Urgent questions for US, Canada & international community

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August 21, 2023


** Guatemala Election Watch #20

President Arévalo & Semilla Party win elections
Crucial questions for the U.S., Canada & international community
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Dear Rights Action friends and supporters:

Thank-you for years of trust and support for our work in Guatemala and Honduras, and our work to try and hold accountable and transform the policies and actions of the ‘global north’ – specifically the U.S. and Canada. “Victories” in these by-definition long-term struggles are very hard to come by. This is an extraordinary achievement of the Guatemalan people, that should be fully celebrated, even as the anti-democratic, exploitative, corrupt and repressive forces – from inside and outside the country – are assuredly already scheming how they will try to ‘contain’ and limit, in every way possible, the efforts of the new government to bring about serious reforms and change.

So it goes.

Thank-you

Grahame Russell

Guatemala 1954-2023: What if?

Against enormous odds, Guatemala elects an actually democratic President for first time in 69 years. Crucial questions for U.S., Canada & international community

By Grahame Russell, Rights Action, August 21, 2023, Guatemala City

Yesterday, August 20, 2023, Bernardo Arevalo and Karin Herrera of the Semilla Party, were elected President and Vice-President of Guatemala for 2024-2028 ([link removed]).

Source: Prensa Comunitaria

This election will bring a formal end to 69 years of anti-democratic, military-backed, corrupt, ‘open-for-global-business’ governments, when the transition of power takes place on January 14, 2024.

Forebodingly, it does not bring an end to the interests of the traditional ruling elites, those powerful political, economic and military sectors known, in recent years, as the Covenant of the Corrupt – el Pacto de Corruptos ([link removed]).

These elites, who now have to vacate the executive branch of government for at least four years, retain considerable control over most branches of the State and most institutions of the government. They dominate all sectors of Guatemala’s exploitative, rapacious ‘open-for-global-business’ economy.

As millions of long dispossessed, impoverished Guatemalans (a majority being Indigenous Mayan peoples) celebrate the victory of the Semilla Party, there are seemingly impossible-to-overcome challenges inside Guatemala’s borders the incoming government will have to address and work to remedy.

What if?

Guatemala faces just as many challenges from outside its borders, namely the policies and actions of the U.S.-led “international community”, including Canada, the EU, World Bank, IMF and countless transnational companies operating in partnership with the Covenant of the Corrupt elites in the sectors of for-export food production, mining, tourism, hydro-electric dams and maquiladora ‘sweat-shop’ garment production.

To understand the challenges Guatemala faces from outside its borders going forward, there are important questions to ask about the role and responsibility of the U.S. and international community over the past 69 years of maintaining beneficial political, economic and economic relations with successive military-backed, Covenant of the Corrupt governments.

‘Bitter Fruit’: US military coup in 1954

What would Guatemala be like today as a country and people, State and government, if the U.S. had not planned and orchestrated a military coup in 1954?

The June 27, 1954 “bitter fruit” coup ([link removed]) violently ended Guatemala’s only period of actual democracy (1944-1954), crushing ten years of social, economic, land and human rights reforms that the governments of President Arévalo (father of the incoming President) and President Árbenz were implementing.

The coup restored to power the traditional military-backed economic and political elites who had been in power from 1931-1944, during the U.S.-backed dictatorship of General Jorge Ubico ([link removed]), and who are precursors to the Covenant of the Corrupt governments of today.

Canada legitimizes 1954 coup, promotes mining

What would Guatemala be like today if Canada had not followed the lead of the U.S. in 1954?

After refusing to established diplomatic relations with the democratically elected governments in power from 1944-1954, Canada effectively legitimized the 1954 coup by establishing diplomatic relations with the military-backed government in 1961 ([link removed]).

Soon after, the Canadian government openly supported the arrival of INCO (International Nickel Company) into Guatemala to take control of a vast swath of Mayan Q’eqchi’ territories and begin a long history of violent, harmful, and corrupt mining that continues today ([link removed]).

‘Scorched earth’ massacres and genocide against civilian population

What would Guatemala be like today if the U.S. had not – in the name of “fighting communism”– backed the Guatemalan military and death squads during the State repression and terrorism of the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s?

