A BRIEF INTRODUCTION to the HISTORY of GUATEMALA by Ana María Méndez Libby, Director of IBIS Guatemala, 2016

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF GUATEMALA by Ana María Méndez Libby, director of IBIS Guatemala, 2016 Within the whirling roads of inequality, an historical approach to the foundation and historical socio economic and political configuration of Iximulew, that land called Guatemala, the Land of Corn. It is said and understood that all coun- The Mayan civilization, with out- tries’ birth is a painful and violent one. standing knowledge and development Still, one where most its citizens as in math, writing, astronomy, commerce time goes by, can look back and be and architecture was a flourishing one grateful to those who gave their lives when the Spanish colonization process for such nation, country, freedom or arrived. independence. Yet, there are other As all colonization processes, the main more complex histories that continue objective was that of extracting rich- defining and marking realities, being ness for the colonizers as the Spanish sometimes as present as when they Kingdom. The economic strategy was happened. geared by an economic institution Guatemala is recognized to have one of known as the “Encomienda” which enti- the most complex histories in Latin tled all colonizers to claim both land as America. During the Colony it was indigenous manpower for his own and known as The General Captainship of in the name of the Guatemala, and was second to the Kingdom. Viceroyalty of New Spain, which today The encomienda was the prize to the is known as Mexico. The General Cap- Spaniards who decided to come to the tainship of Guatemala was the epicen- region and consisted in Land and In- ter of power from the south-eastern digenous people to work it. The Span- states of Mexico up to Costa Rica. It ish crown saved a great amount of concentrated a vast indigenous popu- money, creating a society with a core of lation of diverse ethnical backgrounds, dominators highly privileged and pow- which founded and ruled a complex erful, the majority of them inhabiting colonial public and commercial admin- the center of Guatemala, where they istration system. established the conservative institu- tions which prevailed until 1871, when a liberal movement started another It is until the colonization period period of exploitation and economic advanced and when a famous catholic reform on behalf of the “criollos”, Friar called Bartolomé de las Casas which were the elite of European denounced before the Spanish courts origin, born in Guatemala, desirous to the injustices and brutalities control the country and the region committed against them, that the without the Spaniard domain. Church and the Spanish Crown decided to acknowledge their humanity. This The system of colonization and control recognition was not based on a of land and territories giving privileges, humanitarian or Christian principle, but carried out the conquest without incur- once again on an economic one. They ring in expenses to the crown, but were subjects of income generation started to create divergences among and therefore subject to taxation, and the crown and the interests of the col- if their religions were an issue, the onizers and mainly its descendants, the Church would christen them, and for criollos. this collect tax. Even up to mid XX Cen- The main intention of the criollos, tury, the indigenous people were politi- mainly during the XVIII century was to cally addressed as the “indigenous control the indigenous population, problem” which needed to be fixed and preserving the majority of privileges: assessed with diminished rights, since that was the main intention of the in- they were not considered equal citi- dependence and the creation of the zens and their sociopolitical conception Central American Republic which en- was based on racist appreciations. dured, with many political problems, In relation to inequality, Guatemala from 1823 to 1839. The criollos as- was the typical region of the extensive pired for independence mostly based property which propitiated the so on an economic desire to not pay taxes called in the sociological analysis as the to the Spanish Crown and other institu- Kulak or Junker way of the develop- tions, including the Church. ment of capitalism, in contrast to the Indigenous people were considered as farmer way that was characterized by assets and even seen as beasts since the development of the medium size they had not soul according to the property. church. Not being Christians and In the sociological analysis, and instead worshipers of multiple gods or according to history, the Kulak way was nature representations, was enough a part of the Russian history previously for such considerations. This was a to the Russian revolution, and the lucrative and convenient position to all Junker way was part of the German since the brutalities of exploitation history, previously to the industrial were justified from all perspectives. revolution. Being Guatemala an agrarian society, 1870s until it entered into crisis in its development and its inequality is 1930”. based on the model of property of the Consequently, the economic model, natural resources, specially water and based on land, resources and man- land, which was controlled first by the power, surmounted the colonial times, Spaniards, than by the “criollos” and and prevailed to the XX century (1930). lately by the multinational extractive The main changes were the change of industries and very few land owners. political regimes, passing from a Estimations indicate that more than conservative domain 1839-1871, to a 75% of land is owned by less than 10% liberal regime 1871-1830-1945, the of the Guatemalan population. latter evolved into a period of the 1 According to William Robinson ”each intensification of the exploitation of the epoch of world capitalism has pro- indigenous population due to the duced a rearticulation of Central Amer- coming of the economy of agro- ica to it, including the transformation exportation or plantation economy, of social forces and the restructuring of moved by the north American the economies, classes, states, and companies, starting around the 20´s, power blocs. The first cycle, colonial and the heyday of the coffee model. mercantile insertion, lasted until its Contrary to other Latin American collapse in the mid-nineteenth century. countries, Guatemala could never The second, based on coffee and ba- develop a more fair land distribution or nanas, ran from the a just and dignified true recognition of the indigenous people and their 1 Robinson, William (2003) Transnational fundamental rights. History repeats conflicts: Central America, social change itself as a model of exclusion, and globalization, Verso editorial, London, repression and racism in order to pp.149 preserve an economic model that is successful in benefiting the few and preserving low cost and extensive manpower. Unlike its north neighbor Mexico and other countries, Guatemala could never achieve an agrarian reform that could dismantle the basis of this historic economic model. The history from 1839 to 1945 is a history of military dictatorships and great influence of the catholic church and an oligarchy formed by European descendants (Spaniards, German and North Americans), which established its power in the capital of Guatemala thanks to their domain and big property on natural resources, and the process of colonization of the southern ships and frauds. They were inspired lands of the pacific rim (1950), where by social changes throughout the they established the crops of cotton, continent and mainly by the Rerum sugar and nowadays palm and bana- Novarum Papal Encyclical that called nas. for a fairer distribution of the land and the need to grant labour rights. The strategy of colonization of the During this era, Guatemala created southern region was also based on the important reforms as adopting a formula: land domain and migration of Labour Code, establishing a basic non- the indigenous and ladino population, universal social security system, and mainly coming from the western high- other social reforms. lands: that’s is the explanation of why the resources and main assets are con- Caught within the whirls of the Cold centrated, producing an extreme War era, the anticommunist fever and persiting inequality. fear headed by the United States it was obvious, that when the democratic The absence of democracy and the government aimed to generate land extreme social injustice, paved the reforms that affected the interests of road for a democratic spring between the elite and the transnational compa- the decade of 1944 and 1945. During nies, a coup would end this era. And this period, progressive citizens sup- so it did, throwing Guatemala into a 36 ported by a democratic social oriented year long period of internal armed faction of the Guatemalan Army, gain conflict, that shattered the lives of power through clean elections after a more than 250,000 people most of long era of dictator- them civilians and non-fighters. The low intense armed conflict was of equal rights continues to be an aim characterized by grave human rights and the main demand of the violations, the installation of forced indigenous people and the poor. Socio- disappearance and genocide acts economic exclusion, discrimination and against the indigenous communities. violence have new faces, but in essence Truth Commissions have evidenced are the same. The increasing that at least 80% of the victims where motivation to migrate from this non combatant ones. environment is understandable and painful when one acknowledges the The internal armed conflict was contra- community and family disruptive ry to popular believe, not generated by effects as the dangers involved in such a group of rebel com-munist peasant ordeals. Yet, until opportunities are or indigenous move-ments financed by developed for the young to stay with a the late USSR. It originated within the more right respectful environment, own Guatemalan Army where a group changes will not be achieved.

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