guatemala 2013(rev1)

47
GUATEMALA SEARCH FOR JUSTICE

Upload: jerry-zurek

Post on 17-Jan-2015

102 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

DESCRIPTION

 

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

GUATEMALA

SEARCH FOR JUSTICE

Page 2: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

2POST-CIVIL WAR POLITICS

• 2012 – General Otto Pérez Molina is elected new President

• General active during bloody Civil War wants to overturn ban on US military aid to Guatemala

• Accused of massacres, kidnapping and many other human rights abuses during Civil War

Page 3: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

3POST-CIVIL WAR POLITICS

• The pressure from the military to obtain financial support from the US continues

• Guatemalans are hoping Molina will control the rise of drug-related violence sweeping the country

• Repression continues

Page 4: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

4UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT

Bourgeoisie became instrument of international capitalism

Moneylenders, merchants who monopolized power had not interest in developing local manufacturers.

Landlords were not trying to resolve agrarian question

Page 5: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

5 UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT

• Coffee became the most important crop

• Bananas and sugar came later

• Barrios confiscated land and resold it under a “revived” repartimiento system

• Died in battle trying to restore the Five-Nation Federation (Federal Republic of Central America) (1885)

Page 6: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

6UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT

• By 1950’s Latin America supplied 4/5 of the coffee the world consumed

• Even today, plantations have their private police force and a repressive system

• It is more profitable to consume coffee than produce it

Page 7: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

7UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT

• Barrios succeeded by many other other authoritarian president-dictators.

• 1945-1951 -- Juan José Arévalo, a spiritual socialist decides to address some of the social problems

• Launched literacy campaign, established social security, created cooperatives, built schools, hospitals and attempted agrarian reform

Page 8: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

8UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT

1951-1954 - Jacobo Árbenz, Arévalos’ Defense Minister was elected

1952 Agrarian Reform Law - tried to develop a peasant and agricultural capitalist economy

Page 9: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

9UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT

• US agribusiness (United Fruit Company), landowners and Catholic Church tried to overthrow Arévalo 25 times

• 1951-1954 - Jacobo Árbenz, Arévalos’ Defense Minister was elected

• Arbenz pushed 1952 Agrarian Reform Law and tried to develop a peasant and agricultural capitalist economy

Page 10: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

10UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT

• Law kept landowners from undervaluing their land in order not to pay taxes.

• By 1954 over 100,000 families benefited from the law

• United Fruit Company was only using a mere 8% of its lands

• Expropriated owners were paid indemnity in bonds

Page 11: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

11VIOLENCE AND TURMOIL (1960-1996)

• United Fruit Company fought back to protect interests

• CIA masterminded operation to depose democratic government

• The overthrow of Árbenz struck a blow to Guatemalan democracy

• It created instability and tension that culminated in Civil War

Page 12: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

12VIOLENCE AND TURMOIL

• Castillo Armas, a graduate of Ft. Leavenworth, invaded his own country with US assistance.

• It galvanized several groups (Armed Rebel Forces (FAR), Guatemalan Labor Party (PGT).

• 36-year civil war killed 200,000 and displaced about a million people

Page 13: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

13VIOLENCE AND TURMOIL (1960-1996)

• 1960’s conflict was localized but quickly spread to other splinter groups

• Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), and the Revolutionary Organization of People in Arms (ORPA).

