Guatemala's indigenous people have high hopes for President-elect Bernardo Arévalo. It is largely thanks to them that he is now able to take on the role.

Indigenous people march in Guatemala City in support of elected president Bernardo Arévalo and the Semilla Movement party Photo: Moisés Castillo/ap

Jaime Choc Cucul adjusts his straw hat before speaking: “Our protest comes from below. “All those who, like me, went to Guatemala City to protest before the Public Ministry or Congress, did so on their own,” says the 41-year-old man. He is a stocky man of medium height.

The two places he mentions – the Attorney General's Office and Parliament – are two centers of power from which President-elect Bernardo Arévalo and his party should use all kinds of legal maneuvers to keep them away.

“We protested against this throughout the country. I went to the protests three or four times in the capital,” says Choc Cucul, who comes from the small town of Cahabón in the administrative district of Alta Verapaz.

He is an indigenous person of the Mayan Q'eqchi people and at the same time Ancestral Authority – this is what the spiritual and political leaders of indigenous peoples are called. Since October 2, they have significantly raised their profile across the country and have become faces of resistance against a hyper-corrupt system. That day the nationwide rebellion began against the attempt to prevent the inauguration of President Bernardo Arévalo, elected by a clear majority on August 20.

The starting point of the legal offensive, which Arévalo described as an attempted “legal coup d'état,” was the Attorney General's Office of the Republic. For more than 100 days, events, demonstrations, vigils, but also workshops and concerts have been held daily around the building, which is surrounded by a huge metal fence decorated with banners.

Indigenous people defend themselves against discrimination

“We have reached a turning point. Today we are aggressively demanding our rights, defending our territories and wanting to participate in social development,” explains Choc Cucul, who, like all the country's indigenous authorities, will travel for several days to Guatemala City for the swearing-in of the new president. . “We defend what remains of our democracy and we want to accompany Bernardo Arévalo's path to the presidency.”

Showing presence, insisting and supporting the new government is the strategy of the democratically organized indigenous peoples, who represent around 44 percent of the population but whose chiefs are traditionally governed.

This is exactly what needs to change, and Wendy López is also committed to it. “We are facing institutionalized discrimination and latent racism and we are defending ourselves,” says the indigenous lawyer from the human rights organization Udefegua.

The main cause is corruption.

She comes from the Sololá region, belongs to the Quiché-Mam and was the first woman from the indigenous community of Panajachel to complete the state law exam – thanks to a scholarship from the Rafael Landívar Jesuit University. “I would have had few possibilities at the State University of San Carlos, but I had to move to Quetzaltenango to be able to study. In my region that would have been impossible.”

There is a lack of infrastructure in Guatemala's indigenous regions: very little, mostly poor schools and health facilities, and often just bumpy, potholed roads. These are realities that shape indigenous life in almost all regions of Guatemala.

“One of the fundamental causes of this is corruption. Investments in the indigenous regions of Guatemala disappear with a disproportionate frequency and aggravate the backwardness of our communities,” criticizes this 33-year-old man, who legally represents several communities.

Jailed for fabricated evidence

Bernardo Arévalo, 64 years old and a sociologist with diplomatic experience, is not only a ray of hope for indigenous Guatemala, but also for a civil society as a whole that until now has been systematically criminalized and forced into exile.

An example of this is Bernardo Caal Xol. The indigenous environmental activist and teacher from Cahabón has organized resistance to the construction of hydroelectric plants that were approved above the heads of the indigenous communities. After being convicted based on fabricated evidence, he spent more than four years in prison in Cobán despite international protests, including those from the United Nations. It is not an isolated case.

Until now, the indigenous population has never benefited from the country's weak democratic structures. That should change now. “We have recognized that a functioning democracy offers the best prospects for indigenous peoples and we believe in Bernardo Arévalo, who took office to fight omnipresent corruption,” says Caal Xol.

Indigenous resistance has become a factor

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The indigenous population has become more visible in recent years. On the one hand, as a consequence of greater experience abroad and labor migration, especially to the US. On the other hand, it is a result of the digital revolution, which generated more information in indigenous communities, often forgotten, and simplified networking.

The first clear sign of this was fourth place in the 2019 presidential election for Thelma Cabrera, the first indigenous presidential candidate since Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú, who ran in 2007. Cabrera received a good 10 percent. of the votes and since then indigenous resistance has become a factor. Indigenous media play as important a role as indigenous legal offices.

Wendy López sees the indigenous movement as just beginning. “All the indicators show that we have a huge way to go: for us, education is the springboard to our future,” says the lawyer, who is currently celebrating an immense success: a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Rights in mid-December. This forces the Guatemalan government to consult indigenous communities and ask for their consent before carrying out large projects in the territory they inhabit.

De facto, the Guatemalan government must create a new legal framework “that preserves the collective rights of indigenous peoples as independent legal, social and political entities within the nation state,” according to the ruling. Implementation is now in the hands of the new government of Bernardo Arévalo.