Caribbean & Central America - April 2012 (ISSN 1741-4458)

“More of the same”. This was one response by indigenous groups to talks held last month with the new right-wing government of President Otto Pérez Molina, following the first national show of unrest from the historically marginalised sector. The government’s failure to deliver concrete pledges in response to long-standing indigenous demands, together with Pérez Molina’s interest in boosting mining and hydrocarbons production (which runs counter to civil society’s calls for a moratoria on such activities in indigenous territories), suggests the unlikelihood that the situation for the indigenous sector, the second-largest proportionally after Bolivia in Latin America, is going to change under the new government.

The 27 March deal struck between representatives of the indigenous sector (which, on UN estimates accounts for some 60% of the total population) and the government delegation headed up by Pérez Molina and the presidential commissioner on agrarian affairs, Adrián Zapata, followed a nine-day march of some 100,000 protesters to the capital, Guatemala City, which began in Alta Verapaz, some 212km away. Indigenous demands, which were whittled down to eight, included: an end to violent land evictions; the forgiveness of farm debts worth some Q$300m (US$39m), a moratoria on mining, hydroelectric projects and other mega-projects in indigenous territories; and the approval of a rural development law, stuck in congress since 2009, which is aimed at land reform. The latter in particular has been a historic demand of the sector given that land reform is one of the chief unfulfilled objectives of the 1996 peace accords, which ended the 36-year civil war (see sidebar).

Rural development was one of the five core components of Pérez Molina’s “Agenda for Change” manifesto. Yet, while the manifesto cited as a priority the need to regularise land, the rural development law itself was not mentioned. Instead, the March deal included the pledge that the government would discuss the issue with the various sectors involved – promises which were made similarly in relation to calls to cancel farm debts. With the two sides due to reconvene on 19 April to evaluate progress on the new agreement, one of the few demands to yield a specific response concerned evictions: the government pledged to end violent land evictions in Valle del Polochic, Santa María Xalapán, Sierra Chinajá, Quiché, and Alta and Baja Verapaz. The issue made international headlines last year and attracted the attention of prominent human rights groups such as Amnesty International (AI) after a series of evictions in Polochic caused three deaths and left 2,500 people homeless. In a statement issued on 29 March to coincide with the indigenous march, AI pointed out that, in January 2012, the Representative of the UN High Commission for Human Rights in Guatemala noted that, from 2008-2012, 114 forced evictions had been registered. According to AI, the evictions are “carried out by the police and the army, often…with very little warning and regularly fail to meet international standards.” The issue also subjected Pérez Molina’s centre-left predecessor, Alvaro Colom (2008-2012), to major criticism. (Despite his 2007 electoral campaign pledge to establish “social democracy with a Mayan face", in practice Colom failed to distinguish himself from his predecessors vis-à-vis indigenous rights.)

An unlikely commitment

That the indigenous demand for moratoria on mining, hydroelectric and other megaprojects is unlikely to meet with success is supported by various reasons. A local online analysis publication, Plaza Pública, points out that, in contrast to the previous Colom administration, in which Environment Minister Luis Ferraté on occasion would challenge his energy & mining counterpart, Carlos Meany, on various issues – albeit with limited success - their replacements in the current cabinet, Roxana Sobenes and Erick Archila respectively, are both firmly aligned with the business sector (of which the mining lobby is a powerful component).

Meanwhile, the January agreement signed by the Pérez Molina government and chamber of industry, aimed at boosting state revenue from mining [RC-12-03], was widely slammed by civil society groups for the lack of provision regarding environmental protection and these concerns are unlikely to wane given that mining remains a burgeoning sector (see sidebar). According to an August 2011 report by the International Trade Union Confederation (Ituc), 137 mining concessions have been authorised since Guatemala signed up to the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169 on indigenous rights, which includes a territory consultation provision. (Ratifying the Convention was also an integral part of the peace accords). Yet civil society groups have long pointed out that, despite the overwhelming rejection of mining and other megaprojects recorded by the various community-organised popular consultations that have been held (some 60 to date), the projects have gone ahead, in contravention of the ILO 169.

Aside from mining, Pérez Molina’s recent announcement of plans to boost oil production, as part of other efforts to lessen the country’s dependency on oil imports (see below), is also unlikely to be well received by the indigenous sector. Guatemala is one of two oil-producing countries in Central America (along with Belize) although production has been falling due to a lack of exploration and the poor condition of existing wells. According to figures from the energy & mining ministry (MEM), oil production reached 3.9m barrels in 2011, an 8.4% drop on the previous year and far below the 7.5m produced in 2000. Colom’s 2010 controversial extension of a 15-year license for the French company Perenco to continue drilling for oil in the Laguna del Tigre, a Mayan Biosphere Reserve in the northern province of Petén, was a major complaint of indigenous groups and environmentalists alike. According to Perenco, its present production is 12,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), more than 90% of national crude oil production. Providing further cause for concern for these civil society groups, last year, only two companies submitted bids for the four drilling blocks made available to investors, suggesting that the new government will have to consider how to make investment in the sector more attractive.

• Land ownership

Guatemala’s human rights ombudsman (PDH) pointed out in a 2011 report that 3.2% of private landowners control 65.4% of the country’s agricultural territory and that unequal distribution of land has long been considered a factor in the enduring poverty, which particularly afflicts the indigenous sector. On the most recent figures for 2011 cited by an international human rights NGO, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), 73% of the indigenous population is poor (as opposed to 35% of the non-indigenous population), and 26% is extremely poor.

• Mining

According to figures from Guatemala’s energy & mining ministry (MEM), revenue from mining production reached Q$4.18bn (US$536m) in 2010, a 41% increase on the previous year and markedly up from Q$69m (US$9m) in 2004. The surge is largely the result of metallic mining, which accounted for 96% of production in value terms in 2011.