Guatemala Scholars Network News
March 2007
Human Rights Violations
Human rights organizations have noted the continuation of violations against
unionists, environmentalists, and other activists. In January, trade union
leader Pedro Zamora Alvarez was killed by five assailants in Puerto Quetzal,
Escuintla. Since his death, several of Zamora Alvarez’ colleagues at the
Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Empresa Portuaria Quetzal (STEPQ) have
received anonymous phone calls threatening them and their families.
Amnesty International believes that their lives are in serious and imminent
danger. STEPQ has recently opposed plans to build a new container terminal
at Puerto Quetzal, fearing that it could lead to future privatization and job
losses. The STEPQ has also been active in campaigning for the reinstatement
of the nine workers who were allegedly unfairly dismissed on 9 October
2006 during a peaceful demonstration against the construction project.
In another January case, the taxi that environmental activists Carlos
Albacete Rosales and Piedad Espinosa Albacete were in was fired upon by
four men wearing black woolen hats and bullet-proof vests, “dressed in black
clothing similar to that used by the police but without the identifying
insignia.” The two environmentalists are the co-directors of Tropico Verde's
Peten, an environmental organization working to protect the Mayan
Biosphere Reserve. During the last four years, Tropico Verde has been active
in denouncing cattle ranchers' and alleged drug traffickers' usurpation of
land inside the Reserve.
ECAP, a Guatemalan organization that provides psychosocial support to
massacre survivors and witnesses involved in various legal cases before both
Guatemalan courts and the Inter-American system, has also been subject to
acts of violence and aggression since September 2006. These acts have
included written threats, attempted kidnapping and the following and
monitoring of various members of the ECAP team. In late October 2006, the
president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the State
of Guatemala must provide protection to those working with ECAP,
investigate the denounced attacks, identify those responsible and prosecute
them accordingly.
______________________
GSN coordinator and editor of GSN News is Susan Berger. Please send items
for the News to her at Fordham University, Political Science Department, 113
West 60th Street, New York, NY 10023, 212-636-6362, or
berger@fordham.edu. R. McKenna Brown is the GSN treasurer and maintains
the mailing list. Send dues and changes of address to him at Guatemala
Scholars Network, International Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University,
P.O. Box 843080, Richmond, VA 23284-3080, 804-827-1671,
mbrown@saturn.vcu.edu. Ted Fischer, with the help of the Vanderbilt
Anthropology Department, manages the GSN website at:
http://www.Vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Anthro/GSN/.
New Resources
Shamans, Witches and Maya Priests: Native Religion and Ritual in Highland
Guatemala written by Krystyna Deuss has recently been published by The
Guatemalan Maya Centre in London. The Centre is a not-for-profit cultural
and educational centre specializing in Guatemala. Founded in 1990, it
houses a specialist library and video archive, and a collection of over 7,000
Guatemalan Maya textiles, which it is in the midst of documenting on a
community-by-community basis. In addition to the ongoing research into
textile traditions, the Centre is also interested in other aspects of Maya life
and ritual and as a consequence, its new publication, Shamans, Witches,
and Maya Priests is a study of the “old ways” that still prevail in the
Q’anjob’al, Akatek, and Chuj communities of the remote northwestern
Cuchumatán mountains. With the help of 102 photographs and 49
illustrations, Deuss paints a vivid picture of the traditional rites and rituals
she witnessed over a period of 15 years. These include blood sacrifices for
the good of the community and private shamanic rituals As well as black
magic. Deuss has also included a selection of the prayers she recorded.
Matthew G. Looper, Associate Professor of Art History, California State
University, Chico, says that the book is “A comprehensive study of a littleknown area of Guatemala, this book is an invaluable contribution to Maya
studies. The author’s attention to ethnographic detail is revealed through the
text, diagrams, and the astonishing photographs, which set a new standard
for documentation. At the same time, the succinct style of writing assures
the accessibility of the book to non-specialists.” For more information:
http://www.maya.org.uk/shamans
Pat Goudvis has a new documentary, Goodbye Baby on the controversy over
adoptions from Guatemala. For more information see:
www.newday.com/films/goodbye_baby.html. A review will follow in the next
GSN newsletter.
