Exploring Volunteering

Spanish journalist Carlos Santos, has just written a book, “Guatemala. El Silencio del Gallo” which looks at the internal armed conflict in Guatemala through the experiences of Spanish priest Father Luis Gurriarán.

In 1982, Father Luis went with Rigoberta Menchu to the United Nations to denounce the government of Ríos Montt. He was also one of the founders with 100 mayan families of village Santa María Tzejá in El Quiché at the beginning of the 1970s. Father Luis has arrived in Central America ten years before as a young missionary fresh out of the seminary. Beatriz Manz also told the story of Santa María Tzejá in her book Paradise in Ashes (2004) and talks at length of the role played by Father Luis (photo below: CLAS) in the village community. In Paradise in Ashes he tells Beatriz:

Carlos Santos took part in a web chat on Spanish news site Diariocrítico.com (18-01-2007). All proceeds from sales of this book “Guatemala. El Silencio del Gallo” go to support scholarships in Santa María Tzejá.

See also this interview with Carlos Santos – “El periodista Carlos Santos narra a través de la vida de su tío en Guatemala uno de los mayores genocidios de todo el siglo XX” (found thanks to Porsilasmoscas).

Luis Gurriaran “The Role of the Catholic Church in the Cooperative Movement in Guatemala” – Centre for Latin American Studies – University of California, Berkeley

Guatemala: Toward Justice? In the spring of 2004, FRONTLINE/World Fellow Brent McDonald followed Berkeley anthropologist Beatriz Manz to Central America to uncover the history of a village that was caught in the crossfire of Guatemala's civil war.

A couple of days ago (16-01-2007) the Guatemalan press first hinted at Gen Efrain Ríos Montt's decision to go for Congress and forget about another presidential bid. Now Reuters are reporting it as well and there's more in today's Prensa Libre.

Perhaps it was the Constitutional Court's recent ruling (Petición de Nulidad (2395-2006)) upholding his being barred from running for president. Perhaps it was his incredibly low support in recent opinion polls (on 15-01-07 it was 1.8%). Or perhaps it was a nagging fear that his day in court on counts of genocide and crimes against humanity might just be a very real possibility.

By declaring that he's running for Congress, Rios Montt will once again get immunity from prosecution from April when he'll be able to register his candidacy formally with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). It's timely then, to read Elias Lawless's interview in WireTap Magazine with Antonio Caba, an Ixil Maya activist who currently serves as president of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR). Here's an excerpt:

Update (19-01-07)

Amnesty USA has made the following appeal with Rios Montt's announcement: “Amnesty International Again Calls for Ríos Montt to Either Be Tried in Guatemala or Extradited to Spain to Face the Charges Against Him”. In Guatemala, Siglo XXI covered the story with an interview of Rigoberta Menchu: “Menchú pide repudiar posible candidatura de Ríos”.

Urgent Action: Amnesty USA – GUATEMALA                

Carlos Albacete Rosales (m) and Piedad Espinosa Albacete (f), Co-directors of environmental organisation Green Tropic (Tropico Verde)

An attempt on the lives of two environmentalists has been made in Guatemala City. Amnesty International believes that their lives and those of other colleagues are in grave danger.

Environmental activists Carlos Albacete Rosales and Piedad Espinosa Albacete were the subjects of an apparent attempt on their lives as they returned home from the La Aurora National Airport in Guatemala City in a taxi on Wednesday 10 January 2007 at 12.20am.

As they approached their house in the area known as Carretera a El Salvador, they saw a grey Volkswagen Golf parked less than 1km from their house. The car pulled out behind them and followed them until overtaking the taxi a few metres further on and making a 180 degree turn in front of them, partially blocking the road.

Four men got out of the car, drawing their handguns as they did so. They were wearing black woollen hats and dark- coloured bullet-proof vests, dressed in black clothing similar to that used by the police but without the identifying insignia. They stood in front of the taxi and began to shoot at it. The taxi driver carried on forwards, leaving the four men behind. They continued to shoot at the taxi but did not pursue it any further. [see Nisgua for more]

In a separate incident a trade unionist, Pedro Zamora, was killed (16-01-07). This from the Frente Nacional de Lucha En Defensa de los Servicios Publicos y Los Recursos Naturales:

And now Reuters have just covered the story in English- “Guatemalan union boss killed in front of children”.

Update (19-01-2007)

Since Pedro Zamora's death, several of his colleagues have reportedly received anonymous phone calls threatening them and their families with death within nine days. Amnesty International believes that their lives are in serious and imminent danger. [more from NISGUA]

Rights Action has just released this video of the evictions in Izabal. Photos are by James Rodriguez and video footage is by Steven Schnoor.

Reuters AlertNet (11-01-2007) have covered the recent evictions in Izabal over the dispute between a nickel mining company and the local community.

The story was covered previously by Prensa Libre (09-01-2007) in Guatemala. But there is much more information on MiMundo.org's blog. It's written by James Rodriguez and spans  the build up to this eviction from November 2006. It contains personal accounts across different posts of the evictions and many powerful photos (also on Flickr).

There's more in information on the background to this latest eviction from website Mining Watch Canada written by Dawn Paley (11-01-2007) in El Estor, Guatemala. Dawn's blog's here- Reporter Zero.

Update (15-01-07)

The Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC/USA) is running an urgent action on the evictions here. According to the GHRC they numbers of people evicted is significantly higher than AP have reported (and what we quoted above):

We just received the following interesting news from the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) active in Guatemala:

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala – January 5, 2007 – The Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) and its first incubated business, XelaTeco, completed a micro-hydroelectric project in El Palmar, Guatemala last month that is providing 40 families (roughly 200 people) with electricity in their homes for the first time.

Before the existence of XelaTeco, which was established with the financial and technical backing of U.S. non-profit AIDG, an isolated village like the Comunidad Nueva Alianza (CNA) had few options for getting electricity, let alone renewable energy.  Due to their remoteness, an electric grid extension was years if not decades away. The high and volatile cost of diesel in Guatemala made reliance on electric generators impractical.  The concrete shell of an old micro-hydroelectric system existed at the community. Unfortunately, no providers could completely rebuild it at a price that CNA could afford.

When it burst onto the scene in August 2005, XelaTeco filled a much-needed niche. It was a new breed of business in Guatemala that manufactures, installs and repairs green technologies for people living between $2-4 a day, development agencies and institutions. Because XelaTeco could locally manufacture many essential, yet very complex components for much less than their purchase price in U.S. or European markets, it became the CNA's leading choice of contractor.

Peter Haas is the founder and executive director of AIDG, an NGO that starts businesses in developing countries to provide the rural poor with renewable energy and clean technologies that meet their basic needs. He contends that locally-based and socially responsible enterprises such as XelaTeco will be the key to providing underserved communities with long-term and sustainable access to clean water, sanitation and electricity.

With funding from AIDG and the United Nations Development Program's Small Grants Program, many of the barriers that kept CNA from obtaining electricity in their homes were removed.

The importance of reducing the human impact on the environment was underlined in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan, one of the 21 named storms in the record-breaking Atlantic Hurricane Season of 2005. Over 600 people, mostly indigenous persons living in extreme poverty, died in mudslides thought to be a result of extensive deforestation.

As the effects of global warming become increasingly apparent, organizations like XelaTeco and the AIDG can lead the way in providing underserved rural communities with the basics of life while also minimizing negative environmental effects.

XelaTeco's product range includes windmills, solar water heaters, water pumps, water purifiers, biodigesters, and small-scale hydroelectric systems.

This is a really interesting interview with Ann Wright on Radio 4's Saturday Live programme, who accompanied in Colombia with Peace Brigades International. She gives a really great explanation about what accompaniment is and what you can get out of it as a volunteer. She's taking in the context of Colombia, but it's equally applicable to accompaniment in Guatemala. You can listen to it here.  Here's the intro from the BBC Saturday Live blog (shame they couldn't spell Colombia ).

You can find more information about accompaniment in general here, and how to become an accompanier with GSN specifically here.

Guatemala gets several mentions in the UK press- well mainly the Guardian via the wire services. There's a interesting article 'Guatemalan Files Renew Hope of Justice' by Will Weissart and Juan Carlos Llorca that ties together the issues of the secret police files, the pending extradition appeals, and the continuing quest by victims to find out more about the fate of loved ones. It quotes two current Government officials which seem to downplay this effort to punish past crimes:

There's also an article in The Guardian from AP on international adoptions which says this about adoptions between the US and Guatemala:

And finally Jamie Theakston says this about Guatemala City in The Observer today:

Hmm, that's a huge loss for Guate. No more Jamie. I wonder how many hours he was there for? For the record, this is what I think of Guatemala City critics

This a video clip, produced by Kara Andrade with Brad Eller, of the event on 29th December 2006 at the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura in Guatemala City which marked the 10th anniversary of the Peace Accords. It shows the demonstration that took place carried out by HIJOS and the Bloque Antiimperialista. There was this snippet about it in Prensa Libre the day after:

The Bloque Antiimperialista is an initiative of the YMCA in Guatemala.

Kara Andrade has written a really interesting piece about the current situation with the Peace Accords ten years after they were signed. 'Finding the lights of hope in postwar Guatemala' is based on an interview with Carmen Aída Ibarra is the political coordinator for Guatemala's Fundación Myrna Mack, one of Guatemala's leading human rights foundations.

This is a new documentary 'En Toute Solidarité' just out on international accompaniment in Guatemala in French and Spanish. It's produced by Les Productions Réalités Cachées in association with the Projet Accompagnement Québec-Guatemala (PAQG) in Canada and the Coordination of International Accompaniment in Guatemala. It directed by Nicolas Bergeron. Nicolas worked as an accompanier in 2005 and 2006 with PAQG and NISGUA. Here's an excerpt in French from a piece he wrote about accompaniment on the PAQG website: