friends to talk to about anything. I miss you all very much and talk about home considerably more than I should. Everyone just loves to hear about Texas… which they say, “casi es Mexico”(“it’s basically Mexico.”)
Peace, Kimika
Background information
-Listen to Central America After The Wars - "Tale of One Village - Santa Maria Tzeja" -Read more about the history of Santa Maria Tzeja in the book by Beatriz Manz, "Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror and Hope", published by Berkeley 2004.
Jorge Velasquez speaking at Amnesy International UK in London in May 2007 Photo: Amnesty International UK
FEMICIDE – so much pain in just one little word,” says Jorge Velásquez, father of Claudina Velázquez Paíz, a 19-year-old lawstudent murdered in Guatemala in August 2005. Jorge visited Britain in May to share his experiences of the impunity still enjoyed in Guatemala by perpetrators of violence against women. It was incredibly moving to hear the courageous story of his family’s struggle to come to terms with Claudina’s brutal murder and to ensure her killers are brought to justice.
Claudina’s case was brought to prominence around the world by Amnesty International and the BBC documentary ‘Killer's Paradise’. In November 2005, the head of the Special Prosecutor's Office on Crimes against Life recognised the inadequacies of the murder investigation and reopened the case. Blood samples of five suspects were sent to Spain for DNA analysis. While this was a positive step, it is likely that critical forensic evidence has been lost because of alleged errors during the autopsy, negligent conduct at the crime scene and failure to interrogate potential witnesses. So far no significant progress has been made.
In London, Jorge spoke of how his daughter had been drawn to study law because she saw it as an important means of redressing injustice. It is a bitter irony that Claudina’s death has so effectively demonstrated how the current criminal justice system falls far short of the ideal she sought to pursue. Her father’s words brought home the humanity that so often gets lost when the fight against such human rights abuses is discussed in public. In many cases, the cloak of darkness surrounding the perpetrators and the state’s opportune inaction combine to obscure the true impact on those involved.
Jorge evoked the horror of Claudina’s death with a resolute dignity, recounting the shot to her head that ended her life and initiated the pain that has never left him. He described the contempt endured by his family at the hands of a plodding and insensitive police investigation. Officers even insisted on taking Claudina’s fingerprints during her funeral service.
Between 2001 and 2005, 2,200 women and girls were murdered in Guatemala, an average of 10 per week. Yet hardly any of the perpetrators have been brought to justice. According to police reports from 2005, the year of Claudina’s death, formal charges were presented in only 3.8 percent of these cases and only 1 percent came to trial. This poor record has convinced Jorge that the Guatemalan government cares little about the thousands of women who have been killed. With so many murders languishing in obscurity, Jorge hopes that Claudina’s death, which has attracted national and international attention, will not be seen as one terrible injustice but as representative of thousands of similarly tragic cases. He appealed for people in Britain to join him in denouncing the authorities’ failure to pursue the perpetrators.
Jorge doesn’t expect much from the crop of candidates for September’s upcoming presidential election, but believes the Guatemalan authorities cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the femicide that is causing so much pain. “I hope one day there will be politicians who truly love their country and tackle the issue of violence against women as a matter of substance.”
Send an appeal, by post or fax, to the Guatemalan authorities calling on them to ensure that the investigation into the murder of Claudina Velásquez is conducted in a coordinated, full and effective manner. Further information: www.amnesty.org.uk
James Rodriguez has just posted a really interesting photo essay of the recent events and demonstrations against mining activities in Guatemala. In James' words:
"During the months of April and May, 2007, Rights Action organized a series of events throughout Canada and the United States focusing on the negative effects of the mining industry in Central America. Community leaders from Honduras and Guatemala took center stage during these speaking tours across North America."
