Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA)
(This is the introduction to a three-part series of interviews with social leaders. The first part of the three-part interview series is being published below the introduction. The subsequent two parts will be published in subsequent issues of Janata Weekly.)
On January 14, Bernardo Arévalo will be inaugurated as Guatemala’s next president. In the nearly five months since his upstart win against an establishment politician, maneuvers aimed at blocking his rise to power have repeatedly called the peaceful transfer of power into question. Last month, however, the Constitutional Court affirmed support for “the effective inauguration of all elected officials.” Now, days ahead of his swearing-in, Arévalo and his party Movimiento Semilla announced their administrative cabinet in a highly anticipated reveal.
In recent months, murmurs between Guatemalan academics, analysts, and reporters speculated as to why Arévalo and his party waited so long to confirm the incoming public officials. One reason, perhaps, was the difficulty of negotiating and nominating individuals for a transitionary government. Another likely reason was the prolonged offensive against Semilla waged by conservative political elites in what has been an extraordinarily hostile election cycle.
For those who came to defend the peaceful transition of state power, however, the cabinet reinforces the need to continue the struggle to strengthen Guatemala’s democracy. “We regret that the government-elect has not seized the historic opportunity to form an inclusive cabinet,” the Indigenous authorities known as the 48 Cantones of Totonicapán said in a statement, highlighting the “vital” need for “participation” of the Maya, Garífuna, and Xinka peoples.
Established in 2017 on an anti-graft platform, Semilla emerged in fertile soil for a democratic spring. In August 2023, Arévalo and his center-left grassroots party took national and international audiences by surprise when they won the presidential election with 60 percent of the popular vote. But for members of what’s known in Guatemala as the Pacto de Corruptos (Pact of the Corrupt)—an increasingly dense and powerful shadow network of corrupt public officials—Semilla threatened the status quo.
Establishment forces swiftly ramped up a legal and political assault to scrap the results and strip Semilla of its legitimacy. There have been at least four serious attempts to overturn the elections, the most egregious being the sacking “thousands” of validated national ballots by the Ministerio Público (MP), the very institution in charge of criminal investigation and prosecution.
On October 2, 2023, Indigenous authorities known as the 48 Cantones of Totonicapán declared an indefinite national strike against the Pacto de Corruptos. In response to the onslaught of political persecution of Semilla affiliates, the 48 Cantones demanded the restoration of Guatemalan democracy and called upon the public to join them in demanding the resignation of three MP officials in charge of leading a slow-motion judicial coup, including Attorney General María Consuelo Porras.
When Indigenous authorities issued the call for a national strike, people did not occupy Guatemala’s national plaza, in the political heart of the nation’s capital, as has been the case in previous major mobilizations, like the massive 2015 anti-corruption protests. Instead, the nation took cues from Indigenous groups, whose political strategy had been to shut down a critical commercial highway that intersects their ancestral territories. As the country exploded in protest, thousands of residents took to the streets and set up bloqueos (blockades) in their own neighborhoods and along local highways. At its height, the decentralized #ParoNacionalIndefinido (#IndefiniteNationalStrike) reached more than one hundred blockades throughout the country.
The unforeseen mobilization brought a complete shutdown of commercial and individual mobility. Banners and signs hanging from bridges and other public spaces rejoiced in revolutionary slogans. Perhaps more importantly, the pause in the normal shipment of food and other goods was met with a proliferation of community kitchens that fed thousands of people nearly for free. Doctors volunteered their time to staff medical tents. For a moment, local and grassroots leadership had triumphed.
The fact that even Guatemala City—where the nation’s ladino population and conservative political elites are concentrated—joined the resistance testified to the power of Indigenous leadership and campesino consciousness. Ethnically mixed and working-class neighborhoods, such as La Bethania, a 20th-century social housing project turned settlement community now at the margins of urban development, were among the most dedicated of communities to local protest, proving that political resistance could bridge a longstanding urban-rural divide.
In November, after three weeks of a widespread shutdown, Indigenous authorities reconsidered the strategy for the indefinite national strike. While much of the country returned to work, Indigenous authorities, in collaboration with the 48 Cantones, expanded a united, peaceful protest camp pitched outside of the MP. The MP is the linchpin of the Pacto de Corruptos’ strategy of lawfare against not only Semilla, but any group or individual obstructing their interests. As such, Indigenous authorities were quick to clarify that their call to action was not necessarily an endorsement of Semilla per se, but rather in defense of Semilla’s right to take power. In other words, the national indefinite strike was in defense of democracy, a nonpartisan demand for a functional state.
