Se acordó hacer la mesa de diálogo en la banqueta de la calle, en frente del edificio ocupado.

We received this press release from CUC:

You can see more photos of the occupation and protest organised by CUC and CNOC at FONTIERRAS here.

Thanks Mikkel Moldrup-Lakjer for this information. The copy of the Act that was signed by FONTIERRAS, CNOC and CUC is attached.

From EntreMundos, in Quetzaltenango (Xela to its friends), is this article on the use of crops for food or for fuel with regard to those of the population for whom small changes in the price of food has major consequences.

  Fields of Gold

When an eleven-year old girl comes home from school to tell you the price of tortillas in Zacapa, you know that something is amiss. All of her friends, her parents and neighbors have only one thing on their minds – the rising cost of food.

  The Hungry Months

We have now entered what are traditionally known throughout Guatemala as the ˜hungry months’, the time when households start to run out of their food reserves from the last harvest that ended in January and depend on the market to buy food until the next harvest in August. This has always been a precarious time of year for the poorest households, the majority of which are found in rural areas where opportunities to earn a wage sufficient to live on are few and far between. The problem of low wages has intensified in recent years with unusually high rates of inflation, particularly for food. In 2005 the cost of food and drinks rose by over 13% while the previous year, the price of tortillas – the central, indispensable ingredient in the Guatemalan diet – had increased by two thirds.

This year, however, the situation is set to reach breaking point.

  Green Energy

In March, George W. Bush toured Central and South America publicizing the US‘s strategy to reduce the country’s vast, and increasing, problem of carbon emissions by converting to biofuels. ˜Biocombustibles’ are liquid fuels, ethanol or diesel, made not from fossil fuels but from organic crops such as sugarcane, rapeseed or corn. Biofuels have been widely lauded, not only because they provide a much needed alternative to rapidly depleting world reserves of oil, but from an environmental point of view, they are heralded as the key to saving the planet. Burning biofuel generates up to 65% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional fossil fuels. What is more, the crops themselves actually act as ˜carbon sinks’ when they are growing, taking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and giving off oxygen. Indeed, many countries in the North have latched onto the idea that by running cars on bioethanol or biodiesel rather than petroleum fuels, they will be able to meet their Kyoto Agreement targets for reducing CO₂ emissions.

  Meeting the Demand

The European Union has ruled that by 2010, member states must ensure that a tenth of all fuel they use comes from biofuels. The US aims to use bioethanol for a quarter of its transports needs by 2017. And it would seem that these countries are serious about reaching their targets. Last year more than a third of the entire US maize crop went to producing ethanol for fuel, an increase of nearly 50% since 2005. The UN predicts that global production of biofuels will double in the next four years. However, both Europe and the US are well aware that their own countries have nowhere near the land capacity to cultivate all the crops that they would need to meet their own targets, hence President Bush’s recent tour of the Americas. The US has looked to Central and South America, while Europe has targeted Asia to supplement their immense demands for biofuel crops.

Yet despite all the hype, environmental and social campaigners have issued grave warnings over biofuels, insisting that not only are they far from being the ˜green energy’ alternative Northern governments proclaim but also that biofuels will have devastating humanitarian impacts for countries in the South.

  Saving the Planet?

According to Miguel Altieri, Professor of Agroecology at the University of California, biofuels do not actually reduce carbon emissions. Investigations show that it requires more energy to produce biofuels (including manufacture of machinery, harvesting and distillation) than they provide. The obvious benefit to countries such as the US is that emissions incurred elsewhere do not ˜count’ in their own carbon tally. Furthermore, pressure on agricultural land worldwide means that previously unfarmed areas will be turned over to monocultivation of crops for biofuels. Indeed, the British Environment Secretary has admitted that plantations of palm oil, a biofuel crop, are destroying 0.7% of the Malaysian rainforest every year. Not only does destruction of the rainforest reduce natural habitats, open a country to natural disasters and reduce the world’s ˜carbon sinks’, but burning forested land releases vast amounts of CO₂ into the atmosphere.

  The High Price of Fuel

While the environmental impacts of world demand for biofuels may not be fully available for a few years yet, the social and humanitarian impacts are already being felt by the world’s poorest. Increased global demand, teamed with insufficient supply has led to one inevitable consequence – the price of biofuel commodities has skyrocketed. Worldwide, prices for maize have roughly doubled in the past year, causing devastating consequences for ordinary Guatemalans whose staple diet is maize and beans.

