In the last few days Guatemala has been mentioned in the UK press in a range of different articles. There has been an article in the Independent (29-07-2006) about violence mainly focusing on Ciudad Juarez, but mentioning Guatemala. There has been an article on AlertNet (28-07-2006) about new controls on a common coffee pest- the Centam beetle. There has also been information on AlertNet (28-07-2006) about the 25th anninversary of murder of Rev. Stanley Rother in Santiago Atitlan.
In the Guardian (29-07-2006) from Associated Press, Juan Carlos Llorca has written about the potential impact next year of the U.S. ratification of the international treaty on adoption.
"Applications are surging
as parents rush to take advantage of the current process, which will
apply to any request filed before the treaty takes effect in mid-2007.
Of the 4,100 cases pending in [Josefina] Arellano's office [Guatemalan Government], more than 3,000 were
filed this year... Americans have adopted 17,863 Guatemalan children in the last nine years, French couples 1,440, and Guatemalans 576. Americans adopted 3,748 of the Guatemalan babies born last year."
In the UK over the last ten years, according to the UK Government, Guatemala with 205 adoptions has been the number three destination for adoptions of children from abroad after China (1,441) and India (235). The processing of adoptions makes up a lot of the workload of the UK Consulate in Guatemala. Going by the information posted on UK's Department of Education and Skills- this continues to be the case:
"The British Consulate in Guatemala has asked us to inform prospective adopters that it will no longer be able to respond to enquiries about the progress of individual adoption cases. Responding to the large number of enquiries currently being received is severely restricting the Consulate's ability to meet its consular duties, including work on adoption cases."
Adoption continues to be a thorny issue, here the BBC's Emily Buchanan speaks as a parent of adopted child (from China) and for another perspective on adoptions in Guatemala see this recent article from Prensa Libre (09-07-2006). The BBC's Assignment radio programme did a documentary on adoption in Guatemala in 2000 which is still online and still offers insights into the issues involved.
July has been a turbulent month for the Guatemalan airwaves. A tense relation between the Government and the independent radio sector flared up with President Berger insulting a Radio Sonora reporter. There was also the kidnap and subsequent release of Victor Hugo Herrera, director of FGER (Federación de Escuelas radiofónicas de Guatemala). All this against the backdrop of the shutting down of community radio stations by government forces under pressure from commercial frequencies. The following is an excerpt from an article published in Inforpress on this:
"Over the past few months, complaints from the Guatemalan Radio Chamber (CRG) have resulted in the closure of 22 community radio stations in Jutiapa, Quetzaltenango, Chimaltenango, Huehuetenango and Sacatepéquez, fuelling the controversy over the role of community radio stations in Guatemala .
The most recent case occurred on May 23 in Santa María de Jesús, Sacatepéquez, where the Catholic radio station Apocalypse was closed down by the police.
According to radio station volunteers, Rodolfo Gómez and Freddy Godoy, the police acted in a heavy-handed manner. As a result, over 1,000 people took to the streets, demanding that the police return the confiscated equipment.
The closure of community radio stations by the police has coincided with an aggressive campaign against community radio stations by the CRG, which represents Guatemala ’s commercial radio stations.
The government differentiates between stations legally registered — commercial radio — and the "illegal" or "pirate" stations, which also encompasses community radio.
A key difficulty noted with regard to the unionization of community broadcasters was the lack of clarity over the term "community radio station." There are an estimated 800 community radio stations in Guatemala , the majority of which define themselves as community radio stations.
The granting of hundreds of licenses to commercial stations has effectively censored non-commercial radio stations, since most communities are unable to afford a license. In the past, licenses have been awarded to former members of the military, Congress members and the business sector, who have little interest in democratizing access to the media.
This situation has affected the recent consultation in Sipacapa on the Marlin mine project. The article continues:
"Local radio stations can also provide a space for citizen participation, as was the case of Sipaestereo in Sipacapa, San Marcos, which mobilized people to take part in the consultation regarding the controversial project put forward by the Canadian mining company Montana Exploradora, a subsidiary of Gladis Gold.
Backed by environmental organization Colectivo MadreSelva, local residents raised nearly $30,000 to lease the use of the frequency from a private owner.
According to Magali Rey Rosa, director of MadreSelva, "without Sipaestereo, the consultation would have never been carried out.""
This issue the freedom of the local media in Guatemala has been written about extensively by CERIGUA (Centro de reportes informativos sobre Guatemala). For a little insight into the independent press in Guatemala and the challenges it faces alongside commercial radio here is an old report (2003) by Ruben Zamora of El Periodico for the UN.
This week's Crossing Continents radio programme on BBC Radio 4 with reporter Nick Caistor looks at the discovery of the national police archives (photo: left - BBC) in July 2005. The report explores the significance of these files and the evidence they represent in building and prosecuting cases against those who have been behind human rights abuses in Guatemala in the past.
You can read the report on the BBC accompanying the programme and listen to the programme online (for the next week at least). It will also be repeated on Monday 31st July at 8.30pm. You can post your comments on the report on the BBC website here.
UPDATE: 28-08-2006 NPR (US National Public Radio) has an interesting article on the archives find with interviews of many others involved in the work to process and salvage the information in the Guatemalan police archives. You can listen to John Burnett's piece that was broadcast on the radio and read his story of how he began reporting on Guatemala in 1983. It is a very readable way of putting the police archives find in some historical context. It's a coincidence that both Burnett and Caistor have both come back to Guatemala after many years in the field.