Page 14: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

14VIOLENCE AND TURMOIL (1960-1996)

• Three distinct groups involved: insurgents fighting against the

military

military (in control of Guatemala´s political, social and economic life)

a series of dictatorial rulers who wanted to maintain control

Page 15: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

15VIOLENCE AND TURMOIL (1960-1996)

• Tactics were different but goals were similar:

end exclusion end discrimination end injustices oppressing

the poor Mayan majority

• Guerrilla leadership were largely urbanized Ladinos

Page 16: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

16VIOLENCE AND TURMOIL (1960-1996)

• 1966-1977 -- Rigged elections, right-wing squads, killing and kidnapping of journalists, students, peasant leaders

• 1978-1982 -- Romeo Lucas García --Violence continued

• 25,000 murdered and disappeared

Page 17: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

17VIOLENCE AND TURMOIL (1960-1996)

• Foreign intervention was extremely damaging to the process

• 1976 – massive earthquake

• Insurgents failed to sustain an effective rebel force

• State spread terror to the countryside until 1996

Page 18: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

18VIOLENCE AND TURMOIL (1960-1996)

Ríos Montt´s staunch anticommunism secured his strong ties with US

Reagan overturned arms embargo imposed by Carter

Ríos Montt founded political party Guatemalan Republican Front (FGR)

He tried to run in 1990 and 2003. (never tried for any crimes)

Page 19: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

19VIOLENCE AND TURMOIL (1960-1996)

• 1982-1983 -- Efraín Ríos Montt, member of a California-based pentecostal/evangelical church

• Burnt entire villages (Operation “Frijoles y Fusiles” “Guns and Beans”)

• 600 villages destroyed• 10,000 murdered • 100,000 displaced

Page 20: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

20REBUILDING AND HEALING

• International community begins to observe events more closely

• 1992 – Rigoberta Menchú receives Nobel Peace Prize for her book I, Rigoberta Menchú

• 1996 Alvaro Arzú wins and signs

Peace Agreement “Firm and Lasting Peace”

Page 21: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

21REBUILDING AND HEALING

• Official recognition that Guatemala is a multiethnic, multilingual and pluricultural state

• Abolition of Civilian Defense Patrols

• Reduction of military budget to demilitarize the country

• Reforms in judicial system

Page 22: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

22TRYING TO BUILD A FUTURE

• 2003 – Guatemalans rejected Ríos Montt’s candidacy

• 2003-2008 – Oscar Berger, Former Mayor of Guatemala City, was elected

• He tried to create a healthy investment climate by curbing crime and corruption

Page 23: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

23TRYING TO BUILD A FUTURE

• Berger undertook large infrastructure projects, reorganized the police

• He brought some people to justice

• Guatemala – still a nest of corruption with government officials involved in crime and murder

Page 24: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

24TRYING TO BUILD A FUTURE

• 2000-2004 --Alfonso Portillo Cabrera elected president (Ríos Montt puppet)

• Doubled defense budget

• Evidence of increased drug trafficking, illegal logging, and massive crime wave

• Implicated in corruption scandal, fled to Mexico

Page 25: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

25TRYING TO BUILD A FUTURE

• Guatemala has held democratic elections without interruptions

• Institutionalized violence typical of the Civil War has ended

• The referendum to redefine Guatemala as a multiethnic, multilingual, pluricultural society was again rejected in 1999

Page 26: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

26TRYING TO BUILD A FUTURE

• 2008-2011 – Alvaro Colom president and leader of the social-democratic National Unity of Hope

• Many allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest

• United Nations is involved in normalizing a very corrupt judicial system

Page 27: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

27REBUILDING AND HEALING

• 17 years later, results are mixed

• Only a few have been prosecuted for the violence

• 1999 - Bishop Juan Gerardi is killed after issuing Guatemala, Never Again!

Page 28: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

28

Yucatán Peninsula

Guatemala

Parts of Honduras

Parts of El Salvador

THE MAYAS

Page 29: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

29 THE MAYAS

• Originally there were 28 different groups with their own languages

• They shared a fairly homogenous culture

Page 30: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

30THE MAYA

AD 250--900

• Period of great development

• Erected ceremonial temples

• Construction achieved with slaves

• Used no metal tools, wheel or animals

Page 31: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

31THE MAYAS

AD 250—900

• Expert astronomers and mathematicians

• Created concept of “zero”

• Established numerical system based on the value of 20 (represented by points and lines)

• Created calendar 1300 years before Christian Gregorian calendar in 1582

Page 32: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

32MAYAN WRITING

AD 250-900

• Hieroglyplic writing system

• Writing carved in the bark of trees and in stones.

