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.

A number of recent released material on Guatemalan history raises this ever present question of whether it is better to leave the tragedies of the past buried and move on, or continue to face up and confront an ugly and unjust past. NPR is broadcasting a series of five reports by Xeni Jardin on the uses of technology in Guatemala today, and starts with "Group Works to Identify Remains in Guatemala".

In this report Xeni Jardin back from blogging in Guatemala, focuses on the work of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) that has been exhuming clandestine graves that hold victims killed in political massacres. It's worth pointing out here that for more information on this subject Kathy Reichs recent book, "Grave Secrets" is a valuable and poignant account of the issues at stake in this facing up to buried history.

"Guatemala: la tierra arrasada" directed by José Gaya Organización and produced by Colectivo Miradas (2004) is now available online. There's also a trailer from a documentary, "Guatemala: De 11 a 3 - Histoire d'un massacre" in Spanish with French subtitles.

It's interesting to contrast these four glimpses of a violent past in Guatemala in the 70s and 80s with "Guatemala, sus cambios en los últimos 30 años", a lecture by Dr. Francisco Pérez de Antón at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín (17-01-07). It's to be noted that Pérez de Antón's way of describing the period 1976-86 in particular makes no mention of massacres, let alone genocide. This reflection on the past prefers, for different reasons, to avoid any discussion of the human impact of the armed conflict.

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:

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):

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.

This is a new documentary 'En Toute Solidarité' just out on international accompaniment in Guatemala in French and Spanish. It's produced by Les Productions Réalités Cachées in association with the Projet Accompagnement Québec-Guatemala (PAQG) in Canada and the Coordination of International Accompaniment in Guatemala. It directed by Nicolas Bergeron. Nicolas worked as an accompanier in 2005 and 2006 with PAQG and NISGUA. Here's an excerpt in French from a piece he wrote about accompaniment on the PAQG website: