By Mary Anne Perrone SHARE Associate A small but mighty SHARE delegation went to Guatemala in January 2024 to accompany the people as they inaugurated their new president, Bernardo Arévalo, on January 14, 2024. We were privileged to be able visit a few indigenous communities and several human rights organizations before we participated in their celebrations on inauguration day. Below you will find a bit of context and some highlights of our time there. The dream of democracy is alive and well in Guatemala! The entrenched, corrupt forces against democracy are also alive and strong. Still, it felt like “la primavera” (springtime) in the hearts of the majority of voters as they saw their new president elected in August 2023 and inaugurated in January 2024. Notably, the new president, Bernardo Arévalo, is the son of a former president of Guatemala, Juan José Arévalo, in office from 1945-51, who also ushered in the beginnings of a new spring in the Guatemalan political scene at that time. After this Arévalo finished out his term, Jacobo Arbenz, also a great reformer, succeeded him. It was President Arbenz who was toppled in the military coup of 1954, orchestrated by the CIA at the behest of the United Fruit Company and other vested interests. Both President Arbenz and former president Juan José Arévalo went into exile. It was in exile that current day President Bernardo Arévalo was born, eventually returning to his native land to continue the legacy of hope for democracy in Guatemala. The upset victory of Bernardo Arévalo in the August election surprised almost everyone in Guatemala and beyond. Arévalo campaigned on a platform of anti-corruption, inclusivity and human rights. The people showed up at the polls and overwhelmingly made their choice for change in the long-established order of corrupt and elite governments. However, from the election until inauguration day no one was really sure that President-elect Arévalo would be able to take office. Political machinations and ploys of many kinds were used to say that the election was unconstitutional, that he and his party could not participate in governing. There was even an attempt on his life. 105 days before inauguration day, indigenous communities from near and far organized themselves to care for fields and responsibilities back home while others converged on the capital city to form an encampment in front of the Justice Ministry Building. They knew that the election results might not be honored and knew of the risks to the president-elect and so they vowed to stay there, hundreds and hundreds of them, to defend their democracy, until their rightful president was inaugurated. With their presence and their bodies, they said no to corruption and yes to democracy for 106 days. Why 106 days instead of 105? Because even on the day of the inauguration, the old guard in the Congress stalled proceedings and for hours refused to do their duties that would allow the inauguration to take place. Instead of the scheduled 4:00 pm proceedings, President Arévalo did not end up being inaugurated until 2:00 the following morning. There were many tense moments as the country waited, hundreds in the main plaza, others watching the process on TV. At 4:00 am newly inaugurated President Arévalo came out onto the balcony of the Presidential Palace overlooking the crowded plaza and addressed his jubilant people. Inauguration day for our delegation was a very privileged experience. Early in the morning we went to the area where the people had been camping out and then walked to an outdoor area where Cardinal Ramazzini said a mass for all of the indigenous communities that had been camping out and those who had come from far away for this special day. The mass was very participative, with the indigenous authorities all gathered and honored. The excitement and hope were palpable. And then the processions through the streets began as more and more people arrived in the capitol city, heading toward the plaza. When word got out that the Congress was stalling in their duties and not moving forward in the process, tension filled the air and people started marching toward the Congress building chanting and demanding that the congress members comply with the protocols. The Congress building was heavily fortified with military and police. Everything remained peaceful, but the people did not yield in their demands for democracy. As our group ate lunch at a local restaurant, we were surprised by the entrance of the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and his security entourage, who also were seated to eat lunch! Many Latin American presidents came for the inauguration, but many, like Boric, were not able to stay into the wee hours of the night for the actual ceremony. They had to turn around and go back home that evening without being able to do what they came for. After lunch (and a selfie with President Boric!), we spent the rest of the day and into the night at the plaza with the people, all awaiting the slow process of the old guard yielding to the now-inevitable inauguration, but still trying to disqualify Arévalo’s party, Movimiento Semilla (The Seed Movement) from having any power in congress. Even as we all waited in great anticipation and some consternation, the tension of earlier in the day had subsided, and the mood was one of celebration. The people knew that it was just a matter of time. They had waited a very long time for this moment and it was going to happen. The mood of the crowd shifted from celebratory anticipation to jubilation once the inaugural ceremony took place and especially when their president came out to speak to them for the very first time. Must have felt like Springtime. Our delegation met with several religious/civil society organizations during our short time in Guatemala. Among them were our host organizations: CONFREGUA, an interreligious coalition dedicated to human rights and social and economic inclusion, that does political analysis, political action, and education based on the social teaching of the church. Part of their coalition is a newer social movement made up of 18 organizattion named Centinelas (Sentinels), who have been working closely working with and accompanying the indigenous authorities to mobilize solidarity among Guatemalans to construct a new Guatemala. Both of these organizations were central pillars of support for the 106 days of peaceful vigil at the Justice Ministry, coordinating logistics and food for the people there. Migration was a subject that came up with everyone we met. Guatemala has so many of their people who have been forced to flee to points north. But in addition, it is a country crossed by thousands of migrants from other countries heading north – from other Central American countries, but also from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and even some African countries. We saw many, many Venezuelan families on the streets, asking for support for their journey further north. We visited a Migrant Shelter run by the Jesuit Migrant Network of Guatemala, who tries to offer support and a place to stay for those passing through, those left behind and those who have been deported from the U.S. The needs are overwhelming, and the forces causing people to flee are so powerful. All of the people and organizations that we talked with have been highly affected by migration – in their own families and communities, and in trying to attend to the needs of those who are on the journey north from other places. We were blessed to be able to visit two different communities in the countryside. In the village of Chinaulta, one of the people we spoke with was Maria, a 63 year old woman with eight grown children. She talked about the role their community played supporting the encampment to defend democracy in front of the Justice Ministry those 105 days in the capitol city. She named it as one of the grand experiences of her life, with so many different villages and peoples connecting, supporting each other, and dialoguing. She experienced the abundance of life there as they all worked collectively. She said, “It was a pleasure to support this. It is my country, my land. We want change. We want an end to inequality. We are all equal.” Wherever we went, and with every defender of democracy that we encountered, the message was the same: Hope is alive and the people are celebrating the new government; at the same time, they know that enormous challenges are ahead for the President Arévalo and all of those who support change. They will continue to be attentive, to mobilize and to help bring the springtime into blossom. Please continue to follow the unfolding promise toward greater justice in Guatemala and the corresponding challenges facing the people and their new government. Even as we welcome and minister to migrants forced to flee to our borders, let us also tune into the realities in the countries from which they fled and the root causes of forced migration. Here are a couple of related articles:
Following is a poem by a most beloved Guatemalan poet, Julia Esquivel, who wrote of spring during the height of the civil war when she, herself, was in exile from her beloved country:
January 5, 2024 We write as academics and lawyers from across the globe who work in solidarity with the Salvadoran people to promote social and environmental justice, and who are gravely concerned about the criminalization of environmentalists, the systematic violation of human rights, and the flagrant undermining of democracy in El Salvador perpetrated under the ongoing State of Exception.
