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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.

We've just received news of the upcoming events at the Guatemalan Maya Centre here in London (thanks Jamie!):

SPRING & SUMMER EVENTS 2007
 
ONGOING EXHIBITION: CHICHICASTENAGO: LIFE & DRESS: A selection of daily and ceremonial textiles from the Quiché Maya town of Chichicastenango (until end of April*)  Guatemala. The display includes both antique and contemporary textiles
            
Thursday 22nd March 19:00 – 20:00  FILM: CODE OF THE MAYA KINGS: A National Geographic funded video documentary examining how it took more than a century to unlock the secrets of the ancient Maya. Includes material on the life and work of reknowned Mayanist Tatiana Proskouriakoff. (Produced & directed by Graham Townsley & Ann Carroll).
 
Saturday 19th May 10:00 – 18:00 NEW EXHIBITION: TODOS SANTOS & THE TIERRA FRIA: CHANGING TRADITIONS IN HUEHUETENANGO. An exhibition bringing together a selection of textiles from the Mam, Chuj and Q'anjobal and communities of the northwestern highlands, depicting scenes of daily and ceremonial life.
 
Thursday 7th June 18:30 – 20:00 LECTURE (& FILM): SHAMANS, WITCHES & MAYA PRIESTS. With the publication of her book of the same title, Krystyna Deuss presents an illustrated lecture on native religion and ritual in highland. Organised as a part of the Native Spirit Festival, this event will be preceded by a short (18 minute) film, Atltzatzilistli/ Praying for Water, by an indigenous Mexican filmmaker. This event will take place at the Instituto Cervantes, 102 Eaton Square, London SW1W.
                        
Tuesday 17th July 19:00 – 20:00 TEXTILE STUDY EVENING: GUATEMALAN MAYA COSTUME. An informal look at the current textile exhibition: Todos Santos & The Tierra Fria, and hands on discussion of a selection of Maya textiles with Jamie Marshall, Curator of the Centre's textile collection. 

Entrance to the exhibition galleries and craft shop is FREE. Use of reference library, videos & textiles: £5 annual membership

Unless otherwise stated all events are at the Guatemalan Maya Centre

A suggested £1 donation towards the cost of purchasing new videos is requested at video showings; admission to Centre talks / lectures: £2

For more information visit our website: http://www.maya.org.uk. Please contact us in September for an Autumn & Winter Events Sheet at 94 Wandsworth Bridge Road, London SW6 2TF  Tel/Fax: 020 7371 5291

To begin this post here's George Bush getting some practice in at being contrite- this could have served him well before his Latin American trip. The Mayan cleansing to be carried out in Iximche has ran and ran, as have the crosses held aloft by students in Guatemala City. Bush as sinner or 'el Diablo', has captured the public's imagination.

On the day that George Bush will touch down in Guatemala- the agenda for that one hour meeting and dinner with Oscar Berger is doubtless rather full- though no surprises if it turns out to be empty on contrition. Foreign Minister, Gert Rosenthal, hinted they might be discussing ethanol production- but if this interview in Siglo XXI is anything to go by- sounds like policy on the fly:

Here's a better idea from the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (Nisgua) just in case both are prepared to bear their soul a little: they could make a joint declaration to advance the legal cases against General Efrain Rios Montt and members of his military high command. They can't say there's a shortage of information on this one.

Nisgua points out:

But hey, the onus doesn't rest solely with Berger to make a move here. What are the odds of a contrite Bush making a Clinton-style apology for US involvement in these crimes? It's worth reminding ourselves today of what Clinton said in 1999:

This report from Robert Parry at the time- tracks the journey that led up to that moment the last time a sitting US President visited Guatemala. The Clinton administration had declassified scores of the secret U.S. documents in the late 1990s- the Peace Accords had not long been signed and the Historical Clarification Commission had just reported. It feels a world away now.

Background

Apologizing of course is not with out controversy, William Blum pointed out that: “the word “sorry” did not cross the president's [Clinton's] lips, nor did the word “apologize”, nor the word “compensation”. For other views on the significance of this moment see:

Then there's this on Bush's track record on apologizing from Robert Parry's report on that V-E Day speech on May 7 2005:

Finally, for family precedents, Dubya's dad is quoted as saying the following in 1988 as Vice President: