Dominga Vasquez, Mayan Mayoress of Sololá, Guatemala

I am the indigenous mayoress of a Guatemalan town called Sololá. The mayor’s office works on the basis of the exercise of common law and is an organisation that not only belongs to the town but is also run by the town. Its role is to administer justice on the basis of the application of common law.

Being Indigenous Mayan mayor or mayoress, also entails defending the collective rights of the indigenous people, by acting as an agent seeking to strengthen the Mayan identity, culture on a permanent basis in order to defend the specific rights of the indigenous peoples; and by promoting and increasing everybody’s participation (men, women, young people and children) in the various local council activities and at the various levels of the State.

The way the indigenous town I represent is organised is not just limited to Sololá but extends across Guatemala, although it is not recognised by the State and we don’t receive any support from the State. Instead of supporting us, the State reproaches us for the action we take as Indigenous Authorities against the violation of indigenous people’s rights.

As Mayan Mayoress of Sololá, I would like to express my great concern over the fact that as Indigenous Authorities, we are not taken into account by the Guatemalan State. This situation obliges me to ask you to consider making a special effort to support us, in order to regain our true role as governors of the destiny of our communities, governors who listen to the preoccupations of our people, and act as guides to men, women, young people, old people and children. Support is urgently needed in order to regain and strengthen the role of the Mayan Authorities in my country, Guatemala, the birthplace of the great Mayan civilisation, the civilisation of the maize culture and the men and women who cultivate the maize.

Briefly, I would like to take stock of the situation, as experienced by the Mayan Authorities of Guatemala:

1. During the internal armed conflict that lasted from 1960 to 29 December 1996, the date on which the Peace Accord Agreement was signed, Indigenous Mayan Authorities were persecuted by the Guatemalan Army and disappeared. The army recognized us and acknowledged that we had played a role in guiding our communities for centuries.

2. At peace rallies demanding improved living conditions and respect of convention 169 of the ILO, the Government has always used armed force to disperse the demonstrating participants. During the first few months of the year, we the Indigenous Authorities together with the Mayan Community of Sololá, asked central government to listen to our opinion on the matter of the opencast mining of metals, but they took absolutely no notice of us. Central government sent in armed troops and the national civil police who assassinated two of our fellow demonstrators. This is a vivid example of the suffering we experienced in our resistance to the mining of minerals in our country. The government’s powerful use of armed force has resulted in 3 deaths and more than 100 people injured.

3. We also wanted to express our views on the signing of the Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic. However, the government would not listen to us. The peaceful demonstrations that we held in order to make our voices heard were repressed and currently there are many indigenous leaders, peasant farmers, trade union members and working class folk with arrest warrants - through the courts they want to put a stop to the free movement of Guatemalan citizens. Requesting our right to have a say on the national issues of our country is now regarded as an offence or a crime.

4. We - two indigenous authorities and five leaders who are also indigenous - have all had formal complaints filed against us by the Departmental Governor for having stood by the town when it protested against the military imposition by the government of relocating a steel cylinder for the processing of the cyanide they are going to use in the gold mine in San Marcos. With the help of the military and the police, the present government met its financial commitments to the Montana Mining Company and decided to maintain legal action against us so that we don’t go to our communities and so that we don’t defend our rights. Six months have elapsed since they opened the case against us - the Indigenous Authorities and the Mayan leaders - and according to the law it is now time to pass judgement. That is how long the relevant investigations take in order to present the necessary evidence to prove the guilt or innocence of the accused. However, according to the public prosecutor instructions from a senior source are to keep the dossier open and continue with the investigations.

5. Both as an Indigenous Mayan Authority and as a woman, I wish to report that I have experienced discrimination and marginalization on the part of government authorities. Many Community Mayors and Community leaders experience this type of discrimination. Authorities from central government, the Governor and several municipal mayors expected me to renege on the fulfilment of an obligation that the town had given me, namely to inform Mayan Communities on central government projects and policies that are not right for our Communities.

6. Finally, I wish to highlight one of the major issues that concern us as Mayors and Mayan Authorities. It relates to the sale of our Mayan Holy Places, the ancient cities of the Mayan civilisation that we inherited from our Mayan grandparents. The Guatemalan Government has put our Mayan Holy Places, our mountains, our rivers, our natural resources up for sale; its sole preoccupation and interest being the construction of motorways, ports, airports, hydroelectricity stations and other major projects which only benefit large national and foreign business concerns. They did not consult us as stated in Convention Agreement 169. Furthermore, big business concerns are pressurizing the Republican Congress to approve the Law on Concessions, which only serves as a means of legalizing the cultural looting that the Mayans in Guatemala will suffer.

Faced with this situation, I would like to share with you, that the Mayan Communities as much as we the Authorities have resumed our ancestors resistance in order to defend mother nature in any corner of Guatemala. Across Guatemala the spirit of Mayan resistance is coming alive again and we are defending our water, our rivers, our woods and our mountains. We don’t want to leave a legacy of hunger, malnutrition, and poisonous air to our nieces and nephews; rather we want to leave them with life, a good life and a purposeful existence, as our great book Pop Wuj says. We ask you to extend the hand of solidarity in this just, legitimate and historical fight.