In line to vote in the previous elections. Could it be that they are not going to be able to vote for an authentically Indigenous and peasant candidate? Photo: Dick Emanuelsson.
In this second part (first part here) of the interview with the founder of the Guatemalan peasant organization Codeca, the organizer Mauro Vay Gonón speaks about the development of the peasant struggle. He details how it turned into a political and electoral struggle calling for the rights of the Guatemalan people and the need for a National Constituent Assembly, a fundamental project for the political-electoral party component of Codeca, the Movement for the Liberation of the People (MLP) in Guatemala. Codeca was founded during the Guatemalan civil war, in 1992. Although fighting between URNG [Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, the guerrilla movement that, in 1996, became a political party] guerrillas and the Army had subsided at that time, the guns were eventually silenced through the 1996 Peace Accord signed in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.
Dick and Miriam Emanuelsson-Huezo: How has the political and social development occurred since the organization, mainly peasant–Indigenous, was born?
Mauro Vay Gonón: In fact, for me as a leader, as a founder, it has been a success. Why? First, because we were already founded, we were ready to culminate that sad black history of our country of massacres. This does not mean that the persecution has ended or the violation of human rights has ended. The violation of human rights began selectively. They began to murder people in the street, always with the aim of spreading terror. From there, they began to murder women. They handled it as femicide to be able to blame other people, but they are the same assassins from the Army who were doing that, they are the same death squads. But for us, this gave us a bit of a chance to sign the peace agreement to start strengthening the organization. And, in fact, we started in the Community of Monseñor Romero with 15 members, and then we expanded into three departments, and so on. We continued to expand our coverage. We are currently in the entire national territory.
Guatemala Blocks Leftist Indigenous Leader From Presidential Race, in ‘Electoral Coup’
DMEH: Was there any relationship with the URNG at that time?
MVG: When I founded Codeca, we had no relationship with any organic structure. Once we were already in the process of struggle, we met with them [other groups], because we knew that we are partners, because we fight for the same cause; they in the military and we in the political.
When the URNG party was established with the signing of the Peace Accords, we thought that it was the alternative that we had, as a peasant, social, and popular movement, to support that political struggle that the former guerrillas were already involved in, in this case, the URNG. We were there supporting it it with its tasks. Unfortunately, it became apparent that there were a series of divisions that were present within the left. Each formed a political party. They were divided into four political parties. We remained in the Revolutionary Unity [Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, URNG] because we wanted that unit to be maintained as it was when it was formed in the 1980s.
A Guatemalan EGP column.
The guerrilla groups
Before 1980, there were four guerrilla movements, several founded in 1961:
· EGP: Guerrilla Army of the Poor
· FAR: Rebel Armed Forces
· ORPA: Organization of the People in Arms
· PGT: Guatemalan Labor Party (the Communist Party)
DMEH: Comment on the talks between Codeca and the URNG, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity party, and how that movement became a political party in 1997 that was formalized in 1998.
MVG: We saw it as an option and we support it, regardless of whether it was divided. Other leaders left. But we stayed in URNG until they expelled us. They expelled us because they saw that we were already growing as an organization and, suddenly, they thought that we were going to control the party. It was not our intention, because we don’t like the limelight. We like to see changes. Who carries it out, we don’t care. What we want is for the problem to change. We were seeing that this wasn’t the case.
An electric power system is needed here and they said “no, that is already a utopia.” Since energy is a necessity of the population, it cannot be privatized. It was a disgrace to the country. We see these as unfair policies in a country where people do not have jobs, where there is no medicine in hospitals, where education is not free. How are people going to pay the electricity bill if they don’t have the working conditions to be able to have the money? The power grid here needs to be nationalized. They tell us no. We watched and made criticisms. That’s why they expelled us. They said “this is not catching on,” and they expelled us.
An Indigenous woman votes in the elections in the municipality of Sololá, a stronghold of the URNG since the armed conflict and one of the five mayoralties held by the URNG-MAIZ party. Photo: Dick Emanuelsson.DMEH: However, Codeca had already been working on a proposal for a new political constitution for Guatemala?
MVG: In the way the state of Guatemala is structured, everything is wrong, everything is controlled. It was necessary to seek political solutions so that the state could not be co-opted by criminal groups, like the ones that are there right now. We thought of a plurinational popular Constituent assembly, because we see that from the diversity of peoples that we have been working with on plurinationality, we realized that we are not included in the polity. The Constitution says that the polity declares itself as a mestizo state, and that is not true. This is a multinational state, where there are several nationalities. The constitution must be changed and we began to work on that. We began to see what thematic axes we need to deal with first. We started working with fourteen themes, from the state model, the health system, justice, human rights, education, and common goods such as land, water, and territory.
DMEH: What has the reaction of the people been?