We recently heard from Luis Argueta, writer and director of El Silencio de Neto, the sad news of the death of Justo Chang (photo-left: SigloXXI), Argueta's co-writer on El Silencio de Neto, one of Guatemala's most successful films. He had a long and distinguished career supporting Guatemalan cinema, cut short by the onset of Alzheimers from around the time that El Silencio de Neto was finished in 1994.
I was lucky enough to meet Chang. His wife Veronique Simar, supported a street educational project I worked on, bringing Spanish artists to Guatemala to run workshops and perform across Guatemala City.
Luis Argueta continues to produce films on Guatemala documenting the lives of Guatemalans often ignored by the mainstream media. Below is a clip from his documentary "And There I Am" Documenting Silent Voices, which follows the stories of Guatemalans who emigrate to the U.S. You can see another clip here and see the trailer from "Cuando Nueva York Se Vistio de Guatemala" which follows the mass for El Senor de Esquipulas taken by Cardenal Rodolfo Quesada Toruna at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
Wayne David MP, (PPS (Rt Hon Adam Ingram, Minister of State), Ministry of Defence, Caerphilly, Labour), has just made the following intervention in a Westminster Hall debate comparing the political situation in El Salvador and Guatemala. He headed up a delegation under the auspices of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
He is markedly down beat about the political situation in Guatemala citing land evictions, violence against women and a weak criminal justice system. Sound familiar? It's interesting that he refers to a briefing from Amnesty International who have just released (18-07-2006) updated figures on the ever increasing violence against women in Guatemala.
I shall also try to brief. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) on securing this debate and on her consistent work over many years. She has championed human rights even when it has not been popular to do so and when it has been at great cost to herself.
I want to refer briefly to a visit that I made to central America under the auspices of the Inter-Parliamentary Union when I led a delegation. It was a good example of the effective work that the IPU can do on the ground to serve human rights. That visit occurred in the early part of June to two countries in central America: Guatemala and El Salvador. Visiting two countries was a useful experience in itself because we could develop a regional perspective and we saw the contrast between two neighbouring countries in central America.
In El Salvador, we found a relatively stable, democratic process. The two parties, the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional and the ARENA party, which had been at war during the 1970s, 1980s and early part of the 1990s, were pursing a peaceful democratic process and had laid down their arms. The ARENA party was in government and the FMLN was in opposition, and we thought that there was genuine determination across the political spectrum to make the peace accords of the 1990s work effectively. Of course, we saw great problems in the country—land issues, high criminality and widespread poverty—but there was great optimism and that came across clearly from everyone we met.
To be blunt, the situation in Guatemala was quite different. The country was less prosperous with less business confidence, widespread corruption and high criminality, particularly from the "maras" gangs. It was pointed out that more people in Guatemala lose their lives through crime than died during the civil war of the 1980s and 1990s. Before we went to Guatemala, the delegation had graphic briefings from Amnesty International. Its two basic concerns were the ongoing land disputes and the high level of evictions. It was concerned about the human rights abuses and the way in which peasants and rural workers in particular were being treated.
Secondly, Amnesty International was concerned about the violence against women. I would like to read an excerpt from one of its reports that graphically shows the appalling situation in Guatemala. A mother, referring to her daughter, said:
"My 15-year-old daughter Maria Isabel was a student and worked in a shop in the holidays. On the night of 15 December 2001, she was kidnapped in the capital. Her body was found shortly before Christmas. She had been raped, her hands and feet had been tied with barbed wire, she had been stabbed and strangled and put in a bag. Her face was disfigured from being punched, her body was punctured with small holes, there was a rope around her neck and her nails were bent back. When her body was handed over to me, I threw myself to the ground shouting and crying but they kept on telling me not to get so worked up."
We had the opportunity to raise such issues when we were in Guatemala during a long discussion with President Oscar Berger. Naturally, his responses were unsatisfactory from our perspective. What came across clearly to us in Guatemala was that although the political will might have existed among decent people to get to grips with such problems, the political or civil infrastructure was not in place to do so. The police in Guatemala suffer from widespread corruption and the judiciary is both corrupt and inept. Many of the large property owners do not feel that they have a stake in the country; in fact, many live in Miami and visit the country only occasionally.
Above all else, we did not find the same commitment to democratic politics in Guatemala as we found in El Salvador. That is largely for historic reasons. During the civil war in El Salvador, it was recognised that neither side could win—neither the left nor the right, neither the FMLN nor the ARENA party. A historic compromise was therefore reached, with both sides laying down their arms and making a genuine commitment to the peace accords and the democratic process. That did not happen in Guatemala. There the army won, and democratic politics suffered as a consequence. What political parties exist in Guatemala have shallow roots. To build up respect for human rights and to crack down effectively on criminality, there is a need to enforce democracy and the political process. That is one of the lessons that we learned, and one aspect of our international work that we must continue to pursue.
In conclusion, the example of our visit to central America shows clearly the worth of the IPU. Parliamentary democracy has a central role to play in promoting human rights. The IPU, as the international manifestation of parliamentary democracy, therefore has a crucial role to play. One the of the most telling moments that I experienced in El Salvador was when one of the members of the assembly who belonged to the left-wing FMLN said to me, "Mr. David, at one time my colleague"—he pointed to a friend of his from the ARENA party—"and I were literally trying to kill each other in the civil war. Today, although we have political differences, we are nevertheless friends in the legislative assembly." That better than anything else illustrates the importance of parliamentary democracy and the work of the IPU.
The report's 35 pages are a really good summing up of the historical background, legal context and ultimate effects of the establishment of the Marlin Mine by Canadian multinational Glamis Gold. Vincent Castagnino has interviewed many of the key players for this report, including: Monseñor Álvaro Rammazzini Imeri, Bishop of San Marcos, Jorge Antonio García Chiú, Vice Minister at the Ministry of Energy and Mines; and Magali Rey Rosa, from Colectivo Madre Selva.