In conversation with Guillermo Chen, Director of Fundación Nueva Esperanza (Foundation New Hope). [Translated by Jorge Sanchez-Chiara]
Guillermo Chen:Fundación Nueva Esperanza initially developed with the objective of supporting young Maya Achí people and their families that were the victims of the armed conflict. We work with young people from the age of 12. The reason why the logo depicts a young man and woman is because we see gender equality as a fundamental part of our work. The logo also reflects the opportunities and hope given by Rio Negro, represented by the two green strips. The previous generation in the community was decimated by the Chixoy dam, and there's hope represented by the seed. This represents the bilingual and intercultural education provided for all young people in Rabinal.
GSN: What work is most commonly available in Rabinal?
Guillermo Chen: Sources of labour in Rabinal are all about the nature of survival. Many in Rabinal are rural labourers. Work is often informal, with many only finding paid labour for two or three days a week, earning on average 25 quetzals per day (approx £2).
Often families are surviving on 75 quetzales a week. There are other sources such as crafts and the production of woven mats and hats from palm. In Rabinal many crafts use the morro fruit. It's used to create all sorts of everyday objects such as cups, little basins or guacales to wash with and shakers or chinchines. It's also typical in Rabinal to work harvesting local produce such as hibiscus tea.
This leads me onto the huge problem of Rabinal's large migrating labour force. Many sources of labour do not generate much income, so many young people and adults are obliged to migrate as seasonal workers to the big cotton, coffee and banana plantations. Other look for work in huge factories dotted around the country. Here the pay is still low. It doesn't really allow workers to even pay for much needed medicines or medical treatment.
GSN: Where do people have to go to sell their produce?
Guillermo Chen: People from our communities are forced to walk many hours, sometimes two hours every day, and in extreme cases (in the most remote settlements in Rio Negro) for as long as seven hours to reach cities where they can sell their produce. Often buyers are able to negotiate low prices from labourers who depend on a quick sale to survive. This means that the huge effort to achieve a yield for these labourers is rarely reflected in the price they can sell their produce at.
GSN: What do you do to help people with their nutritional intake?
Guillermo Chen: The basic foodstuff of the Maya people living in Guatemala has been maize for centuries. It's used to make our staple food tortillas that we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even though maize is not particularly rich in vitamins, it has allowed us to survive all the hard work, against all odds, and to have hope in the future.
Fundación Nueva Esperanza provides people with information on basic nutrition, explaining the benefits of various foods and the vitamins and minerals that they contain, focusing especially on vegetables.
We also have talks about the use of food staples and preparation of meals, and the importance of eating fruits that should be part of the basic diet of young people in Rabinal.
Fundación Nueva Esperanza seeks comprehensive solutions for local issues such as community access to food and work. Fundación Nueva Esperanza created its own intercultural and bilingual education centre that looks at spiritual issues and community work. Our aim is to provide culturally pertinent education that, instead of equipping local youth just as receivers of knowledge, equips them for life with their families and in their communities.
Studying seated in the round is a traditional way of transmiting knowledge in Maya Achi culture. Its significance lies in the fact that does not make anyone feel superior or inferior, an approach to learning that students can then replicate in their communities. Students break conventional forms of schooling based on individualism, which, far from encouraging students to support one another, reinforce each student's isolation or sense of hierarchy by placing them in rows.
GSN: How do you teach Maya Achi culture?
Guillermo Chen: We explain the Maya calendar to the students. We also explore other important concepts in Maya Achi culture such as nahuales, which have a great influence on the students lives. They also help to explain the way we all act according to the Maya universe. This is one reason why Fundación Nueva Esperanza has made the teaching of Maya spirituality a formal part of the curriculum. Young students learn the key points of the cosmovision of Maya thought, they learn about the relationship of the human being with his/her environment: as human beings we must hold nature in the utmost respect. Nature is key in Maya thought, as the relationship with it is a way of keeping a balance between positive and negative energies.
GSN: What is a nahual? Is it a spirit?
Guillermo Chen: The nahual is a way of finding out your date of birth and the fact that part of nature goes with you all your life. The nahual is an animal that protects each person from negative energies, orientating everyone and indicating the state of your character in a wider social context.
