8 March 2010 | Interviews | Human rights
From resistance to power
Guatemala: Interview with Domingo Ixcoy, 30 years after the declaration of Iximché
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Organizations in Guatemala reported a second version of the Declaration of Iximche, written in 1980 to expose the massacres suffered by the indigenous and peasant communities at the time. It was the first reaction after the killing of 37 indigenous in the Spanish embassy in Guatemala on January 31 of that year, ordered by General Romeo Lucas Garcia, who ruled the country from 1978 to 1982.
Besides paying tribute to the victims, the second declaration of Iximche states that the situation of abuse and persecution against social activists is still the same.
They speak about the eviction from their lands by “national and foreign rich”, of the state’s complicity with foreign corporations and the criminalization of the social movement by Alvaro Colom’s government.
“The situation for our Mayan people from now on is very clear: the State will continue dividing our communities to weaken the resistance, it will continue to use the impoverishment of our peoples to their advantage.
Instead of respecting them,they will mock the dignity of our peoples”, reads the communique.
They were specifically making reference to things like the appointment of an ambassador of the indigenous peoples and the recent signing of the Free Trade Agreement with Chile in Tikal, a historical Mayan center.
In 2010 the native communities continue being victims of arbitrary actions committed by corporations like Montana, Cementos Progreso, Maya Níquel, Proyecto Marlin, Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel, ENEL, Minas de Guatemala S.A., Solel Boneh, Proyecto Minero Cerro Blanco, Entre Mares, and hydroelectric corporations: Tres Niñas, Xálala, Palo Viejo, Guatemala Cooper and Compañía Minera El Cóndor.
Photo:indigena.nodo50.org