Two key conclusions of the report are:
-to reform the law around mining, in particular the amount of money that comes back to the Guatemalan state (more than 1% of profits) -that the affected local communities should be carefully consulted and given key decision making powers in such developments
For more information, there is also a really good recording in Canada of Juan Tema from Sipakapa speaking at an event in May 2006 organised by Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network.
Below is a map from Colectivo MadreSelva showing mining developments and areas of poverty in Guatemala.
Zones of poverty in Guatemala and the mining concessions (2004)
This is the time of year for festivals, and once a year there is the Latin American Carnival in Peckham Rye Park, SE22 in London.
This Sunday 23rd July from 11am to 7pm (entry free)
In July many Latin American countries commemorate their day of Independence. Colombians celebrate it the 20th July, Peru the 28th, Venezuela the 5th, Argentina and Chile the 9th.
Due to these commemorations, the 23rd July the Independence Carnival will celebrate the emancipation of all Latin American people. A day where Londoners will have the opportunity to experience a journey across the rich Latin American culture and history.
With:
∙ Music and Dancing performances: ROBIN DEL CASTILLO Latin Band Show - Orquestra COCOMEX FUERZA VALLENATA - Folklore dancing band FANTASIA LATINA - Dennis Santa Cruz (El Chacho) ¨C Local artists
∙ Stalls with food from different regions in Latin America -Bar with Latin American spirits -Craft Work and Latin American products - Information and promotion.
You hear it said repeatedly that Guatemala City is not the most endearing part of Guatemala. But having lived there (right by El Trebol) for over four years, I would have to beg to differ :-). I really liked the place and remember being told by people who had literally passed through the capital on the way to Antigua, Panajachel, etc., that there was little to offer the visitor.
I really love the above picture posted on Flickr by Celula. It's a great overview of what I reckon is El Calvario (6ª. Avenida y 18 calle, zona 1) where one of the most impressive processions starts from during Semana Santa. But I'm sure others will correct me if I wrong. It's a great picture because it pulls out the incredible colours and architecture that you can often pass by in Zone 1 (or Centro Historico) without a moments thought.
I found this satellite image from Google of the same spot so you can get your bearings! I guess this is a good place to plug WikiMapia where you can point out the places of interest in Guatemala City yourself- and see those that others have already flagged up.
Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz's warrant for the arrest of Rios Montt and others for genocide in Guatemala continues to send out shockwaves. Rios Montt's recent reaction where he denied the charges:
"I am accused of being a terrorist on a whim, but there was a guerrilla war on in Guatemala," he told reporters. "I got to power when communists had already won and Guatemala was lost."
Rios Montt's comments have been covered by Reuters and The Guardian in the UK.
In Guatemala there has been an avalanche of articles on attrocities committed by the guerilla, Edgar Gutierrez on the debate over genocide, a recent success for families of the disappeared. Siglo XXI with one of the best reports quotes Rios Montt as saying:
El líder eferregista resta importancia al informe de la Comisión de
Esclarecimiento Histórico, el cual reporta que durante su gestión
presidencial fueron cometidas más de 200 masacres. “No creo ni dejo de
creer; son relatos, es una buena telenovela”, afirma.
The over 200 massacres are: "simply fiction, a brilliant soap opera", according to Rios Montt. And what does that make his avoidance of justice? A suspense thriller, farce or just true horror movie of the worst kind perhaps?
Is it possible to measure a country's happiness? The New Economics Foundation has gone a step further and attempted to measure the planet's happiness in a new report called the "Happy Planet Index". And guess what; Central America is the happiest region of the world (see map below- green- high HPI and red- low HPI). Guatemala actually comes 8th out of 178.
The index is based on a formula using data from separate indicators: ecological footprint, life expectancy and life satisfaction. The idea is that the index represents "the efficiency with which countries convert the earth’s finite resources into wellbeing experienced by their citizens".
So what's the secret of the success of Central America in the happiness stakes? In fact, more broadly Latin America has done much better than the rest of the world. This success is in part because they dominate the high life satisfaction group.
The New Economics Foundation points to social capital as the key to explaining this phenomenon, with a high percentage of Latin Americans belonging to civil society groups involved in cultural activities, sports and religion amongst others. The report mentions British writer Matt Rendell who "spends half the year in Colombia and is married to a Colombian. He offers some sociological insights, highlighting the strong social capital and digging beneath the movie-caricature of the country overrun by the drugs trade."
"One reason why people may be surprised about Colombia's position is because the Western media focuses on the country's problems but not its vibrant civil society. Colombians love music, sport, and beauty. They also have very high educational and health care standards."
It's important to point out that this report is not overlooking poverty. "Undoubtedly, a relationship exists between income and wellbeing, but after a certain, surprisingly low level of GDP is reached, the strength of this relationship declines markedly".
Finally, the factor that contributes to Central America's high ranking in this particular Happy Planet Index is its low ecological footprint. This due to relatively low levels of consumption of materials impacting on its biosphere across Mesoamerica.
This low consumption rate is the flip side to low levels of 'traditional economic' development. Whether this low consumption rate does or doesn't point to long term happiness problems, the report demonstrates what most visitors to Guatemala already know. Central America has plenty of positives to teach the rest of the world, but is rarely given the opportunity to do so. Let's hope the UK and others start listening.
To paraphrase loads, the article makes the basic point: how can a country like Guatemala which has lived through 36 years of internal conflict, suffers high levels of extreme poverty and experiences widespread insecurity be described as amongst the happiest in the world? Material wealth surely has more than a passing influence on one's happiness- is the point made by the psychologists and sociologists refered to in the article.