Over the last fifteen years, Guatemala‘s land owning elite have moved away from the cultivation of basic grains, opting instead to cash in on more lucrative export crops such as fruit. To make up the internal shortfall in food supplies, the country has turned to outside markets and importation of maize rose by over 3000% between 1992 and 2002. This has left the country extremely vulnerable to the situation in which it now finds itself.

  Full Tanks, Empty Bellies

The grim reality for countries in the South is that biofuel crops are vital to their lives, not for fuel, but for food. One tortilla now costs 0.50Q in Zacapa, double the price it was at the start of the year and every Guatemalan wants to know when it will stop. In a country that suffers from the third highest incidence of child malnutrition worldwide, it’s a desperate situation. Campaigners warn not only will biofuels result in crippling price rises for basic grains, but the fact that fuel crops are now so profitable means that farmers worldwide will chose to cultivate biofuel crops in place of other foods. The knock-on increase in the cost of all food will be hardest felt on the world’s poor. In Guatemala in 2003, the minimum daily agricultural wage wasn’t even enough to buy the ˜basic food basket’- the minimum food sufficient to satisfy a person’s protein and energy requirements). As we enter the ˜hungry months’ of 2007, the country waits to see what impact the North’s insatiable thirst for fuel will have on the lives of Guatemalans.

The author of this article, Claire Ellis, is a volunteer for ADIPSA in San Agustín, El Progreso.

Three years into its existence, the Marlin Gold Mine has produced a long list of social problems for the local communities in the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacán.

Is this the kind of development we want? What are we to negotiate? There is nothing to negotiate! Can you negotiate life? I do not think you can negotiate life. Health can not be negotiated. In this case, human lives are at risk. Mining is not the model of development we need in our communities. There are other ways to create development in the communities of San Miguel.

This photo-essay by James Rodriguez, an independent photo-journalist based in Guatemala, can be found at MiMundo.org.

So is quoted from the World Bank report (2003) ˜Poverty in Guatemala’ in a paper by Roman Krznaric, titled ˜The Limits on Pro-Poor Agricultural Trade in Guatemala: Land, Labour and Political Power’. The paper goes on to say that the only reference to the economic elite in Guatemala in over 200 pages of analysis is to say that ˜economic and political resources remain concentrated among the economic elite of predominantly European descent’. Krznaric asks why there is no follow-up examination of the extent of this concentration and its consequences for poverty reduction. Good question!

The current consensus, among neo-liberal economists and international institutions, according to Krznaric, is that countries with more open economies achieve higher growth rates than those with less open economies, and that growth is good for poverty reduction. This paper looks at two valuable export crops, sugar and mange-touts (snow peas) and shows that the poor have not benefited to the extent that the World Bank suggests. This was before the implementation of CAFTA in 2005, which Krznaric suggests will have a devastating effect on the Guatemalan subsistence economy, so very vital for a large section of the agricultural population.

The question now is, how devastating has it been?

The paper can be found in the March 2006 edition of the ˜Journal of Human Development: Alternative Economics in Action’ and the abstract states: ˜The persistence of rural poverty in Guatemala since the early 1990s challenges the purported association between agricultural export growth and poverty alleviation. Lack of access to education, health and credit, and the historical legacies of land inequality, labour exploitation and ethnic discrimination, are preventing growth from reaching the rural poor. Most analyses, including the World Bank's recent 'Poverty in Guatemala' report, fail to consider how the economic and political power of the country's economic elite perpetuate and exacerbate poverty. A focus on two of Guatemala's most dynamic agro-export sectors – sugar and snow peas (mange-tout), both reputed to have had a significant impact on poverty alleviation – reveals the limits on pro-poor growth. Policy recommendations to promote pro-poor growth that are derived from the analysis include full implementation of the labour code, a national land-titling programme, and cultural programmes to change elite attitudes towards poverty and development.’

The paper is very interesting and readable – maybe that’s what is meant by ˜alternative economics’!

There is an earlier version (2005) published, as an occasional paper, in the Human Development Report Office of the UNDP.

We just received the following press release

El Comité Campesino del Altiplano CCDA

Ante la opinión pública nacional e internacional, Denunciamos:

AGRESIÓN, INTIMIDACIÓN Y PERSECUCIÓN A DIRIGENTES CAMPESINOS.

El CCDA durante los últimos meses hemos sido victimas de intimidaciones a través de llamadas telefónicas, insultos verbales por desconocidos durante altas horas de la noche (entre 11:00 pm  1.00 am)  que se conducen en diferentes vehículos, insultando y llamando a que salga de su vivienda al compañero Leocadio Juracan.

