projet IPACS

A short historical introduction to Guatemala…

Guatemala is the most populated Central American country with its ten million inhabitants, of whom 60% are natives of Mayan origin. During the first half of the twentieth century, the country was tormented by cycles of dictators and by unchanging social inequality while 2% of rich property owners possessed 70% of arable land. In 1945 began the “10 years of springtime”, a period that instituted a first gleam of democracy with the arrival in power of the moderate government of Juan Jose Arevalo.

Certain measures were taken to better living conditions of the people during this period. As such, in 1951, his successor Jacobo Arbenz initiated a project of agricultural reform. These changes savagely displeased the oligarchy of large property owners, among others the American owned United Fruit Company, who held 42% of farmable land and controlled the country’s network of railroads.

In 1954, a coup d’état clandestinely supported by the United States under the pretext of a communist threat brought Colonel Castillo Armas into power. Here commence 36 years of terror lead by successive dictators who evidently served the well-to-do classes and American interests. From the point of the army takeover until the 90’s, the American government and the CIA provided direct support to the Guatemalan army, furnishing them with arms, military training, and money.

Following the coup d’état, the generals and colonels at the head of the country have students, journalists, professors, artists, union leaders, professionals, and peasants killed with impunity in order to eliminate dissidence. With the violent repression, anger grew in the rural population amongst the Mayas and a guerrilla army organized.

Furthermore, in the mid sixties, the Green Berets were sent to Guatemala to create the most powerful and sophisticated army in Central America, a gigantic killing machine. The CIA furnished lists of suspects to be eliminated and hired Guatemalan agents to fulfill undercover operations that lead to crimes against humanity. Still in connection with the CIA, the Guatemalan army opened torture centers and body dumping sites for the bodies of victims from all over the country.

Near the beginning of the 70’s, the guerillas were largely wiped out. The Guatemalan Army was designated the most repressive army in Latin America. During this time Israel also provided a good deal of help to the military: furnishing arms, training soldiers, and building munitions factories.

Next up, the eighties were marked by massacres and barbarous repression towards the indigenous population. The exodus of these populations attained its high point as 100,000 people sought refuge in Mexico.

At long last, the Peace Treaties were signed in 1996. According to the Truth seeking Commission put in place under the guidance of the United Nations, the civil war was a genocide, with the death or disappearance of more than 200,000 people. The Guatemalan State perpetrated more than 600 massacres, mass exterminations in Mayan communities including women, children, and the elderly, acts of torture and cruelty towards victims, arbitrary executions, rape of women, and counter revolutionary tactics including propaganda, intimidation and psychological warfare.

The recent years in search of hope

The year 2003 was marked by presidential elections. Effrain Rios Montt, an ex dictator accused of crimes against humanity and of the death or disappearance of more than 20,000 people during his 17 month regime, succeeded with a show of force in presenting his candidature for the elections. Fortunately, Oscar Berger won the presidency succeeding Alfonso Portillo who is now hiding in Mexico accused of high level corruption.

In economic circles, the Guatemalan Congress will be deciding on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in the following months. Known as the TLCCA in Spanish, it consists of a free trade agreement between the United States and Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. This economic integration would like to be the first step in stimulating the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Although the documents haven’t been made available to the general population, it is possible to believe that the agreement’s contents will likely be equivalent to those of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas.

All signs point to the Agreement being ratified early in 2005. As well, proposed by Vicente Fox, the president of Mexico, the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) traces the lines of a development never before seen in this region with the construction of infrastructure that will permit and facilitate the exploitation and extraction of resources by foreign capital, in particular American. Investors who will also be free to profit from a workforce accustomed to repressive conditions and miserable salaries. The future therefore remains uncertain for the people of Guatemala who deserve real peace and justice.

Mamá Maquín

In the beginning of the 80’s, the Mayan indigenous peoples of Guatemala began to seek refuge in Mexico to flee the civil war and the massacres in their communities. Some years later, an organization was born following the meeting of 47 representatives of different women’s groups who were stationed in the Mexican refugee camps. The organization is called Mamá Maquín, in memory of Adelina Caal Maquín, an indigenous activist who fought for native property rights and was killed during a massacre in the village of Panzos in 1978.

In the early 90’s, more than 9,000 women were participating from 128 refugee camps. Together, these Guatemalan women decided to fight for equal rights of participation and decision between women and men and in defense of their indigenous culture. They undertook insuring a safe and worthy return to their country with the participation of women and constructing democracy in their homes, their community, and their country.

The obstacles of the return

It is between ’94 and ’98 that the return to the home country was organized. In the name of their organization these women of Mamá Maquín succeeded in receiving support from various international authorities. Meanwhile, as the members of the organization returned to Guatemala they found themselves faced with a lack of communication due to the dispersion and distancing of leaders in different communities and departments (states).

What’s more, men had used the organization to obtain land and logistic support, but once installed, they wanted to see women return to their place as before the exile. “The men think, ‘why should women organize?’ Better if they (women) stay at home while the men make the decisions for the community,” Vilma Gonzales said to us at the Mamá Maquín offices in Guatemala City.

The women of Mamá Maquín are also faced with much repression by men. They receive threats, harassment, and a lack of support from men in their communities. For example, in 1997 the offices in Pueblo Nuevo, Ixcan were burned to the ground after leaders had been victims of threats and accusations in their communities. The following year they received death threats and are assaulted in their offices.

Obviously, this difficult situation causes much discouragement amongst these women and many abandon the organization. Mamá Maquín’s numbers have drastically decreased and now number only 1,500 participants.