But is it then just a case of the grass being greener? Is the glass half empty or half full? Is it that happiness is something that's hopelessly subjective? There's probably some of these things going on here. But surely this shouldn't become a competition to see who is the most miserable!
I guess what it demonstrates overall is that we so often fall back on measures of material wealth - not because they particularly tell us anything important or definitive about a society in its entirety - but because they are measurable. Perhaps we'll just have to accept that there are things about societies across the world that just can't be compared like for like.
After all as university student, Alfredo Lopez, says: we're "jodidos con tenis" (buggered with trainers [shoes] on). Which sounds like an eloquent way of saying that life is hard but we're still going. Sound familiar to you (wherever you are in the world)?
This is a clip from the documentary looking at the U.S. intervention in Guatemala and the coup in 1954 against Jacobo Arbenz. The clip has been posted on You Tube by OtrasVoces. The clip is mainly in Spanish. There is more information on Howard Hunt who appears in this clip, talking about Guatemala in an interview he did with CNN, 'Cold War: Backyard'.
'Entremosle a Guate' (roughly translated, 'Let's Get Behind Guatemala') is a fresh and interesting documentary series on the issues facing Guatemalans today. It's been put together by Guatemalan double act, Harris Whitbeck and Ana Carlos. Their idea has been to put together video portraits of mainly young people who are getting behind their country and helping to bring about a different Guatemala.
The series, which we flagged up a few months ago and has become one of the most popular posts on this blog, has been far reaching in its scope of issues and refreshingly different in its approach to presenting the issues affecting Guatemala today. In their own words, from the website:
"Se propusieron hacer un programa que inspirara cambios en el país y cuyo protagonista fuera la gente. No sería una serie de análisis y de temas en abstracto, sino retratos de aquellas personas que están marcando una diferencia en su entorno."
The idea is to produce 12 monthly episodes across the year, five of which they've currently broadcast which you can now watch online through an inspired decision to distribute it freely via the internet- unlike the vast majority of unenlightened Guatemalan (and Mexican!) television execs. They have put them live on their site a few days ago.
Also interesting to note is the source of private finance for the project from many of the heavyweights in Guatemala's business and industrial sector. Such a professional edit and quantity of backdrops has obviously needed relatively generous budget. You'd hope, but not too niavely that those financing the series haven't sought to compromise the makers editorial independence. But I can't quite see this programme covering DR-CAFTA through the eyes of a fair trade activist. Whether this ultimately takes anything away from the issues they do cover, I guess is in the eye of the beholder.
Ok, so what are the issues they've covered so far? I'd paraphrase them in the following way in English- but I'd recommend you check out each episode's full synopsis in Spanish on their site:
Episode1: Developing responsable tourism in Guatemala Episode 2: Emergency services: fire and rescue services, and prison services Episode 3: Photography with a social conscience; and public minded architecture Episode 4: Migration and conserving Guatemalans' culture Episode 5: Living with HIV in Guatemala; developing new and dignified housing Episode 6: New cultural expression by young people in Guatemala Episode 7: Women in Guatemala's criminal justice system Episode 8: Drug addiction - treatment and support Episode 9: Archaeology, environmental protection and community development Episode 10: The role of the surgeon and community midwife Episode 11: Making coffee in Guatemala - in the city and in Chajul Episode 12: Managing forestation in Guatemala Episode 13: Therapeutic pets in San Juan de Dios; adoption uniting families
I really look forward to seeing the coming seven further episodes. The series promises to make up a valuable resource that will prove to be inspiring and insightful about the Guatemala of today and the young people that are building it for tomorrow.
With the UK press a little behind in the news, the news has spread quickly of the warrant of arrest issued for those accused of genocide in Guatemala. It's been covered initially by Siglo XXI, La Hora and El Periodico in Guatemala. You can read all the reports on excellent news gathering ACOGUATE blog.
The first thing you notice reading the warrant is that Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz notes the 'lack of cooperation' and postively 'obstructive' attitude from Efrain Rios Montt (left- La Hora) and the other seven on the list.
"Efectivamente, con su [Rios Montt y otros] actitud obstruccionista han bloqueado de hecho (y en el fondo de derecho) no sólo sus declaraciones, sino también la de los testigos que se habían propuesto", señalaba el ministerio público en su escrito.
NISGUA clarifies that the people implicated in this warrant are the following:
-GENERAL EFRAÍN RIOS MONTT, Military Dictator 1982-1983 -GENERAL OSCAR HUMBERTO MEJÍA VÍCTORES, Military Dictator 1983-1986; -GENERAL ANGEL ANIBAL GUEVARA RODRIGUEZ, former Minister of Defense -LICENCIADO DONALDO ALVAREZ RUIZ, former Minister of the Interior -CORONEL GERMÁN CHUPINA BARAHONA, Director of the National Police under -General Lucas García (suspected to be dead by no official confirmation); -PEDRO GARCIA ARREDONDO, Head of the Sixth Command of the National Police under General Lucas García; -GENERAL BENEDICTO LUCAS GARCIA, Army Chief of Staff under the presidency of his brother Romeo Lucas García
The warrant also looks to freeze the assests that any of those accused may hold outside Guatemala through Interpol and Europol.
(Gen) José Luis Quilo Ayuso [left here- on the right side of the photo], Presidente of the 'Asociación de Veteranos Militares de Guatemala' (AVEMILGUA), who issued a threat warning of 'tragic consequences' for any who took military personel to court, has given a short interview to El Periodico explaining what he meant.