The Stop CAFTA Coalition, which monitors effects of CAFTA on Central
American workers, farmers, and poor, released its Spanish-language
monitoring report detailing trends of the Free Trade Agreement between the
U.S. and Central American countries. To download the report or get more
information on the coalition, go to http://www.stopcafta.org
“Land Conflicts and Indigenous Rights in El Estor,” a report on the how
mining activities are threatening indigenous rights in Guatemala, is available
on Nisgua’s website at:
http://www.nisgua.org/themes_campaigns/index.asp?id=2790
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has published a report on
gangs, Central American Youth Gangs: Issues in Human Rights, Effective
Policing and Prevention (November 2006). The report is available both in
English (http://www.wola.org/gangs/gangs_report_final_nov_06.pdf) and in
Spanish
(http://www.wola.org/gangs/gangs_report_spanish_final_nov_06.pdf)
IRC has republished an article, “Guatemala: Two Months of CAFTA,” by
Umberto Mazzei, Director of the Institute for International Economic
Relations in Geneva and member of the Mesa Global coalition in Guatemala.
The article was originally published in the magazine Este País, October 2006.
The article is available online at: http://americas.irconline.org/pdf/commentary/0611TwoMonths.pdf
Apply and Participate
CONVOCATORIA PREMIO PARA LITERATURAS INDIGENAS B'ATZ': El
escritor Rodrigo Rey Rosa y el Aporte para la Descentralización Cultural
ADESCA invitan a las comunidades indígenas de Guatemala a participar en el
concurso de literatura B´ATZ´.Se recibirán obras en todas las categorías y
géneros literarios, escritas en cualquiera de los idiomas mayas de
Guatemala, en garífuna y xinka.
El concurso está dotado con un premio de Q10 mil para el primer lugar y
otro premio de Q5 mil para el segundo lugar. Las obras que se presenten
deberán ser originales e inéditas. La extensión es libre. Se deberá presentar
un solo original y dos copias firmadas por su autor, indicando la comunidad
lingüística a la que pertenece. La obra ganadora será publicada por los
organizadores, respetando los derechos de autor. El jurado podrá efectuar
menciones honoríficas y recomendar la publicación de obras presentadas y
no premiadas. La fecha límite para la recepción de las obras es el 03 de
mayo de 2007.
Las obras deberán ser enviadas por correo certificado a: Concurso de
Literatura B'atz' –ADESCA–, 7a. Avenida y 12 Calle Esquina Zona 1,
Centro Cultural Metropolitano Oficina 110, Ciudad de Guatemala,
Guatemala. Más informaciones y las bases completas del concurso pueden
ser solicitadas a los teléfonos: (502) 22211380 y (502) 22210556 o al
correo electrónico: adesca@itelgua.com
BECOME A HUMAN RIGHTS OBSERVER IN GUATEMALA!: The Network in
Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) has several openings for
qualified volunteers to act as human rights observers as part of the
Guatemala Accompaniment Project (G.A.P.). 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’s Guatemala Accompaniment Project (G.A.P.) 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. For more information, contact: NISGUA/G.A.P., 1830 Connecticut
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009, (202) 265- 8713, gap@nisgua.org.
Study Abroad in Antigua, Guatemala at CIRMA
The Center for Mesoamerican Research (CIRMA) and the University of
Arizona invite you to study abroad in Antigua, Guatemala.
Deepen your
understanding of the social, historical and political dynamics of Central
America and learn Spanish while living in an historic town surrounded by
volcanoes.
At CIRMA, you can study the history of Central American revolutions, Mayan
culture, human rights, anthropology, archeology, literature and politics, as
well as Spanish and/or a Mayan language. Personalized classes are taught
by knowledgeable Central American scholars and promote an understanding
of the region from the "ground up."
Students receive a University of Arizona transcript. Most classes receive
three undergraduate credits. Classes may be taken for honors credit, and
some classes can be taken for graduate credit.