Indigenous-Led Politics from Below
International coverage of Guatemala over the last six months has focused primarily on the administrative actions and reactions by corrupt state officials, efforts by Semilla to resist the assault, and reactions and involvement of the international community, primarily that of the Organization of American States (OAS). While these are some of the indisputably critical elements of this political moment, there are various forms of social and political struggle that precede—and will outlive—any single political moment or party.
The same Indigenous coalitions, movements, and authorities that are on the frontlines of the indefinite national strike are also at the forefront of movements for transitional justice, territorial defense, and migrant rights. Their struggles precede the latest electoral tumult not only by decades but by generations. For more than five centuries, the Indigenous peoples of Guatemala have struggled against conquest, genocide, theft, racism, and repression. State corruption is simply the most recent iteration in this long battle for self-determination.
In a series of three interviews, we discuss these themes with organizations that NISGUA has partnered with for decades, each involved in the indefinite national strike in their own way: the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), the International Mayan League, and the Xinka Parliament.
The Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) is organized by Maya Indigenous survivors of state-sponsored genocide and massacres during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict. They conduct exhumations of relatives who were disappeared and massacred, and defend survivors’ rights to testimony and historical memory. The AJR was a plaintiff in the 2013 trial that found former dictator General Efraín Ríos Montt guilty of genocide. It is currently a plaintiff in ongoing trials against former dictator General Fernando Romeo Lucas García on charges of genocide and against four former high-ranking military officers on a variety of war crimes.
The International Mayan League (IML) is a women- and youth-led organization at the forefront of political, cultural, social, and spiritual preservation among Maya migrant communities. Organized by Maya peoples forcibly displaced during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict, IML participated in negotiations of the Guatemalan peace accords. The organization has since created the first language interpretation program for Maya migrants in the mid-Atlantic United States, built strategic alliances with Indigenous peoples in North America, started education programs to raise awareness about the reasons why Indigenous peoples are forced to migrate, and more.
The Xinka Parliament is the assembly of ancestral authorities of the Xinka people. It is responsible for preserving the cultural, spiritual, territorial, and social integrity of the Xinka people. This has led to its active leadership in territorial defense struggles, most notably the successful temporary suspension of the Escobal mine, owned by a transnational silver mining corporation, through peaceful community resistance, domestic legal action, and international lobbying. In 2024, the Xinka people enter a community consultation process about the mine in accordance with the right to free, prior, and informed consent. The Xinka Parliament is a convening organization of the indefinite national strike.
Each interview offers insight and perspective from Indigenous leadership on the political moment leading up to President Arévalo’s inauguration, but also on how the challenges and mobilizations during this election cycle fit into the broader historical and political context of Indigenous struggles in Guatemala.
We conducted these conversations in the second month of the now more than three-month-long national strike. But our interviewees’ reflections take on renewed significance in light of Arévalo’s cabinet appointments. Although reactions are still unfolding, across the board Semilla supporters have conveyed disappointment with a cabinet that lacks the revolutionary potential the party once promoted. The 14 ministers—seven men and seven women—range from technocrats to previously appointed officials with ties to the private sector, corruption allegations, and state repression. While some observers excuse the deceptive appointments as a consequence of the limits of a transitionary government, others rightly highlight the lack of Indigenous representation—an affront to the 100 days (and counting) of dignified resistance led by Indigenous authorities. According to the 48 Cantones, this oversight is noted “especially in the ministries of Economy, Education, Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, Communications, and Energy and Mines, since they are ministries of utmost importance for the development of our communities.”
Together, the interviews in this series affirm that the indefinite national strike is the blooming of seeds planted by ancestors decades ago, as well as the confirmation that springtime is on the horizon. The coming spring can be facilitated by governments, but it exists beyond them, too. Indigenous peoples have preserved, planted, and tended seeds of life for 500 years, under both favorable and adverse governments. With Arévalo’s cabinet appointments suggesting a deferral of revolutionary change for the next four years, a longstanding teaching from Indigenous leaders comes to the fore: structural change and justice lie outside of electoral politics. As Indigenous-led resistance persists on the eve of a historic presidential inauguration, whatever the next months and years bring for Guatemala, the seeds of the present are full of promise for the future.
