Stories written by Rigoberta Menchu

A NEW TEST FOR GUATEMALA AT THE POLLS

By Rigoberta Menchu and - -
Once again Guatemala has become a test case for building a democracy, writes Rigoberta Menchu, who received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1992. Guatemala\'s high court recently declared legal the candidacy for president Efrain Rios Montt, who came to power in a coup in 1982. The decision, influenced by the ruling party, violates the basic juridical principles of any nation and the Guatemalan constitution. Elections are set for 9 November with a run-off on 28 December. In this article for IPS, the author writes that Montt should be behind bars for the crimes against humanity committed when he was in power. The most serious element in this new chapter of Guatemala\'s permanent crisis is the extension and strengthening of clandestine structures of power which have hijacked the state and placed it in the service of its own criminal activities. There is a very real threat that the ruling party will attempt to keep itself in power through fraud and intimidation. Strict vigilance is the only way to guarantee free elections.

US WAR A GREAT STEP BACKWARDS FOR HUMANITY

By Rigoberta Menchu and - -
The war US President Bush is waging against Iraq is the most senseless and illegitimate war in recent history, not only because none of the arguments presented as justification are valid but also because it is a violation of the law and of the consensus of the majority of the peoples and governments of the world, writes Rigoberta Menchu, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. The offensive now destroying Iraq places the United States, its top government officials, and their allies in the dock for violation of international law. The United Nations should defend not only its code of law, tainted by the capriciousness and arrogance of the US; it must also take concrete steps to translate the universal condemnation into an exemplary moral and political sanction. With the world dominated by the hegemonic muscle-flexing of a government that has proclaimed itself the sole Global Power, it is necessary that people unify and mobilise to oppose the New Imperial Disorder with a new order of harmony, understanding, and intercultural respect. And we must hope that the world\'s democratic governments restore the validity and authority of the multilateral institutions, which have been gravely damaged by the unilateral declaration of war by the Bush administration.

GLOBALISING JUSTICE

By Rigoberta Menchu and - -
The world has seen the globalisation of capital and communications but not of justice, solidarity, respect, and tolerance because the forces that unilaterally drive globalisation have not permitted it, writes Rigoberta Menchu, recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. In this article for IPS, Menchu writes that these forces have opened up the markets of countries that produce raw materials for their own products while blocking these countries\' access to many of their own markets. They have used security as an excuse to create obstacles to migration. And they have made war into their economic engine. Popular demonstrations against a discredited international system and events like the World Social Forum represent the legitimate endeavour to give globalisation a human face, to transform it into a process that takes into account the interests of the people and not just of giant transnational corporations. Menchu calls for reform that breaks the system of exclusivity that until now has transformed government representatives into servants of the major corporations, corporate mafias, and supranational interests. Such reform must open the way for the participation of social actors that thus far have no representation in the existing institutional systems.
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