The academic program is complemented by field trips and a colloquium
series featuring outstanding scholars, artists and activists. At CIRMA,
students have access to one of the best libraries in Latin America.
Students may also complete an internship at CIRMA or volunteer or do an
internship with social organizations in and around Antigua. Students live
with Guatemalan families in Antigua.
Program dates:
Summer Session: June 17-August 1, 2007
Fall Semester: August 21-December 8, 2007
For a complete schedule of classes and registration information, to see
photos of CIRMA and Antigua and to read what other students have to say
about living and studying in Guatemala: go to: http://www.cirma.org.gt and
click on "study abroad".
Action Alert from WOLA
Support Efforts to End the Cycle of Impunity in the Killings of Women in
Guatemala.
Since 2001, thousands of young women and girls have been killed in
Guatemala in an epidemic of unsolved murders. According to police statistics,
the number of women slain has risen steadily from 383 in 2003, to 531 in
2004, to 665 in 2005. The first available statistics for 2006 list the number of
women killed at 589. The majority of the victims were young, poor women
under the age of 40. Many were students, housewives, factory workers,
domestic employees, or workers in the informal sector; some of the victims
were professionals.
Although the number of murders is alarming, the killing of women is not
simply a question of statistics. A key characteristic in a large number of
cases is the brutality with which the murders were committed. In many
cases, the victims were raped, strangled, decapitated or otherwise
mutilated.
In the face of this growing wave of brutal killings, the Guatemalan
government has failed to bring those responsible to justice. Progress in the
investigation of the murders of women has been fraught with numerous
shortcomings, including a lack of technical capacity to preserve crime
scenes, interrogate witnesses, and collect and preserve evidence, as well as
a lack of political will to resolve the murders.
U.S. Members of Congress can play a vital role in supporting efforts to
resolve these brutal killings. On January 25th, Representative Hilda Solis (DCA), with the support of Representatives Dan Burton (R-IN), Eliot Engel (DNY), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Tom Lantos (D-CA), introduced House
Resolution100 to condemn the murders. The resolution:
•
condemns the ongoing abductions and murders of women and girls in
Guatemala;
•
expresses condolences and deepest sympathy to the families of
victims;
•
recognizes the courageous struggle of the victim’s families in
seeking justice for the victims, and
•
recommends specific actions on the part of the U.S. President,
Secretary of State, and United States Ambassador to Guatemala, to
encourage
Guatemala to properly investigate, resolve, and prevent these crimes.
H.Res.100 is an important step Representatives can take to stop the cycle of
violence against women in Guatemala and seek justice for the families of the
victims.
Contact your congressional representative to request that he/she co-sponsor
the Resolution! Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 to be
connected to your representative’s office. Once connected, ask to speak
with the foreign policy aide. Let him/her know that as a constituent you
would like to see your representative co-sponsor H.Res.100 to support
efforts to end to the killings of women in Guatemala. Members interested in
co-sponsoring the resolution should contact Representative Hilda Solis’ office
at 202-225-5464.
If you have any questions, please visit the Washington Office on Latin
America’s website at www.wola.org or contact WOLA Associate on Violence
Against Women, Adriana Beltrán, at (202) 797-2171.
Reprinted Articles
Guatemala still fights war legacy
BY ADRIANA BELTRAN
Tue, Jan. 02, 2007
Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16366961
.htm
The end of 2006 marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the
Guatemalan peace accords. The 1996 accords brought an end to a 36 year
civil war that left 200,000 dead or ''disappeared.'' While important aspects of
the accords have been implemented, structures with links to the war years
have made the pursuit of justice and accountability in Guatemala a near
impossibility.
The good news is that the Guatemalan government has turned to the
international community, and creative minds have come up with a new
mechanism to kick-start the rule of law.
According to a recent U.N. study, violence costs Guatemala more than $2.3
billion a year, the equivalent of 7.3 percent of GDP. It is estimated that
5,000 people are murdered annually. With only about 1 percent of cases
ending in conviction, the country has become, as a U.N. special rapporteur
sadly described, ``a good place in which to commit murder.''