The daily fare of Guatemalan indigenous women

“When we talk of the situation of indigenous women in Guatemala, it’s important to understand the diversity and complexity of the lives of women from different regions and cultures,” said Vilma Gonzalez. There are more than 20 Mayan ethnic groups in Guatemala.

“Men go to school but not women. In general, men think that the woman doesn’t feel or think, that she only exists to make babies and work in the home. What’s more, women are looked down on by men and other women if they go out of the community or the home except for trips to the market and to church, ” Vilma affirmed.

In fact, women have no access to collective organizations such as cooperatives and municipalities. The work that they do in the fields and at home is not recognized as a significant contribution to co-operatives and associations. They often fulfill their tasks and responsibilities in the co-op, but the right to speak and vote that men have does not follow. Starting at a young age, girls must take care of domestic tasks and their younger sisters and brothers. Afterwards, around the age of 18 they marry and must raise their own children.

What’s more, a practice that still exists in certain regions is a type of dowry. “This consists in repaying the father for the expenses he undertook by offering a considerable amount in exchange for his daughter’s hand. We believe that it essentially consists of the sale of a woman” Vilma told us.

Re-founding of Mamá Maquín and a new start

With all the coming and going of the return, Mamá Maquín had to rebuild her foundations. Through the new context in Guatemala, the organization proceeded to a period of re-founding that aimed to open a path where, step by step, Mamá Maquín could move forwards. The coordinators and founders of Mamá Maquín realized their capacity to keep the organization together from their homes in spite of threats and isolation. They also perceived their collective capacity for organization to fight for equality as poor people, as natives, and as women.
To attain their objectives, they organize their work around four main themes: organization, health, political and citizen participation, and land.

First, to fortify organization, they work to better communication and coordination of activities and to encourage participation. They have started up a regional self training school for a few days every month, in alliance with two sister organizations, Madre Tierra and Ixmucané. The school receives 40 women among whom 20 participants are from Mamá Maquín.

Second, in the sphere of health, the women of Mamá Maquín wish to recuperate their traditional medicine and nutrition by plants. They also accompany women through the difficult stage of changing their own mentality. “Women themselves need to change their mentality very much in order to demand their rights. The change implies a lot of pain, work, and repression. It is very long process of change,” Vilma informed us. The organization also conducts workshops on violence against women.

Third, through political and citizen participation, Mamá Maquín demands a place for women. She demands that their right to speak and participate be respected and that their opinions be taken into account at home, in their community assemblies, in municipal meetings, and in the country. Currently, the women of Mamá Maquín are preparing to participate in the new Community Development Councils (Consejos de Desarollo Comunitario) where the law prescribes an equal number of women and men. This requirement isn’t respected by the municipal authorities who choose the Council representatives. These women therefore, want to demand their place and present their recommendations.

Last, their primary warhorse is the land. This element is in truth at the center of their concerns as indigenous countrywomen. They demand the “co-property of land, participation with the right to vote and speak in the cooperatives and associations, the recognition of our work in the home, in the fields, and in the community as a contribution to the co-operatives and associations.” Explained Maria Domingo, knotting her long hair at the beginning of her day of appointments and meetings. With their struggles, they have succeeded in allowing widows and single mothers to participate in the co-operatives and associations, which are a primary place of organization for peasants. However, married women are excluded from these places of participation and faced with numerous conditions that prevent them from becoming members in spite of their right according to the law that governs the co-operatives. Mamá Maquín demands therefore, the co-property of land for married women who, in case of separation or death of a husband, find themselves in the street without recourse, and often with her children.

“But being a land owner isn’t everything,” Maria Domingo stated, “since 2001, we’ve begun to analyze this question of ownership in the context of globalization with the coming of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the Plan Puebla Panama, and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. It is difficult for us to really know what will happen with indigenous land. Also, there is the question of collective property on indigenous land. We wish to keep it collective but are now faced with individual property that has existed only for a short period in certain communities. We would like to see individual property changed back into collective property.”

In spite of a difficult period caused by the return to the country from the Mexican refugee camps, these poor peasant indigenous women of Guatemala continue their struggle for equality between men and women, between natives and ladinos and, especially for the continuance of collective property. Her feet well anchored in culture and tradition, Mamá Maquín demands that Guatemalan indigenous women be given a dignified place in their homes, in the community, and in the country. Too long put aside, the participation and motivation of indigenous women to organize under the name of Mamá Maquín is a marvelous example of a hope that is born for Guatemala, to attain a more just and inclusive society.

Mujer Guatemalteca

En el fondo de mi corazón y pensamiento de mujer,
Que da la vida, mujer que sufrió y ama a Guatemala
sin medir esfuerzo alguno.

Un día las intelectuales y políticas de mi país serán interrogadas por
la mujer sencilla de mi pueblo, se les preguntara sobre lo que
hicieron, cuando la patria se apagaba lentamente durante el conflicto
armado interno.

Con la firma de los acuerdos de paz, nace la esperanza,
que un día Guatemala será distinta.

Admiro a la mujer que con valor se organizo para luchar para un
cambio y hacer valer su dignidad de mujer.

Hoy ya tiene la edad de una niña de doce años,
quien lleva el nombre MAMA MAQUIN,
ejemplo de mujeres refugiadas para Centro América,
golpe para los corruptos y esperanza para las marginadas.

Guatemala. Las mujeres con ternura, con valentía y sabiduría te
prometemos luchar para que tu belleza de naturaleza
no siga destruyendo.

No permitiremos limpiar con lagrimas el sufrimiento del pueblo,
mujer que sufriste la guerra instas a que las armas no son la solución
de los problemas.

Tu fuerza y manos unidas aumentan día a día
la fe y esperanza del mañana.

- Candelaria Montejo Silvestre