Rosalina Tuyuc: Maya activist and congressional deputy, Guatemala
Delpino, Nena
What has the recent signing of the Peace Accords between the government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) guerrilla movement meant for you? As women who were victims of the...
...As women who were victims of the armed conflict, we believe that this is an opportunity to promote the participation of all sectors of society...
...What role did you play during the dialogue that preceded the Accords...
...We were the first to fight for the establishment of the National Commission for Reconciliation as well as for the installation of the UN Mission...
...The greatest challenge is to obtain legal recognition of indigenous peoples' rights...
...This has been one of the principal tasks to which CONAVIGUA has contributed...
...The criticisms do not stem solely from the fact that I am a woman, but from my bringing my child to Congress...
...We are back out on the streets again...
...How would you describe the present state of the indigenous movement in Guatemala...
...Personally, I would be no one without these women's struggle...
...It does not represent the feelings of the majority of Guatemalans...
...In general, do you think that people today are more or less willing to mobilize than they were five or ten years ago...
...In practice this has been the case, particularly with the Law of National Reconciliation, which is one of the first laws of the Peace Accords...
...The Constitution does not recognize our rights, so this is something we are working on...
...Organizations like CONAVIGUA have always struggled...
...Obtaining full recognition of our legal, economic, social and cultural rights would be the first step...
...What is most important is that the ruling party legislate on the basis of consensus and not on the basis of its slight majority in Congress...
...We will still have to engage in many struggles if we are to make fundamental changes...
...For us, the Accords are a first step in recognizing our rights, but there are other rights which they do not address...
...If we recognize our diversity and struggle against our national problems, we will be able to accomplish something...
...From the outset of the dialogue, we began to discuss the contents of the Agreement on the Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples with various organizations...
...We focused on the think must end...
...Popular protest in defense of public enterprises has been ignored...
...rights of indigenous women, on the agreement about reparations for victims and displaced people, and on the strengthening of civilian authority...
...This is a reflection of the same discriminatory sentiment that has permeated our society for centuries...
...We are here not because this government is democratic, but because of all the struggles we have fought to get here...
...There is always a resistance on the part of the media to write about protests...
...Did you participate in the talks about the ceasefire and the demobilization and reinsertion of combatants...
...This is the opportunity for the state to be transformed into a space of participation for everyone...
...Because almost all of us are victims of the war, we are the most interested in the peace process...
...What has it meant for you as an indigenous woman to be a deputy in the National Congress and also to have been elected as the third vice-president of the congressional steering committee for this period...
...What was the role of CONAVIGUA during the negotiation process that led to the signing of the Accords...
...Disagreements arise around whether this or that is capitalism, socialism, Communism, Marxism and all that...
...Yes...
...We do not know yet...
...All the compafieras come to us with their testimonies but they are still not in written form...
...And, if you consider all the protests that have taken place in the interior, it shows that there is a profound discontent among the entire population...
...CONAVIGUA will have to continue working to obtain these rights...
...The only one of our proposals that the negotiating parties accepted was that perpetrators of crimes like kidnapping, torture and massacres could not receive amnesty...
...We are attempting to work within the state that exists today...
...How would you define the current state of the progressive movement in Guatemala...
...These attacks are always due to discrimination...
...Our main focus will be to create a Center for the Defense of Indigenous Women, and addressing two key issues: displaced people and compulsory military conscription, which we CONAVIGUA, as a member of COPMAGUA and of the organizations of displaced people, hopes to be taken into account the by commission overseeing the implementation of the Accords...
...Yet achieving this will generate conflict because the problems which gave rise to the conflict in the first place are still present...
...Much blood has been spilled, and many brothers and sisters have lost their lives for these gains...
...It has taken us 500 years to address the problem of indigenous women-and certainly, this government will not be passing any legislation that protects our rights in the near future...
...Either because one is a woman or because one is indigenous, they are always trying to buy one's ideas and work...
...We must recognize that this is the government of all Guatemalans, despite the fact that many of us did not vote for it...
...How is CONAVIGUA preparing itself to participate in the process of consolidating the Accords...
...I think it is very unlikely that CONAVIGUA will disappear any time soon...
...We simply want justice and the opportunity to be included in the making of decisions that affect our lives...
...It is difficult to define...
...Do you think that the Peace Accords are being utilized by the dominant sectors of the country and that they are not attending to the interests of the majority of the population...
...we have not collected statistics since the 1980s...
...Although we are not taken into account in the decisionmaking process, perhaps because we are campesina women, we are the ones who have most strongly supported the negotiations because we are the ones who have lived through war...
...This is part of the reason...
...Right now only a few cases have been presented to the Commission, and only a few of the hundreds of clandestine cemeteries are currently being excavated...
...It is not that we have sold out, but that we placed too much hope in this process...
