A Cinderella Story

Last week I turned 25 and a couple of months earlier I had been really excited about it seeing as it coincided with a day that most of the people would be around. I had imagined that I would arrange a dinner or something and just have a good time with everyone.

But as some of you may know, my health has been a major problem because of a knee infection that sent me to hospital for a week. My illness has consumed a lot of energy and I have been super stressed-out about work trying to make up for lost time.Because of this I lacked both time and energy to arrange anything at all and foresaw that I would spend my birthday running from one thing to the other and still being unable to finish off everything that was on my to do list.

My birthday came, people congratulated me and one of my Spanish friends even sang to me, which I really appreciated. By this time I had really brought my expectations down and had gotten used to the idea that it really would not be a big deal.

In the evening, when I came back from the market, I found Eve alone in the kitchen with too huge pots cooking cauliflower and broccoli. The rest of the house was deserted and when I asked where everyone was she told me sheepishly that she did not know.

Soon enough everyone came back and the action was on. I was kicked out from the dining room and there was feverish activity in the kitchen. When I was let back in, the dining room was decorated with balloons and glitter. Everyone was seated at the table and Eve had cooked a delicious dinner of risotto and broccoli and cauliflower gratin. Someone gave me a clown nose, a crown, a whistle and a pair of oversized sun glasses.

After dinner, they gave me a cake with a candle and I was sung to in all of the languages represented in the room. I was so moved I was almost in tears. Finally, a piñata was hung in the garden. I could not make myself destroy it so I decided to give it some urgent surgery and cut a hole in its stomach to be able to reach in and pull out the candy and the glitter inside it.

With this entry I really would like to thank all of you who were involved in planning and celebrating my birthday. I was such a great surprise and I was so moved by all the work and love. Thank you so much!

Activism in the face of repression

Three months have passed since I came to Guatemala to work as a peace observer, and it has been two months since I updated this blog. In this entry I will fill you in on some of the things I have experienced lately. All names that are used are faked for the safety of the people mentioned.

Criminality - a threat to human rights defenders

The two departments that I mainly work in, Huehuetenango and San Marcos, belong to the Guatemalan highlands and are adjacent to the Mexican state of Chiapas. Both departments are rich in natural resources and the proximity to the boarder lead to the presence of organized crime and smuggling of weapons, narcotics, people, gasoline, eggs and other consumer products. The high level of criminality also means an ever increasing violence, which is a threat to human rights defenders in the region because an attack against them can easily be disguised as common delinquency. 

One such example is the sociologist Emilia Quan Stackmaan who was kidnapped on December 7 2010 and was found dead the next day. On June 6 this year one of the persons indicted for the crime was sentenced to six years of imprisonment. According to the court her murder was executed by a gang that specialized in robbing motorists, but we will probably never find out if there were other motives.

Disease and violence in the wake of the gold mine

The region's wealth of natural resources is a blessing and a curse. There are vast possibilities to extract precious metals and to construct hydroelectric power plants, but unfortunately this wealth is not distributed to the local people. Those living in the proximity of these installations, called mega projects, feel that they have to suffer the negative consequences of the exploitation whereas the benefits end up elsewhere. For this reason the resistance is strong.

An example is the gold mine Marlin in northern San Marcos, which is operated by the Canadian company Goldcorp. According to international law (ILO convention 169), the state of Guatemala has the responsibility to consult indigenous population prior to the exploitation of their land. In spite of this no such consultation was arranged and the gold mine was commissioned in 2005. Since then the mine has been heavily criticized by both national and international environmental and human rights organizations. The pollution of freshwater has lead to serious disease in the affected areas and there have been reports on severe damages to houses as a result of the mining.

Because of the mine, there is a strongly polarized conflict between those who are in favor of the mine and those who work against it. Carlos, who work for an organization that try to raise the awareness of the effects of the mine and defend the rights of those damaged by it, says that he expects that intimidation and harassment will increase in relation to their activity. For safety reasons he has been advised to not go out alone and especially not after dark. Nevertheless, he continues his work.

State of emergency and resistance

Demonstration against the state of emergency in Santa Cruz
Barillas. Photo: Stephan Tschirren.

When I was in Huehuetenango in early May the situation suddenly got tense. Three community leaders who oppose the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in Santa Cruz Barillas were attacked. One of them died as a result of his injuries and the two other were brought to hospital. According to eye-witnesses the perpetrators traveled in vehicles that looked like those belonging to the private security forces employed by the company Hídro Santa Cruz.

