Attempts to seek dialogue to end the crisis in Guatemala, where there have been peaceful demonstrations and blockades for two weeks, were marred on Monday by the death of a protester in a town on the border with Mexico. The man was murdered by an armed commando who opened fire with bullets as protesters ran to safety to avoid incidents and blocked a route in San Marcos department, 272 kilometers from Guatemala City. The police present did not intervene.
The style of attack, in which armed civilians target the demonstrating population and have to resort to sticks, machetes or stones to defend themselves, has been a constant in more than ten blockades during the 15 days of civil protests demanding the resignation of Attorney General Consuelo Porras Argueta. Until the incident in the city of Malacatán, only injuries, property damage and the withdrawal of demonstrators to avoid a confrontation were reported.
After two weeks of mobilizations and in the face of the latent threat of repression, 26 road blockades were reported on Monday, October 16, a lower number than the hundred closures recorded in the previous days. The violent dispersal of the protest occurred in San Marcos, a department where there is a presence of criminal groups dedicated to drug trafficking and activities ranging from drug cultivation to cocaine trafficking, migrant trafficking and smuggling. Police reported the arrest of 11 suspected perpetrators of the attack, two of them bodyguards for a mayor elected by Vamos, the party of President Alejandro Giammattei.
Since October 2, thousands of Guatemalans have joined various forms of protest to demand the resignation of Porras and two of his prosecutors – Rafael Curruchiche and Cinthia Monterroso – as well as Judge Fredy Orellana. They are all coordinating criminal actions that, according to analysts and citizens, aim to undermine the results of the elections that elected the progressive sociologist Bernardo Arévalo de León of the Semilla movement as president. On September 30, in a raid that ended in a dispute with election judges, the Curruchiche prosecutor’s office confiscated the original election results records without explaining to the public the reasons for the investigation. Then the president-elect declared that the goal of the Ministry of State was “without a doubt” to “cancel the election results and destroy the democratic regime.”
According to her communications team, Consuelo Porras continues to run the office via telework and has not appeared in public for more than a week. The prosecutor has shown no signs of considering the resignation that thousands of citizens are demanding of her and has insisted that the security forces remove the indigenous authorities and residents of various areas who were involved in the sit-in around the ministry’s headquarters have arrived. Public. If Porras were in the building and looked out one of the windows, he could take a tour of the various indigenous villages: on a street corner are usually the K’iche’, Tz’utujiles and Cakchiquels of Sololá; In front, under a black tent, is the Ixil delegation from Quiché and, in another awning, the representatives of the 48 cantons of Totonicapán. And so the various cities remain in resistance, but the prosecutor insists that the sit-in be dispersed and even calls for the dismissal of the Interior Minister Napoleón Barrientos, who enjoys the recognition of the indigenous authorities for respecting the peaceful demonstration and agreeing to the repression escape. Before the embarrassment of the dismissal, the minister tendered his resignation and the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples responded with a statement pointing out that Porras “appears to be trying to create groups ready to oppress the people of his legitimate interests.” Demand resignation.”
Porras’ demands are part of the attempts to set up a dialogue table, mediated by the Organization of American States (OAS), to put an end to the social crisis in which President Alejandro Giammattei and the indigenous authorities are intervening. In a first meeting, Giammattei assured that he could not fire the prosecutor or ask her to resign.
We are in a moment of “intransigence,” says political scientist Miguel Ángel Balcárcel, and the challenge is to turn the situation into a process that puts the common good at a disadvantage. The truth is, Balcárcel emphasizes, that we are facing a change in the balance of power. “We have a new, non-partisan political actor: the indigenous peoples in their different expressions and a society that is very angry but, given their living conditions, speaks of a different Guatemala with opportunities.”
Indigenous resistance is reflected in urban neighborhoods
The indigenous authorities have assured that they will continue the protest until Porras resigns, insisting not to fall prey to provocations from intruders or security forces. “Don’t wait for blood to be shed,” said Indigenous Mayor Alberto Tuy upon learning of the attack in San Marcos. “If we receive the written resignation in five minutes, all the streets will be opened,” Tuy noted during the sit-in in front of the prosecutor’s office, which was attended by hundreds of demonstrators from various indigenous territories on Monday, October 16. .
The civil movement began with protests and road blockades called by the Assembly of Indigenous Authorities representing the Maya, Garifuna and Xinca peoples, mainly located in the provinces. Every morning, entire families, children, young people and the elderly, leave their homes in the different areas to support the capture of the main inland routes or those that connect with Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador. The lack of communication by land means losses of $365 million, according to the Guatemalan Exporters Association, as products cannot be transported from factories or plants to shipping ports.
In the capital, residents of middle-class neighborhoods and neighborhoods felt the need to support the ancestral cities and organized the establishment of blockades in urban areas, such as the one that has existed for nine days in the peripheral ring, a six-lane road connecting the city connects from north to south. “We support the movement that the indigenous peoples have created and because we are tired of corruption, we want Consuelo Porras, Curruchiche and Judge Orellana to go… And if we could, Giammattei would go too,” Mynor Plaza said , one of them the participant of the blocking.
During the takeover, the street became a dance floor, a games room and a market for hundreds of residents of the capital’s Zone 7. Music shows were performed on Friday and Saturday evenings. “If things are bad for us, we have to turn it around, we can also resist with joy,” said one of those present, who preferred not to identify herself. Every half hour, residents dismissed traffic, mainly heavy transport that cannot take alternative routes. As he waited, pilot Baldomero Roca said that the citizens’ movement “is necessary because those in power do what they want,” but “they must put their hand on their conscience and see the needs of the people.”
The experience in Zone 7 is an approximation of what has happened in other parts of the country. Recognizing a shared discomfort, the neighbors organize and resist from their own spaces and forms of expression. During the blockades there were dance and yoga classes, film screenings, documentaries, trade fairs, games, chamuscas – informal football matches. In the city of Boca del Monte there was a call to take part in the demonstration lottery, an adaptation of the board game with the symbols of protest: the vuvuzela, the flag, the drum and the riot police.
There is enthusiasm and a wavering tension on the streets. Indigenous authorities fear they will be criminalized as those responsible for all road closures across the country. “We come as people who need to be listened to, we are not criminals; It is sad and unfortunate that they are looking for an excuse to criminalize us and that we have to go into exile or hide to defend democracy,” said the president of the 48 cantons of Totonicapán, Luis Pacheco, in a recent statement Press conference.
Corruption is the third cause of concern among Guatemalans after economic scarcity and insecurity, according to this year’s survey by the Prensa Libre newspaper. Road blockades are a sign of this unrest and are the only way for demonstrators to make their demands heard. On Sunday, a group convened from conservative circles and military veterans met in the Plaza de la Constitución in a sign of rejection of the blockades and proposed the imposition of a state of siege, which would entail the suppression of the right to assemble and demonstrate.
In separate press statements, indigenous mayors Luis Pacheco and Alberto Tuy explained their unsuccessful meetings with congressional leadership and the president to secure Porras’ resignation. The legal measures also do not correspond to the demand that Consuelo Porras should leave the State Ministry.
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