On July 4th, the International Commission of Jurists denounced the decision of the Guatemalan Constitutional Court because of the protection it offered Rios Montt from having to give a statement from complying with the Spanish Investigative Commission.
UPDATE: There are now articles on this news story on AlertNet and The Guardian in the UK press. There is also a rather disappointingly insubstantial contribution to From Our Own Correspondent entitled: "Guatemala Comes To Terms With Its Past". More interested in joking about goats and weighing machines, the BBC's Nick Caistor, 'our correspondent in Guate', should focus a little bit more on the facts of the issues he's presenting. His report includes a worrying factual error:
"An official government report blamed the state and its repressive apparatus for more than 90% of the human rights atrocities that had taken place over the previous three decades."
There has never been an official government report that blamed itself for more than 90% of the human rights atrocities. If only it had, then Spanish judges might not be making long haul flights and the wheels of justice in Guatemala might be turning a tad quicker.
In April of this year GSN member Helen Pearson, went on a trip to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank) and Israel for a week. It was an immensely powerful experience. In an attempt to talk about what she witnessed there she has planned a series of articles comparing her experience in Palestine with that of Guatemala 10 years earlier.
I : Exile [continued]
Almost 60 years after the Nakba, Deheishe refugee camp now has the character of a small town in many ways. The word ‘camp’ implies temporary structures but Deheishe has been there so long that buildings which once might have been intended as temporary have become rooted. The houses pile one on top of each other in ramshackle, close proximity with narrow, winding streets between them creating a medieval, oppressive feel.
At first the camp was in an area designated for the Palestinians but under the administration of Jordan; later the refugees became residents of an occupation, when Israel seized the West Bank in 1967 (3). Samir, our Palestinian guide, told us that after 1967 the camp had been enclosed in barbed wire as a way of controlling and containing the refugees who were considered by the Israelis to be potential terrorists. The barbed wire is no longer in place, but the one turnstile gate that was the only way in and out of the encircled camp remains as a reminder of those times.
Hearing this story about Deheishe took me back to a visit I had made in Guatemala to a community of returned refugees who had been interned in a camp in Honduras during the 1980s. This was during the Cold War and the height of the United States’ interference in Central America. The refugees were labelled as Communist subversives by the Honduran government which was receiving massive amounts of US support in return for allowing Honduran territory to be used by ‘Contras’ fighting to bring down the left wing, democratically elected government of Nicaragua. The Honduran camp had the ironic name of El Tesoro (Treasure) but was described to me as like a prison, surrounded by barbed wire and impossible to leave without permission. Doña Paula, who told me about El Tesoro, said that once a man had been shot for leaving the camp without a permit. Innocent people who had fled for their lives, leaving behind everything they had, losing family members to massacres, were then subjected to further inhuman treatment and suffering. Having such a personal connection with Guatemalan refugees helped me to understand something of the profound suffering the people we met in Palestine had undergone.
The trauma of exile through the generations is compounded by dependency and a feeling of abandonment. Residents of Deheishe are still reliant on United Nations support and international aid and 70% of the 11,000 inhabitants are unemployed. The employment situation has considerably deteriorated since the start of the second Intifada in 2000 and the building of the ‘separation barrier’, whereby travel for residents of the West Bank is very restricted (4). Previously many more people were able to travel into Israel and work. Without land, property or the prospect of employment it is almost impossible to get out of the dependency cycle. As Ziad Abbas, director of the Ibdaa Cultural Centre in Deheishe, put it, “I am not a citizen but a United Nations number”.
There is an obvious contrast with the Guatemalans I worked with as the Palestinian refugees have not been able to go back to the land they were born in because Israel does not recognise their right to return. The Guatemalan refugees managed to achieve something unique. After seven or eight years in exile, organised groups formed in the refugee camps in southern Mexico and with the support of the UN and the governments of various countries, including Mexico, they negotiated the terms of an organised and collective return to Guatemala. This negotiation took place in the context of the restoration of democracy in Guatemala (a very flawed democracy it is true, but at least it was not military dictatorship). Since the first collective refugee returns to Guatemala in 1993 there have been numerous obstacles to reintegration, but it is a success story when compared with the Palestinian experience.
However, listening to the Palestinians talking in Deheishe I was struck by some parallels with the Guatemalan refugees which illustrate a more positive side of the exile experience. For example, there have been more opportunities for women to organise than would likely have been possible within Palestinian society at large. Deheishe has the first women’s volleyball and basketball teams in a refugee camp. Ziad Abbas acknowledges that a significant amount of money coming in from abroad to support projects in the camp comes from women’s organising ability, for example setting up micro enterprises to sell their embroidery to people in Japan and the USA. This parallels developments for women Guatemalan refugees in Mexican camps and constitutes an irony whereby the experience of exile acts as a catalyst to the development and recognition of women’s rights and contributions.
Another side effect of long term refugee status for both people has been the importance of education. In Mexico many Guatemalan refugees had access to education through services provided through official aid agencies and non governmental organisations (NGOs). I have friends who arrived in the camps with not even a primary school education and left with qualifications as health or education promoters. In Deheishe education services are extremely limited and only cover primary education. If young people are to continue to high school they have to go outside the camp and this costs money. However, often the community helps out even though people have such limited resources because, as Ziad told us, education is highly prized as a route out of a dead end where families have lost their land and property. As happened in the Mexican camps, education serves both as a form of self help and as route out of dependency.
