wfn.org | FEATURE: The Maya-Q*eqchi Struggle for Their Rights as

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank.Imhoff@elca.org>]

FEATURE: The Maya-Q'eqchi Struggle for Their Rights as Guatemala
Grants Mining Licenses
Regional Consultation Challenges LWF to Raise Global Awareness about
Full Citizenship Rights 

COBAN, Guatemala/GENEVA, 22 June 2005 (LWI) * Life for local
communities in El Estor municipality, some 320 kilometers from Guatemala
City, involves a constant struggle for improved environment and better
health in an area where mining companies are exploiting the land and
other natural resources. The Maya-Q'eqchi people are concerned not
only about the government's granting of mining licenses to private
companies without consulting them, they worry about the long-term impact
of such development-oriented activities. The companies and government
talk of job creation for the residents of this humid region, but the
people's daily struggle also involves dealing with water pollution,
soil degradation, toxic effects on human health and life, and on the
communities' cultural life.

Through the Department for World Service (DWS) regional program in
Central America, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is encouraging
Indigenous communities like the Maya-Q'eqchi to advocate for their
rights as citizens through projects that empower them to oppose the
exploitation of mines and privatization of health care; promote the
preservation of the natural environment; and defend their cultural
rights as Indigenous People. In El Estor, a local LWF partner Madre
Selva, in collaboration with the lobby group, Friends of the Lake
Association, has managed to suspend petroleum explorations that had
started in Guatemala's largest lake, Lake Izabal, which is a source of
food for the local people.

El Estor was one of the communities visited by participants in a recent
LWF regional consultation focusing on citizenship, interculturality and
prophetic diakonia, and the importance of these concepts, especially in
the LWF's emergency and development work. Those who participated in
the field trips described their experiences as unforgettable lessons
learnt from the Indigenous People about defending their own culture and
nature.

Full Citizenship in Latin America Limited to Some Population Groups

The 60 participants in the May 23-27 consultation in Coban, Guatemala
included mainly DWS field program staff and staff from the LWF Geneva
headquarters, as well as representatives of local churches, partner
organizations and related agencies. The discussion subjects were
approached from a conceptual, political and ethical point of view. While
citizenship was underscored as the full realization of all human rights,
it was underlined that it also embraced the full belonging to a
political community with all rights and duties, and maximum
participation in all its decisions. 

In Latin American countries, participants heard, full citizenship was
always limited to a small group of the population: white, European
descendant, male and urban. Indigenous people and African-descendants,
women, peasants and young people were considered second class citizens.
This caste or colonial situation was still in place today. Globalization
on other hand, did not help in overcoming the exclusion and oppression
of minorities, even though it facilitated the building up of worldwide
relations and alliances, including movements of social change.

Therefore, building truly inclusive societies and achieving the goal of
full citizenship was not an easy undertaking. There may be tensions
between defending some presumably universal values from Western,
Christian and enlightened tradition*including human rights*and the need
to take different cultural particularities seriously, as Rev. Dr Karen
Bloomquist, director of the LWF Department for Theology and Studies
explained. 

The participants also discussed the different positions in the relation
between socio-economic equality and cultural affirmation: the
"integrationist" position on one hand, promoted the socio-economic
integration of the Indigenous population, while the "culturalist" view
point advocated autonomy and self-determination of the Indian peoples,
possibly neglecting the integration of multicultural states and
socio-economic equality.

As participants reflected on the personal aspect of citizenship they
stressed the need to "understand that we ourselves, our culture, our
beliefs, our values are part of this structure, and have to become part
of the agenda for change." Changes in the external structures should go
hand in hand with an internal change of values, they said. 

They challenged the LWF to raise global awareness about people's
right to full citizenship by creating guidelines that would help people
realize their cultural recognition and aspirations. The consultation was
organized by the LWF/DWS Central American regional program that covers
Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. (702 words)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 138
member churches in 77 countries all over the world, with a total
membership of nearly 66 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights,
communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work.
Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the
dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be
freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

* * *

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