RPN 18 published January 1995

11. The People's Communities in Resistance in Petén

Petén is a region in the north of Guatemala most of which is made up of tropical forests. In the 1960s and 70s, the government decided to colonise part of the north of the country, and thousands of rural day labourers, many of them landless peasants, migrated to Peten where they started to form organised communities. In the 70s, the government and army launched an increasing number of attacks against them, directed at the degree of cooperative organisation achieved by the population and against the protests and legitimate demands made by the peasant farmers (campesinos) when they were threatened with the confiscation of their lands for not paying the money due on the credit which had been granted them.

From 1981 onwards, hundreds of families sought asylum in Mexico, and others took refuge in the jungles of Petén. The latter gradually formed themselves into groups and started new communities in the forest itself. In the years which followed they were prey to harassment, attacks and even aerial bombardment by the army. In October 1993, the `People's Communities in Resistance in Petén' made their first public appearance in Guatemala City. The delegation gave a series of interviews from which the following is taken.

When the repression started, we decided not to go to Mexico, since the same would have happened again and it is here in our own country that we should be fighting, insisting on the need for real peace and democracy... for the benefit of all the poor in Guatemala.

In those days villages tried to develop a means of organisation which would improve their way of life, their working conditions and their economic life as well. It was then that we realised that this cooperative way of dong things did not suit the government and the army at all. They chose to think that it was a result of communist influences. The people themselves were not even thinking of such things. What they wanted was a better lifestyle and a way of avoiding their work putting money into the pockets of the rich landowners. Nonetheless, as a result, many of the cooperatives and villages were massacred without cause.

Life in Petén

Our best way of growing things is to sow a little bit here and a little bit there. In this way, if the army destroys one part, we still have the other part. But of course this way too we protect the environment by not felling too big an area and we look for the places with a shorter growth of wood, so as to avoid the tall hardwood trees. The maize is harvested and then we look for a place to store it. If the plots are close by, then we make a point of storing the harvest away from where it was grown. We do not leave it there. We carry it a long way away to prevent the army from coming and burning the harvest, which has happened from time to time. Occasionally they have found these storage places and burnt them, or the maize has not been harvested and they steal it and pile it up and burn it.

In our educational work, we had no materials... or we had very few and the pencils we did have we had to break into pieces so that each child and each person had a little bit. We did not have enough exercise books either. We had to tear out the pages. We survived a long time like that. There was a time during the 1991 offensive when we could not get any materials at all. We had to use the leaves of plants. And we drew the letters with sticks. That is how the people learned to read and write. When there were no leaves, we cleaned up a patch of soil and there you could scratch letters or numbers.

For the moment the schools only go as far as second grade, because the teachers are not that much more advanced. They need more training. Perhaps next year they can get some more training and go on to third grade.

In our preventative health care campaigns, at first it was an effort to understand what it was all about, but we coped and gradually everybody took part. Adults and children came to understand why these things were necessary. In order for it to work, the whole population has to take part. And it has meant that we have had fewer illnesses, food has been of a better quality, we do not leave food around uncovered, and when we have vegetables - since usually they are quite scarce - the children are given first priority. Whatever it is, if there is not enough for everybody, children and old people and pregnant women get priority. We have not got a qualified doctor. We have not got quantities of medicines nor money to buy them. It is the situation we are in which has made us find ways of protecting ourselves against illnesses

The future

In the long run I think we will be leaving where we live now but not until we have guarantees of safety from national and international organisations, chiefly from the church, human rights organisations and possibly the UN and the OAS. When we get these we will be able to leave for some other place , not too far from where we are now, in the same area, a more open place where there are more roads, where you can see houses and where everything is more open. We would have to take everybody's opinion into consideration.

[translated by Hugh Martins]

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July 1997