Además  hacemos saber que el compañero AMILCAR CALEL joven dirigente campesino del Comité campesino del Altiplano -  CCDA, y Coordinadora Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas -  CNOC, ha sido víctima de intimidación y agresión física, por segunda vez, causándole serias lesiones a su integridad física y psicológica. Simulando un robo o asalto.

El día jueves 19 de julio del 2007, viajó a la ciudad capital a una reunión ya que el compañero representa al CCDA en el Consejo Nacional del Programa de dinamizacion de las economías campesinas PECAS.   Previo a eso tuvo una reunión en la CNOC, al salir de las oficinas de la CNOC, fue interceptado por desconocidos que lo golpearon, sin mediar palabra, dejándolo gravemente herido, quitándole el Teléfono Celular para simular el Robo pero, en realidad nosotros creemos que es un ataque directo de intimidación por el trabajo de incidencia política y de búsqueda de justicia social en Guatemala.

Amilcar Calel es un joven campesino con mucho potencial y capacidad que coordina el programa fortalecimiento organizativo en el CCDA, y nos representa en distintos espacios, desde la acción política, donde el compañero ha sido para nosotros ejemplo de claridad y lucha permanente, permitiéndonos conocer y comprender la realidad desde la perspectiva de la juventud campesina e indígena, desde lo comunitario. Evidenciando de esta manera la necesidad de articular las luchas desde los pueblos indígenas, en la búsqueda de una sociedad más justa y sin discriminación de ningún tipo.  Recientemente nos represento en un intercambio de experiencia con productores hermanos de otros países como Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Rep Dominicana.

Ante estos hechos violentos que sufrió el compañero Amilcar demuestra la persecución política que siguen ocurriendo en nuestro país, contra dirigentes campesinos, sin que hasta el momento, las autoridades responsables hagan algo por esclarezca estos casos.

Por lo anterior Demandamos:

A que cese la represión, intimidación y amenazas contra dirigentes campesinos, especialmente del CCDA.

A que se busque soluciones favorables a las demandas campesinas en lugar de implementar formas que genere temor, miedo y desesperación.

Exigimos al gobierno de la GANA que se investiguen y esclarezcan este y todos los demás casos y que se haga justicia en Guatemala.

Nuevamente exigimos el respeto a la libertad de organización campesina en Guatemala.
Nuestro Llamado a la solidaridad Internacional.

A que se pronuncie y demanda a las autoridades a que se investiguen estos casos.

A levantar la esperanza en Guatemala.
Comité Campesino del Altiplano -CCDA-
E mail: ccda_café_justicia [at] yahoo.com

Within indigenous Mayan communities, the Consulta is a traditional way in which to make decisions. The consensus process and the principles of unity are utilized to make decisions about projects which, as a result, will directly affect or benefit their communities.

Courtesy of IndyMedia Guatemala, here is a video (in two short parts) made by the Diocese of San Marcos, Guatemala, about community ˜consultas’ that took place in western Guatemala, in which the population voiced their opposition to mineral exploration and exploitation and the construction of mega-projects. From community to community, the answer is the same – no, no, no.

An item from our friends in NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala) regarding the recent rise in violence related to kidnapping, illegal adoptions, and the trafficking of human organs. Noting that Rights Action have put together a short collection of articles as well as some much-needed analysis on the context in which this violence is occurring.

July 20, 2007

News – English y Espanol – about child-trafficking; finding of mutilated bodies; removal of organs; ensuing community violence.

Of particular note:  If the CAFTA “free” trade agreement with the United States is ratified, human bones, organs and tissues will be considered merchandise. (see below)

These crimes against children are to be understood in the context of a country where the “Peace Accords” of the 1990s did not work; where the unjust economic, political and military structures of the past (dating backto the 1954 USA-orchestrated coup against the democratic government of Guatemala) are intact; where the wealthy and powerful are protected by impunity and a fundamental lack of democracy.  Guatemala is not a “failed state” … it is a crushed state, dominated and manipulated by the greedy and repressive interests of internal and international economic and political forces.

*******

Kidnapping of Children Increases in Guatemala

[Published by Prensa Latina, 7/19/07,

Guatemala, Jul 19 (Prensa Latina) Recovering a newborn baby kidnapped one month ago to his mother, gives new evidences of gangs involved in children traffic for irregular adoption. Jonathan Alejandro Martinez was found in a children's home owned by a non-governmental organization, allegedly devoted to protect vulnerable people and with a new identity granted by a municipality close to this capital.  The finding took place after one of the women who assaulted Cristina Sol, Jonathan's mother, on June 20 was identified, according to the authorities.

