Despite the contradictions that persist within the movement, Maya organizations are coming to realize that pan-Maya unity will strengthen their call for fundamental changes in Guatemala's economic and political system. In late 1994, over 150 Maya organizations came together to form the Coalition of Organizations of the Maya People of Guatemala (COPMAGUA). The coalition's main purpose was to present a pro-Maya agenda to the ongoing peace negotiations between the Guatemalan govern- ment and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) rebels. The imminent signing of an accord on indigenous rights pro- vided an opportunity for Maya groups to have a voice at the national level. Grouped together in COPMAGUA, they hammered out their own proposal on indigenous rights. The coalition called on the Guatemalan government to aban- don policies that promote the assimilation and acculturation of Maya people. It also demanded that the government officially Majawil Q'i, Mam for' grant local autonomy by recogniz- dinating committee for organizations involved ing and respecting the authority of ment. local Maya political leaders. When COPMAGUA was barred from presenting its proposals directly to the government and the URNG, the Assembly of Civil Sectors (ASC), of which COP- MAGUA is a member, agreed to bring them to the nego- tiating table. The ASC-a broad coalition of different sectors of Guatemalan civil society including labor, church and human rights groups, and non-governmental organizations-develops proposals on key issues for the government and the URNG to consider in the peace negotiations. COPMAGUA includes a broad array of Maya organizations with many different perspectives. Its for- mation represents a process of con- sensus-building in which indige- nous groups have sought to overcome their individual interests. Divisions have arisen among the different Maya groups over strate- gy, emphasis and leadership. Nonetheless, the coalition is unprecedented in unifying diverse Maya organizations-some 300 different groups are estimated to currently exist-around a common agenda of social justice for the Maya people. COPMAGUA's very existence is a remarkable achievement when ew Dawn," is the coor- placed in historical context. The uatemalan indigenous coalition was organized after the n the popular move- most violent period in modern Guatemalan history-a counterin- surgency war in which over 150,000 people, the major- ity of them Mayas, were murdered. Ten years after the end of military dictatorship, political repression contin- ues unabated against groups and individuals that make concrete demands of the state for social change. Since the Spanish Conquest, the relationship between the Mayas and the Guatemalan state has been character- ized by exploitation and deceit. Wealth, land and politi- cal power have always been concentrated in the hands of a mestizo minority. Even though they represent the Vol XXIX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1996 4 0 z Antonio Otzoy is the executive director of the Sisterhood of Maya Presbyteries. Translated from the Spanish by NACLA. 33REPORT ON INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS majority of the country's population, the Mayas have been excluded from state power and forced to act as the cheap labor force of the oligarchy. In essence, they have systematically been denied their rights as citizens. An astonishing 87% of Guatemalan Mayas live in poverty; almost two-thirds of that group live in extreme poverty, unable to meet their basic daily needs for food, health, and shelter. Maya resistance to the oppression and exploitation that have marked their lives as a people for 500 years has taken many different forms. Because of the way that col- onization was imposed, the Maya have traditionally struggled against state power at the local level. The Mayas' recent attempts to build a more pan-indigenous movement and to assert their presence in national politics reflect in part their adaptation to a profoundly different political context The unnrecedented nenetra- tion of capitalism into Maya communities and the dev- astating effects of state violence over the past few decades have undermined the effectiveness and viability of solely community-based responses. During the 1960s and 1970s, some Mayas in commu- nities throughout the highlands began to utilize the structures of national institutions such as Catholic Action, as well as rural develop- 44 ment projects and later liberation theology, to create and to promote their own agenda for social justice. In 1978, Mayas formed the Committee of Campesino Unity (CUC), the first indigenous-led labor and land-rights r. organization in the history of Guatemala and the first to bring together highland Maya campesinos with poor ladino farmworkers. Others par- ticipated in the National Coordinating Committee of Indigenous People and Campesinos (CONIC), which was also in the forefront of the struggle for land. By the end of the 1970s, a generalized social and political mobilization was gathering steam among the Maya pop- ulation. he Guatemalan state responded with brutal repression to both Maya mobilization and the country's reorganized guerrilla movements, in which some Mayas participated. The orgy of violence of the early 1980s caused a demographic, social and cul- tural holocaust of the Maya people, on a scale similar to the devastation wrought by the Spanish Conquest in the sixteenth century. While the violence wreaked havoc on daily life for the Mayas, they paradoxically gained a stronger sense of their own identity out of the atrocities. With the transi- tion to civilian rule in 1986, Mayas, among others, took advantage of tentative new spaces for organizing. Among the first to organize were groups such as the Mutual Support Group (GAM) and the National Committee of Guatemalan Widows (CONAVIGUA). The women in these organizations were united by the common suffering of having lost a loved one to political repression. Mayas were a dynamic and active sector within these organizations. Later, the National Coordinating Committee of Displaced Peoples of Guatemala (CONDEG), a group of the internally dis- placed, became active in making demands for basic social and economic rights. In the late 1980s, dozens of new organizations emerged. Some groups emphasize the cultural oppres- sion that Mayas have suffered since the Conquest. They see cultural and racial discrimination at the root of the eco- nomic exploitation of the Mayas. Other Maya organizations focus on more nrapmatic nroiects such as technical training and literacy workshops. One subset of this ten- dency is working with the government's social-compen- sation funds. Mayas are also active in popular organiza- tions that fight for human rights and socioeconomic demands, including health, education, housing and land. While all of these groups share the common goal of social justice for the Mayas, their differences D. .. 