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Here, I summarize what I find are some of the most egregious manipulations of a film that will serve to inflame social divisions and anger, and possibly engender more violence and repression.
“Root causes”
Utterly misrepresenting the root causes of Guatemala’s systemic poverty and exploitation, repression, violence and crime, corruption and impunity, the film shines a positive spin on the oligarchic elites, their international business partners and the mining/agro-industrial “development” model.
Moreover, it absolves current and previous governments of much of their involvement in and responsibilities for many of the ills of the country and suffering of its majority population.
Guatemala’s systemic ills, the film sets out, are caused variously by the interests of national and international NGOs with hidden ideological and financial agendas, of former armed guerrilla fighters, of sectors of the Catholic Church, and of organized crime and drug traffickers!
National NGOs denounced include Madre Selva, ODHA, CALAS, CUC, CODECA, CONIC, UVOC and CCDA. International NGOs include OXFAM, WOLA and PBI.
“Subversive activities” is how the film insidiously and quite dangerously refers to some of the work of NGOs and sectors of the Catholic Church – language used by U.S.-backed military regimes during decades of State repression, scorched earth massacres and genocides against the civilian, majority Mayan population of the country.
Links to organized crime and drug-trafficking
As if blaming sectors of the Catholic Church and NGOs for most of Guatemala’s ills was not bad enough, the film maliciously, and quite dangerously again, links some of their activities – and numerous land and territory defense struggles of impoverished campesinos – with the interests and actions of organized crime, particularly those of drug traffickers.
Government is “absent”
Though all this, the film explains how the government and State and institutions (police and military, ministries of health, education, the environment, etc.) are, for reasons unexplained, absent from many regions of the country, or – in some cases – simply not capable of addressing the enormity of ills caused by the power, wealth and influence of the NGOs, sectors of the Catholic Church and organized crime, including drug traffickers.
Mining & agro-industry to the rescue
After explaining which sectors are responsible for the ills of the country, the film explains that pretty much the only sector of society trying to help the majority poor are agro-industrial African palm and sugar cane producers and the mining industry. Mining companies mentioned include Canada’s Pan American Silver (Mineras San Rafael), Bluestone Resources (Cerro Blanco Mining Company), and Volcanic Gold Mines / Radius Gold (Minerales Sierra Pacifico).
Assuredly the filmmakers would claim that TESTIMONIO-Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala is full of lies and manipulations. TESTIMONIO summarizes repression, human rights violations, environmental and health harms, corruption and impunity in and around four global mining operations, including that of Pan American Silver (formerly Tahoe Resources) and a mine owned previously by Radius Gold.
Electoral coup d-etat in progress
It is hard not to conclude that this film has been released now at the very same time that the traditional economic, political and military elites (known as the ‘covenant of the corrupt’) are involved in protracted, transparent and illegal efforts to block and/or outright steal the August 20, 2023 elections and prevent the Semilla Party from assuming the Presidency and government on January 14, 2024.
Manipulative and deceptive to the core, the film can only serve to further divide the Guatemalan population, and possibly foment more violence and repression against impoverished communities involved in land defense struggle, NGOs and sectors of the Catholic Church.
I believe the film highlights the intensity of efforts of the "covenant of the corrupt" elites to resist any changes to Guatemala’s historically exploitative, unequal, repressive and corrupt status quo.
Efforts in support of Guatemala’s struggle to return to actual democracy must intensify inside Guatemala and internationally.
For most of the past 70 years, the U.S., Canada and E.U. have maintained full relations with the “democratic governments” of Guatemala, while countless transnational companies, investors and banks – including the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank – have maintained beneficial ‘for export’ business relations with the ‘covenant of the corrupt’ elites.
Grahame Russell is director of Rights Action, a non-practicing lawyer and part-time adjunct professor at UNBC. ([email protected])
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