Racism and the Race for Natural Resources: Guatemala Update 2011

dublin | miscellaneous | event notice Monday October 10, 2011 16:10 by LASC - LASC info at lasc dot ie 5 Merrion row, D2 01-6760435

Talk by returned activist Tanya O'Sullivan
LASC Offices (5 Merrion Row, Dublin 2)
Thursday 20th October, 18:30 pm

2011 an election year for Guatemala; political and social actors are being targeted more frequently. In the midst of the increasing levels of violence, the land issue rages on. Human rights promoters with environmental concerns are positioned as a threat to economic growth and even to national security.

From outside the conflict looks incomprehensible; a convoluted storm of random attacks, a game of monopoly in the dark. While various organizations are working to illuminate the past, history unravels to reveal the players and their interests. I begin to understand where politicians find their support base and how they legitimize their leadership. I see their targets; land, economic power and, whether or not democratic, political justification. It becomes clear what tools are used to attain these goals. Hiding atrocities of the past is made easy by a broken down justice system, high levels of racism and low levels of education. Funding for political campaigns is made easy by alliances with land owners or large multinationals that are exploiting the natural resources in Guatemala.

The violence that continues to wreck the country is simultaneously a tool to gain control in black market economy and an excuse to blame opponents, the media is used to repeat the same lies over and over at high volume, frequency and size to reinvent the past, religion is used to place the responsibility with those entities of other realms. What is not easy for the players in the game for power is the shear numbers of people that have made themselves heard and are willing to take action to be heard again, the will to survive poverty and genocide, the demands for justice, transparency, autonomy, and for the realization of national and international laws defending the rights and territory of the indigenous population.

The candidates set for the bi-election are both ex-military men. The favorite; Otto Perez Molina has publicly challenged that genocide ever occurred in Guatemala. A troublesome thorn in his side is the evidence and the witness’. Many are willing to continue risking their lives in search of justice.