• Scribes documented deeds in murals

• Stories were told in carved stones

Page 33: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

33MAYAN WRITING

Spaniards systematically destroyed most of the artifacts of Mayan writing

16th century Spanish missionaries translated the Popol Vuh or Book of Wisdom

Page 34: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

34Pre-columbian cultures

Schematic sketch of

Tikal (Northern

Guatemala)

Page 35: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

35THE MAYAS

• AD 250-600 established dynastically ruled city-states.

• Sacrifices (dogs, humans) (not frequent)

• Deeply religious people

• Beliefs tied to nature (sun, rain, moon or activities related to domestic life and work, like the Maze deity).

Page 36: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

36THE DECLINE OF THE MAYA

AD 900-Conquest

• Mayan civilization started to decline

• Food crisis (environment, droughts)

• Overpopulation• Warfare• Kings built grander temples and

bankrupted cities.• Violent uprisings in different

regions of the empire.

Page 37: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

37 THE DECLINE OF THE MAYA

900—Conquest

• Villages divided by linguistic groups.

• Different groups traded, farmed and fought like their ancestors.

• Dominant groups - Tz’utujil, K’iche, Kaqchikel

Page 38: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

38THE DECLINE OF THE MAYA

ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS

• 1523 – Alvarado arrives sent by Cortés

• Maya were weak, hungry and divided

• The K’iches attempted to forge an alliance with the Kaqchikels, who in turn decided to side with the Spaniards.

Page 39: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

COLONIAL TIMES

• Spanish power consolidated by brute force, genocide, and epidemics.

• Maya population estimated at 2 million by 1560 fell to half a million and later plummeted to 130,000.

• Surviving Maya were subjected to land grabs and repressive policies

Page 40: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

COLONIAL TIMES

• Encomienda –A forced system of labor that made it possible for a few to hold large extensions of land.

• Some priests began to denounce ill treatment of indigenous peoples (Fray Bartolome de las Casas).

Page 41: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

COLONIAL TIMES

• The Spanish crown wrote new laws called repartimiento

• Arrangement gave local authorities power to act as labor bosses and lend up to 4% of their land to their workers

• Spaniards consolidated their power for the next 250 years

Page 42: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

COLONIAL TIMES

• Established a sectarian, race-based system that endures until today

• Catholic Church compensated work with Spanish language and religious instruction

• Economic systems today trace its roots to the Spanish colonists

Page 43: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

43THE MAYAS

• Ladinos – mixed Spanish-Maya, not pure Maya.

• Anthropologists consider some Ladinos are Mayas who have moved up on the social scale

• Creole –Guatemalan-born/Spanish heritage

Page 44: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

44INDEPENDENCE, REFORMS, DICTATORS

• Mayans fought against Spanish power

• 1821 rebellion to declare independence

• 1823 – Guatemala formed the Federal Republic of Central America (federation included Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador).

Page 45: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

45REFORMS AND DICTATORS

• 1871 – Liberals take power

• 1873-1885 - Justo Rufino Barrios, a rich coffee plantation owner, becomes a ruthless dictator

• His rule described as a “Second Conquest”

• Policies abused indigenous population.

Page 46: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

46REFORMS, DICTATORS

• Barrios built roads, ports, railroads

• His agrarian and labor laws dispossessed the Maya of their lands and culture and forced them to work on Ladino and foreign-owned fincas

• Only a minority consolidated wealth and economic power

Page 47: Guatemala 2013(rev1)

47REFORMS AND DICTATORS

• As Galeano puts it “the latifundio was consolidated as a means of plunder”

• Rafael Carrera, a Ladino, gained power by transforming episodic revolts into generalized unrest

• 1844-1865 – Carrera ruled using extreme violence