Part 1: “The People Are Willing to Continue”
(This interview is the first of a three-part series of conversations with Guatemala activists. The next two parts will be published in coming issues of Janata Weekly.)
[Shade underneath a white tent, pitched close to a humble stage in front of the Ministerio Público (MP) in Guatemala City, keeps members of the Xinka Parliament from burning under the setting sun. Equipped with a microphone and speaker, community members take turns making political demands and sharing words of encouragement with fellow demonstrators gathered to resist attacks on Guatemala’s democracy. A banner that hangs from the tent memorializes the recent murder of Noé Gómez Barrera, a Xinka Parliament member and outspoken environmental activist.
The Xinka Parliament is the assembly of ancestral authorities of the Xinka people. Formed in 2004, the Xinka Parliament has been on the frontlines of territorial defense against the transnational Escobal silver mine. As part of this struggle, the Xinka have faced official denial of their existence as an Indigenous people, despite holding centuries-old titles to some of their lands. In the past two decades, 14 Xinka leaders have been killed for defending their territories and another 200 have been criminalized.
Among their most recent struggles, the Xinka Parliament joined other Indigenous authorities like the 48 Cantones of Totonicapán in convening a national strike in support of a peaceful transition of state power on January 14, 2024. This interview is part of a three-part interview series with Indigenous leadership during the Indefinite National Strike, launched on October 2, 2023.
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez is an authority of the Xinka Parliament, whose involvement with the organization began as a local representative for environmental defense in his hometown community of Mataquescuintla, Jalapa nearly 12 years ago. Luis Fernando García is a graduating student of law at the autonomous University of San Carlos (USAC). Both have been present at the resistance in front of the MP since day one.
We spoke with Rodríguez and García outside the MP on November 9, 2023, day 39 of the ongoing national strike (103 days at the time of publication). Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.]
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NISGUA: The Xinka people have prioritized work towards strengthening the Xinka Parliament and the defense of the territory. What have been the greatest achievements of the Xinka Parliament since its founding? What have been some of the main challenges?
Luis Fernando García: One of the largest silver mining projects in the world has been halted. Since 2017, there have been two permanent resistance movements demanding that the state comply with a historic 2018 ruling, which directly orders the state and the mining company to hold a [community] consultation and temporarily suspend the Escobal mining project.
Before that, we had to come sleep for 10 months outside the Constitutional Court because the state refused [to halt the mining project]. One of the arguments directly from the state and the mining company was that there were no Indigenous populations in the area. The objective was to ignore the consulting process by saying: “Since there is no Indigenous population, we do not need to carry out a community consultation.” A ruling [favorable to the Xinka Parliament] was achieved, and we are now in the second phase of compliance with that ruling. We are already in the process of ensuring that the parties involved in the consultation, the ministries, deliver the information.
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez: We know that the political system is corrupted, all government bodies have been co-opted. We understand that the criminalization in our country is huge. We are not afraid because we know that we have [previously] had good people in ministries like the MP, but we know that [many people] have been exiled for opposing the system, and, unfortunately, today we don’t have them here. Anyone who opposes the corrupt system is criminalized. We know that we are in the struggle, and we believe that God will be with us. The day must come when we achieve many things that are of interest for all the people of Guatemala.
NISGUA: Recently pro-democratic parties like Movimiento Semilla have come to power in other Latin American countries, such as Colombia and Brazil. What is the Xinka Parliament’s perspective on the recent elections in Guatemala, and what do you expect or want to see from Bernardo Arévalo’s administration in the coming years?
LFG: The majority of the population that went to the polls voted with consciousness for [the party Movimiento Semilla]. We hope that they do the job as it should be done, although we understand that there are many issues that must change here to improve the system in Guatemala. With the arrival of this new government, we don’t expect change overnight, but we will have to keep working, continuing to make proposals from the grassroots bases of Indigenous peoples.
Something very important that has been said is that this government is going to govern directly hand in hand with the people. So, we hope that this will be the case with this new cycle, with this new government. And yes, definitely, the communities hope that with this government they can also [achieve] the resignation [of the Pact of the Corrupt].
MAR: I believe that the political system is doing everything it is doing against the Semilla party because Semilla was not part of the Pact of the Corrupt. If there had been a representative in the Pact of the Corrupt, I think things would’ve stayed silent, no? So, I think, it would be understandable that [the Pact] are afraid that things could change for them. For that same reason, many of us understand that we could have change in Guatemala. We know that it is not so easy to put up a fight in a co-opted country. I believe that it will not be easy for a party within [the state], but I believe that laying a foundation would also be significant for the country of Guatemala.