Four persons, among them a lawyer in charge of negotiating adoptions with foreign families, were arrested for the events however they were released on 700 and 3 thousand dollars bail.

Nidia Aguilar, Children's defender at the Human Rights Attorney's Office told Prensa Latina how those gangs operate to make the children situation become legal and give them to couples, mostly from US.  The babies, kidnapped or bought to their parents, are registered in a small municipality civil registry, inside the country and then presented to a minors' judge who declares them vulnerable and for that reason can be adopted.

Guatemala is a paradise of children's adoption because it is relatively easier to make the procedure, reduced to a simple notarial action.  This situation could change after The Hague Convention, regarding international adoption, enters into effect, which was recently ratified by the Congress of the Republic.

***

Guatemalan police rescue stolen baby

[Published by AP, 7/18/07 ,

By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA]

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan police rescued a two-month-old boy who had been stolen from his home and arrested four people who were allegedly preparing the baby for illegal adoption, an official said.  The rescue comes amid growing concerns about the Central American country's export of thousands of babies each year to adoptive parents abroad.

It was unclear where the baby was to have been sent, but police detained four people in the house where the baby was rescued and found a false birth certificate for the boy, said Jesus Esquivel, assistant chief of criminal investigations for the police force.  “Our investigations indicate that they were already at the stage of processing the adoption,” Esquivel said.
 
However, Guatemala's Attorney General's office, the institution that oversees adoptions, said that so far no application for the baby's adoption, either under his real or false name, had yet been found. The baby could have had another fake birth certificate or the suspects may have not yet filed the application.

The suspects include the owner of the orphanage where the child was found and three employees. The boy was reportedly stolen from his parents' home in June.  Officials provided no details the abduction of the child.
 
The U.S. State Department, citing rampant problems of fraud and extortion, said in March it no longer recommends that Americans adopt children from Guatemala. U.S. officials have said there were frequent cases of birth mothers pressured to sell their babies and adoptive U.S. parents targeted by extortionists.

Under Guatemalan laws, unregulated notaries act as baby brokers who recruit birth mothers, handle all paperwork and complete adoptions in less than half the time it takes in other countries.  Under that system, more than 4,000 Guatemalan babies were adopted by U.S. parents last year, making Guatemala the second highest source of U.S. adoptions after China.

In May, the Guatemalan Congress ratified Tuesday the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoptions, which could sharply reduce the number of Guatemalan babies adopted by U.S. citizens each year.
 
It would be unlikely this stolen baby would have been adopted by an American family due to mandatory DNA testing required by the U.S. embassy to grant the infant a visa.

*****

Kids and Human Trafficking

[Published by Prensa Latina, 6/25/07,

Guatemala, Jun 25 (Prensa Latina) The arrest of Guatemalans Sergio Ventura and Catalina Hernandez as they tried to smuggle two Salvadoran children across the US border confirms soaring human and child trafficking.  Both were acquitted two months ago due to lack of evidence, but were deported now from Florida, US, and are detained at La Aurora International Airport. Victoria de Leon, from the Attorney's General Office, confirmed that an increasing number of Salvadoran children reach the US via Guatemala.

A wave of abductions attests to soaring child trafficking, generally for illegal adoption and the organ and body parts trade.

Panic spread with the murder of Michelle Espana, 8, in Camotan, found with heart and lungs missing. There have been other cases of frustrated kidnappings or young babies snatched from their mothers' arms.  The authorities say remote areas are hotspots for the traffickers who target poor families that do not dare to press charges.

****

CAFTA to Make Human Organs Commodities

San Jose, Jul 13 (Prensa Latina) Human bones, organs and tissues will be considered merchandise if the free trade agreement with the United States is ratified, Costa Rica's Foreign Trade Ministry admitted in a message released on Friday.  The document, addressed to Costa Rican Dr. Rodrigo Cabezas, a thorax surgeon, is signed by Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz and says these human organs would be marketed just like any other product in international trade.

In April 2007, the surgeon consulted the Foreign Trade Ministry over the meaning of item 30019010 of Appendix 3.3 of the CAFTA-DR (Central American Free Trade Agreement, plus Dominican Republic).  “For this given product,Costa Rica agreed to remove the import tariff under the free trade agreement,” Ruiz replied on May 15.

