This week Reuters carried a report 'Menchú eyes Guatemalan presidency'. The ritual dance between presidential candidates without a party and political parties without a presidential candidate is well and truely underway. It's now a normal part of the preparations for elections in Guatemala.

The weakness of the political parties is blamed for all manner of problems. It's notable that since the civilian presidency of Vinicio Cerezo in 1986, that there have not been two Presidents from the same political party. That said, the rigid system of political parties in the UK, US and Canada is not without its critics. Ultimately, all are vulnerable to same criticism that hurts all political parties- that they are not rooted in a healthy expanding membership base.

So could Rigoberta Menchú, whose mandate as spokesperson has often been questioned as more self-appointed that formally appointed by any membership base, inspire the Guatemalan electorate? I was taken aback when I first went to Guatemala by the contrast between how Menchú is viewed outside Guatemala to how she is viewed on the inside. There's no doubt that a lot of this has to do with a certain latent racism as characterised by the jokes mocking her accent. Perhaps for this reason, her legal victory against her tormentors in her legal battle against Ríos Montt's presidential candidacy was all the sweeter.

If she does go for the presidency there's no doubt her past will again be put under enormous scrutiny. There won't be any shortage of commentators who'll remind the public of her insurgent past. Others who'll question her credentials and association with the current government. And yet others who'll recall the moment she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 (see above) and point to her work to bring the human rights abusers to justice. Does her polemical past make her more or less likely to triumph in the current Guatemalan electoral system? Nobody knows in the long run. For now, watch this space.

Update (08-02-2007)

Rigoberta Menchú will be a presidential candidate. This from Siglo XXI:


Update (09-02-2007)

According to a report from Cerigua, Menchú would do well to consult the grassroots on her candidacy in the presidential elections in September:


Update (18-02-07)

The rumours are flying hither and thither, so while it's still difficult to say exactly, it's appearing that Rigoberta Menchú's probable candidacy is generating all sorts of shifting around of the previously slightly more predictable political landscape in Guatemala. Gerardo García, Vice President of Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) in Bolivia reportedly declared in Guatemala at the Encuentro de Participación Política de Pueblos Indígenas that Evo Morales, Bolivian President backs Menchú's bid to become Guatemalan President.

However, in a twist in developments, Menchú announced the grouping called Winaq (humanity) which is being reported as acting potentially as a more direct base to Menchú's political ambitions:


Lux de Cotí has denied that Morales is providing any direct support to Winaq. Certainly on the face of it MAS and Winaq seem to be light years away in terms of their political development. But who's to say Winaq can not find inspiration in the example of MAS. Whatever, this means in the long term, in the short short term this announcement seems to have put back discussions that Menchú had been having with two political parties: Encuentro Por Guatemala (EG) and the URNG. In particular Nineth Montenegro of EG seems to be having serious second thoughts:


In other words, Montenegro fears that the alliance with Menchú (and hence with Winaq with its own political agenda) would very likely divide the EG as soon as it reached Congress.

Background

Rigoberta Menchú has certainly been at the centre of many a polemic- here we bring together just a tiny fraction that's been said about her.

The quick mention of Bolivia gives me the opportunity to plug Nick Buxton's great blog 'Open Veins' promoting solidarity with Bolivia. Nick has been living in Bolivia for a good while and has followed MAS's rise to power amongst many other things.

Associated Press reported on the excavation in Panabaj of 100 bodies buried in the landslide caused by Hurricane Stan in 2005. There was a line in the report that touched on an issue that's not usually discussed:


A simple search on Flickr brings up a number of photos taken of Panabaj (although probably not from this particular ceremony). Not to judge these particular photos, but this line about 'curious tourists' touches on an important issue that outsiders* must grapple with.

To be sure, there's a very fine line between informative reporting and intrusive disrespectful recording, between wanting to learn, and satiating curiosity. It's a line that as outsiders we're not always on the right side of. When I worked in and around the municipal rubbish dump in Guatemala City, I remember the huge quantity of tourists that would come, usually remain on the coach they came in, and take hundreds of photos of the people who lived and worked amongst the refuse. This type of 'social tourism' is abject.

There's a secondary point here. It's so often the case that people from outside of Guatemala are usually either exposed to two contrasting images of Guatemala- one is the touristic colour and natural beauty, and the other is the dark and ugly violence. On the outside as we are on this blog, despite years of commitment and living in the country, it's a constant concern that we avoid simply satiating curiosity and that we manage to go beyond the simplistic outside perceptions of Guatemala. Anyway, this is a massive issue and one we'll be returning to shortly.

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* I use the term 'outsider' loosely, it could refer to non-Guatemalans, Guatemalans living outside Guatemala or even Guatemalans from the capital visiting the 'interior'.