Much of the violence can be attributed to illegal armed groups or
''clandestine groups.'' An unresolved legacy of the civil war, the clandestine
groups are illicit structures that use violence to protect their political
interests and illegal economic activities. For several years, they have
plagued the country, terrorizing human-rights defenders, judges, witnesses,
political leaders or anyone else who stands in their way. Even more troubling
has been the ability of these mafias to infiltrate the state, thereby
undermining the judicial system.
While the picture looks grim, a new ray of hope has appeared. A landmark
agreement signed in December to establish a U.N.-backed commission to
investigate the clandestine groups brings optimism that the wall of impunity
could finally be torn down.
The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG, will
seek to determine the nature, structure and modus operandi of these groups
as well as their links to government officials, illicit networks or other sectors.
It will be headed by a U.N.-appointed commissioner and will include a team
of prosecutors, forensic experts, and investigators familiar with humanrights, criminal and international law. With an initial life-span of two years,
the commission will work with the local Public Prosecutor's Office and the
police in building rock-solid cases to ensure that those involved with these
networks finally face justice.
To ensure the successful dismantling of these mafias, the commission will be
able to join a criminal proceeding as a ''private prosecutor,'' promote key
reforms and aid the country in implementing effective institutional vetting
processes. By working within the Guatemalan legal system, the CICIG could
play a vital role in strengthening the rule of law in Guatemala.
Impunity and corruption
The CICIG is not a miracle drug that will automatically cure the cancer of
widespread impunity. But if embraced by the Guatemalan government,
private sector, civil society and others, this innovative approach could help
rid the country of one of its most dangerous ills. The commission's success
will depend on the will and commitment of Guatemalans to fight impunity
and corruption. The first hurdle before the CICIG is ratification by the
Guatemalan Congress.
This is new. While the United Nations has experience in helping countries
carry out truth commissions, it has never tried a mechanism like this to aid
nations in going after entrenched impunity in a post-conflict situation.
The world could use some new tools for fighting impunity. But Guatemala
needs international support to make this work. The United States and the
international community should support the commission, both politically and
financially. If the Guatemalan Congress shows the courage to confront the
clandestine groups, the international community must demonstrate its
willingness to back it up. Effective governance and the rule of law will not be
possible in Guatemala until these illicit networks are dismantled and their
backers held accountable.
Adriana Beltrán is the associate for Guatemala for the Washington Office on
Latin America (WOLA), a nonprofit organization.
U.N. Backed Commission: UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ A U.N.-backed
commission was established Tuesday to investigate rampant organized crime
in Guatemala, which authorities say has become a key point of transit for
smugglers bringing drugs into the United States.
¶ The independent commission, comprised of former prosecutors from
outside Guatemala, will have an initial two-year mandate to gather evidence
and help build cases against illicit criminal groups. Suspects would be tried
in local courts.
¶ Some organized crime groups are believed to be made up of former
military members who fought in Guatemala's 36-year civil war which left
about 200,000 dead.
¶ Peace accords ended the fighting nearly 10 years ago, but violence and
corruption continue. The U.N. has said about 5,000 murders are committed
annually in Guatemala, and U.S. officials estimate that three-quarters of all
cocaine consumed in the U.S. passes through the country, a key smuggling
point between Colombia and Mexico.
¶ "With this agreement, the United Nations is standing by Guatemala as it
tries to solidify democracy and the rule of law by exposing and dismantling
criminal groups that grew out of the armed conflict," Ibrahim Gambari, the
U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, said in a statement.
¶ Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein, who signed the agreement with
Gambari at U.N. headquarters on Tuesday, said earlier that the integrity of
the commission would be guaranteed by prosecutors with "vast experience
investigating criminal networks."
¶ The commission must still be approved by Guatemala's Congress.
¶ Authorities hope the commission will help beef up the country's criminal
justice system, which has been targeted recently by organized crime groups.
