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I haven`t seen much international press (English speaking) so I thought it was important to post this final declaration here. Once we get it in English we`ll post it here.

III ï Cumbre Continental de Pueblos y Nacionalidades Indígenas del Abya Yala
De la resistencia al poder

Declaración de Iximche’

Nosotros y nosotras, hijos e hijas de los pueblos y nacionalidades indígenas originarias del continente, autoconvocados y reunidos en la III Cumbre Continental de Pueblos y Nacionalidades Indígenas del Abya Yala realizado en Iximche’, Guatemala, los días oxlajuj Aq’abal, trece fuerzas del espíritu del amanecer, 26 al kají kej, cuatro fuerzas del espíritu del Venado, 30 de marzo del 2007:

Reafirmamos la Declaración de Teotihuacan (México, 2000) y la Declaración de Kito (Ecuador, 2004); ratificamos nuestros principios milenarios, complementariedad, reciprocidad y dualidad, y nuestra lucha por el derecho al territorio, la Madre Naturaleza, la autonomía y libre determinación de los pueblos indígenas; y anunciamos el resurgimiento continental del Pachacutik (retorno), al cierre del Oxlajuj  Baq’tun, cuenta larga de 5,200 años, acercándonos a las puertas del nuevo Baq’tun encaminándonos para hacer del Abya Yala una tierra llena de vida.

Vivimos siglos de colonización, y hoy la imposición de políticas neoliberales, llamadas de globalización, que continúan llevando al despojo y saqueo de nuestros territorios, apoderándose de todos los espacios y medios de vida de los pueblos indígenas, causando la degradación de la Madre Naturaleza, la pobreza y migración, por la sistemática intervención en la soberanía de los pueblos por empresas transnacionales en complicidad con los gobiernos.

Nos prepararnos para recibir y afrontar los desafíos que nos demanda los nuevos tiempos, por tanto declaramos:

Afianzar el proceso de alianzas entre los pueblos indígenas, de pueblos indígenas y los movimientos sociales del continente y del mundo que permitan enfrentar las políticas neoliberales y todas las formas de opresión.

Responsabilizar a los gobiernos por el permanente despojo de los territorios y la extinción de los pueblos indígenas del continente, a partir de prácticas impunes de genocidio de las transnacionales, así como por la poca voluntad de las Naciones Unidas en viabilizar la Declaración de los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas y por no garantizar el respeto pleno de la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos.

Ratificar nuestro derecho ancestral e histórico al territorio y a los bienes comunes de la Madre Naturaleza, y reafirmamos su carácter inalienable, imprescriptible, inembargable e irrenunciable, aún a costa de nuestras vidas. 

Consolidar los procesos impulsados para fortalecer la refundación de los Estados – nación y la construcción de los Estados plurinacionales y sociedades interculturales a través de las Asambleas Constituyentes con representación directa de los pueblos y nacionalidades indígenas.

Avanzar en el ejercicio del derecho a la autonomía y libre determinación de los pueblos indígenas, aún sin el reconocimiento legal de los Estados – nación. 

Ratificar el rechazo a los tratados de libre comercio (TLCs) que vulneran la soberanía de los pueblos y mantener la vigilancia ante los intentos por implementar nuevos tratados comerciales.

Reafirmar nuestra decisión de defender la soberanía alimentaría y la lucha contra los transgenicos, convocando a todos los pueblos del mundo a sumarse a esta causa para garantizar nuestro futuro.

Ratificar la lucha por la democratización de la comunicación y la implementación de políticas públicas que contemplen disposiciones especificas para los pueblos indígenas e impulso de la interculturalidad.

Alertar a  los pueblos indígenas sobre las políticas del BID, Banco Mundial y entidades afines para penetrar en las comunidades con acciones asistencialistas y de cooptación que apuntan a la desarticulación de las organizaciones autónomas y legitimas.