Hundreds of thousands of mainly Indigenous Mayan people – young and old, men and women – were assassinated and tortured, savagely massacred and “disappeared” in ‘scorched earth’ military campaigns in the highlands ([link removed])

In four regions of the country, genocides were carried out against the local Mayan populations ([link removed]). Millions of people were violently displaced from their homes and lands during the ‘scorched earth’ military campaigns, becoming desperately poor internally displaced people (still being hunted and killed by the regime) or refugees seeking safe haven Mexico, the U.S. and beyond.

Ignoring the “peace accords”

In 1996, comprehensive “peace accords” ([link removed]) were signed, setting out serious reforms and changes to remedy most of Guatemala’s historic inequalities, racisms and injustices, formally ending decades of “internal conflict”. The U.S., Canada and much of the international community stated publicly they supported the full implementation of the all the “peace accords”.

What would Guatemala be like today if the “peace accords” had not be ignored, step by step, one by one, by the ensuring Covenant of the Corrupt governments and the U.S.-led international community ([link removed])?

What if the U.S., Canada, and international community had actually demanded full implementation of and compliance with the “peace accords”, instead of getting right back to ‘business-as-usual’, maintaining and expanding economic interests with 25 more years of repressive, ‘open-for-global-business’ governments controlled by the ‘Covenant of the Corrupt’ traditional elites?

Right through until today.

The past can’t be changed, but asking the questions is more than rhetorical. Answering these questions will show what the actual policies and actions of the U.S., Canada, and international community have been, since 1954.

‘Before and after’ August 20, 2023?

Hopefully, August 20, 2023 will mark a transformational ‘before and after’ date in Guatemala’s history. The incoming Semilla Party government and Guatemalan people are already working hopefully, cautiously, nervously, to begin to address the almost impossible-to-overcome challenges confronting the needs and well-being of the majority population.

Will Americans and Canadians, our governments and politicians, media and governments ask the hard questions, and demand serious reforms and changes as to how we exercise and impose our power and interests on small, weak countries and people around the world, or will we quickly get back to insisting on ‘business-as-usual’ in support of our own political and economic interests?

(Grahame has worked on human rights issues in Guatemala since 1989. Since 1995, he has been director of Rights Action (www.rightsaction.org). A non-practicing lawyer and part-time adjunct professor at University of Northern British Columbia, Grahame, together with Catherine Nolin, co-authored and co-edited TESTIMONIO – Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala ([link removed], 2021).

More information
* Rights Action’s “Guatemala Election Watch” alerts (www.rightsaction.org/emails)
* Twitter feeds of Festivales Solidarios (@festivalesgt) & Prensa Comunitaria (@PrensaCommunitar)
* Prensa Comunitaria’s daily news ([link removed])

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Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)

To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2

Credit-Card Donations: [link removed]
Direct deposits, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Donations of securities, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

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Rights Action
May 5, 2015

Guatemala: Organized Crime Linked to President, Vice-President and Government Officials. Global companies and investors do profitable business with them

“Since the U.S.-backed military coup in 1954 ousted the last government that could actually be called democratic, the Guatemalan State has been characterized by corruption and impunity, racism, repression and violence,” Grahame Russell told teleSUR. “Since that time, the ‘international community’ – other governments, global corporations, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, etc. – have profitably done business, decade after decade, with the corrupted regimes in power.”

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Guatemalans Demand President, Vice President Resign Over Corruption Scandal
By Jill Replogle, [link removed]

(Aerial view of a protest in Guatemala City against President Otto Pérez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti for the recent corruption case involving high-level officials, April 25, 2015. Carlos Alonzo/AFP)

Thousands of Guatemalans gathered in the country’s capital on Saturday to demand the resignation of President Otto Pérez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti following revelation of a tax corruption scandal ([link removed]) involving top government officials — including Baldetti’s private secretary.

Protesters yelled “Resign now,” blew whistles and banged pots and pans while demanding that the country’s top two officials leave their posts and turn themselves over to the courts.

“We don’t want the thieves to govern anymore,” said 70-year-old María Letona, who went to the protest with neighbors from an exclusive enclave of Guatemala City. “They see us as toys. It’s shameful what they’re doing to the people of Guatemala.”

