There
is murder persecution, aggression, kidnappings,
intimidation, terror, black propaganda and censorship
operated against us, against the freedom of the
press and against freedom of speech - Marielos Monzón
Anthony McIntyre • The Other View, Autumn/Winter
2005
During the 1981 hunger strikes, although still on
blanket protest, the republican prisoners gained
access to newspapers as the regime was progressively
relaxed in a bid by prison authorities to misrepresent
themselves as somehow humane. Like a sponge eager
to soak up current events which had by passed us
for years, I would scan every line, perusing through
each account of many of the world's conflict zones.
One country that featured in a Sunday paper was
Guatemala. Right wing death squads had gone on the
rampage and had assassinated a number of university
professors.
Twenty
four years later when I travelled over to Queen's
University to meet and listen to the Guatemalan
human rights journalist, Marielos Monzón,
I was taken aback to learn that on the very day
the professors were killed, her father, a human
rights lawyer, was also assassinated by the same
murderous gangs. She was ten years old. It was through
researching the events that led to her father's
death that Marielos developed her passion for human
rights work.
The
name Guatemala has a nice rolling lilt to it but
the country itself has a reputation that would suggest
its powerful have a less than nice way of dealing
with opposition. At the end of November the New
York Times was given access to recently discovered
police files dating back over a century. What the
files constitute has been referred to as the institutional
memory of the bureaucracy that was central to the
repression exercised over Guatemalan society for
many decades. Their discovery holds the potential
to shed light on the Guatemalan government's dirty
war in which over 250, 000 people were murdered
and a further 50, 000 disappeared. In spite of the
find the powerful are determined to put themselves
beyond reach, by trying to create a law which will
prevent the military being tried in civilian courts.
After the experience of its Argentinean counterparts
where many were called to account, the Guatemalan
military does not want its role in widespread repression
including acts of genocide and other atrocities
against the country's indigenous Mayan Indians brought
to light.
Despite
a peace agreement having been brokered in 1996 after
decades of a one sided state prosecuted war Guatemala
is a society still deeply troubled by violence.
Trade unionist are stalked by death squads while
gangs can break into jails and murder eight prisoners,
one of whom they decapitated, leaving his severed
head beneath a chair in the prison basket ball complex.
In the first six months of this year the National
Movement for Human Rights recorded 127 threats and
attacks against human rights workers. Since 2001
there have been 1,800 women murdered, of whom 90%
were raped before being killed. There is a high
rate of suicide amongst the country's young people
who, unable to escape the violence, escape from
their own bodies.
It
is into the heart of such injustice and violence
that Marielos thrusts her pen with considerable
effect:
It
is incredible how the organized gangs of criminals
and the clandestine groups continue to operate with
complete impunity. It is shocking to see such ineffectiveness
and lack of political will to confront these evils
and apply justice. We are sick of speeches. These
are human beings, Guatemalans of flesh and blood
who continue to be the victims of violence, intolerance
and the hidden, parallel powers.
Marielos
had been invited to speak at Queen's by Amnesty
International, who had also presented her with an
award her for her journalism. For years she has
faced death threats and other forms of intimidation
in a bid to deter her from conducting her exposure
of human rights abuses. In 2003 Amnesty International
ushered her out of Guatemala for a period due to
the increasing danger to her life and that of her
two children after she had reported on the torture-killigs
of young mothers, murdered immediately after they
had given birth to their children. The latter were
subsequently sold off to wealthy families for anything
from between US$20 and US$30,000. In March of this
year her home was broken into shortly after she
and a colleague had broadcast a number of programmes
highlighting the concerns of many Guatemalans suspicious
of Central America Free Trade Agreement which they
felt would only lead to widespread destitution.
This was followed by threats to her to 'stop defending
those stinking Indians you bitch or we will kill
you.' In spite of the threats she remains a popular
broadcaster in Guatemala City with her Radio Universidad
programme, Good Morning With Marielos Monzón,
reaching a broad audience. Earlier she had twice
been sacked from other stations on the grounds that
she was too 'dangerous.' She is also the author
of a weekly column in the prestigious daily newspaper
Prensa Libre.
Marielos
was well received by a Belfast audience who turned
out in solidarity with her. Speaking in Spanish
- although in conversation her English is flawless
- which was then interpreted, she outlined the 36
year conflict that had gripped her homeland and
argued that despite the initiation of a peace agreement
in 1996, little had changed in terms of the material
conditions of existence for the bulk of the population.
Over 60% of people live on US$2 a day. After Brazil,
Guatemala is the second most unequal country in
the region, as well as having the highest malnutrition
index.. It is a society characterised by rabid racism.
Out of 158 Congress members, only 3 are Mayan despite
indigenous Indians representing 55% of the country's
population. This body has fared worse than any other.
In addition to being politically underrepresented,
it has virtually no access to health or education
facilities.
In
her talk she pointed out that a UN report on the
conflict had identified three main perpetrators,
the ruling elite, the military and the US government.
The Central America Free Trade Agreement between
the US and Latin American countries, in her view
was nothing more than a strategy by the US to control
the region.
During
her visit to Belfast Marielos visited the offices
of the Sunday World and was photographed beside
a plaque in honour of murdered journalist Marty
O'Hagan who previously had been the recipient of
an Amnesty international award similar to her own.
'I'm sorry to hear that here in Northern Ireland,
some journalists have suffered personal threats
because of freedom of expression to write.'
Journalists
like Marielos Monzón, whose every step is
made under the watchful eye of the death squads,
are a firewall between the murderous elites and
those they wish to harm. She remains alive because
of persistent monitoring carried out by bodies like
Amnesty International. I left Queen's after speaking
with her to the worrying thought that if the international
community goes to sleep Marielos Monzón will
die. Hopefully no one who listened to her in Belfast
left with their eyes wide shut.
There
is no such thing as a dirty word. Nor is there a word
so powerful, that it's going to send the listener to
the lake of fire upon hearing it. - Frank Zappa