Para el vivir bien de los pueblos indígenas, acordamos:

Exigir a las instituciones financieras internacionales y los gobiernos la cancelación de sus políticas de promoción de las concesiones (mineras, petroleras, forestales, gasiferas y de agua) de territorio indígenas para las industrias extractivas.

Condenar las políticas del presidente Bush y del gobierno de Estados Unidos expresadas en la exclusión demostrada con la construcción del muro en la frontera con México mientras por otro lado trata de apropiarse de los bienes comunes de la Madre Naturaleza de todos los pueblos del Abya Yala, implementando planes y acciones expansionistas y guerreristas.

Condenar la actitud intolerante de los gobiernos de los Estados – nación que no reconocen los derechos de los pueblos indígenas, en particular a los que no han ratificado ni garantizan la aplicación del Convenio 169 de la OIT.

Condenar las democracias impostoras y terroristas implementadas por los gobiernos neoliberales, que se traducen en la militarización de los territorios indígenas, la criminalización de las luchas indígenas y movimientos sociales en todo el Abya Yala.

Para hacer caminar la palabra y realizar los sueños, de la resistencia al poder:

Nos constituimos en la Coordinadora Continental de las Nacionalidades y Pueblos Indígenas del Abya Yala, como espacio permanente de enlace e intercambio, donde converjan experiencias y propuestas, para que juntos enfrentemos las políticas de globalización neoliberal y luchar por la liberación definitiva de nuestros pueblos hermanos, de la madre tierra, del territorio, del agua y todo el patrimonio natural para vivir bien.

En este proceso delineamos las siguientes acciones:

Fortalecer el proceso organizativo y de lucha de los pueblos indígenas con la participación de las mujeres, niños y jóvenes.

Convocar a la Cumbre Continental de Mujeres Indígenas del Abya Yala y a la Cumbre Continental de la Niñez, Adolescencia y Juventud de las Nacionalidades del Abya Yala.

Convocar a la marcha continental de los pueblos indígenas para salvar a la Madre Naturaleza de los desastres que está provocando el capitalismo, y que se manifiesta en el calentamiento global, a realizarse el 12 de octubre del 2007.

Impulsar la misión diplomática de los pueblos indígenas para defender y garantizar los derechos de los pueblos indígenas. 

Respaldar la candidatura a Premio Nobel de la Paz de nuestro hermano Evo Morales Ayma, Presidente de Bolivia.

Exigir la despenalización de la hoja de coca.

Soñamos nuestro pasado y recordamos nuestro futuro

Iximche’, Guatemala, marzo 30 de 2007.

This salsa evening Saturday 5th May at 8pm in Theatr Clwyd organised by the Clwyd Latin America Human Rights Group is to raise funds for the Movimiento Nacional por los Derechos Humanos (MNDH) in Guatemala. In February the MNDH suffered a number of intimidations reported by Amnesty International, including a break in at their offices (picture below).

If you`re interested in finding out more information about this fundraiser event, you can phone 01352 740 642 or 01244 531 702.

The UK Goverment has just launched a new strategy paper for Latin America. The paper was set out by Lord Triesman on 28th March in Canning House, London. It contains the rather embarassing insinuations that there`s a chance Latin America can be saved from ill by becoming a partner of the UK…

“I believe there are four realistic scenarios for Latin America in 2020:

• First, a secure, prosperous continent working in partnership with the UK on global issues;
• Second, a continent where democratic progress stalls, replaced by a new form of caudillo;
• Third, a continent unable to compete with either Asia in the manufacturing sector or Europe and the US on services, leaving it dependent on its raw materials;
• Fourth, a continent with a dividing line between prosperous and economically under performing states – with all the political instability that entails.”

Not sure if Lord Triesman has any idea how pompous that kind of statement sounds. Here`s the deal: Latin America let`s us exploit it natural resources and in return gets a pat on the head. Triesman`s words come at the same time tension has again surfaced with the Argentina- as the UK has been sniffing around the Falkland Islands for oil. Hey Triesman- let`s not try to kid the UK public that we`re interested in real partnership.

