GUATEMALA: Mayans Demand Basic Constitutional Change

By Fabiana Frayssinet Reprint | | Print |

Fabiana Frayssinet

GUATEMALA, Nov 13 1994 (IPS) - A Guatemalan indigenous umbrella organisation announced this week that it would support an agreement on indigenous identity between the government and the guerrillas only if the Constitution is modified to promote a multicultural, polylingual state.

The decision was announced by the Coordination of Mayan People’s Organisations of Guatemala (Copmagua), which represents some 300 indigenous organisations.

Copmagua stated that, “for the full participation, rights and decision making powers of the Mayan peoples, is is essential that the structure of the present state, Constitution and electoral and political legislation be changed.”

At a press conference, Copmagua leaders said constitutional reform is “imperative,” as it influences all Maya-related peace agreements and, if unchanged, will maintain the present “racist, ethnocentric, exclusive, homogenising, centrist, class and militarist” Gualtemalan state.

The governmental Peace Commission and leaders of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) met Friday in Mexico for a new round of negotiations on the “Identity and Rights of the Indigenous Peoples.”

The indigenous issue was left unresolved by an October meeting – also in Mexico – which was suspended because of a lack of agreement on how to approach the subject.

Indigenous people make up 60 percent of the Guatemalan population, with 23 separate cultural groups of Mayan descent.

Despite the secrecy surrounding the talks, some claimed that a main stumbling block in the negotiations is precisely the need for a substantial constitutional reform in order to reach a solution to the problem.

Juan Leon of the Mayan Unity and Consensus group told IPS that the first article of the Constitution is the main target, as it does not recognise Guatemala’s cultural diversity and denies the existence of the Xinca, Ladino, Garifuna and Mayan peoples.

Peace Commission President Hector Rosada expressed the government’s support for constitutional reform, although loud protests were heard in the Guatemalan Congress, especially from the majority Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG).

The FRG is led by retired General Efrain Rios Montt, de facto president during the 1980s, when he headed one of the most repressive governments of all time, destroying hundreds of indigenous communities in a ferocious counterinsurgency campaign.

Rios Montt said any agreements coming out of the peace negotiations could easily be refused ratification by Congress if they are deemed unconstitutional.

GUATEMALA: Mayans Demand Basic Constitutional Change

By Fabiana Frayssinet Reprint | | Print |

Fabiana Frayssinet

GUATEMALA, Nov 13 1994 (IPS) - A Guatemalan indigenous umbrella organisation announced this week that it would support an agreement on indigenous identity between the government and the guerrillas only if the Constitution is modified to promote a multicultural, polylingual state.
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