This recognition that CAFTA would include marketing of human organs has prompted even more controversy in this Central American country.  Former executive president of the Costa Rican Social Security Institute, Guido Miranda, criticized this inclusion.

“Imagine, if a rich US patient in a clinic needs an organ, where will they go find it first?” he wondered.

*************************************************

TLC con EE.UU promueve tráfico de órganos humanos

Isabel Soto Mayedo, Redacción Central, (PL) Huesos, órganos y tejidos humanos tampoco escapan de la lógica mercantil que atraviesa el acuerdo presentado bajo el eufemismo de Tratado de Libre Comercio entreCentroamérica, República Dominicana y Estados Unidos.

El convenio, cuyo texto será sometido a referendo el 7 de octubre en Costa Rica, prevé el tráfico y comercialización de estas partes del cuerpo humano como artículos de exportación y libres de impuestos en el ítem 30019010, delAnexo 3.3.

Marcos Vinicio, ministro de Comercio Exterior de ese país, admitió que de aprobarse el documento esas partes humanas serán negociadas como cualquier mercancía del comercio internacional.

En respuesta escrita al médico costarricense Rodrigo Cabezas, el funcionario confirmó además que “para este producto en particular, Costa Rica acordó eliminar el arancel de importación de esta mercancía a la entrada envigencia de este Tratado”.

El mensaje gubernamental DM-0592-7, fechado el 15 de mayo de 2007, despertó la indignación de varios galenos y se sumó a los argumentos manejados por quienes luchan contra la aplicación del TLC y recogidos por varios medios decomunicación.

Guido Miranda, ex presidente de la Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social, criticó el reconocimiento por parte de esa entidad de que el libre comercio aplicaría sobre esas partes del cuerpo humano.

Para el doctor, la legitimación de la comercialización de partes del cuerpo humano como artículos de exportación y libres de impuestos alienta el tráfico de huesos, riñones y otros órganos.

Tal partida, incluida en el texto que profundizó la conflictividad social en la otrora Suiza de Centroamérica, fue calificada de vergonzosa por el galeno Arturo Robles.

El ex presidente del Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos consideró que ello atenta contra el principio de ética y moral del que hacer profesional: “metieron los huesos, órganos y tejidos humanos como si fueran latas desardinas o palos de escoba”, reaccionó.

Miranda cuestionó cómo se van a obtener esos órganos, aunque el semanario Informa-tico recordó que en Costa Rica operan instituciones promotoras de esas actividades, como es el caso de un banco de sangre del cordón umbilicalde los recién nacidos.

Ese centro cobra 100 dólares mensuales por resguardar las células madres de los niños para utilizarlas, en el futuro, para enfrentar enfermedades, reflejó la publicación.

Rodrigo Gutiérrez, decano de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad San Judas Tadeo, declaró que el tema del comercio de órganos es solamente un ejemplo dentro de un proceso económico que propició la transformación de la salud en una mercancía.

La donación de órganos históricamente constituyó un acto humanitario y de alto espíritu. Sin embargo, con lo establecido en el TLC con Estados Unidos esas partes del cuerpo serán exportados y el costo ascenderá a miles de dólares, alertó Robles.

===

WHAT TO DO?  “YES, ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE”

Despite this brutal news, another world is possible, and many people across the globe are working for it.

YES, ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE:  Rights Action, along with other organizers, are now working to prepare for the III Americas Social Forum (FSA-Guatemala)

to be held in Guatemala City, October 7-12, 2008.  This event is expected to attract approximately 30,000 people.  MORE INFORMATION – FSA-Guatemala:info@rightsaction.org.

NEXT STEPS

A range of Guatemalan and non-Guatemalan groups are working now, legally and politically, to try and remedy the children trafficking crimes.  Funds are needed.  We will continue to report on this.

TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS (to Rights Action)

To support community-based human rights, development and environment organizations, make your tax-deductible donation payable to “Rights Action”

and mail to: UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887; CANADA:509 St. Clair Ave W, box73527, Toronto ON, M6C-1C0.  CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS:

This article appeared in The Guardian (23-07-07) about the case of the murder of Guatemalan trade unionist Pedro Zamora.

Just catching up on articles on Guatemala in the UK press. This article was published at the beginning of the month (02-07-07) in The Guardian. It is a really interesting and moving look at the experience of adoption in the UK of a child of Guatemalan origin – “When Kate Hadley adopted her Guatemalan daughter, they both enjoyed becoming part of a new, mixed-race family – but there were unexpected hazards“: