Photograph Courtesy of Rev. Charles Penniman
Guatemala is a mountainous Central American country bordered by Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. It is home to Mayan ruins, lakes, volcanoes and an array of exotic flora and fauna. It is also home to the Mayan ruins of Tikal, Monument of the Americas and a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.
In contrast to those positives Guatemala also claims some of the highest rates of illiteracy, infant mortality, and malnutrition among Central American countries. These deficiencies are disproportionately high in indigenous communities, which represent nearly 50 percent of the country’s more than 13 million people.
Other indigenous populations that developed alongside the Mayans were the Man, Pokomchi’, Poloman, Cakchiquel, and Tzutuhil. Before the coming of the Spanish Conquest, these nations would often fight among themselves, with the losers ending up subjugated by the winners. Spanish Conquistadores took advantage of this competition and often pretended alliance with one nation to overcome another one, then turned on the “ally” to destroy it also.
The Spanish Conquest period of control lasted from the 1500’s until 1821, when Guatemala achieved independence from Spain. It was in the early 1800’s that coffee plantations owned and controlled by the Spanish became an economic force in Guatemala. Unfortunately, for the indigenous peoples, that prosperity was built on their ancestral lands that had been stolen from them.
Since 1821 Guatemala has been ruled by a string of dictators using military force, and companies, usually foreign, intending to exploit Guatemala’s natural resources for their own profit.
The Spanish Conquest years and foreign corporate influence also fostered a stratified social and economic society with politicians and military officials, their descendants, and foreigners at the top, and the indigenous peoples at the bottom of those strata. The result of that inequality was a protest movement by the indigenous peoples and a 36-year civil war in the late 20th century. The war ended in 1996, but the social-economic divide still exists today.
According to the Guatemala Human Rights Commission, which advocates for the indigenous population and documents human rights violations in the country:
“The war, backed by the United States, sought to eliminate the leftist insurgency through the military’s “scorched earth campaign” which ordered more than 626 massacres of Mayan villages across the country between 1978 and 1984. More than 200,000 were killed or disappeared at the hands of the military and paramilitary forces.
Though the Peace Accords were signed in 1996, violence has now reached levels higher than those of the country’s civil war and impunity continues to reign. The country suffers from organized crime, gang and drug-related violence, as well as increased violence against women. It is estimated that 60% of Guatemala’s territory is controlled by drug traffickers who have taken advantage of its geographic location along a major corridor for drug smuggling between South America and the United States. Violence against women in Guatemala has increased exponentially over the last several years, with a 339% increase between 2000 and 2008. Women are often found tortured, mutilated, raped, and dismembered, yet more strikingly 98% of those cases remain unsolved.
The country continues to be ravaged by mining and other extractive industries seeking to exploit the country’s natural resources for profit. As the companies seek to expand their projects and profits, violent evictions of indigenous communities from their ancestral lands become more widespread, with little political will to protect the communities. Recent trends indicate the beginning of a return to violent rule by military and commercial interests.”
Quoted text from GHRC-usa.org
Other text excerpted and revised from GHRC-usa.org and Mayalandia.com.
In contrast to those positives Guatemala also claims some of the highest rates of illiteracy, infant mortality, and malnutrition among Central American countries. These deficiencies are disproportionately high in indigenous communities, which represent nearly 50 percent of the country’s more than 13 million people.
Other indigenous populations that developed alongside the Mayans were the Man, Pokomchi’, Poloman, Cakchiquel, and Tzutuhil. Before the coming of the Spanish Conquest, these nations would often fight among themselves, with the losers ending up subjugated by the winners. Spanish Conquistadores took advantage of this competition and often pretended alliance with one nation to overcome another one, then turned on the “ally” to destroy it also.
The Spanish Conquest period of control lasted from the 1500’s until 1821, when Guatemala achieved independence from Spain. It was in the early 1800’s that coffee plantations owned and controlled by the Spanish became an economic force in Guatemala. Unfortunately, for the indigenous peoples, that prosperity was built on their ancestral lands that had been stolen from them.
Since 1821 Guatemala has been ruled by a string of dictators using military force, and companies, usually foreign, intending to exploit Guatemala’s natural resources for their own profit.
The Spanish Conquest years and foreign corporate influence also fostered a stratified social and economic society with politicians and military officials, their descendants, and foreigners at the top, and the indigenous peoples at the bottom of those strata. The result of that inequality was a protest movement by the indigenous peoples and a 36-year civil war in the late 20th century. The war ended in 1996, but the social-economic divide still exists today.
According to the Guatemala Human Rights Commission, which advocates for the indigenous population and documents human rights violations in the country:
“The war, backed by the United States, sought to eliminate the leftist insurgency through the military’s “scorched earth campaign” which ordered more than 626 massacres of Mayan villages across the country between 1978 and 1984. More than 200,000 were killed or disappeared at the hands of the military and paramilitary forces.
Though the Peace Accords were signed in 1996, violence has now reached levels higher than those of the country’s civil war and impunity continues to reign. The country suffers from organized crime, gang and drug-related violence, as well as increased violence against women. It is estimated that 60% of Guatemala’s territory is controlled by drug traffickers who have taken advantage of its geographic location along a major corridor for drug smuggling between South America and the United States. Violence against women in Guatemala has increased exponentially over the last several years, with a 339% increase between 2000 and 2008. Women are often found tortured, mutilated, raped, and dismembered, yet more strikingly 98% of those cases remain unsolved.
The country continues to be ravaged by mining and other extractive industries seeking to exploit the country’s natural resources for profit. As the companies seek to expand their projects and profits, violent evictions of indigenous communities from their ancestral lands become more widespread, with little political will to protect the communities. Recent trends indicate the beginning of a return to violent rule by military and commercial interests.”
Quoted text from GHRC-usa.org
Other text excerpted and revised from GHRC-usa.org and Mayalandia.com.