And the UK Government`s not even that bothered about the rights of islanders- the case of the Chagos Islands clarified that little misrepresentation of the Falklands war. Hey- and let`s not even mention Belize! Nuff said. Triesman please put a diplomatic sock in it.

Post by Jordan Buckley

Hello Friends, Family and Allies,

This is my next-to-last report from Guatemala about accompanying witnesses in the national genocide case.

Since my last bi-monthly dispatch, activists with whom we work have been threatened, followed home, received alarming anonymous phone calls, had their offices raided and one organizer was even briefly kidnapped. Perhaps because the Ixil – the region where I live – has become the main focus of the genocide case, we have also had our share of local intimidations in the last weeks (see further down).

A GLIMPSE OF GENOCIDE: PLAYING SOCCER, BUT NOT WITH MY PEERS

Recently, friends in Ilom – the resplendent highlands village believed by the Ixil Maya to be the birthplace of their people – invited me to join their soccer team Sociedad Juvenil (Juvenile Society) in a regional tournament about an hour and a half hike away. (I’ve played off-and-on with them for the last 8 months).

While I certainly prefer our squad’s name to that of Ilom’s other team, Los Chiqueros (The Pig Sty Boys), I have always been intrigued by their choice; we range broadly in ages – mostly either teens or late twenties and up – and I often joke with my friend Mu’s that since he’s already a grandfather and pushing 40, perhaps they should contemplate renaming the crew.

As our tiresome, uphill trek to the soccer match snaked past the Santa Delfina plantation, my pal Chato broke the silence by shyly pointing out that he was born there. Chato will soon share something in common with me that is truly rare among Ilom residents, a community of some 450 families: he will be 25 years old.

Last Friday not only marked the 25th anniversary of the military coup that put Efraìn Rìos Montt – the deadliest dictator in Latin America’s modern times – into power. It also marked a short quarter-century since the Guatemalan army rounded up 96 of Ilom`s men into the plaza and gorily ended their lives. The army then set fire to the entire village (as they would do to at least another 625 Mayan villages before their genocidal campaign ended), forcing survivors to flee to nearby Santa Delfina.

In an interview (see link below), Antonio Caba – president of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation, the coalition of witnesses that we accompany – related that refugees from Ilom were virtually enslaved on the Santa Delfina plantation following the massacre of March 23, 1982, and, given the extreme circumstances, children that had fled from Ilom died there on the plantation, every day for months and months.

Chato, our midfielder for Sociedad Juvenil, was one of the lucky ones.

A LITTLE BOMB NAMED SOFÃA

Sunday before last, a shocking three-page cover story in Guatemala’s leading daily newspaper directly linked Ríos Montt to massacres perpetrated in the Ixil region during 1982 and 1983! The article reports that in August the Attorney General acquired a copy of secret military documents outlining Plan Sofìa – an extensive army campaign ordered by then president and commander-in-chief Rios Montt against “subversives” in the area – but he has still refused to formally initiate the genocide case proceedings.

In February, I had the opportunity to switch spots with another accompanier and visit 5 villages in a different area of the Ixil. Apparently while I was visiting witnesses in those communities, Guatemala’s Minister of Defense was claiming to the presiding judge in the genocide case that Plan Sofia does not exist. However, the exposé article from March 18 asserts that not only does Plan Sofìa exist, two of the communities I had been accompanying were likely massacred as a result of Plan Sofia in the summer of 1982.

RÃOS MONTT’S ESCAPE ROUTE: CONGRESS

The next five weeks will determine if Ríos Montt – who ruled over the estimated murder of 70,000 predominantly Mayan people – will evade justice for at least another four years (or feasibly forever, given that he is 81 years old).