Many of us who have worked with and/or been inspired by the Salvadoran social movements for social and environmental justice were appalled by the arrest and detention of five Water Defenders from the department of Cabañas on January 11, 2023. The people arrested—Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco, and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega—helped lead the struggle to save El Salvador’s stressed water supply from the notoriously water intensive and polluting metals mining industry. They played a central role in the events that led the Salvadoran government to pass the historic, first ever national prohibition on metals mining in 2017. A growing body of evidence shows that the case brought against the five Water Defenders by El Salvador’s Attorney General—for the alleged unlawful associations, alleged unlawful deprivation of liberty, and the alleged murder of a woman named María Inés Álvarez García Leiva on August 22 of 1989—is unsubstantiated by evidence, in violation of the National Reconciliation Law of 1992, in violation of the right to due process enshrined in the Salvadoran constitution, and likely politically motivated, as expanded on below. Lack of evidence: Despite the seriousness of these criminal accusations, the Attorney General’s Office filed the charges without evidence. The charges rest entirely on the testimony of a protected eyewitness who later admitted under oath that they had no first-hand knowledge of the alleged crime. Strangely, the body of the alleged victim has never been found. Moreover, several of those charged have alibis during the time of her death. Lack of due process: The lack of evidence has been compounded by a lack of due process. Once transferred to a permanent detention center, the five Water Defenders were not allowed to meet with their attorney to prepare for their defense for over six months. While the five were able to finally meet with their attorney upon being transferred to house arrest in September of 2023, this violation of the right to due process highlights the worrisome irregularities of this case. National Reconciliation Law: In addition to the lack of evidence and due process, the charges against the five Water Defenders should never have been brought in the first place. This is because the five have been charged as FMLN combatants for their alleged acts during the civil war. As such, they are covered by the 1992 National Reconciliation Law, signed as part of the Peace Agreement that granted amnesty to ex-combatants of the FMLN as a central element of the reconciliation and disarmament process that ended the civil war. Political Motivations: Growing evidence suggests that this case against the Santa Marta anti-mining activists is neither random nor motivated by the Attorney General’s genuine pursuit of justice. Rather, community groups in El Salvador believe that the case was filed as part of the Salvadoran government’s larger political strategy to allow for the entry of metals mining to El Salvador in violation of the 2017 law. For example, in 2021, the Salvadoran government created a new public agency called the General Directorate of Energy, Hydrocarbons and Mines to regulate the energy and mining industry, and then joined the international pro-mining institution Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development. The selective violation of the National Reconciliation Law to muzzle key leaders of the anti-mining movement while stifling any meaningful attempt to bring the largest perpetrators of human rights violations during the civil war—the Salvadoran military—to justice is a telling sign of the political motivations behind this case. The current difficulties of the Salvadoran economy—exacerbated by the disastrous losses associated with the adoption of Bitcoin as a national currency—likely add to the government’s motivations to bring back metals mining and silence the Santa Marta water defenders. The case of the Salvadoran Water Defenders has political stakes that go beyond the personal injustices perpetrated against the five accused. The politically motivated threat to El Salvador’s Water Defenders reopens the threat to Salvadoran’s democratically enshrined right to clean water and a country free of toxic metals mining. But the case is also emblematic of the broader violation of the human rights of those 70,000 plus Salvadorans detained under the current State of Exception without due process, of the ongoing political persecution of civil society organizations, labor leaders, and journalists who speak out against those human rights violations, and of the undermining of democracy. In light of the lack of evidence, failure to ensure the right to due process, the amnesty granted under the National Reconciliation Law that followed the 1992 Peace Accords, and the troublesome political motivations to renew metallic mining against the will of the Salvadoran people, we the undersigned write to request that the Attorney General of the Republic immediately drop the case against the Salvadoran Water Defenders. We request that the Office of the Attorney General respect and enforce the human rights of all Salvadorans, including the right to due process and freedom of association. Signed by (university listed for identification purposes only) Brazil Jose Darío Córdova Posada, Grupo Brasileiro de Pesquisas Sandor Ferenczi GBPSF Danilo Chammas, Ordem Dos Advogados do Brasil Canada Laura Macdonald, Carleton University Liisa L. North, Professor Emerita, York University, CERLAC Dr. Jose Garcia, Futurewatch Dr. Jose J Morales, MD, PhD Juan Francisco Carranza Cisneros, Carranza and Associates Shin Imai, Osgoode Hall Law School Lisa Kowalchuk, University of Guelph Dr. Catherine Nolin, University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) Giada Ferrucci, Western University Dr. Paula Butler, Wilfrid Laurier University Chris Vance, York University Meera Karunananthan, Carleton University Bernie Hammond, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Western University Kirsten Francescone, PhD, Trent University Valérie L'Heureux, Concordia University Catherine Coumans, PhD Colombia Cindy Forero, Abogada del Cajar Costa Rica Emily J Yozell, Abogada Patricia Alvarenga, Académica jubilada, Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica Denmark Dr. Vladimir Pacheco, Aarhus University Dominican Republic Dr. Laurent Ross, Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago El Salvador Saúl Baños Mirna Antonieta Perla Jimenez Andres McKinley, UCA Omar Serrano, UCA Ing. Andreu Oliva, UCA Luis Rubén González, University of California, Merced Xiomara Rodriguez, Terra Nuova Rafael Paz Narváez, Universidad de El Salvador Tomasa Elizabeth Fuentes Navarro, Asociación Americana de Juristas Rama El Salvador Lic. José Vicente Cuchillas Melara, Universidad de El Salvador MSC Óscar Canjura, Asociación Americana de Juristas Rama El Salvador Jonathan Espinoza, UTEC Maximiliano Omar Martinez, Abogado Ariela González, Abogada Sandra Elvira Rivera Cabrera, Abogada, Universidad de El Salvador Juan Ayala, Abogado Wily Alfonso Goitia Arze, UCA, Colproce Lic. Luis Gonzalez England Grace Blakeley, Tribune Magazine Dr. Marcus Colchester Finland Markus Kröger, Professor, University of Helsinki Dr. Rauna Kuokkanen, University of Lapland Teivo Teivainen, University of Helsinki Guatemala Victor Ferrigno, Abogado Constitucionalista, MadreSelva Ireland José Henríquez Leiva, University of Galway Italy Nora McKeon Dr. John Gilbert, University of Florence Mexico Dr. Ignacio Román, ITESO, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara Alberto Arroyo Picard, Universidad Autónoma de México – Ixtapalapa Dr. Miguel Angel de los Santos Cruz, Facultad de Derecho Dr. Hilary Goodfriend, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Jaime Mauricio López, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia Dra. Aideé Irina Tassinari Azcuaga, Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México Dr. Ernesto Aréchiga Córdoba, Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México Jorge Tripp, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Nina Torres, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Xochimilco Dra. 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Moreira Ms. Maureen Brett, Retired Attorney Jan Susler, Attorney Constance Gordon, PhD, San Francisco State University Ana Vieytez, University of California, Los Angeles Ali Kaba, American University Julia Fischer-Mackey, PhD, American University Mellissa Linton Villafranco, PhD, Arizona State University Janae Choquette, Esq., Attorney Pamela Martin, Coastal Carolina University Jorge Cuéllar, Dartmouth College Caitlin Schroering, PhD, University of North Carolina at Charlotte Mary Anne Perrone, Latin America Task Force of Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice Dr. Camille-Mary Sharp, New York University Eileen Weitzman, Attorney Matthew Garr, PsyD student Dr. Anne Reissner, Poverello House Robert Andolina, Seattle University Augusta Goldstein Dr. Carlos Rivas, The Ohio State University Katherine Borland, The Ohio State University Zsea Bowmani, The University of Toledo College of Law Rebekah Kaump, University of California, Davis Nathanael Joseph, University of California, Irvine Jackie Smith, University of Pittsburgh Jamie de Moya-Cotter, University of Wisconsin-Madison Victor Goldgel Carballo, University of Wisconsin, Madison Sarah Ann Wells, University of Wisconsin, Madison Nancy Escalante, Yale University Enrique Rivera, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles Jesse Broad-Cavanagh, Northeastern University School of Law Dr. Fabian Romero, Ohio State University Rev. John M. Caldwell, PhD Dr. Antonio Ramirez, Elgin Community College Gilbert Saucedo, Law Office of Gilbert Saucedo Alejandra Watanabe Farro, University of California Santa Cruz Richard Falk, Emeritus, Princeton University Teresa A. Velásquez, PhD, California State University, San Bernardino Angela Sanbrano, JD Lucia Zamora Chamorro Alexis Meza, New York University Madeline Baer, Occidental College Alfonso Gonzales Toribio, University of California Riverside Yvette Borja, Esq. United States Dr. Robin Broad, American University Professor Jonathan Fox, American University Professor Jesse Ribot, American University Yansi Pérez, Carleton College Joanna Beltrán, CUNY Dr. E.J. Zita, Evergreen St. College Dr. Michael Berghoef, PhD, MSW, Ferris State University Patrick Murphy, IECA Joanne E. 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