In the case of Palestine, there is another factor which has led to the acquisition of education. Almost every Palestinian man we talked to had been in prison at least once. These were people who were intelligent, held down responsible jobs and contributed to their communities: in other words did not fulfil the typical offender profile. In fact an estimated 40% of Palestinian males have been in Israeli jails (5). Ziad Abbas spoke excellent English which he had learned in an Israeli prison. There is something satisfyingly subversive about this: Israel’s criminalisation of its ‘enemies’ who emerge from incarceration better prepared in many ways to resist.
The Palestinians I met are determined to continue striving for their rights and believe that this is best done by non-violent means in collaboration with Israeli Jews committed to an equal and just solution for all people sharing the tiny piece of Earth that is historical Palestine. However, I believe that unless a solution is found to the Palestinian refugee issue, the lack of justice, stretching back to the past and into the future, will corrode and undermine prospects for peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.
(3) Palestine has more refugees than any other country, some 5 million, of which in 1998 652,855 lived in the West Bank. Towns and Villages Depopulated by the Zionist Invasion of 1948. Salman Abu Sitta, 1998 (4) I will talk more in a later article about the ‘Separation Barrier’, sometimes called the ‘Apartheid Wall’. (5) ADDAMEER (Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association, www.addameer.org)
Post by Helen Pearson [This is the first part of an article 12]
In April of this year GSN member Helen Pearson, went on a trip to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank) and Israel for a week. It was an immensely powerful experience. In an attempt to talk about what she witnessed there she has planned a series of articles comparing her experience in Palestine with that of Guatemala 10 years earlier.
When I lived in Guatemala in the mid 1990s I was told a story about Palestine. During the time of the worst military repression in Guatemala, in the early 1980s, when hundreds of villages were wiped off the map, the teller of the story, José, had lived in an area of the country where many settlements had been founded by religious people. The radio was one of the few ways by which people could find out what was going on. One day José was listening to the news and to his horror he heard that there were bombs being dropped on the nearby village of Palestina. He thought that meant that his village would be next so he rushed around warning everyone to get out, that the soldiers were coming. The villagers, thinking they were about to be killed, fled into the surrounding countryside. Only some hours later did they realise that it was a false alarm and that the radio report had actually been about the situation in the Middle East.
José was still chuckling when he told this story more than a decade later, humour being a crucial survival technique for Guatemalans affected by the civil war which lasted from 1960 to 1996. I remembered José’s story one day during my recent trip to the West Bank as Samir, our Palestinian guide for the day, let us in on some of the jokes Palestinians tell each other, admitting that dark humour is something which keeps their spirits up. For example he took great delight in telling us about being held up for hours at a European airport for questioning. In the end the only accusation that could be made against him was that he was travelling on a false passport, to which he responded, “if I were a terrorist and wanted to travel around the world on a false passport do you think I would choose a Palestinian one?”
One of the places Samir took us to was the Deheishe refugee camp near Bethlehem. This camp has been in existence since 1948, when Palestinians who had lived in what is now Israel fled to Arab controlled areas leaving everything associated with their former homes behind as what Israelis call the ‘War of Independence’ erupted. Many of the villages the Palestinians abandoned were destroyed and then built over by the Israelis. In the process, massacres of Palestinian civilians occurred, one of the most notorious and well documented being at Deir Yassin near Jerusalem. In an uncanny parallel with the Guatemalan experience, the disappearance of some 400 Palestinian villages has been documented (1). During the worst years of the Guatemalan dictatorships, in the early 1980s, an equal number of villages were wiped off the map according to a project dedicated to the recovery of historical memory which published a report in 1998 (2) . The physical destruction of villages went along with the massacre and enforced flight of their inhabitants.
I know from the Guatemalan experience that this kind of violent dispossession and the uprooting of communities leads to profound trauma and cultural dislocation, not just in the generation that have suffered directly, but in new generations born into an exile culture. The Palestinians call what happened to them in 1948 the Nakba (Catastrophe). In Deheishe Mahmoud, a young man of about 20, showed us the huge iron key to his family’s house which was in a village which is now part of Israel. This rusty piece of iron represented Mahmoud’s longing for a home he had never seen and which no longer existed; this key was all he had to tie him to his family’s past. With the physical obliteration of communities where people have lived for generations and the lack of acknowledgement of this history, or recompense for their loss, it is a struggle for the people affected to bring hope and renewal into the future.
Hearing Palestinians talk about being forgotten by the world and about their story not being acknowledged I was reminded again of the Guatemalan situation. Thousands of indigenous Mayan Guatemalans were massacred in the early 1980s in the Army’s campaign to wipe out the social base of the guerrilla movement and many more thousands fled for their lives into neighbouring Mexico. They left everything they possessed behind them; they ran in the dark, under the cover of the jungle, with the eyes of the world elsewhere. Later, the Guatemalan military denied that the massacres had taken place, that people had been tortured, women raped, property destroyed. That is why now, initiatives such as the Catholic Church’s Recovery of Historical Memory Project, are hugely important to the recovery process, not just for the individuals affected but for the Mayan community as a whole and for the peaceful existence of the entire country.
In Palestine there are similar initiatives to recover the historical memory of the Nakba, forming part of the Palestinian struggle to have their narrative acknowledged and to be compensated for what they lost. I believe that telling the Palestinian story is vital to all the people who share the land of historical Palestine. Just as Jewish suffering and the annihilation committed during the Holocaust is a valid backdrop to the right for a Jewish collective life, so the Nakba must be recognised by Israelis and Diaspora Jews as a justified reason for the recognition of Palestinian rights. I find it unbearable that the dispossession and ethnic cleansing which we Jews have survived be translated into violence, rather than humanity, towards others.
[1]Obstacles to Peace: A Re-Framing of the Palestinian - Israeli Conflict. Jeff Halper and Michael Younan, ICAHD, 2004
[2]Guatemala: Never Again!, Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala, 1998
Spaces are limited for this event. To pre-register for this event please email: dkenner [at] lab.org.uk
Venue: The Library - Latin America Bureau, 1 Amwell Street, London, EC1R 1UL
This documentary analyses the debate on mining exploitation in Guatemala and demonstrates the dignity of the Sipakapan People as they fight to defend their autonomy in the face of encroaching neo-liberal "development" megaprojects.
This 55 minute documentary (with English sub-titles) is about the struggle of the Sipakapense-Mayan people, in San Marcos, Guatemala, in defense of autonomy, locally controlled development and environmental well-being, against the harms and violations associated with the open-pit gold mining operation of the Glamis Gold mining company.
In 2005, Montana Exploradora, subsidiary of the Canadian/US transnational company Glamis Gold, received 45 million US dollars in financing from the World Bank to exploit an open-pit gold mine in Guatemala. There was never any consultation with the local Mayan Sipakapense and Mam communities about the 'concessioning' of their lands and territories to a global mining company that, furthermore, is using the most harmful method of gold mining – open pit, cyanide leaching processes.
In accordance with ILO Convention 169, the Constitution of Guatemala and the Municipal Code, a Community Consultation was held in Sipakapa on 18 June 2005, to establish whether the population would accept or reject mining exploitation in its municipality. The result was a resounding NO to mining.
"Sipakapa is Not for Sale" contrasts the daily life and struggle of the Maya Sipakapan people with the arguments of representatives of the mining company that operates in their territory. It analyses the debate on mining exploitation and demonstrates the dignity of the Sipakapan People as they fight to defend their autonomy in the face of encroaching neo-liberal "development" megaprojects.
Whilst we've been talking about apologists for military violence recently on this blog, the following clip is a timely reminder of what Guatemala has gone through- and the role external government's have played in it. This example is (part of) a documentary on the CIA 's involvement in Guatemala.
It's in Spanish, and it's worth pointing out that the images are pretty explicit. This clip was posted in You Tube by Joaquinsan.
Phillip Agee, a former CIA operative who left the agency in 1967 after becoming disillusioned by the CIA’s support for the status quo in the region is actually featured in this clip. He has just done an interview with Red Pepper about CIA intervention in Latin America at the moment, in particular Venezuela.
I came across this interactive Guatemala created to educate kids in the UK about the countries where Sport Relief is supporting projects. They've created stories around four children in Guatemala who go to educational projects run by Conrado de la Cruz and Grupo Ceiba. One of stories is about Mayra Kelita, who some in GSN may recognise, as she was here in the UK two years ago with the director of Conrado de la Cruz on a visit organised by War on Want.
As for the educational value of this interactive Guatemala, barring one or two quibbles it's really well done and brings out many of the issues the children and their families face in Guatemala. Ok, the virtual tour still feel a touch light weight, lacking the more substantial information that books or video might be able to convey better. And I reckon you'd need a good teacher to really make the kids come alive- but hey let us know what you think...
It will be interesting to compare it with the interactive India and Glasgow that will be available soon.
The recent brush with justice for all those in the military accused of playing their part in Guatemala's genocide, has smoked out their supporters out from under their rocks (not that they needed much smoking out!).
"El argumento fundamental que han esgrimido para exonerar a Lucas García y a su gavilla de delincuentes y asesinos, es que libraron a Guatemala del comunismo. Nada más lejos de la verdad: más bien, el régimen de este gendarme turbio y sin gloria casi logra entregar Guatemala al comunismo. Gracias a sus excesos consiguió aislar a Guatemala, convertirla en un país paria de la comunidad internacional, cerrar su acceso a financiamiento bilateral y multilateral, clausurar las puertas de la ayuda militar de Estados Unidos, colapsar sus exportaciones e importaciones, en fin, transformarla con sus desmanes de todo tipo en un teatro de terror."
Ultimately, those defending human rights abuses in the past, should wake up to the logical conclusion of past violence: a continuing litany of further violence. And with virtually no legal recourse to stop it- apologists like Palmieri and his like are saving no-one.
The following is just a selection of the threats, intimidations and abuses against those standing up for their rights in Guatemala in the last three months (SOURCE: ACOGUATE):
20.03.2006 Intento de asesinato a Claudia Jeannette Rivas Rosil, Secretaria Departamental de Jutiapa del Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Educación de Guatemala (STEG).
26.03.2006 Allanamiento de la oficina del Comité Campesino del Altiplano (CCDA) en San Lucas Tolimán, Sololá.
27.03.2006 Allanamiento de la oficina de la Fundación para el Desarrollo Comunitario (FUNDESCO) y de la Asociación Unidad de Desarrollo Integral La Novena (UDINOV).
02.04.2006 Asesinato de Meregilda Suchite, integrante del Observatorio de DDHH de Caldh y de la Red de Mujeres, Olopa, Chiquimula.
05.04.2006 Asesinato de Antonio Ixbalán Cali, Presidente de la Asociación de Agricultores de Santiago Atitlán, y su esposa, Maria Petzey Coo, ambos miembros de la Coordinadora Nacional Indígena y Campesina (CONIC).
06.04.2006 Allanamiento de la sede de CUSG en Guatemala Ciudad.
20.04.2006 El levantamiento campesino de este día provocó fuertes reacciones de la Policia Nacional Civil y las fuerzas armadas, dejando un saldo de varias/os heridas/os y detenidas/os en los departamentos de Esquintla, Quetzaltenango y Alta Verapaz.
22.04.2006 Allanamiento de la oficina de Coordinadora de Organizaciones Campesinas e Indígenas de Petén (COCIP). La oficina de COCIP ya fue allanada el 04.03.2006.
7.04.2006 Disparos en contra de las/os integrantes del Movimiento Campesino en Resistencia Pro Justicia Finca Nueva Linda y amenazas directas en contra de sus líderes por miembros de la seguridad privada de la Finca Nueva Linda.
07.05.2006 Allanamiento de la oficina de la Coordinadora Nacional Indígena y Campesina (CONIC) en la Capital de Guatemala.
11.05.2006 12.05.2006 Amenazas telefónicas al Movimiento Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Ciudad de Guatemala.
14.05.2006 Disparos en contra de las/os integrantes del Movimiento Campesino en Resistencia Pro Justicia Finca Nueva Linda por miembros de la seguridad privada de la Finca Nueva Linda.
20.05.2006 Asesinato de Sandra Teresa Coc Xol, de 14 años, en la comunidad Plan Grande Tatín, Livingston, Izabal. Sus padres Carlos Coc y Celia Xol laboran en la asociación Ak´ Tenamit, donde trabajan en defensa de los derechos de las comunidades q’eqchies de esa área. El hecho de que los objetos de valor que portaba fueron encontrados a la par de ella sugiere descartar el robo como motivo de este crimen.
24.05.2006 Secuestro de Óscar Humberto Duarte Paíz, miembro de la junta directiva de la Asociación Integral de Desarrollo Comunitario de Ciudad Quetzal (ASIDECQ).
28.05.2006 Allanamiento a la sede del Sector de Mujeres en la Ciudad de Guatemala.
29.05.2006 Allanamiento a las instalaciones que anteriormente ocupaba FUNDESCO. Este nuevo allanamiento se produjo dos días después de que FUNDESCO ha cambiado su sede.
30.05.2006 Asesinato de Víctor Regino, miembro de la URNG, en la comunidad Santa Maria Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla.
30.05.2006 Asesinato de Rosa Dolores Rodríguez, maestra del colegio fundado por Florentín Gudiel (asesinado el 20.12.2004) y simpatizante de la URNG en Santa Maria Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla.
05.06.2006 Allanamiento de la sede de la Unión Nacional de Mujeres Guatemaltecas en Chimaltenango.
05.06.2006 Nuevo allanamiento de la oficina del Sector de Mujeres en la Ciudad de Guatemala.
05.06.2006 Miembros de la seguridad privada de la Finca Nueva Linda se presentaron en la aldea Santa Rosa, Municipio de Champerico, preguntando por dos de los líderes del Movimiento Campesino en Resistencia Pro Justicia Finca Nueva Linda. Este hecho fue interpretado por ellos como una nueva amenaza hacia el Movimiento.
U.S. Trade Representative
Susan Schwab, couldn't help a little insincere praise of Guatemala for its "sincere and diligent'' effort
to adopt the necessary laws and regulations to put CAFTA into effect.
Just a little idea from the Chomsky school of thought: why is the US considering spending billions of dollars on securing its borders? Poverty is pointed to as a major driver of emigration to the US. But if free trade agreements (NAFTA and CAFTA) bring about significant economic growth as the US administration claims, shouldn't they be planning for less spending on border controls than more?
The reason is of course that even the US administration believes that free trade makes other countries populations significantly worse off.
This is a depressing subject, so we need a little humour. Check out this piece from the Rick Mercer Report on Canada's view of NAFTA and free trade- heck- at least we can't say we weren't warned.
Is there room for any more irony in Guatemalan justice? As the Guatemalan military performs its latest escape from legal scrutiny, the country celebrates Army Day. Santiago Pedraz (left), Spanish judge in Guatemala to hear testimony from military leaders accused of genocide (amongst others) is on his way home. The news made a tiny article in Prensa Libre (30-06-2006).
So why has this latest attempt to challenge Guatemalan impunity failed?
The Guatemalan Constitutional Court upheld Rios Montt's last minute legal delaying tactic. No great legal principle has been decided- but it was enough to block progress for the time being (at least until after 4th July when Pedraz was scheduled to leave Guatemala).
You can follow the story in more detail in Spanish in ACOGUATE's brilliant blog they started a few weeks ago.
But why the suspension of the process to interview those accused of genocide?
According to Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre, President of the Constitutional Court:
“Lo amparamos porque la Corte Suprema de Justicia no envió completos los antecedentes que solicitamos, sólo fotocopia de dos resoluciones y, de acuerdo con lo que entiende este tribunal, para resolver se debe tener a la vista todo el expediente o un informe circunstanciado”
The reason Rios Montt doesn't have to defend his genocidal actions before a court of law: the Guatemalan Supreme Court didn't send the Constitutional Court all the necessary papers...
Happy Army Day Rios Montt! (ironical)
This latest episode has again brought to the fore the forces of threats and intimidation against human rights defenders. AVEMILGUA (Association of Military Veterans) paid for an advert (left) in the Guatemalan press which described the presence of Santiago Pedraz as an "attempt by terrorist groups to persecute the military".
José Luis Quilo Ayuso, AVEMILGUA chief, went on public record as saying (threatening) that there would be "tragic consequences" if any of the military had to go to court with the Spanish judge. These threats were denounced by Rigoberta Menchu and Edda Gaviola of CALDH.
UPDATE: Amnesty International have issued an urgent action about the fear for the safety of the human rights defenders affected by AVEMILGUA's threat.
Welcome, Guatemala Solidarity Network (GSN) based in the United Kingdom supports the people of Guatemala who continue to struggle for change after centuries of oppression, violence, racism and exploitation.
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