If Ríos Montt is able to register as a candidate on May 3 for this year’s congressional elections, his possible win will provide him parliamentary immunity from prosecution. However, if the Attorney General takes an initial declaration from Ríos Montt regarding the accusations cited against him in the genocide case, it would disqualify his candidacy.

Accordingly, please e-mail the Attorney General to urge him to move the case along!

If only half of you reading this e-mail were to devote the 10 seconds required to click a box to send him an e-mail, the Attorney General would have to wade through some 150 e-mails from foreigners upset with his stalling on the
genocide case.

LOCAL INTIMIDATIONS IN THE IXIL

Last month, my accompaniment partner received a phone call from an unknown person who creepily asked her how she was doing, and, when asked to identify himself, only told her that he was “a man.” She hung up. The Caller ID indicated that another fellow accompanier had called her but we knew that he was in a village where there is no service. He later confirmed that, of course, he had not called her, signifying that someone seems to be showing us that they are watching us and able to infiltrate the phone system.

Twice since December, unidentified men have approached my accompaniment partner and me and, without a word, taken our picture on a digital camera, then quickly walked off. And just a few weeks ago, as fellow accompaniers and I met up in a public park (as arranged by phone), a woman maybe 50 meters away stood quietly filming us for minutes on end until we confronted her.

This is by no means all of the suspicious behavior or incidents we’ve been encountering recently, just a sampling to provide some idea.

PRESIDENT BUSH IN GUATEMALA: HE KILLS ?

Lastly, President Bush came to Guatemala a few weeks ago. While he managed to devote a large chunk of time pitching neo-liberal reforms to Guatemalan officials, and other measures that would benefit the U.S. economy, it appears he never once mentioned the recent, unpunished state-led military campaign which claimed upwards of 200,000 lives.

(Makes one wonder what consequences might have sprung from Bush having expressed even one sentence’s worth of concern over the absence of prosecution for the bloodiest genocide in our hemisphere’s recent history.)

After the Guatemalan government strong-armed Bush’s way into Iximchè – a sacred site to indigenous Kaqchikel people – to entertain him for the day (despite the massive protests of local community members kept behind the Secret Service and police blockades), Mayan priests returned en masse, performing rituals to cleanse the area of the evil spirits they say Bush brought in.

Many expressed pain and anger over Bush – a man whose war in Iraq has resulted in a staggering number of innocent deaths (the British government recently conceded that a study pegging the death toll around 655,000 is credible) – desecrating such a special, holy place to them, and their powerlessness, in the face of state repression, to prevent it.

It might be worth observing that the word for “bush” in Spanish is “mata,” which curiously also translates as “he kills” or functions as the command form of the order “to kill.”

HOMEWARD BOUND

In 7 weeks I will be back home in Austin. Many thanks again for all the support you all have provided me during my time here – from e-mails to music to homemade cookies to literature to money to art and so on. You have enabled me to feel a sustained sense of loving community despite living tucked away in the western highlands of Guatemala, and I really appreciate that.

Again, if you haven’t already, please send an e-mail to the Attorney General calling on him to let the survivors testify, thereby also preventing Ríos Montt from retaking Congress.

With love and solidarity,

Jordan

A Dictator’s Reprise in Guatemala, The Daily Texan (by me)

Guatemala’s Anti-Genocide Activists Under Threat (by Elias Lawless)

The Maya Survivors vs Los Genocidios: interview with Antonio of the AJR (by E.Lawless)

LA ASOCIACIÓN GUATEMALTECA DE ALCALDES Y AUTORIDADES INDÍGENAS AGAAI AJK’MALB’E RECH UTZILAL TINAMIT

HACE SABER:

A LA OPINION PÚBLICA NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL

./ Que el día martes 20 de marzo del año en curso, nuestra oficina ubicada en el edificio El Centro, 7ma. Avenida 8-56 de la zona uno de la ciudad de Guatemala, fue violentada por desconocidos posteriormente fue allanada, habiéndose llevado únicamente documentación y una caja chica.

../ Este hecho fue puesto en conocimiento de la Policía nacional Civil como lo establece la legislación respectiva, pero hasta el momento aún el Ministerio Público no ha hecho las averiguaciones correspondientes.

¦/Consideramos que este hecho de violencia responde por sus características a un claro acto intimidatorio a los trabajadores y a los miembros de nuestra Asociación. Por esta razón el caso ha sido también denunciado a la Oficina del Procurador de Derechos Humanos.

¦./Lamentamos y condenamos este hecho de violencia que impera en las organizaciones indignas que únicamente busca generar un escenario de intimidación a nuestra organización.
-/Relacionamos estos hechos intimidatorios a la labor que nuestra Asociación está realizando en apoyo y acompañamiento a los Alcaldes y Autoridades indígenas que luchan para la protección de la madre tierra.

POR LO TANTO LA AGAAI DECLARA Y DEMANDA:

./ La garantía y el respeto a nuestra asociación indígena a nivel local y nacional ya que somos una Asociación que busca el fortalecimiento de los Alcaldes y autoridades indígenas y luchamos por nuestros derechos colectivos e indígenas.
../Que el Gobierno de turno, inicie la investigación respectiva de los responsables de este hecho de violencia, que solo genera un escenario de terror e intimidaciones.

¦/Solicitamos a las organizaciones e instituciones de derechos humanos nacionales e internacionales y la cooperación internacional la solidaridad y el acompañamiento respectivo, a los miembros de la Junta Directiva y personal de nuestra Asociación AGAAI.
¦./Asimismo hacemos un llamado a las comunidades a que en cumplimiento de sus derechos y normas nacionales internacionales continuemos organizados y seguir luchando por la reivindicación de nuestros derechos como pueblos y en defensa de la madre tierra.

-/Solicitamos a todos los participantes a la tercera Cumbre Continental de Pueblos y Nacionalidades Indígenas de Abya Yala, su apoyo a los Alcaldes  y a las autoridades Indígenas de Guatemala y la denuncia de este hecho de intimidación.

La AGAAI, manifiesta que estas acciones de intimidación no disminuirán los esfuerzos y formas de organización como pueblos indígenas,

JUNTA DIRECTIVA DE AGAAI

By Lorena Seijo, Prensa Libre, March 18, 2007

(translation by P. Harris and E. Lawless)

Secret military document, in possession of the Attorney General, directly links Rìos Montt in Quichè massacres

Not one district attorney has had access, until now, to a classified Guatemalan Army document which tells of military operations executed during the internal armed conflict, against subversive cells or elements.

Delia Dàvila, head of the prosecutor’s department of human rights, within the Attorney General’s office, has been the first to receive a copy of one of those plans, protected by State secrecy and which was partially obtained in a clandestine manner by plaintiffs in the genocide case pursued within Guatemala.

Despite having in her possession documents which record the existence of the Sofìa Pan of operations, that, together with declarations of the witnesses, directly link the Army high command and their commander-in-chief, Efraìn Rìos Montt, with massacres committed predominantly within the Western region of the country, from 1982 to 1983, Dàvila has roundly refused to make an appointment with the former head of State and his leadership, to interrogate them.

The reason is, according to what the prosecutor (Dàvila) told the presiding judge in the case, Roberto Peñate, that she is not certain that those documents are authentic. To verify her doubts, the judge ordered that on January 31 the Minster of Defense, before an open court, present the original documents of Plan Sofia and Victory 82, due to their relation to each other, since the former derived from the latter.

In response, Ronaldo Cecilio Leiva, Minister of Defense, mailed a letter to the judge on February 8 in which he protests his disagreement with the judicial resolution, because it violates article 30 of the constitution, which protects the confidentiality of military affairs.

In the missive, Leiva affirms that Plan Victory 82 is a military affair of national security, classified as secret and that Plan Sofìa does not exist.