MVG: Everyone applauds it, because it is a necessity. Thinking people realize that this is what is needed in Guatemala. We have achieved that and it was what helped the organization to expand right now. Because we’re not just talking, we’re not just complaining. Because many organizations complain. But what do they think, what do they propose? We do not complain, we propose. We have proposals and since those proposals do not penetrate the URNG or any leftist party, we departed. It was necessary to think about creating a political instrument for the movement. That is why the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples, the MLP, was born.
Presidential candidate in the 2011 elections, Rigoberta Menchu, accompanied by former guerrilla commander Pablo Monsanto (on her left), part of the Rebel Armed Forces-FAR. Photo: Dick Emanuelsson.DMEH: Did the URNG and Rigoberta Menchú’s party, Winaq, agree with a proposal for a National Constituent Assembly?
MVG: They did not agree. They say that it is dangerous to touch that, that it affects the interests of the oligarchy. We have to find another way.
DMEH: So, why the political struggle?
MVG: We are concerned seeing lazy leaders like them. Because, honestly, if something has to happen here, let it happen. But we cannot hide the needs of the population. We cannot fail to mention the needs of the population. If we think for a bit, we must count on the society that we see. Those are the latent needs and, therefore, those needs must be met. How to do it? That is what you have to search for, and that is what we are doing.
Elections in June 2019 and 2023
DMEH: Is this why MLP, this year (2023), in the month of June, will come out with its own presidential candidate and its own candidates for the National Congress and the mayors of various municipalities?
MVG: Definitely. As for participating in politics, we had our first electoral experience as a movement in 2019. In electoral matters, we have never had candidates…
It was difficult for us to adapt to handling that situation. That is when we named Thelma Cabrera as presidential candidate and an internal discussion arose. Because [some thought] she should be an academic with a track record. We said that we have lived 500 years with lawyers, engineers, doctors, economists, generals or colonels. What did we achieve? They were sold… Here what counts is dignity. We have dignity and we can do it. The technical part, for that there is advice.
The MLP party registered with the TSE for 2019 after putting together our ticket. We received the decision from the TSE about Thelma Cabrera as late as May 9, and the elections were held on June 16. They were elections with very little time to campaign, without money, without experience. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) had to provide a sum for each political party, but the MLP did not give a penny. Instead, they restricted it from opening a bank account. The finance chamber for the MLP was closed. Faced with these restrictions, we did everything we could. There were people who helped out with their car, with their blanket, with their flag, with their poster, and they went out into the street. We finished in second place. But seeing that, the CACIF (the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations, that is, the true power in Guatemala) met and ordered them to carry out the fraud, and the fraud was carried out. Therefore, we were left in fourth place. We started to think that without experience, with limitations, without money, being able to obtain 455,000 votes was a success. If there were democracy in Guatemala, we would have won; in the second round, we would have won.
Thelma Cabrera during the first MLP electoral campaign of 2019. Nearly half a million Guatemalans voted for her. In the polls for the elections in June 2023, she is tied with the official candidate and the powers that be are afraid of her; the TSE is preventing her from participating, knowing that she can win.The powers that be prevent the participation of the MLP
DMEH: What are the circumstances for the 2023 elections?
MVG: Well, we have expanded our organizational and political structure. As a political party, we have coverage throughout the country. We have prepared with technical teams from various sectors, such as an association of lawyers, economists, architects, from various disciplines, all academic disciplines are working with us. What we are seeing right now is that they are preparing electoral fraud. They [the TSE] have already notified Thelma about something that she has not done and they are notifying her while the other candidates are in an electoral campaign. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal does not notify them. You can already see how the fraud is working from now on. However, we are going to do everything possible to fight peacefully until the last moments. Time will get the last word on what destiny Guatemala takes.
DMEH: Are they inviting us to cover next year’s electoral campaign?
MVG: You must be here to accompany the processes. Because in Guatemala there is a difficult situation, a government run by criminals, murderers, thieves, and delinquents. That is who leads the people of Guatemala in the three branches of the state. We need the international presence of the international press to publish the reality of these events.
DMEH: Thank you very much Don Mauro, it will really be interesting to arrive here next year and we have no doubt that it will be a very interesting popular response. The entire continent is also moving to the left…
MVG: Thanks to you because this provides us the opportunity to express ourselves… Because the corporate media are deceiving, it’s like what they are doing with Ukraine. They are promoting a madman as president of Ukraine. Unfortunately, the gringos support madmen, criminals, and criminal governments. Good democratic governments receive coups d’état. That is the truth. But the world should already know that. The time is coming when the population will awake to everything, and I believe that big changes are coming across the continent and around the world.
* The registration and presidential candidacy of the MLP for the June 2023 elections, by decision of the TSE on January 30 of this year, was twice rejected. The TSE ruling was also endorsed by the Court of Supreme Justice. This could lead to a “Second Peru,” say the experts on the subject of Guatemala.
(TeleSUR) by Dick and Miriam Emanuelsson-Huezo
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/KW/SL