¶ The Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy group,
said in a statement Tuesday that criminal elements have terrorized judges,
witnesses, prosecutors and human rights defenders in Guatemala over the
last several years. The group said six justice officials were assassinated last
year and five politicians were killed this year.
¶ A U.N. human rights observer said in August that most violent crime in the
country goes unpunished because of lack of investigation.
¶ "It's sad to say, Guatemala is a good place in which to commit a murder.
Your chances of being committed and punished are staggeringly low," said
Philip Alston, the U.N.'s special investigator on extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions.
Apocalypto Critique
By Prof. Gerardo Aldana y V
University of California, Santa Barbara
gvaldana@chicst.ucsb.edu
Having viewed a screening of Apocalypto at UCSB on December 3rd, I
walked away recognizing three main points within Mel Gibson’s movie. This
first colors the entire story, seemingly as a kind of guiding moral: “the good
Indian is the savage one in the forest.” There is absolutely nothing appealing
about Maya city-life in this movie—no indication that Maya urban centers
flourished in the
region for hundreds of years. Instead, religious figures are depicted as
fraudulent or heavily drugged; political figures are fat and passive (both of
these characterizations having been lifted straight from The Road to
ElDorado); and everyone else seems to be living a nightmare of hard labor,
servitude, famine, and/or disease. The “Maya” living in the forest village, on
the other hand, are fantasized animations of National Geographic photos of
Amazonian tribes. These “hidden” Indians provide the audience the only
possibility for sympathy—and this perhaps restricted to puerile humor or one
family’s role as (surprise!) the underdog. For Gibson, it appears, the “noble
savage” remains a valid ideal.
Second, for having a completely clean slate upon which to write, the story is
pathetically unoriginal. From his decidedly Western constructions of
masculinity, gender, and sexuality, to the use of a baseball move in a critical
hand-to-hand combat scene, to lifting an escape scene from Harrison Ford’s
character in The Fugitive, one gets the sense that all of his creative energy
was invested in discovering ways to depict (previously) unimaginable gore.
In fact, I would be ready to write off the entire movie as nothing more than
a continuation of Gibson’s hyper-violent mental masturbation, except for the
real-world implications.
This leads me to the third point, and the real crime, which is Gibson’s
interpretive shift in his representation of horrific behaviors. Specifically, four
of five viscerally repugnant cultural practices that are here attributed to
Maya culture are actually “borrowed” from the West. The raid on the
protagonist’s village constitutes the first interpretive shift viewed by the
audience. The brutality and method of this raid directly replicate the
documented activities of representatives of the British Rubber Company in
the Amazon Basin during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In the Amazon case, those perpetuating the human rights violations were
European or European-descendents against indigenous communities; the
raiding of villages for human sacrifice is undocumented for Maya cultures.
Next, the slave market depicted in the city constitutes a mirror image of the
Trans-Atlantic slave trade in the pre-Civil War United States. In that case,
the “sellers” of African slaves were Europeans or European-Americans,
dehumanizing Other peoples by treating them as commodities. While slavery
is documented for Maya cultures
(and Greek, and Roman, etc.), there is nothing that attests to their having
been bought and/or sold in public market contexts.
A third objectionable attribution is that of decapitated human heads placed
on stakes within the city center. Documented examples of this practice come
from Cortes’s entrada into Central Mexico committed by Spanish
conquistadors against their indigenous “enemies.” Depictions of “skull racks”
do exist, but there is no evidence that these resulted from mass murder or
even that they still had flesh on them when they were hung. Finally, the
escape portal for the protagonist—the releasing of captives to run toward
freedom while being shot at—is straight from ancient Rome (or at least
Hollywood’s depictions of Roman coliseum “sports”) and finds no
corroboration in records concerning Maya peoples.
Heart sacrifice is the only practice that scholars have “read” from ancient
Maya cultural remains—although the scale and performance is Gibson’s
fantasy alone. The attribution of heart sacrifice to the Maya is largely
anchored to Spanish accounts of Aztec practices, which raises two additional
issues: i) Mathew Restall’s recent Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
gives a good overview of how unreliable Spanish accounts may be; and ii)
Mel Gibson clearly could not have substituted the Aztec capital for his
“Maya” city given the same Spanish accounts of it (e.g. Bernal Diaz del
Castillo on approaching Tenochtitlan: “With such wonderful sights to gaze on
we did not know what to say, or if this was real that we saw before our
eyes. On the land side there were great cities, and on the lake many
more…”)
In any event, these perversions of the historical record appear to be
Gibson’s alone and cause me to wonder if they reflect an agenda. Whether
he meant to claim that all cultures have been as grotesquely violent or
inhumane as the West (and so in some twisted way, making such behavior
“ok”), or if there is a more nefarious attempt at disparaging Mesoamerican
cultures in some sort of justification of their “conquest” (implied by the
pristine representation of the Spaniards)—this is a question Gibson alone
can answer.
Whatever his response, my assessment is that—apart from its “artistic”
license—because it takes the worst of the West and “reads” it into one or
two days of “Maya” civilization, this movie comprises an extreme disservice
to Maya (and Mesoamerican) cultures past and present, and to indigenous
people of the Western Hemisphere. The case is so extreme, I wonder if it
might constitute a legally actionable hate crime against Maya people. At the
very least, though, with this movie, Gibson has performed a tremendous
disservice to scholars who aim at accurate representations of the past, and
to the audiences who will have their perspectives of Maya culture tainted by
the agenda of one man with too much money.
CALDH Statement
HOSTIGAMIENTO A ORGANIZACIONES
DE DERECHOS HUMANOS
Nuevamente, en Guatemala las organizaciones de derechos humanos se ven
amenazadas y atacadas por cuerpos ilegales que pretenden intimidarlas en
su accionar. En esta ocasión fueron allanadas las oficinas donde se encuentra
el Movimiento Nacional por los Derechos Humanos (MNDH) y la Unidad de
protección a Defensores y Defensoras de derechos humanos; además de la
Asociación Comunicarte.
Asimismo, el viernes al medio día, CALDH fue objeto de dos actos de
intimidación. Hombres armados robaron un vehículo de la institución,
secuestrando por minutos al compañero que lo manejaba, lo amenazaron de
muerte y lo dejaron cerca de un barranco, llevándose además del vehículo,
una computadora portátil y documentos, todas las cosas aparecieron
intactas, por lo que podemos aseverar que no se trató de un acto de
delincuencia común. Paralelo a este hecho y en otro lugar, a uno de nuestros
asesores legales le destruyeron, con una navaja, una de las llantas de su
vehículo personal, en un parqueo que contaba con guardias de seguridad
privada.
Todas estas acciones se vienen a sumar a las agresiones que desde
septiembre vienen sufriendo diversos compañeros y compañeras del ECAP y
que se incrementaron desde el 10 de enero recién pasado y que ya han sido
denunciadas.
Estos hechos no pueden verse de manera aislada. Las organizaciones
atacadas trabajan activamente por la verdad y la justicia en el país. Por un
lado atacan a CALDH, que lucha contra la impunidad, particularmente en los
casos por genocidio en Guatemala; COMUNICARTE, que es una asociación
que ha documentado y difundido visualmente hechos vinculados a graves
violaciones ocurridas durante el conflicto armado, y quienes además cuentan
con archivos históricos; el MNDH que cuenta con registro de organizaciones
de ddhh del país; y la Unidad de Defensores y Defensoras, que lleva un
registro de los ataques perpetrados en contra de defensores y defensoras.
Estos actos no son coincidencia. La lucha por la justicia en crímenes del
pasado y la denuncia constante de violaciones a derechos humanos en la
actualidad, son razones para aseverar que estos hechos son políticos y
pretenden intimidar y frenar las acciones que estas organizaciones realizan.
Exigimos al Ministerio Publico investigar estos hechos y al Gobierno
garantizar la vida y la seguridad de quienes defienden, protegen y
promueven los derechos humanos en Guatemala.
¡POR EL DERECHO A UN PAÍS JUSTO!
Guatemala, 05 de febrero de 2007