By Marcelo Colussi, Resumen Latinoamericano, November 30, 2023.
glorious victory – Diego Rivera
Guatemala was the first Latin American country to have a state organization for the defense of human rights, an ombudsman. This did not mean that the human rights situation improved substantially in recent years: it was basically cosmetic. Now there is a Human Rights Ombudsman, but the systematic violation of rights continues: “The rights established, both in national laws and in the international conventions of the ILO, are systematically disregarded on the farms, even with state complicity.” (CODECA, 2013).
Along with this, the country was the first in the world to sentence a former head of state for the crime of genocide. Apparently, a great advance, a great change. The truth is that after the conviction of General Ríos Montt, it was almost immediately annulled by the Constitutional Court, and the soldier died in freedom. The internal war, in the official discourse, is nowadays seen as something remote, in the past. The page has been turned and nothing has changed structurally.
María del Carmen Culajay says: “If we were to talk about workers taken to the coffee or sugar cane plantations in trucks from remote communities in remote areas, who then live in terrible conditions during the harvest season, poorly paid but well controlled, in conditions of semi-slavery, one might think that we are talking about the end of the 19th century. [In the 21st century] In the midst of the era of information and computer technologies, of the robotization of work, of the advance of labor and social conquests (eight-hour working day, retirement system, health insurance), in our Guatemalan Macondo we live in situations of exploitation and inequity that are unthinkable, more than what a movie could show us.” In other words: no change.
As expressed by the now completely forgotten Commission for Historical Clarification, which analyzed in detail the circumstances of the past armed conflict: “Although the Army and the insurgency appear as visible actors in the armed confrontation, the investigation carried out by the CEH has revealed the responsibility and participation of economic power groups, political parties, and various sectors of civil society” (CEH, 1998). In other words: that historical oligarchy formed with the first Spaniards who came to these lands simply to get rich (at the expense of the native peoples, of course), is precisely defined by Vinicio Sic when he speaks of “empresaurios”: “Euphemism used to designate that economic ruling class that prospered amidst the privileges and protections offered by a dictatorship, a military government or a presidential puppet, which existed or still exists in Guatemala. Great abusers, incapable of any innovation or modernity, greedy for immediate profit, tireless destroyers of the environment (…) They reject any reform of the State that threatens their status quo (…) They never recognize the existence of the Mayan people; in fact, they subjected them to forced labor on their farms and promoted their extermination, annihilating them and stealing their lands and now their natural patrimony”. More than five centuries of history, and change is still being resisted.
Today Guatemala is a thriving economy. In fact, it is among the top ten in volume in Latin America, with sustained year-on-year growth in the order of 3%. The traditional power groups – heirs of that history of dispossession that began in the sixteenth century, always linked to agro-exports, now diversified with new businesses – continue to maintain their privileges unchanged. This has not changed for centuries. A fratricidal war such as the one that took place did not change the deep structure of the country one millimeter. One of the main exporters of sugar, the first regional power in ethanol exports, a major world producer of African palm (destined for ethanol), as well as a paradise for mining-extractive investment of transnational capital and for the laundering of the drug economy, in Guatemala there is undoubtedly much wealth, but the vast majority of the population, yesterday as today, remains neglected.
During the U.S. government of Barack Obama, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala -CICIG- was strongly supported, but once it left, corruption and impunity remained the same, or deepened. This evil that has been dragging on since colonial times shows no signs of ending.
In descriptive terms, the country is definitely changing, and in recent years, even more so. The profusion of luxury shopping malls may suggest substantive changes, important and profound transformations in the social dynamics. Beyond appearances, this is not so. “The day every Indian has a cell phone, we will have entered development”, said the neoliberal founder of the Francisco Marroquín University, Manuel Ayau. Today there are more than 23 million devices in operation, almost an average of 1.5 per person, and we have not necessarily entered “development”. There are cosmetic changes, but nothing changes at the base: 14 private universities and one public university, but only 3% of the population has access to higher education. Where is the change?
Democracy? It has been almost 40 years since the rite of voting every four years to change authorities was establish. It could be said that we have left the “transition” and we are in “full democracy”, therefore: great change. Is it? The current situation, with a mafia that does not want to leave the government, proves it hasn’t.
Source: Contrahegemonia translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English