4in terms of focus and political orientation 3 t5 have kept them fragmented. These underly- ing fissures were evident in the preparatory conference of the "500 Years of Resistance" ; campaigns held in Quetzaltenango in -" October, 1991. At the meetings, a plethora of S1 " local as well as national groups with varying focuses and political perspectives were rep- resented. In the conference discussions, very different positions emerged on issues such as whether or not to work with the state. By the end, some groups were accusing others of being extremists. All sides claimed that they were the legitimate representative of the Maya people. While difficult to contend with, these differences have not prevented the pan-Maya movement from forg- ing ahead. Many activists have come to realize that in spite of the different emphasis that each group has- whether culture, education or politics-they are all chal- lenging an oppressive system that has consistently excluded them. The Maya organizations' initial entrance on the national political scene occurred in the wake of the pres- idential coup of Jorge Serrano Elfas in 1993. Two umbrella Maya organizations joined with a broad coali- tion of other groups-including some representing the oligarchy-to create a common front against Serrano's attempt to impose a "civilian dictatorship." One of the two organizations, the Unity of the Maya People (UPM), a coalition of ten groups, was reluctant to par- NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 34 rREPORT ON INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS ticipate in the National Consensus Forum (INC) for fear of being manipulated by the elites in control. Seventy- six other Maya groups coalesced behind the Forum of Maya Unity and Consensus (IUCM), which saw this alliance as an opportunity to make public and formal demands of the state. The INC enjoined the two Maya organizations to arrive at some form of consensus. The two groups were ultimately able to overcome many of their differences. In the end, the INC permitted the par- ticipation of four Maya representatives, two from each umbrella organization. Participation was, however, short-lived since the INC dissolved soon after Serrano stepped down. COPMAGUA's involvement in the peace process was another step forward in pan-Maya orga- nizing and participation in national pol- itics. In March, 1995, the government and the URNG finally signed an accord Govei on indigenous rights and identity, which official drew on some of the proposals made by COPMAGUA. The accord, which will the not go into effect until a final peace accord is signed, spells out a number of organiz indigenous cultural rights. Perhaps most being "d significantly, it recommends that the Constitution be revised to define and "su Guatemala as a "multiethnic, pluricul- tural and multilingual" nation. The fomentin accord did not, however, address the of fe economic rights of the Maya people. COPMAGUA formally accepted the intimi agreement "with reservations" at a mass meeting in Chimaltenango. "This accord does not necessarily fulfill all our aspirations," said a coalition statement, "but it is the minimum fruit of five centuries of resistance and three decades of armed internal conflict." That same year, a number of Maya organizations made their first organized foray into electoral pol- itics in the presidential and congressional elec- tions in November. One of their first political acts was to choose Juan Le6n, a Maya leader from the Defensoria Maya, as the vice-presidential candidate of the New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG), a new left-of- center opposition force. Maya women activists, Rosalina Tuyuc, a leader of CONAVIGUA, and Manuela Alverado of Quetzaltenango, were two of the six FDNG candidates elected to Congress. The FDNG also forged alliances with local indigenous civic com- mittees throughout the country. One such committee won the mayoralty in Zelajui (Quetzaltenango), the sec- ond-largest city in the country. Other Maya groups sup- ported the conservative but "modernizing" National Advancement Party (PAN), which gained power with rn Is :alv a a d the election of Alvaro Arz6i to the presidency in the sec- ond round of elections in January, 1996. Other sectors of the Maya movement kept at arms' length from the national political campaigns. Asserting that it was premature for Mayas to enter electoral poli- tics, these organizations chose to work at the grassroots level to fortify local Maya political and economic struc- tures instead. It is important to note that the majority of Mayas did not participate in the national elections at all. The high voter abstention rate in Maya communities- estimated to be about 80%-speaks to the continuing and deep-seated distrust of electoral politics. Despite the Maya people's modest political gains, important challenges remain. In recent months, certain sectors of the government have made public statements about the "danger" of the "subversive" Maya movements. ment Some are accusing the Maya organiza- accUSe tions of being front groups for the guer- rillas. These threats have fomented a cli- laya mate of intimidation and fear, and put the lives of Maya organizers at risk. Two tions of FDNG activists, Lucia Tiu Tum and ngerous" Miguel Us Mejia, were killed in late 1995 in their village of Chimchij in versive," Totonicapin province. Tiu was a local activist with CONAVIGUA, and Us was a climate a member of the Council of Ethnic r and Communities-Runujal Junam (CERJ). Both were active in their organizations' ation. campaigns to end forced military recruitment and to disband the civil defense patrols, organized by the mili- tary in Maya communities. Throughout history, the Mayas have fought many bat- tles against state oppression: first during the Conquest, followed by the colonial period and then the liberal era of the late nineteenth century, through the counterinsur- gency war of recent decades. The Mayas have demon- strated a remarkable capacity to resist domination and to adapt to changing circumstances without ceding their culture and their identity. The new Maya organizations are the fruit of that struggle. The genocidal policies of the state have been unable to destroy the social and political consciousness of the Maya people, who are forging their own path to freedom and justice. Despite the contradictions that persist with- in the movement, each organization has played an im- portant role in that struggle. The Maya organizations are coming to realize that pan-Maya unity will strengthen their call for fundamental changes in Guatemala's eco- nomic and political system. Much remains to be done. As Maya-Cakchiquel leader Demetrio Cojti Cuxil says, "We still have far to go to arrive at a democracy that reaches both the economic and the ethnic sphere."