The events lead to strong reactions in the city of Barillas that degenerated into vandalism. On the evening of the first of May a state of emergency was issued which made it illegal to meet in groups larger than three persons. In the meantime, arrests and search warrants were conducted. In the city of Huehuetenango, the departmental capital, you could feel the preocupation of the civil society.

Nevertheless, the civil society continue its work and has publicized several press releases that heavily criticize both the company and the actions of the authorities. On May 15, a demonstration was held in Huehuetenango against the state of emergency in Santa Cruz Barillas. Approximately 5 000 people participated and the state of emergency was withdrawn three days later.

Miguel works as communicator and told me jokingly that he only is 21 years old and already has made powerful enemies. However, his smile did not reach his eyes and he is well aware that it may be dangerous to keep such a high profile.

Criminalization is a method used to prevent human rights defenders from doing their work. Basically it means that a human rights defenders get indicted for having committed a crime, for example incitement, and can be subject to arrest warrants and a lengthy legal process – even though there may not exist any evidence supporting the case. According to a report from among others Peace Brigades International criminalization increases in Latin America and especially in cases where economic interests are at stake.

Unhealed wounds from the past

Monument in honor of the victims of the
massacre. Photo: Pernilla Nordvall.

On January 26 this year the ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was accused for genocide and crimes against humanity. We accompany witnesses in a community in northern Huehuetenango who saw how the Guatemalan army murdered their families and burned their homes. Their testimonies, along with many others, may be enough to send the ex-dictator to jail.

Although 30 years have passed since the massacre the wounds are still unhealed. Doña Elena lives in one of the nine houses of the community that a Canadian organization has helped rebuild. I met her when she was out collecting manure and she asked me if I knew when she would get to testify. On that day she lost her husband and her two sons. She is convinced that Ríos Montt is responsible and demands justice.

Redress is not only important for the people who witnessed their family members getting shot, burned and raped. My personal opinion is that Guatemala needs to come to terms with its past in order to move forward. The same system of repression against civil society activists is still in place, even though it applies more modern methods.

In spite of these difficulties and in spite of the repression civil society activists continue their work here in Guatemala. Their courage is inspiring and gives me hope for a more just society.

State of seige in western Guatemala

This article was orginially posted in Swedish by my collegue Tamara Vocar.

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Tamara Vocar

On Tuesday afternoon Guatemala's Home Secretary, Mauricio López Bonilla, declared a state of seige in Santa Cruz Barillas, in the western province of Huehuetenango, after nearly 200 armed men took a military base and demanded justice for a local leader's death, and two others who were injured, earlier that day. 

During the afternoon of May 1st three local civil society leaders were subject to an ambush as they were returning to their village near Posa Verde, where the company Hidro Santa Cruz is planning to construct a hydroelectric power plant. One person died as a result of the attack and two were injured. One of the surviving men have previously refused to sell their land to the company, something for which he has faced legal harassment. The two survivors report that their attacker drove vehicles similar to those owned by the company Hidro Santa Cruz, so it is assumed that the attack was carried out by persons associated with the company.

It was this event that triggered the rancorous atmosphere that led to 200 men armed with handguns and machetes seizing the local military base. According to Rony Urizar, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, several soldiers were beaten and wounded, one seriously. Afterwards, the men set fire to several buildings in the city. Guatemalan President and former General Otto Pérez Molina called the conduct of the rebels an attack on the military, and accused the participants in the riot of collaborating with drug cartels. According to reports, the Home Secretary López Bonilla in addition to the state of emergency also ordered the strengthening of military and police forces from Guatemala City to restore order in the province.

The events mark the culmination of a conflict between local people who oppose the construction of a hydroelectric power plant near Posa Verde. The company Hidro Santa Cruz has begun construction with approval from the government despite the fact that the municipal council took a vote on the construction of the power plant in 2007 which rendered a Nay.

Several human rights defenders in the area have been subjected to persecution and harassment, including threatening phone messages, because of their resistance to the hydroelectric power plant. As recently as two weeks ago, residents discovered that the company possessed homemade explosives and a report was filed against the company.

The local civil society condemned the violence in a statement, but says that it is necessary to see the riots in their context, something that Guatemalan media have so far turned a blind eye to, considering the one-sided reporting of the event.

The conflict in Santa Cruz Barillas is one of several which have arisen in relation to the exploitation of natural resources in Guatemala.

Tamara Vocar, Peace observer for SweFOR 2012-2013

AHPN: Key documents for justice

In 2005, at the National Police in Guatemala City, about 80 million sheets of paper were found by chance. The papers, that were stored in stacks in very poor conditions, contain documents from 1882 until 2003. These documents also hold evidence of the involvement of the National Police of Guatemala in gathering intelligence on citizens and in participating in disappearances, torture and murder during the civil war.

Because of the poor condition of the documents the first task of the Historical Archives of the National Police (AHPN) has been to restore the documents, which is a meticulous work made by hand. Once restored, the archives then need to be sorted and indexed.

Alberto Fuentes explains that it is important to take into account the context that the individual document was found in and that seemingly insignificant documents can play a key role. For example, if a witness has seen a family member be forced into a car by such a simple document as a record of the vehicles owned by the National Police at the time can work as a compelling evidence of that the National Police is responsible. Fuentes emphasizes that testimonies, exhumations and documentation play a key role in the pursuit of justice.

Finally, the documents are digitalised and publicized. By cooperating with the University of Texas at Austin the documents are made available online.

These documents are an invaluable resource in the search for the truth and a way for relatives to find out what actually happened to their loved ones. Although I have just passed a few weeks here in Guatemala I am stricken by that the wounds that the civil war left still are wide open. There is a will to struggle for justice and a great need to find out the truth in order to get a closure.

Impunity – a threat to human rights defenders

- Do you think it'll be alright to go to the laundry service at this time of day, or do you think it is better if I wait until tomorrow?

We have just finished a day of education and preparation in our new home and office in Guatemala City. It is 7.10 pm and already dark outside.

There is really no time of the day that is safe to wander the streets of the city, and after nightfall we are recommended to call a taxi if we need to go anywhere. Even if we just need to go a few blocks from home. Planning ahead is a necessity.

The civil war of Guatemala ended in 1996, but the violence has not ceased. According to figures from 2010, 6000 homicides were committed in Guatemala with a level of impunity of 97 per cent. During the civil war, approximately 45 000 forced disappearances occurred, whereas there have only been verdicts for four of the cases. In other words, Guatemala has a long tradition of impunity.

People who strive to defend their human rights as well as the rights of others are increasingly exposed to different types of assaults, according to a report from Front Line Defenders and UDEFEGUA (see http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/files/front_line_defenders_and_udefegua_upr_submission_-_guatemala.pdf). The most common type of assault are death threats and other types of intimidation, but the report also notes that 55 human rights defenders have been murdered from 2008 to 2011. Female human rights defenders, labour union activists, indigenous rights defenders as well as people who work to prosecute those responsible for violations during the civil war are particularly vulnerable.

Arrival in Antigua

After one month of intensive training at the main office in Stockholm we have finally arrived in Guatemala, where I will stay for the duration of the year. Right now, we are in Antigua and we have already had our first day of training here. On Monday we will move into Guatemala city and start our training with our partner organization ACOGUATE.

Guatemala suffered civil war between 1960-1996 and a genocide that had its greatest intensity during the 1980's. Whole villages were massacred in pursuit of guerilla, and people were arbitrarily arrested and disappeared. 16 years after the civil war officially ended victims and relatives that demand justice, gather evidence from the massacres and step forward to witness in trials still fear violence and intimidation.

A lot of the work that I will be doing here will circle around the judicial process and to accompany the witnesses. During this year, I will accompany the witnesses both in their homes and during the trial hearings. The purpose of my presence is to dissuade the abuse of the their human rights.

The 20th of March 2012 five soldiers were sentenced to 7 710 years of prison for committing the massacre at Plan de Sánchez in 1982 when 256 identified victims were murdered. On January 26th the ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was prosecuted for genocide.

The end, and the beginning of something new

Outside the train window a snow clad landscape rushes by. In a couple of weeks I will exchange this for something completely different. I will be heading towards Central America. To be honest, I am still not sure what awaits me there.

Last Friday I quit my previous job and said good-bye to my colleges. It is always hard to let go – to end something that is good in many ways and to bid farewell. But this phase is more about a beginning than an end, because every end unavoidably means the start of something new.

Tomorrow I start my training to become a peace observer. There are many admirable people in the world who risk their lives in the pursuit of justice, in the pursuit of defending the human rights of themselves and of others.

People who are too outspoken, people who are too uncomfortable in their criticism get harassed, intimidated, abducted and murdered. Silenced when trying to make a difference. They should not have to fear for their lives for speaking out against injustice, but sadly they do. My part is to dissuade abuse by being present and, should it occur, make sure that the abuse is reported. Hopefully, this will contribute to giving these people the peace that they need to act.