Returned from a visit to Guatemala, ERIC EARLEY reports on the situation of that country's indigenous people.
The indigenous people of Guatemala and the Aborigines of Australia have many things in common. The colonial legacy in both countries is one of a deprived people fighting for equality, human rights and cultural survival.
In Guatemala there is an "equality" of sorts: access to education, health services and equal citizenship rights. However, most classes in Spanish-speaking schools average 40 pupils while those in indigenous schools average 60 pupils.
In the indigenous schools, approximately half the teachers are indigenous. The pupils are taught in their own language, with Spanish as a second language. But although they are 70% of the population, indigenous people are only about 20% of university students.
A wealthy 5% of the population own 90% of the land. On the fertile coastal plains, some farms are as large as the cattle stations of outback Australia. They are owned by the descendants of the conquistadors, army generals, Guatemalan and US companies. In true banana republic fashion they produce beef, cotton, coffee and fruit with cheap labour for the US market.
The Maya and other indigenous people farm small subsistence holdings in the mountains. Women and children weave cloth and produce beautiful traditional clothing for the tourist trade. It is a common sight to see a tourist haggle over the price of a coloured embroidered garment that they may have taken hours or days to produce.
The indigenes of Peten watch as their forests are logged for valuable rainforest timbers. Polished furniture, doors and other products are produced with exploited labour and exported to the USA.
Like the Australian Aborigines, the indigenous people of Guatemala today seek justice and a more equitable share in the nation's wealth. In the past, for them to demonstrate or to demand equality â let alone land rights â meant ruthless persecution.
Rigoberta Mench£ the Nobel prize winner, had to live in exile for years because her fight for the indigenous people brought threats to her life by the notorious death squads.
Military and police death squads have been responsible for the disappearance and deaths of hundreds of unionists, professionals and peasants who dared to organise or protest against the unjust society. The military and police were used to break strikes, demonstrations and to terrorise the population.
The recent Mabo decision of the Australian High Court recognised native title to land. It means that for the first time in 200 years since the British conquest, the dispossessed Aborigines have the right to claim and gain title to their tribal lands.
In Guatemala the indigenous people have formed a Permanent National Assembly of the Maya People to seek reforms of the law and the policies of the major political parties. The assembly wants an end to the facade of democracy and the inclusion of the Maya people in constructive change.
In 1985 clauses were added to the country's constitution to protect indigenous communities. This was a paternalistic gesture that has not improved Maya living conditions.
The indigenous people of Colombia have been granted 18 million hectares over the past four years, in Bolivia 2 million hectares. In Guatemala the figure is nil.