...In the long term, what do you think is the future of CONAVIGUA...
...This is still a very powerful challenge for women, particularly because we are the ones who have suffered most from the violence and other social problems like illiteracy...
...We have made important steps in the past few years, and some organizations have flourished, but there is still a very long way to go...
...At the national level, what changes are necessary for the implementation of the Peace Accords...
...If it wasn't for their determination, we would not be here...
...What we see is that neither indigenous peoples, nor women, nor men can expect to bring about change on their own...
...There are other cases as well...
...I dedicate this space to all the struggles fought by the women of CONAVIGUA...
...Did CONAVIGUA make its proposals directly to the government and to the URNG...
...Do you agree with this...
...What do you think is the greatest challenge facing the indigenous movement today...
...Protests have already reappeared...
...Only some of these stories have been written down...
...Operational issues like these were resolved exclusively by the government and the URNG...
...This means that, we will still have to engage in many struggles if we are to make changes in the judicial, executive and legislative arenas...
...Because we have felt hunger and humiliation, we do not categorize our ideas in this way...
...For over four years we continued this discussion in order to arrive at a consensus...
...As indigenous people we are just starting...
...It is not advisable for any party with just a simple majority in Congress to claim that it is going to transform this country...
...As a social movement that promotes human rights and campesino and indigenous rights, we placed too much hope in the peace process...
...It would be difficult to say that there is a well organized movement...
...Reaching this point has had immense costs...
...This would be ideal, but at the moment these positions are premature...
...We were the only ones who expected that the agreements could be fully implemented...
...Approximately how many cases do you think CONAVIGUA will be pre- senting to the Human Rights Commission...
...Anyone 29 0 0 29 Vot XXXI, No 1 JuLY/AUG 1997 I G U A T E M A L AVOICES ON THE LEFT can file a request for amnesty...
...I have to bring my baby...
...The strongest organization we have is COPMAGUA, which brings together nongovernmental organizations from the popular sectors, research centers, academics and Mayan priests...
...The Peace Accords only provide general guidelines for the construction of a different state...
...Many existing laws are discriminatory...
...The little that we have right now is quite new...
...In Guatemala some analysts have pointed out that the social movements of the 1980s have kept a very low profile during the negotiations, that they have taken a more passive attitude during the peace process...
...It serves as an umbrella for certain sectors of society, but many groups are absent considering that there are between four and five million indigenous people in Guatemala...
...Those were more operational questions, therefore civil society was not allowed to participate...
...The only accomplishment of the Peace Accords is that that they confirm the end of the armed conflict...
...As an indigenous campesina woman, personal criticism is the cost for trying to balance my cultural beliefs and practices...
...an indigenous woman always carries her baby with her...
...There is also a fear to organize that continues to limit our ability to regain our strength...
...I believe so, but there is a reason for this...
...We made these demands in the streets, in front of the government palace, and in the interior of the country, because we thought it was important to strengthen the importance of the Human Rights Accord in Guatemala...
...What do you think of the positions within the indigenous movement that maintain the need for a separate Mayan state, parallel to the Ladino state, with its own institutions, norms and codes...
...With all that has happened, we have realized that we expected too much and that we were too trusting...
...A similar protest has been announced, for example, for this week...
...Today, the government doesn't have the same attitude it did at the negotiating table...
...I think that greater mobilization is the direction in which we are heading...
...This legislation was not based on consensus...
...The first example occurred last week, with the first mobilization against the current government's ecoSNCIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 30VOICES ON THE LEFT nomic policies...
...This is not, as many seem to think, because the URNG was at the helm before, and now that there is peace it is not...
...This is also the case with two recent laws-one concerning the national police and the other regarding public enterprises--both of which passed with only a simple majority...
...The information is still incomplete...
...The problem is that The only accomplishment of the Peace Accords is that they confirm the end of the armed conflict...
...There is much work yet to be done...
...We are going to continue working as we are presently doing...
...Unfortunately, the indigenous movement was disarticulated starting with the repression of the 1980s, and this has made it difficult to build a strong movement...
...We opposed this law because we believe that it will be impossible for the victims to submit proof of all that happened to them during the period of army repression in the 1980s...
...The only thing that remains to be done with the current law is for the courts to examine each case and determine how to proceed...
...This is also a responsibility of the opposition...
...After what happened in the 1980s, it is slowly beginning to gain momentum...
...There is an incongruence here...
...What is CONAVIGUA's position with respect to the Law of National Reconciliation...
...There must be trials and punishment for those responsible, not forgiveness or amnesty...
...What happened is that the media rarely covered our struggle...
...In two or three years time we can assess whether or not it is really worthwhile to be a part of this state or whether we should form another...
...Why do you think you were so criticized for accepting the third vice-presidency of the Congress...
Vol. 31 • July 1997 • No. 1