NISGUA: The 48 Cantones, together with other Indigenous and ancestral authorities, called for an indefinite national strike for democracy and against corrupt actors who violate the democratic process. What horizons and what possibilities do you anticipate for the future of Guatemala and for the Xinka Parliament after all this is over?
LFG: Right now the whole outlook is uncertain. There would be no concrete answer to this question because this entire situation has been quite heavy for Indigenous peoples. Coming here to protest has been quite complicated, but the people are not tired. The people are willing to continue coming as many times as necessary. We hope that in the next few days our objective will be achieved and then it will definitely be a different outlook. It must be built and analyzed together.
MAR: The struggle belongs to the 22 departments of Guatemala. There are links with all the ancestral authorities of the Indigenous peoples, so it is a hope for Guatemala.
NISGUA: Without yet knowing what is going to happen at this moment, what is the long-term future of Guatemala and what should the fight for justice, life and dignity be like?
LFG: Everything depends on the state through its three powers. We should legislate in a better way. The truth is that we have good laws, a good constitution, but unfortunately our justice system is applied in an erroneous manner. It is [applied] directly to always favor those who have the most money in this country.
I would hope that, in some future, this will change. That there will be judges who are more socially conscious, an MP that investigates all the facts, regardless of whether the person who is a victim of violence or rights violations, and who does not have the necessary resources, is treated as equal. The future is definitely uncertain; there is no place to fit in and somehow seek to be able to work transparently. A change is necessary, and we hope that, as Don Miguel said, good foundations can be obtained for a definitive change in this state.
MAR: We need governments that also take into account the Indigenous peoples, the ancestral authorities. I believe that in order to have clear communication and be able to lay good foundations, there would have to be a lot of participation from Indigenous peoples, that they should let them participate.
NISGUA: Is there anything you would like to share or communicate with the international community who are also involved in their own social and political movements for justice?
LFG: I think it is time for a change not only for Guatemala, but for more countries that also suffer from this parasite, which kills more every day. For example, here in Guatemala, it is unfortunate that we talk about a country in the grips of malnutrition knowing that we have sufficient resources here, but most of the resources are stolen by the state itself. Schools are in total abandonment. You go to the hospital with uncertainty that, if I go to a public hospital, I will die because there are no doctors to treat me or because there is no medicine.
I think, at the international level, it is known that the majority of public officials here in Guatemala are on the Engel List. It is complicated because we know that—despite being presidents that were elected by the people, being congressmen who were elected by the people, mayors elected by the people—they do not legislate in favor of the people but rather they legislate in favor of their own whims or in favor of businesspeople or others who have paid for most of their campaign expenses or to whom they owe favors. So, it’s unfortunate how we are today, here in Guatemala, but we hope for a change.
And to the eyes of the international community that are vigilant, that are in some way speaking out in favor of Indigenous authorities, we definitely know that all of us who participate in these movements could be at risk. We could be under some threat. So communications, displays of solidarity with the people of Guatemala are very important in these difficult times.
Indigenous authorities have their own forms of government, their own form of representation through their own customs from their communities. These authorities that today represent and have been representing Guatemala work directly on a voluntary basis for their communities and are the most honest people there are because they are elected under assemblies and do what the assemblies order them to do. Thus, it is very important to clarify that all the authorities or all the people who demonstrate here are not paid. It is not even a little, small amount. It is the people of Guatemala, who move on their own terms, with their own resources and who want to see a change for this country.
MAR: I think it is time to invite the entire population that up until now has not joined in the struggle. We know that we are in the struggle to defend our democracy. It is not as they paint us, that we are being paid. There are many critiques. I believe it is time for us to be intelligent citizens, for us to investigate and call all Christians as well, to join the struggle because we know that we are fighting for a legacy for our future generations, that we want to leave them a better country.
And to other countries, mainly those of Latin America, may we come together in this effort, may we unite every day to counteract corruption. I believe that together, we will achieve many good things.
(The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) is a historic solidarity organization working since 1981 to build and strengthen ties between the people of the United States and Guatemala in the global struggle for justice, human dignity, and respect for the Earth. Courtesy: The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1966 to examine and critique U.S. imperialism and political, economic, and military intervention in the Western hemisphere.)
