The indigenous peoples of Guatemala are beginning to organize after decades of armed conflict, rejecting foreign companies funded by the World Bank that have come in secretly without consulting the local population and issued death threats against people who try to organize against them, and working toward local, sustainable development.
This is a difficult process since the perpetrators of the genocide have not been brought to justice, and deep scars remain among the thousands of families who had family members murdered, while some of the people who did the killing continue to live among them.
One model the indigenous populations have been looking at is the Zapatistas of southern Mexico who have been organizing a parallel structure of authority, their own schools, health clinics, and systems of dispute resolution. The Mayans of Guatemala are acutely aware of this development and are looking for ways to duplicate these achievements.
Their efforts have been complicated by post 9-11 developments. The government has now classified any protest against economic development as a terrorist action against the state and has arrested people who have demostrated. Many others receive death threats. One well known environmental activist who has opposed a U.S. gold mining effort now must move around from house to house every day because of the number of threats she has recieved.
FUN FACT OF THE DAY
Rios Mont, who oversaw the bloodiest scorched earth policies during the genocide years has a daughter who, a few years ago, married U.S. Congressman Jerry Weller, R-Ill.
Some Green should run against him and question him as to whether he supports genocide.