This quick history from the guatemalasolidarityproject.org could be interesting for teaching purposes. All interpretations should be contextualized with other sources of course. The connection between expropriation of campesino land and ecological damage is made. Most will know that distribution of land and ownership of land is a big issue in many countries.//////////////////GENOCIDE AND GLOBAL WARMING (This section is abbreviated. For complete article please visit our website) Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has increasingly used military and police violence to accelerate the theft of indigenous lands and the destruction of the environment. For example, our partner community Monte Olivo was one of the central targets of an August 2014 attack by over 1,000 Guatemalan soldiers who came with private security forces to burn down homes and arrest community leaders. Similar violent, illegal “evictions” of indigenous communities have become common under President Perez. Genocidal violence has been consistently used against the majority indigenous population in Guatemala since the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. During these 500 years there have been repeated uprisings by the indigenous and peasant population. In 1944, a coalition of indigenous and non-indigenous peasants, students and teachers rose up in a primarily nonviolent revolution that overthrew US-backed dictator Jorge Ubico. The revolution led to 10 years of democracy and the end to laws forcing indigenous peasants to work on plantations, often for no wage. The U.S. reacted to the humanitarian changes of the fledgling Guatemalan democracy with various forms of military, diplomatic, economic and psychological warfare. This culminated in 1954 with the invasion of hundreds of US-trained paramilitaries and the bombing of Guatemala City by the US Air Force. The elected government was overthrown and replaced by a U.S.-backed military junta. Since 1954 the US-supported military has retained control and resumed the genocide. The US Army School of the Americas has played a significant role in continuing the genocide. The SOA is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers located in Ft. Benning, Georgia, USA. The worst period of this most recent cycle of genocide in Guatemala is recognized as being 1978-1982. During these years, dictators and SOA graduates Romeo Lucas Garcia and Efrain Rios Montt executed a “scorched earth policy” in which hundreds of massacres took place and entire communities were destroyed by the military. In 1996 the Guatemalan government signed peace accords promising to end the genocide and respect the rights of indigenous people. Shortly after the signing of the accords the repression began to escalate again, reaching a new high under the current government of SOA graduate and former General Otto Perez Molina. Perez led a military base in one of the most repressive regions of Guatemala in the 1980s and has been accused of ordering the torture and assassination of indigenous peasants. The central purpose of these centuries of violence has always been to generate profit from the people and land of Guatemala for a small group of families or corporations. It is no coincidence that genocidal violence has coincided with the destruction of ecosystems, forests, mountains, rivers, lakes, aquifers, and species. Guatemala remains one of the most bio-diverse countries on the planet. Its forests sequester a large amount of carbon and help regulate the climate. The survival of these forests will play a significant factor in the struggle to slow global warming. But Guatemala has lost approximately 20% of its forest cover since 1990. Violent evictions of peasant communities are often followed by clear cutting of their lands to make way for gold mining, cattle farming or other destructive “development” that profit a tiny minority and leave indigenous peoples with nothing but hunger and pollution. We believe that supporting indigenous land rights is an essential part of the fight against global warming. Numerous studies show that land held by indigenous communities is significantly less impacted by deforestation. Indigenous leaders have repeatedly explained to us that reverence for mother earth is part of their cultural heritage. We will continue to stand in solidarity with indigenous communities trying to protect their families and local ecosystems.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 16:24:55 +0000
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