To avoid that the documents become public, he presented an appeal and claimed that these records, along with others that contain Operation Ixil Civil Affairs and Firmeza 83 plans, are off-limits.

The appeal was rejected by the judge who reminded the Minister of Defense that the accusation is not against him and summoned him for next March 26, so that he may show before the court the entirety of the plans and the original documents, to which Prensa Libre had partial access. Coincidentally, the meeting will be held 3 days after the 25th anniversary of the coup d’etat, in 1982, which brought Rìos Montt to power.

Excuse the shakey images above- coming in to land in Guatemala in an airport being remodeled, flying over Amatitlan then Villa Nueva and on to the centre of town. It`s great to back in Guatemala after a good while- and relieved the 10+ hour flight with my young daughters is over…

I`ll be posting from Guatemala over the next few weeks.

We just received the following press release about the new English translation of Oswaldo Salazar's book “Por el lado Oscuro”. Salazar was recently in London to take part in launches of the book that included an event in Canning House and then the Instituto Cervantes. Having read the book – it is certainly a compelling read. And pre-revolutionary Guatemala is certainly an interesting time to look at.

In From the Darkness – the English translation of the prize-winning Por el lado oscuro – Salazar explores the bitterly unhappy circumstances that can make a woman kill, and the unforgiving quality of male justice.

From the Darkness is a captivating story of a murder and the ensuing investigation that became known as “The Gourd Poisoning” in a traditional society unprepared for a crime that lay outside its powers of reasoning. It begins in the spring of 1939 when a man dies in agony at the San Juan de Dios de Amatitlán Hospital outside Guatemala City. His wife and children are accused of poisoning him, shattering the calm of a land kept in fearful order by the cold and tempestuous dictator General Jorge Ubico (1931-44).

Salazar's work touches a raw Latin nerve, giving the reader a unique insight into lost Central American worlds: that of the Guatemalan peasant woman – ignored, abused and constantly judged by her unforgiving male superiors; that of the small, rural Latin American town, where a handful of strongmen oversee all life; and that of the era of military caudillos, dictators whose quest for order and progress shapes all official culture.

The winner of the prestigious 2003 Mario Monteforte Toledo Prize, Por el lado oscuro was translated by Gavin O'Toole and will be published by Aflame Books in March 2007.

The Mexican writer Carlos Montemayor said of this book: “Por el lado oscuro has a magnificent narrative quality, exposition and style as well as a forceful central character, delivering the unexpected features of a species of crime novel within a work of historical reconstruction.”

Oswaldo Salazar was born in Guatemala City in 1959 and has had a distinguished academic career. He took his first degree in philosophy and literature at Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala then studied as a Fulbright Scholar at Boston College in the United States. He currently teaches at Guatemala's Francisco Marroquín University.

Aflame Books is a small, independent UK publisher committed to publishing in English translation works from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

Democracy Now! interviewed veteran anti-sweatshop activist Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee about the report they've recently produced on the conditions at the Legumex factory. It is titled “Harvest of Shame.”

According to the NLC though Legumex may have turned the corner. You can see various video testimony of child labour by the NLC on a recent trip to Guatemala.

Democracy Now! also interviewed a Guatemalan migrant worker and featured another report looking at the abuses under the Guestworker programme. Mary Bauer explained the report to Democracy Now!'s Juan Gonzalez. Mary is director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Immigrant Justice Project. She is author of the new report “Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States.”

World Politics Watch have just published a two-part series on Gang Culture and Violence in Guatemala: Part One and Part Two. It makes for pretty chilling reading.

The series was written by Billy Briggs, the 2005 recipient of Amnesty International's Nations and Regions Award for his reporting on human rights issues.  His report is accompanied by photos by Angela Catlin.

Billy says on website about Guatemala:

You can see his other articles on Guatemala on his website where he's written for The Sunday Herald, The Guardian and The Big Issue.