Last week Guatemalan and international prosecutors announced they had issued arrest warrants for 22 people allegedly involved in a criminal network that took bribes in exchange for reduced customs duties, making millions off the foregone government revenue.

Among those arrested were the current and former heads of Guatemala’s tax administration, the president of national newspaper SigloXXI and Baldetti’s private secretary, Juan Carlos Monzón. Prosecutors say Monzón, who’s currently a fugitive, was the ringleader. It’s believed he could be hiding in Honduras.

Baldetti and Monzón were in Korea for a ceremony where Baldetti was awarded an honorary degree when prosecutors announced the arrest warrants. In a news conference upon her return, Baldetti said she had informed Monzón of the charges when she found out and told him to turn himself in. After that, she said, he disappeared.

Protesters on Saturday said Baldetti and President Pérez must have known about the criminal dealings, and many have accused Baldetti of tipping her private secretary off so he could flee. “Clearly we could see that Baldetti covered up Monzón’s escape,” Alejandro Rodríguez, a student leader at the public University of San Carlos, told AFP.

Armando González, a Catholic priest, was at the protest with a group of Franciscan nuns and friars holding white flags. “We want all politicians to see that when the people of Guatemala stand up it’s because we don’t want more corruption,” he said.

The protest was organized by a group of citizens via Facebook. More protests are expected in the coming days.

President Pérez, who was on an official trip in eastern Guatemala on Saturday, told journalists that he would not resign. He said his government initiated the investigation that brought the tax fraud ring to light. “I ask all Guatemalans to act sensibly,” Pérez said. “All have the right to express themselves but we must respect the institutions” that are carrying out the investigations.

Local news outlets reported that protesters remained in Guatemala City’s central plaza into the evening. Protests also took place in several other cities around the country on Saturday.

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Guatemalan President Extends Mandate of UN Anti-Impunity Body
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Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina announced Thursday that he is extending the mandate of the U.N’s International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) for two years, following the recommendation of a judicial committee.

Perez's decision was hoped for, but not expected by civil society groups in the country, as the president had repeatedly expressed reservations about extending the commission, even opting for the appointment of a committee that would evaluate the CICIG's performance in the country.

“The current administration has shown no political will to root out impunity and has regularly and publically undermined the legitimacy of CICIG, going so far as to say it's presence is an attack on Guatemala's sovereignty,” Bridget Brehen, director of the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) explained to teleSUR English. “It was surprising, although no coincidence, that he reversed his stance right after CICIG exposed the customs scandal, which reached all the way up to the vice presidency.”

During a visit to Guatemala in early March, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden put the CICIG's mandate extension as a condition for the U.S. funding of a security plan against organized crime in the Northern Triangle, which also includes Honduras and El Salvador.

The CICIG unveiled tax-fraud and contraband scheme involving 22 public officials, including the secretary of Vice President Roxana Baldetti. “The recent customs scandal is likely to be only the beginning of corruption issues in other state institutions controlled by the current administration,” added Brehen. “Last year there were significant concerns about the transparency and ethics of the judicial nomination process that cemented the administration's allies in key, high ranking positions. The presence of CICIG remains as essential now as it was when it was established in 2007.”

Grahame Russell, director of Rights Action, a community development and environmental and human rights solidarity organization which does work in Guatemala, agreed that Perez Molina’s surprising decision is likely related to the “public exposure” of the recent corruption scandal.

However, while Russell welcomed the decision and praised CICIG’s role against impunity in the country, he warned about the difficulties the institution will face to properly complete its task. “Since the U.S.-backed military coup in 1954 ousted the last government that could actually be called democratic, the Guatemalan State has been characterized by corruption and impunity, racism, repression and violence,” he told teleSUR. “And since that time, the ‘international community’ – other governments, global corporations, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, etc. – have profitably done business, decade after decade, with the corrupted regimes in power.” But Russell concluded that corruption and impunity in Guatemala are not a “national phenomena,” but rather symptomatic of an unjust international system.

Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)

To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2

Credit-Card Donations: [link removed]
Direct deposits, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Donations of securities, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

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