Last week BBC Mundo ran a series of reports (15 mb) on its programme BBC Mundo Hoy by Margarita Rodriguez on Guatemala ten years after the Peace Accords. Rachel Sieder, Yolanda Aguilar, Dominga Vásquez and Guillermo Chen interviewed in the reports all took part in the panel discussion of the Peace Accords at Canning House in London.

On 29th December 2006 the day of the anniversary BBC Mundo ran this, "Guatemala: 10 años de los acuerdos", on their website.

Last week the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission had the following report in its weekly round up:


The issues surrounding the many thousands of migrants out of Central America is a subject we rarely tackle on this blog- but it is the elephant in the room in many respects. I guess our lack of coverage is partially because the UK is not a common destination for many Central Americans. It's easy to feel a little removed- but it's massive importance as an issue (politically, economically, socially and culturally) can not be denied. And anyway there's not a day goes by without the UK media discussing migration- although almost always from one perspective: 'immigration'.

Perhaps because of the enormity of this issue, so often the human story behind migrations is lost. Guatemalan filmmaker Luis Argueta has recently upped another clip from his fascinating documentary on the silent voices "And There I Am" previously mentioned on this blog. It's well worth a look.

Another insightful telling of this human story is Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary directed by Arturo Peréz Torres. You can hear him interviewed six months ago here (35 minutes into it). Also interviewed is Susanne Jonas, Prof. of Latin American Studies at UC Santa Cruz, author of "The Battle for Guatemala" and "Of Centaurs and Doves: Guatemala's Peace Process". She's currently working on a new book on the migration issue.

Jonas makes the point that between 2001-3 the US authorities deported over 200,000 Guatemalans. She also makes the point that alongside the deportation of many hard-working law abiding migrants, there is also the deliberate deportation of those engaged in criminality by US authorities. This has been blamed for the increase in gang-led criminality across Central America in recent years. People picked up by the US criminal justice system are deported back to Central America which effectively just shifts the problem to countries that are ill-equipped to tackle such difficulties. Deportation is essentially an incredibly shortsighted response.

Finally I'd recommend checking out the Immigration Orange blog. Here Kyle de Beausset is a regular contributor and very recently blogged about an interesting journey that he made northwards from Guatemala. It was covered in Prensa Libre. Kyle who's half Guatemalan, half US American, blogged about his experience as a migrant heading north from Guatemala here:

A couple of days ago (16-01-2007) the Guatemalan press first hinted at Gen Efrain Ríos Montt's decision to go for Congress and forget about another presidential bid. Now Reuters are reporting it as well and there's more in today's Prensa Libre.

Perhaps it was the Constitutional Court's recent ruling (Petición de Nulidad (2395-2006)) upholding his being barred from running for president. Perhaps it was his incredibly low support in recent opinion polls (on 15-01-07 it was 1.8%). Or perhaps it was a nagging fear that his day in court on counts of genocide and crimes against humanity might just be a very real possibility.

By declaring that he's running for Congress, Rios Montt will once again get immunity from prosecution from April when he'll be able to register his candidacy formally with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). It's timely then, to read Elias Lawless's interview in WireTap Magazine with Antonio Caba, an Ixil Maya activist who currently serves as president of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR). Here's an excerpt:

Update (19-01-07)

Amnesty USA has made the following appeal with Rios Montt's announcement: "Amnesty International Again Calls for Ríos Montt to Either Be Tried in Guatemala or Extradited to Spain to Face the Charges Against Him". In Guatemala, Siglo XXI covered the story with an interview of Rigoberta Menchu: "Menchú pide repudiar posible candidatura de Ríos".

Rights Action has just released this video of the evictions in Izabal. Photos are by James Rodriguez and video footage is by Steven Schnoor.

Reuters AlertNet (11-01-2007) have covered the recent evictions in Izabal over the dispute between a nickel mining company and the local community.
The story was covered previously by Prensa Libre (09-01-2007) in Guatemala. But there is much more information on MiMundo.org's blog. It's written by James Rodriguez and spans  the build up to this eviction from November 2006. It contains personal accounts across different posts of the evictions and many powerful photos (also on Flickr).

There's more in information on the background to this latest eviction from website Mining Watch Canada written by Dawn Paley (11-01-2007) in El Estor, Guatemala. Dawn's blog's here- Reporter Zero.

Update (15-01-07)

The Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC/USA) is running an urgent action on the evictions here. According to the GHRC they numbers of people evicted is significantly higher than AP have reported (and what we quoted above):

Guatemala gets several mentions in the UK press- well mainly the Guardian via the wire services. There's a interesting article 'Guatemalan Files Renew Hope of Justice' by Will Weissart and Juan Carlos Llorca that ties together the issues of the secret police files, the pending extradition appeals, and the continuing quest by victims to find out more about the fate of loved ones. It quotes two current Government officials which seem to downplay this effort to punish past crimes:


There's also an article in The Guardian from AP on international adoptions which says this about adoptions between the US and Guatemala:

And finally Jamie Theakston says this about Guatemala City in The Observer today:

Hmm, that's a huge loss for Guate. No more Jamie. I wonder how many hours he was there for? For the record, this is what I think of Guatemala City critics :-)

This a video clip, produced by Kara Andrade with Brad Eller, of the event on 29th December 2006 at the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura in Guatemala City which marked the 10th anniversary of the Peace Accords. It shows the demonstration that took place carried out by HIJOS and the Bloque Antiimperialista. There was this snippet about it in Prensa Libre the day after:

The Bloque Antiimperialista is an initiative of the YMCA in Guatemala.

Kara Andrade has written a really interesting piece about the current situation with the Peace Accords ten years after they were signed. 'Finding the lights of hope in postwar Guatemala' is based on an interview with Carmen Aída Ibarra is the political coordinator for Guatemala's Fundación Myrna Mack, one of Guatemala's leading human rights foundations.

Marking the release of Apocalyto in the UK, Radio 4's Today programme interviewed media luvvies Cosmo Landesman, film critic with the Sunday Times, and Dr Mark Horton, reader in Archeology at Bristol University.

It seems having tracked much of the reaction to Apocalypto that critics broadly fall in to one of two camps. Some (usually film reviewers) have tended to concentrate more on the dramatic and visual impact of the film and have tended to be positive. While others (usually academics) have pointed to the historical inaccuracies portrayed in the film and have tended to be negative in their assessment of the film. It's a kind of battle between entertainment and enlightenment.

This morning's slot on Today was fairly representative of this debate. I thought though, it was very telling when Cosmo Landesman said the following:


That Hollywood takes "liberties with events" is undoubtedly true. However, the point is that Hollywood almost always takes liberties with history when it thinks it can, i.e. it's history that it thinks its viewers (particularly US viewers) don't know about or value. It also leaves Hollywood wide open to the accusation that it's superimposing its values over and above the people it's depicting. When Mel Gibson says:

It's not a huge leap to think that the film is suggesting that the Mayas almost brought the Spanish conquest on themselves. This accusation is all the more clear from Mel's truncated version of Maya history. The Classic Maya period (250-950AD) finished a long time before the first recorded contact between Europeans and the Maya (1502). Historically, the two events are not connected- so why should Gibson attempt to connect them in the film?

But equally it has to be the role of academics and others who know differently to point out these inaccuracies. It was interesting that Landesman got himself tangled up in his own argument. He fended off Horton's charge that Gibson's portrayal of the Maya was as a 'barbaric' people. "Not true" countered Landesman, "because the film is set in a particular time in Maya history during the period of decadence...". This slip demonstrates the difficulty that Landesman glossed over: either the film is set in a particular time in history or it isn't. Either an element within the film is imaginary or it isn't. It's educational value depends on it- as Mel Gibson added:


All in all this seems to suggest that Gibson's not entirely clear that he's in the business of myth making. Many a filmmaker will cross back and forth over the line between what's based in reality and what isn't- we expect that- but we also expect those who know, to point out where the line actually is. Unfortunately it's rare that a filmmaker will do this- and Gibson's no exception. Which is a shame because that way we might get enlightenment as well as entertainment for a change from a trip to the cinema.

Update (14-01-2007)

Mel did his homework. In an interview in the Sunday Times Mel Gibson is quoted as saying the following:

It sounds like Mel is basing this on contemporary records written by Spanish colonizers. Not many others seem to share Mel's trust in the authenticity of these observations. These were after all, many of the very same people like Diego de Landa, who were on a well organised mission of burning and destroying Maya culture in the 1500s onwards. In a bitter irony they are now cited as the authors of the rare written evidence of Maya culture at this time.

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Background: Judge for yourself

-You can view different clips from Apocalypto here.

-You can read and check different links/reviews about Apocalypto here including reaction from Guatemalans.

In addition, it's certainly worth reading up about the controversy around theories of the collapse of the Classic Maya period. Bloggers El Blog Diablogico and John Hawkes both point to the similarities between Apocalypto's subtext and Jared Diamond's theory of "Environmental Collapse and the End of Civilization".

Larry C. Peterson and Gerald H. Haug have written a concise overview in the American Scientist magazine of the case that a series of multi-year droughts contributed to the collapse of the Mayas. Anabel Ford is an interesting counter to this case focusing on droughts, by suggesting we are asking the wrong questions about the collapse of the Mayas. She contends that we could significantly improve our understanding of the Mayas if we are able to discard a very 'Western' assessment of the evidence.

Finally, this kind of leads to what often goes unsaid in these debates: so often Guatemalans have to put up with people from outside- ourselves included- pontificating about them. A little more humility on the part of those on the outside could go a long way :-)

Photo above is of Tikal, Guatemala by Julia Rubinic.