In Fundación Nueva Esperanza's curriculum there is also space for celebration. Students take part in exchange trips, especially with other young people from bilingual and intercultural education centres in and beyond Guatemala. It is not only Guatemala that has indigenous people, there are many other people across the world who have a similar cultural identity.
GSN: What about practical work?
Guillermo Chen: Fundación Nueva Esperanza is trying, as much as possible, not to depend on funds provided by international organisations. All too often those funds come to an end as donors change their priorities. As an organisation we have decided to start running projects with young people that in small ways help to generate income in their own right. For example, we're working on planting vegetables and cultivating hibiscus tea (rosa de jamaica). We're also implementing other projects, including raising cattle which allows us to sell milk to the community in Rabinal. In the future, we are thinking about planting fruit trees, which in Guatemala is typical, and other projects that grow produce that fall within our strategic plan.
GSN: How did Fundación Nueva Esperanza come to own this land?
Guillermo Chen: The land that Fundación Nueva Esperanza has come to own has a very special history behind it. It was purchased from twelve families from the Rio Negro community, who lived next to the Chixoy dam until it displaced them and many other inhabitants of Rio Negro. The construction of the dam in the 1980's dates back to the time of the massacres that occurred during the civil war. After a long struggle, some of the people who were displaced by the dam's construction received land in compensation by the state. The families sold the land to Fundación Nueva Esperanza knowing it would be used to build an education centre for the community. Now their children and grandchildren benefit from this resource. Unfortunately the land is muddy and is not incredibly fertile, so we have to work very hard to enrich it with organic fertiliser to make it productive.
GSN: It's very interesting to look at how rapidly Fundación Nueva Esperanza has grown...
Guillermo Chen: Fundación Nueva Esperanza started in 2003 with 30 students, and now after four years we have grown to 55 students. This represents a very strong rate of growth. This is due, in no small way, to the fact that we offer scholarships. But even more important is the fact that the community of Rabinal really believe passionately in this project. There's a strong bond of trust that grown between the families and Fundación Nueva Esperanza. Our initiatives have demonstrated very positive tangible changes to the families.
GSN: Could you talk about your approach to gender equality?
Guillermo Chen: Women in the whole of Latin America have had to face a prevailing 'macho' culture that starts from the assumption that women should look after their families, cook and devote their lives to bringing children into the world. In Fundación Nueva Esperanza we have a differente view. We have a gender equality programme with parents, teachers and students in order to maximise the girls' educational prospects.
It is a key policy of ours to encourage access to scholarships for girls. For example, if we promote 40 scholarships, we ensure an equal number go to girls and boys. This is a very practical way of tackling the exclusion of women from education in Guatemala. We believe that exclusion in education can lead to other problems, such as early marriage of girls aged as young as 13 or 14. This phenomenon is not a matter of Maya tradition, as it is all too often understood. It is actually the result of poverty of many large Maya families. The sooner girls in the family are married, the less strain is placed on often stretched family resources.
For Fundación Nueva Esperanza working with parents is essential. Mothers in particular tell us that they do not want their daughters to go through the same difficulties they suffered. Guatemalan mothers are very proactive in supporting their daughters to access education. They often know firsthand the suffering that's involved in being an illiterate mother. Typically life is full working hard in the fields, and also having to cook and look after their families. Once you speak to parents, it's clear they're more and more reluctant to allow their daughters to work without an education.
GSN: What vision does Fundación Nueva Esperanza have for the future?
Guillermo Chen: Our vision is ambitious. We are currently working with children from secondary school level (12-15 years old). However, we aim to extend our education service provision service in Rabinal. We are planning, probably this year or next, to teach health professionals which would allow young people to graduate with a professional qualification at the age of 18. But our vision goes further.
We are also exploring the possibility of establishing a Maya Achí University, which would be able to offer an education grounded in Maya Achi principles for young people from the age of 12 until graduation. We are thinking of undergraduate courses in subjects such as maya spirituality, natural, traditional and modern medicine. Our plan is to open the university by 2010. This is our hope but we believe it really is realistic. We have put a lot of work in developing our educational resources and there is an awful lot of support in the local community to bring this about.
If you would like to support Fundación Nueva Esperanza either by donating money or your own time contact GSN via gsn_mail [at] yahoo.com
Background
You can find out more information about Fundación Nueva Esperanza from their website We also blogged about Guillermo Chen's visit to the UK back in December 2006 here You can find more information and articles about Rabinal here...
This salsa evening Saturday 5th May at 8pm in Theatr Clwyd organised by the Clwyd Latin America Human Rights Group is to raise funds for the Movimiento Nacional por los Derechos Humanos (MNDH) in Guatemala. In February the MNDH suffered a number of intimidations reported by Amnesty International, including a break in at their offices (picture below).
If you`re interested in finding out more information about this fundraiser event, you can phone 01352 740 642 or 01244 531 702.
This is my next-to-last report from Guatemala about accompanying witnesses in the national genocide case.
Since my last bi-monthly dispatch, activists with whom we work have been threatened, followed home, received alarming anonymous phone calls, had their offices raided and one organizer was even briefly kidnapped. Perhaps because the Ixil - the region where I live - has become the main focus of the genocide case, we have also had our share of local intimidations in the last weeks (see further down).
A GLIMPSE OF GENOCIDE: PLAYING SOCCER, BUT NOT WITH MY PEERS
Recently, friends in Ilom - the resplendent highlands village believed by the Ixil Maya to be the birthplace of their people – invited me to join their soccer team Sociedad Juvenil (Juvenile Society) in a regional tournament about an hour and a half hike away. (I’ve played off-and-on with them for the last 8 months).
While I certainly prefer our squad’s name to that of Ilom’s other team, Los Chiqueros (The Pig Sty Boys), I have always been intrigued by their choice; we range broadly in ages – mostly either teens or late twenties and up - and I often joke with my friend Mu’s that since he’s already a grandfather and pushing 40, perhaps they should contemplate renaming the crew.
As our tiresome, uphill trek to the soccer match snaked past the Santa Delfina plantation, my pal Chato broke the silence by shyly pointing out that he was born there. Chato will soon share something in common with me that is truly rare among Ilom residents, a community of some 450 families: he will be 25 years old.
Last Friday not only marked the 25th anniversary of the military coup that put Efraìn Rìos Montt - the deadliest dictator in Latin America’s modern times – into power. It also marked a short quarter-century since the Guatemalan army rounded up 96 of Ilom`s men into the plaza and gorily ended their lives. The army then set fire to the entire village (as they would do to at least another 625 Mayan villages before their genocidal campaign ended), forcing survivors to flee to nearby Santa Delfina.
In an interview (see link below), Antonio Caba - president of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation, the coalition of witnesses that we accompany – related that refugees from Ilom were virtually enslaved on the Santa Delfina plantation following the massacre of March 23, 1982, and, given the extreme circumstances, children that had fled from Ilom died there on the plantation, every day for months and months.
Chato, our midfielder for Sociedad Juvenil, was one of the lucky ones.
A LITTLE BOMB NAMED SOFÌA
Sunday before last, a shocking three-page cover story in Guatemala’s leading daily newspaper directly linked Ríos Montt to massacres perpetrated in the Ixil region during 1982 and 1983! The article reports that in August the Attorney General acquired a copy of secret military documents outlining Plan Sofìa - an extensive army campaign ordered by then president and commander-in-chief Rios Montt against "subversives" in the area - but he has still refused to formally initiate the genocide case proceedings.
In February, I had the opportunity to switch spots with another accompanier and visit 5 villages in a different area of the Ixil. Apparently while I was visiting witnesses in those communities, Guatemala’s Minister of Defense was claiming to the presiding judge in the genocide case that Plan Sofia does not exist. However, the exposé article from March 18 asserts that not only does Plan Sofìa exist, two of the communities I had been accompanying were likely massacred as a result of Plan Sofia in the summer of 1982.
RÌOS MONTT’S ESCAPE ROUTE: CONGRESS
The next five weeks will determine if Ríos Montt - who ruled over the estimated murder of 70,000 predominantly Mayan people - will evade justice for at least another four years (or feasibly forever, given that he is 81 years old).
If Ríos Montt is able to register as a candidate on May 3 for this year’s congressional elections, his possible win will provide him parliamentary immunity from prosecution. However, if the Attorney General takes an initial declaration from Ríos Montt regarding the accusations cited against him in the genocide case, it would disqualify his candidacy.
If only half of you reading this e-mail were to devote the 10 seconds required to click a box to send him an e-mail, the Attorney General would have to wade through some 150 e-mails from foreigners upset with his stalling on the genocide case.
LOCAL INTIMIDATIONS IN THE IXIL
Last month, my accompaniment partner received a phone call from an unknown person who creepily asked her how she was doing, and, when asked to identify himself, only told her that he was "a man." She hung up. The Caller ID indicated that another fellow accompanier had called her but we knew that he was in a village where there is no service. He later confirmed that, of course, he had not called her, signifying that someone seems to be showing us that they are watching us and able to infiltrate the phone system.
Twice since December, unidentified men have approached my accompaniment partner and me and, without a word, taken our picture on a digital camera, then quickly walked off. And just a few weeks ago, as fellow accompaniers and I met up in a public park (as arranged by phone), a woman maybe 50 meters away stood quietly filming us for minutes on end until we confronted her.
This is by no means all of the suspicious behavior or incidents we’ve been encountering recently, just a sampling to provide some idea.
PRESIDENT BUSH IN GUATEMALA: HE KILLS ?
Lastly, President Bush came to Guatemala a few weeks ago. While he managed to devote a large chunk of time pitching neo-liberal reforms to Guatemalan officials, and other measures that would benefit the U.S. economy, it appears he never once mentioned the recent, unpunished state-led military campaign which claimed upwards of 200,000 lives.
(Makes one wonder what consequences might have sprung from Bush having expressed even one sentence’s worth of concern over the absence of prosecution for the bloodiest genocide in our hemisphere’s recent history.)
After the Guatemalan government strong-armed Bush’s way into Iximchè - a sacred site to indigenous Kaqchikel people - to entertain him for the day (despite the massive protests of local community members kept behind the Secret Service and police blockades), Mayan priests returned en masse, performing rituals to cleanse the area of the evil spirits they say Bush brought in.
Many expressed pain and anger over Bush - a man whose war in Iraq has resulted in a staggering number of innocent deaths (the British government recently conceded that a study pegging the death toll around 655,000 is credible) - desecrating such a special, holy place to them, and their powerlessness, in the face of state repression, to prevent it.
It might be worth observing that the word for "bush" in Spanish is "mata," which curiously also translates as "he kills" or functions as the command form of the order "to kill."
HOMEWARD BOUND
In 7 weeks I will be back home in Austin. Many thanks again for all the support you all have provided me during my time here – from e-mails to music to homemade cookies to literature to money to art and so on. You have enabled me to feel a sustained sense of loving community despite living tucked away in the western highlands of Guatemala, and I really appreciate that.
Again, if you haven’t already, please send an e-mail to the Attorney General calling on him to let the survivors testify, thereby also preventing Ríos Montt from retaking Congress.
With love and solidarity,
Jordan
New articles detailing the battle against impunity for genocide in Guatemala:
We just received the following press release about the new English translation of Oswaldo Salazar's book "Por el lado Oscuro". Salazar was recently in London to take part in launches of the book that included an event in Canning House and then the Instituto Cervantes. Having read the book - it is certainly a compelling read. And pre-revolutionary Guatemala is certainly an interesting time to look at.
Guatemala has a new master of narrative in the form of Oswaldo Salazar, whose compelling first novel From the Darkness is one of the few works of Central American literature to explore the region's criminal history.
In From the Darkness - the English translation of the prize-winning Por el lado oscuro - Salazar explores the bitterly unhappy circumstances that can make a woman kill, and the unforgiving quality of male justice.
From the Darkness is a captivating story of a murder and the ensuing investigation that became known as "The Gourd Poisoning" in a traditional society unprepared for a crime that lay outside its powers of reasoning. It begins in the spring of 1939 when a man dies in agony at the San Juan de Dios de Amatitlán Hospital outside Guatemala City. His wife and children are accused of poisoning him, shattering the calm of a land kept in fearful order by the cold and tempestuous dictator General Jorge Ubico (1931-44).
Salazar's work touches a raw Latin nerve, giving the reader a unique insight into lost Central American worlds: that of the Guatemalan peasant woman - ignored, abused and constantly judged by her unforgiving male superiors; that of the small, rural Latin American town, where a handful of strongmen oversee all life; and that of the era of military caudillos, dictators whose quest for order and progress shapes all official culture.
The winner of the prestigious 2003 Mario Monteforte Toledo Prize, Por el lado oscuro was translated by Gavin O'Toole and will be published by Aflame Books in March 2007.
The Mexican writer Carlos Montemayor said of this book: "Por el lado oscuro has a magnificent narrative quality, exposition and style as well as a forceful central character, delivering the unexpected features of a species of crime novel within a work of historical reconstruction."
Oswaldo Salazar was born in Guatemala City in 1959 and has had a distinguished academic career. He took his first degree in philosophy and literature at Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala then studied as a Fulbright Scholar at Boston College in the United States. He currently teaches at Guatemala's Francisco Marroquín University.
Aflame Books is a small, independent UK publisher committed to publishing in English translation works from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
Democracy Now! interviewed veteran anti-sweatshop activist Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee about the report they've recently produced on the conditions at the Legumex factory. It is titled "Harvest of Shame."
"There is a darker side about U.S.-Guatemalan trade relations: less than 10 miles from where Bush spoke there is a food processing plant where children as young as 13 years old are working under deplorable conditions.
According to the New York-based National Labor Committee, the children, working at a factory owned by Legumex, harvest and process vegetables and fruits exported to the United States."
According to the NLC though Legumex may have turned the corner. You can see various video testimony of child labour by the NLC on a recent trip to Guatemala.
Democracy Now! also interviewed a Guatemalan migrant worker and featured another report looking at the abuses under the Guestworker programme. Mary Bauer explained the report to Democracy Now!'s Juan Gonzalez. Mary is director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Immigrant Justice Project. She is author of the new report "Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States."
"Our report was based on literally thousands of interviews with workers over the course of years, based on the work done by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And what we found is that the guestworker program leads to the abuse and exploitation of workers, not because there are a few bad-apple employers, but because the structure of the system itself leads to abuse. The fact that workers pay enormous sums of money and come to the United States with crushing debt and the fact that they are then tied to one employer -- they can legally work only for the employer who filed the petition for them -- the structure of that system leads to those workers being systematically exploited on the job."
Maya huipil from San Lucas Toliman, a town near Lake Atitlan Guatemala Photo: Karen Elwell
Over the last few months I've really enjoyed the regular additions to Karen Elwell's Flickr set covering textiles vast region covering Mexico and Guatemala. It's a veritable gateway in a world of creation and culture in Mexico and Guatemala. You can view her photos of textiles from Guatemala here.
Karen has been studying textiles from Guatemala and Mexico for the last 20 years, and has been working with Bob Freund for the last two years contributed to his massive site- the Mexican Indigenous Textiles Project- on textiles from the same region.
Karen and Bob's great work made me think of the work here in the UK undertaken by the Guatemalan Maya Centre in London founded by Krystyna Deuss and curated by Jamie Marshall.
This is a great photo of Kajyub' by Nick Logan- he's also taken others of the surrounding area- in particular this one where you can really appreciate the valley of Rabinal. I've roughly translated this information for Oj K'aslik about Kajyub':
The presence of numerous archaeological sites corroborates the fact that the valley of Rabinal and of Chixoy were inhabited long before the Spanish invasion. The sacred places of Kajyub', Chwitinamit, Chiwiloy, Pakaqja, Chwiprocesion, Saqtijel, Toloxkok and Belej K'ache' are just a provisional and incomplete list of principle houses that the land's forefathers left.
In the Chixoy basin, that in the north of Rabinal joined with the municipalities of Cubulco and Uspantán, important places like Rax Ch'iich' in Los Encuentros (pa ya' ch'iich' - 'en el agua del metal') were completely covered by the construction of hydroelectric dam of Pueblo Viejo, while Cawinal near Chicruz was partially covered. An archaeological assessment of this area brings us to the conclusion that there was a long history of prehispanic occupation in the region of Rabinal. In the postclassic period (900-1524 AD) Kajyub' and Chwitinamit, along with Cawinal in the valley of Chixoy were inhabited.
In conclusion, we can say that the region of Rabinal played an important role in the commercial route between Kaminal Juyu' and the lowlands of the Petén during the preclassic period. Equally, the old route from the capital to Cobán went through Rabinal via the royal road (camino real).
Kajyub' is of course better known for being featured in the Rabinal Achí, a dynastic Maya drama from the fifteenth century- represented through masked dance, theatre and music. In 2005, it was declared part of the oral heritage of humanity by UNESCO.
The oral and written narrative is presented by a group of characters, who appear on a stage representing Maya villages, especially Kajyub', the regional capital of the Rabinaleb' in the fourteenth century. The narrative, divided into four acts, deals with a conflict between two major political entities in the region, the Rabinaleb' and the K'iche'.
The main characters are two princes, the Rabinal Achí and the K'iche Achí. The other characters are the king of Rabinaleb', Job'Toj, and his servant, Achij Mun Achij Mun Ixoq Mun, who has both male and female traits, the green-feathered mother, Uchuch Q'uq' Uchuch Raxon, and thirteen eagles and thirteen jaguars who represent the warriors of the fortress of Kajyub'. K'iche' Achí is captured and put on trial for having attempted to steal Rabinaleb' children, a grave violation of Maya law.
References
Oj K'aslik - Estamos Vivos - Recuperacion de la Memoria Historica de Rabinal (1944-1996) - Bert Janssens (Museo Comunitario Rabinal Achi)
Ichon, A., (1996), p.191 y Arnauld, M.C., en Breton,A., (1993)
Here's recent news via Casa Alianza UK from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Street Children:
Mr Edmundo Urrutia, the Guatemalan Ambassador to the UK, made a presentation on Street Children to the APPG on Street Children on 21st February. MP's attended the meeting from the main political parties in both the House of Commons and House of Lords and representatives from Casa Alianza, Amnesty International, the Railway Children, the Consortium for Street Children, Jubilee Action, UNICEF and Toybox also were also present...
The Ambassador outlined the Guatemalan legal framework for children and the existing Government structures responsible for street children. He said that street children are a high priority and an important issue close to the President. Recent initiatives to assist street children have included:
* Studies by six Mayors in different areas of the country into social trends. * The formation of a forum on street children with the Government and a number of NGOs to develop a strategic plan. Funding assistance and support is from the British Government via the Global Opportunities Fund for Police training via the Consortium for Street Children. However it was acknowledged that the forum relied heavily on NGO's and had insufficient resources to be effective.
The Ambassador finished by saying that the issue of street children is complex, the State was weak and there are a lack of resources to implement the law including insufficient National Police and called for improved coordination between the Government and NGO's.
There's an interesting 15 minute interview with Dawn Paley on the Rabble Podcast Network reporting on the violent evictions that took place on land controversially owned by Canadian mining company Skye Resources. The interview gives a good overview of the current situation in Izabal, Guatemala at present.
In a recent open letter (posted on Upside Down World) to Ian Austin, Skye Resources CEO, Dawn Paley made the following two points:
"Having witnessed two days of evictions, on January 8th and 9th, 2007, I would here like to clarify two important points that I can only assume have not been properly communicated to you by your colleagues in Guatemala. The first point arises in your response to the email campaign about the evictions, dated January 17th, 2007, where you state that "the police were unarmed."
INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS WANTED in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Indonesia and Nepal.
