On
Mar. 15, Capilano University’s Liberal Studies program played host to activist
and writer Alicia Gladman for a discussion on the current political issues
occurring in Guatemala. These issues include colonization, sustainability, and
land struggles. While Gladman wasn’t in the country for very long, and makes it
clear that she is not an expert on the area, her experience taught her a great
deal, both about herself and about the world around her.
“It
started with me wanting to learn Spanish. The organization I work for in
Vancouver is called Our Community Bikes; we’re affiliated with an organization
there that builds pedal-powered machines like water pumps and things like that
in Guatemala. So, that was my initial interest - learning Spanish and doing
bike mechanics,” said Gladman. “While I was in Spanish school, I encountered
the organization I ended up going into the smaller communities with and getting
involved with land rights.”
This
organization, called the Guatemalan Solidarity Project (GSP) is an organization
that “seeks to build relationships of solidarity with communities and
organizations in the struggle for peace and justice in Guatemala,” as explained
on their mission statement on their website. Their interests are in human
rights and land rights, especially for the indigenous peoples of Guatemala.
A
part of the GSP’s initiatives is what they call “Human Rights Accompaniment”,
which is what Gladman was involved with. This project has foreign “tourists”
observe and accompany indigenous communities during crucial times such as going
into negotiations with the government.
“There’s
a lot of political tension, and a lot of violence … but there’s a safety net
that exists around tourists in that country,” said Gladman. “It’s a tricky
thing when you’re travelling in a country that’s lower on the global hierarchy.
I come from a country that has more clout than Guatemala, so I think there’s a
fear of some economic retribution, or they’ll get bad PR [if a foreigner gets
hurt] and that Canadians will be less likely to be tourists there.”
Indigenous
peoples in Guatemala have long had conflicts with the government. From 1960 to
1996, the situation escalated to become a civil war: “The war started because
there was no political room to move, no change happening, and a lot of
indigenous people were frustrated at being enslaved by this rigid class and
ethnic hierarchy,” said Gladman.
The
war ended in 1996 with a “peace accord”, something that was a cause of much
hope for the indigenous. “The peace accords were signed on the basis that they
[the government] were going to redistribute land and start having conversations
about land reform and indigenous rights across the board. It started to happen
for a few years, but then things started to fall back to the status quo around
Y2K.”
While
the peace accord may have been a legitimate attempt by the government of that time
to make reparations for abuses against the indigenous peoples, it was not a
legally-binding document in any way – it was merely an agenda for what was going
to be discussed.
In the meantime, the burgeoning environmental movement provided an opportunity
for the government to make massive profits by planting African Palm, from which
biodiesel is produced.
“All
of a sudden the government and the major landholders realized that they could
do much better by removing people from their land and [replanting] it as
African Palm instead of engaging in any kind of political dialogue,” said
Gladman. “Just like any government, they end up having the trump card. You can
compare it to the indigenous reserves in Canada: there’s an amendment to the
Indian Act that says that the government has the right to expropriate this land
at any time. [Only] until it’s convenient for the government, the people who
live there can stay.” Some of the communities were successful, at least in
getting the companies or the government to the table for discussion. Gladman
acted as the “human rights accompaniment” during one of these negotiations.
“What
[the indigenous groups] said at that meeting was ‘we want land,’ or ‘we need
somewhere to farm and live.’ What the company offered them was temporary jobs.
If they went quietly, they would be hired by the company to dismantle their
villages, and then plant African Palm. Then their jobs would end quite quickly
after that. The government representatives were incredibly evasive at that
meeting.” She added that these negotiations can be somewhat lopsided at times,
due to the lack of education, literacy, or money for lawyers among the
indigenous populations.
Gladman
believes that the situation may be becoming as bad as it was before 1996, as
some groups have resorted to desperate measures: “It seems to me that they’re
being pushed in the same direction of having no room to move politically … [One
group] had taken a politician hostage, which actually started the negotiation,
and they ended up gaining title to their land,” she said.
“I
think it’s just that there’s nowhere else to go,” she said. She went on to
explain how these groups had been working for such a long time to even get the
government to listen: “March to September is a long time to starve. They’d had
their crops bulldozed, and they had no resources at hand. There does come a
point where you just need some leverage.”
As
for the future, Guatemala has recently elected a militaristic former general as
its President; however, as long as there is hope, people continue to fight. “My
fear is that the African Palm plantations will deplete the soil, and then
there’ll be nothing left. It’ll be really hard to scratch a living out of
that,” said Gladman. “Hopefully things will turn around before then.”
As
for reflecting on her personal experience of her time in Guatemala, Gladman
recognized that it has made a personal impact on her as well, but she quickly
brings the discussion back to the issue itself: “It was interesting for me
because it’s not my life. I think it’s strange being a privileged tourist in a
place that is facing a lot of struggles that I’ll never have to go through,”
she said. “It’s all part of this system; this is how capitalism works. It’s
veiled if you’re in Canada, but it’s not so much veiled there. We’re all
participating in feeding into it.”
//Gurpreet Kambo, news editor
//Gurpreet Kambo, news editor
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