Maya people's long struggle for rights
Returned from a visit to Guatemala, ERIC EARLEY reports on the situation of
that country's indigenous people.
The indigenous people of Guatemala and the Aborigines of Australia have many
things in common. The colonial legacy in both countries is one of a deprived
people fighting for equality, human rights and cultural survival.
In Guatemala there is an ``equality'' of sorts: access to education, health
services and equal citizenship rights. However, most classes in
Spanish-speaking schools average 40 pupils while those in indigenous schools
average 60 pupils.
In the indigenous schools, approximately half the teachers are indigenous.
The pupils are taught in their own language, with Spanish as a second
language. But although they are 70% of the population, indigenous people are
only about 20% of university students.
A wealthy 5% of the population own 90% of the land. On the fertile coastal
plains, some farms are as large as the cattle stations of outback Australia.
They are owned by the descendants of the conquistadors, army generals,
Guatemalan and US companies. In true banana republic fashion they produce
beef, cotton, coffee and fruit with cheap labour for the US market.
The Maya and other indigenous people farm small subsistence holdings in the
mountains. Women and children weave cloth and produce beautiful traditional
clothing for the tourist trade. It is a common sight to see a tourist haggle
over the price of a coloured embroidered garment that they may have taken
hours or days to produce.
The indigenes of Peten watch as their forests are logged for valuable
rainforest timbers. Polished furniture, doors and other products are
produced with exploited labour and exported to the USA.
Like the Australian Aborigines, the indigenous people of Guatemala today
seek justice and a more equitable share in the nation's wealth. In the past,
for them to demonstrate or to demand equality - let alone land rights -
meant ruthless persecution.
Rigoberta Mench # the Nobel prize winner, had to live in exile for years
because her fight for the indigenous people brought threats to her life by
the notorious death squads.
Military and police death squads have been responsible for the disappearance
and deaths of hundreds of unionists, professionals and peasants who dared to
organise or protest against the unjust society. The military and police were
used to break strikes, demonstrations and to terrorise the population.
The recent Mabo decision of the Australian High Court recognised native
title to land. It means that for the first time in 200 years since the
British conquest, the dispossessed Aborigines have the right to claim and
gain title to their tribal lands.
In Guatemala the indigenous people have formed a Permanent National Assembly
of the Maya People to seek reforms of the law and the policies of the major
political parties. The assembly wants an end to the facade of democracy and
the inclusion of the Maya people in constructive change.
In 1985 clauses were added to the country's constitution to protect
indigenous communities. This was a paternalistic gesture that has not
improved Maya living conditions.
The indigenous people of Colombia have been granted 18 million hectares over
the past four years, in Bolivia 2 million hectares. In Guatemala the figure
is nil.