By: Jefferson Tyler Francisco
Vilma Guadalupe Dimas
Jose Miguel Dimas
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Photos from the Protest and Violence
These photographs were given to us by a young man from Totonicapán. Please contact us for more information regarding the photographer.
Demonstrators gathered at five different points along the
highway. This photograph was taken at the entrance to Santa Caterina Ixtahuacan
where soldiers opened fire on the crowd.
Immediately
following the attack, Otto Perez and his Defense Minister, Ulises Anzueto,
claimed that the soldiers were not armed.
Violence
in Totonicapán
The
photographer edited this photograph.
(Right corner) You can see soldiers firing at unarmed demonstrators. (Lower left corner) The text reads: The
rights to public assembly and demonstration cannot be restricted, diminished,
or inhibited. -Article 33 of the
Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala: The right to assembly and
demonstration.
In
March, Defense Minister Ulises Anzueto stated that the 35-year-old US arms
embargo against Guatemala was “thinking anchored in the past.” He claimed that the army
has become professional since the civil war (1960-1996), and the US should
allow weapons sales to flow to Guatemala once again.
Eyewitness Accounts of the Totonicapán Masssacre
Eyewitness
Accounts of the Totonicapán Masssacre
Jefferson Tyler
Francisco
jeffersont.francisco@gmail.com November 1, 2012
Gert Rosenthal,
Guatemala’s UN representative and this month’s President of the Security
Council, spoke out against violence in his presidential statement on October 19. He
called attention to “attacks on the civilian population, the United Nations’
peacekeepers and humanitarian actors, as well as abuses of human rights.” He
was condemning the M23 Congo Rebels, not the state violence being perpetrated
against the Maya of his homeland Guatemala.
On October 4, 2012
Guatemalan soldiers opened fire on peaceful demonstrators in Totonicapán, Guatemala
killing 8 and wounding at least 40. Thousands of Maya men and women had blocked
the Interamerican Highway that leads to Guatemala City. A wounded man explained
that, “We were demanding our rights. We were demanding “No” to the constitutional
reform. “No” to the 5 years for
undergraduate teaching programs. And
“No” to the rise in electricity costs.”
Representatives
from Totonicapán’s Maya communities planned to meet with the government that
day to begin a dialogue on these issues. The roadblock was part of a strategy
to prevent the government from balking at or stalling negotiations. When their
representatives send word that negotiations are legitimate and working out,
they open the road and allow traffic to continue. It is a peaceful means of demonstrating
and forcing the government to listen to their representatives.
The Protest and The Violence
In the early
afternoon, soldiers arrived and attacked the demonstrators. Five eyewitnesses
who were wounded by gunfire spoke with us about the protest and violence. They
made it clear that it was a peaceful and unarmed demonstration. As one of the
wounded put it, “We felt the need to demand our
rights, express our disagreement. That is why we went on Thursday. We were
protesting peacefully, calmly you know.” Nevertheless,
soldiers and anti-riot police fired tear gas and bullets into the crowd. As one
of the wounded described it, “the truth is that when the riot police and
soldiers arrived, all at once they arrived to attack the people. And they didn’t want anything. All at once they
arrived and fired tear gas and suddenly they started shooting.” Another wounded stated , “I saw that they were soldiers. They were well armed and well equipped. And
we didn´t have anything to defend ourselves.
That’s why so many died.” Another explained the arrival of more
soldiers, “After that, another military truck arrived. When they arrived, they
also arrived to shoot directly at the people. They arrived. They shot directly
at the people.” The stories of these
wounded men do not differ. In fact, they corroborate one another.
The Reforms and Their Demands
The 48 Cantones of Totonicapán
are asking the government to prevent an educational reform that would add two
years to undergraduate teaching programs. The change would make it more
difficult for indigenous people to become teachers. One of the wounded summed
it up saying, “They raised it to 5 years that our
children will have to study. And we do not want that. We are poor. Where are we
going to get the money?” They are also asking to prevent
constitutional reforms that could further marginalize the Maya from the state’s
decision-making processes. The 48 Cantones also demand changes to government
policy on electrification in the region. The privatization of the electricity
distribution sector took place in 1998. The people of Totonicapán claim that
the transnational corporation Energuate is raising the already abusive
electricity fees while offering poor and inadequate service.
The Effects of State
Violence
The
effects of state violence can be devastating for both social movements as a
whole and for the individuals. One of the wounded described what appears to be
shell shock (PTSD), “What happened is very sad. The truth is, you continue with
these painful memories of what happened that day. When you remember it, you feel
like you are in that place. It is like you are still in that place, but only in
your mind.”
The
demonstration was a direct response to reforms and the privatization of
electricity services. However, it is important to understand that the Maya also
represent Guatemala’s largest opposition to metals mining, hydroelectric dams,
highway construction projects, massive African Palm plantations, agrochemicals,
etc. All of this activity displaces indigenous communities and damages
important ecosystems. Nonetheless, enormous profits are at stake. The Maya
represent the largest opposition to those who make lots of money with these
projects.
Large
demonstrations have been held in many of the country’s major cities to express
solidarity with Totonicapán. The leaders of the 48 Cantones of Totonicapán met
with the government to discuss the violence and their communities’
demands.
The
president Otto Perez Molina plans to visit Totonicapán November 21. It will be
a very tense meeting, as most people in Totonicapán are calling for the
president’s resignation. Many feel the president and Defense Minister are
responsible. They point to the president’s military history. He was a high
ranking general during the country’s civil war. Otto Perez Molina is suspected
of ordering the mass slaughter of the Maya people in southwestern Guatemala.
One young man in the hospital pointed out that, “This government is already
accustomed to killing people. In the 80s it was him [President Otto Perez] who
was in charge of the slaughter that took place in the entire south west of
Guatemala. He was the one who murdered a lot of people. That is why he is
already used to it. He wanted to do the same to us.”
One
man in the town square explained his disappointment with the Public
Prosecutor’s decision to arrest the soldiers and Colonel Juan Chiroy. “I regret
to hear information coming from the newspapers and President Otto Pérez Molina
when they say that soldiers are being turned in for investigation by the Public
Prosecutor’s Office and that the weight of the law falls upon them. Men and
women of the media, you have to know how to listen and determine one
thing. Because the soldiers did not come
on their own. They were ordered. They were sent, practically by the president who is the commander
of the army. I think that the weight of the law should fall on the president,
who technically is the one who ordered this.” He went
on to add that, “May these words make it to the ears of the Minister of the
Interior that has come to belittle the
Guatemalan people, not only Totonicapán.
I believe that Guatemala should cry out today and denounce what the
Minister of the Interior has always said, that he will continue to remove and
disrupt by any means, because the
law is in his hands. But the law is not
for killing. The law is not for
violating the rights of Guatemalan citizens. And wherever we can, we should
act.”
WATCH THE FULL
REPORT WITH EYEWITNESS TESTIMONIES AND PHOTOGRAPHS
See, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx_JNwadyAw (English)
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