Fwd: Guatemalan Indians Want Recognition

[gh...@igc.org]

>
>Guatemalan Indians Want Recognition
>
>.c The Associated Press
>
> By GRAEME THOMPSON
>
>GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Guatemalan Indians have waited 500 years to receive
>recognition in their own country. Their long wait may end Sunday if a complex
>package of constitutional reforms passes in a referendum that has polarized
>the country.
>
>Representatives of the country's powerful elite have conducted a campaign to
>defeat a proposed constitutional amendment to grant official recognition --
>what the opposition calls privileges -- to the country's 24 Indian groups.
>
>Also at stake in the referendum are proposals that would strengthen civilian
>control over police forces long treated as an extension of the army, limit
>presidential powers, make federal officials more accountable to Congress, and
>guarantee money for an ill-supported judiciary.
>
>All are part of peace agreements signed in 1996 between leftist rebels and
>the conservative government to end the country's 36-year civil war.
>
>The Indian recognition proposal has captured the most attention.
>
>``These reforms will counteract the unjust state in which we have lived,''
>said Cesar Augusto Teny Maquin, who represents the Q'eqchi Indians on the
>National Council of Mayan Education. ``The Maya have been allowed to exist as
>part of Guatemalan folklore, as a cultural relic, as a tourist attraction.
>But we are a living people.''
>
>In five centuries of Spanish rule, peasants have had to change their Mayan
>names and their traditional dress. Their religion, viewed as witchcraft, was
>rooted out, and teachers have forbidden the use of native languages in
>schools.
>
>Under Sunday's proposed changes, Congress would have to consult Mayans before
>passing legislation that could affect them, Mayans would have rights to
>access sacred ground, and government education, healthcare and judicial
>services would have to be available in indigenous languages.
>
>But that would divide Guatemala legally into two parts, according to Leonel
>Toriello, a prominent newspaper publisher and leader of the ``Friends of the
>Nation'' group, which is urging a ``no'' vote on the referendum.
>
>Toriello fears a philosophy of Indian affirmative action will ``give rise to
>reverse discrimination,'' he said, and ``will not add to the climate of
>harmony'' needed to consolidate peace.
>
>AP-NY-05-15-99 2036EDT
>
> Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
>news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
>distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.
>