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The indigenous people_of_guatemala
- 1. The Indigenous People of Guatemala A Perennial Fight for Rights Kasey, Rachel, Maya
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Editor's Notes
- Our project focuses on the issue of the rights of indigenous people in Guatemala. We researched the implications of the country's history on the current rights and grievances of indigenous Guatemalans today. Then we asked the questions: "What efforts have been made to solve this issue?" "Were they successful?" and "What will it take to effectively solve this issue in the future?"
- In the colonial period, oppression ran rampant as the Spanish people came in and took top positions. The Mayan people of Guatemala felt this persecution the strongest, yet they fought to preserve their culture. The legacy of discrimination that began in these early years remains a major obstacle in indigenous Guatemalans’ fight for basic rights today.
- In 1944, wealthy plantation owners forced the indigenous people out of their homes and onto coffee plantations to work. In this time, indigenous people were treated as laborers with no respect to their home or community. Tensions grew as ladinos, the poor farmers, were also fighting for their own farming land, and both parties were being displaced. The competition to see which group was the lowest class made it hard to band together and rise up.
- From 1944 to 1951 Jacobo Arbenz was part of the fairly progressive government, working in the Defense Ministry. In 1951 he was elected as the first progressive President to come out of years of political turmoil in Guatemala. His most famous policy, re-distributing land, did not go over well with the United Fruit Company, who was used to dominating labor. The CIA was also worried, seeing a possibly communist regime. The US had great interest in the Fruit Company and in commonly believed events, the CIA overthrew Arbenz through Castillo Armas.
- Castillo Armas, the man who the US supported in waging war on the Arbenz administration, became President after the CIA's coup in 1954. Armas was opposed to Arbenz from the beginning, spreading rumors about his dark past. He was also a prominent general, and so naturally, the US decided to do their work through him.
- In 1976, a massive earthquake destroyed Guatemala. While the major cities began to be fixed, the violent and unstable government could not and would not organize to help the indigenous people rebuild villages. A driving force behind the negligence was the fact that indigenous villages were war zones, and the government believed the Marxist guerrillas to be predominantly indigenous. They did not want to help those who were opposing them, punishing the whole for what only a few decided to do.
- Soldiers were stationed everywhere during this war, "death squads" who were supposedly out of the control of the government. Many raids on indigenous villages and indiscriminate killings were landmarks of the eighties. In protest of these killings, a group went to the Spanish embassy to complain. In response, the government surrounded the embassy with snipers and burned it to the ground.
- After the war had boiled down, indigenous people began to bury their dead, however, it would be more than a decade before anthropologists found the mass burial sites. Even while holding incriminating evidence, the indigenous people would rather move on and start anew with the government instead of prosecuting them for the past. Their one wish is to finish the scientific examination as soon as possible and lay their dead to rest.
- The indigenous people today continue to have many grievances including lack of protection, insufficient living and working conditions, unfair distribution of and access to land, and unequal civil rights. They also harbor a lasting resentment and mistrust towards government due to the thousands of disappearances and killings in their communities and families during the Civil War.
- There continues to be a gap between indigenous people and non-indigenous people in terms of education, health care, housing, employment, etc today in Guatemala. In the past year or so, there has not been much improvement in the political, social, or economic status of the indigenous Guatemalans.
- Following the thirty-six year civil war, various agreements were signed to improve the status of the indigenous people and help them reclaim their identity and gain more rights. One effort, which ended the long, violent conflict in Guatemala, was the 1996 Peace Accords, signed by government officials and rebel leaders. The peace agreement called for the assimilation of indigenous Guatemalan people into mainstream society, an end to the discrimination against them, as well as access to better opportunities and services.
- Recently there have been efforts to compensate the indigenous people and their families who suffered from the massacres during the nationwide conflict. Hundreds of thousands of indigenous people were killed in the massacre, including women, children, and the elderly. In addition, during the civil war, many indigenous Guatemalans were driven off their land, destroying their communities.
- Even before the civil war ended, the families of the indigenous victims of the massacre as well as other Guatemalans have protested against the atrocities that were committed during the conflict, demanding justice. But, it is only recently that courts have listened to what they have to say and punished those who were responsible.
- In a November 24, 2009 ruling, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights announced that “Guatemala had violated the rights to legal guarantees and protection, and had failed in its obligation to respect the rights and duty to adopt domestic law provisions,” showing that the State is taking steps toward making reparations to the indigenous people.
- There have also been many initiatives to help the issue in the form of monetary aid. In the last four years, Guatemala has received a $30 million loan from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), an agency of the UN, to build a development program for its indigenous people. One of the main objectives of the initiative is to help integrate the indigenous people into society by first improving their basic infrastructure in an effort to restore indigenous pride.
- Part of our project was researching the role of organizations trying to help indigenous Guatemalans. Probably the most notable group involved is NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala). An imporant distinction to make is that NISGUA is a solidarity, not charity, organization.
- They work to spread awareness about the past, present, and future issues indigenous Guatemalans face. And they make progress a collaborative process by linking grassroots efforts in Guatemala and the United States to form a symbiotic relationship based on respect. One such project is the Guatemala Accompaniment Project in which US representatives work on site in Guatemala to protect organizations there from human rights violations.
- Historically the United States have acted in favor of imperialistic, oppressive foreign and economic policy. NISGUA and other solidarity organizations want to overturn the legacy of those practices in their very essence. Real change will only occur when all parties, governments, and people support new laws with real actions.
- GSN (Guatemala Solidarity Network) is one of many other solidarity groups involved in furthering the cause of indigenous Guatemalans pursuing rights. GSN is based in the UK and adds Europe as a player in this collaborative fight. Working together towards the same long-term goal, these various organizations are slowly increasing awareness and aid around the world.
- URNG (Guatemala National Revolutionary Unity) is a political party in Guatemala that began as a guerrilla movement. But after the Civil War ended they moved to negotiate political and legislative solutions. This umbrella organization represents all those oppressed in society whether poor, indigenous, or other disadvantaged groups.
- Although there seems to be numerous efforts to help the indigenous people of Guatemala, the resulting progress has been minimal, proving that change will come slowly. And although outside sources of aid may be a necessary step, we hope that in the end indigenous Guatemalans will be able to successfully obtain rights and autonomous strength on their own.