They've been robbing the indigenous farmers blind
The Mayans of Huehuetenango, and other regions too, have been protesting for years, decades, for "an end to evictions and environmentally unsound mining projects". I watched their march to Guatemala City. The electrical plant is just a part of the problem.
The last president, Colom, rode to the presidency on the backs of the indigenous people, promising them their land rights and rights to their sacred sites. He never delivered but they made a big show of writing up the bills just sat around in Congress gathering dust. Everytime the soldiers move in their to evict peasants from their land, they murder and behead people then blame it on Mexican *drug cartels*.
Last month some of them went on a 9-day march to the capital despite the President's pleas they turn back.
Visibly exhausted after their grueling 200-kilometer (125-mile) walk from various parts of the country including the Quiché highlands and the northern department of Huehuetenango, over 1,500 indigenous protestors entered Guatemala City on March 26.
The march included a large number of Mayan women, who walked across the country with their infants strapped to their backs, wrapped in traditional shawls, and whose feet were severely cracked by the time they reached the city. On the way to Guatemala City, members of the CUC were joined by dozens of indigenous, campesino, labor, human rights and women’s organizations.
Before they reached Guatemala City, President Otto Pérez Molina had tried to persuade the protestors to turn back and offered to negotiate if they halted the march. Undeterred, they rejected the offer and continued on their exhausting nine-day march.
Read
this article for more details. It's a horrible situation. Can you imagine the horror of having the land your family has lived on for generations sold to profiteers without your consent and without getting a dime for it?
...
As the police set shacks on fire and destroyed corn crops a bitter scuffle between the police and peasant settlers broke out, during which one man, Antonio Beb Ac, died from serious injuries. At first the authorities denied that Beb Ac had been bludgeoned by police agents and alleged that he had injured himself with his own machete.
Other demands agreed to by Pérez Molina include a moratorium on mining and hydroelectric projects and the withdrawal of troops from the municipality of San Juan Sacatepéquez, where the Mayan Kaqchikel community has fiercely opposed the establishment of a cement factory that pollutes the environment and has already had a detrimental impact on their health.
Congress agrees to push forward pending bills
...
My belief is that the Pres is preparing to renege on those *concessions*. The Santa Cruz hydroelectric plant put out official statements *urging* the government to *restore order* because the peasants wouldn't put up with being violently attacked by Hydro Santa Cruz employees and
took some of their employees hostage and destroyed equipment. They also infiltrated the military detachment and stole some weapons. That's why more troops were sent. The laws of the rich must be obeyed.
To really spice things up, they're still
discovering remains of more murdered Mayans in military outposts up there. 99 bodies this week but there are 50,000 still missing.
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