By Kajkoj Maximo Ba
The call for resistance made by the indigenous authorities of Guatemala, to limit the claims of the criminal group leading the coup d’état, aroused the interest of specialists and analysts. Confirming that after more than 20 days of resistance and mobilization, what is happening so far is still not objectively understood.
“A movement led” by men and women who had to learn not only the language of the colonizer, but also managed to ensure that their message penetrated the political-social field that until now was occupied by white-mestizo power. Those who lead this movement are “authorities.” Authorities whose functions include ensuring that the population they represent acts under the principles and values learned, apprehended and transmitted for many years of history. Values and principles, which are fundamental for authorities and communities to work in a complementary and articulated way.
The indigenous authority is first selected, not elected. The difference is that in an election you decide between several options, as happens in general elections. On the other hand, selection involves choosing a person from a group of options. In the political-social life of indigenous communities, the authority is selected from among several people who have reached the age to assume these functions.
To be selected as an authority, you must first have demonstrated that you come from a family that preserves the values and principles accepted by the community. Second, that you have demonstrated transparency, honesty and responsibility in your life.
Third, that he has participated in the work and activities of the community. Fourth, if he is a professional, as is now the case in many communities, he has not dared to be arrogant towards the community. In fact, he is required to support the community in accordance with his profession and not evade his responsibility as a member. her.
Currently, community authority is called “ancestral authority,” because its origin dates back centuries. He is not elected by any organization outside the community. Not all people can carry a “rod”, appointing themselves an authority or representative of the people, taking advantage of circumstances.
The rod is only a visible “symbol.” The authority must have the capacity to sustain its “loq’olaj ch’ami’y”. It is not a “simple decorated rod”, nor is it solely a symbol of authority or power. It is the staff of command and obedience.
The authority supports the actions demanded by the community in this baton. Holding it in your hand is not only to lift it up, but to support yourself and your struggle and the collective struggle. Seeing her, he reminds her of the commitment, pain and suffering that comes with being “authority.” Here where the word becomes action manifests itself.
Many years ago an old man said that together with “ch’ami’y”, hunger, thirst, fatigue and illnesses can be endured. It is a great responsibility, because you cannot betray the community’s mandate. Because it is the community that grants it, legitimizes it and is a fundamental part of communal governance, which some try to call “community democracy.”
Hence, other positions, such as catechists, presidents of COCODES, leader of any social organization, cannot be counted among the community authorities, even if they walk around with their censer or a replica of the staff.
“The person (man or woman) who is appointed by the people and assumes his k’axk’ol”, that is, the suffering, pain and commitment that comes with being an authority, does not show off lightly, because he knows how, when and where it will. His words should be constructive and not destructive. He does not allow the folklore of knowledge, nor does he sell the organization, nor the strength of the community. He is heir or heir and responsible for maintaining the organization that was built many, many centuries ago. If the authority betrays these precepts, the community itself ignores it, as has happened, like many, who went from community authority to government, NGO, church or political party official.
The indigenous authority is much more authority than the president, a deputy or a mayor. In our history there are many stories of authorities who challenged the power of the Pope, the Spanish Crown, presidents, etc. “The indigenous authority, clothed with communal power and the dignity of a people, always defends the community and must respond according to the principles of the ancestors, when they said: “we are as kings as Spain.”
The indigenous authority must respect the people, the people respect them and they respect each other. They do not “manage” each other, but respect each other, dialogue, and reach consensus. “Mutual respect” is a fundamental part of coexistence and good government. And there the value of the word, work, mutual help and complementarity, among others, makes sense. But it must never be forgotten that the authority ensures the fundamental principle of indigenous communitarianism: “harmony and balance.”
Respect is earned and built day by day. Here the call made by the indigenous authority has its first meaning, for the days we have been resisting, to ask for the resignation of the “dogs” of the criminal pact. For this decision there was dialogue and consensus. It is not born from spontaneity. It has its own process, like cyclical time itself. And this is what those who racistly oppose the liberating presence of the indigenous peoples in the white-mestizo urban centers of Guatemala do not understand, nor do they understand.
This is just beginning! For there to be a new dawn, a “saq chahim”, “aq’ lah q’iij), many “Nuk’uj” (rehearsals) are required. There is always a beginning, there is no end, says Mayan thought. There are no endings, only beginnings, continuities. Hence the example of juncture or articulation, like the symbol of “aj”, reed cane, sugar cane. Everything is life, death is life, life is death. Zero is the beginning and the end. Time is cyclical and dialectical.
Everything is built in dialogue, in discussions, in analysis, in reflections. That is why everything is not finished, because it will have its continuity and successors. “Who is going to follow my example,” say the grandparents. The repetition of names, places, spaces in the old books of the native peoples seems rhetorical, but no, it is the way of telling ideas and time. They remember and talk about their ancestors, the first one who was in these lands, and the places he visited are mentioned. Hills, valleys and mountains are mentioned.
More than 50 days of resistance and indigenous rebellion against the system. It is a political test of the people. It cannot be understood from Western narratives, it must be read and understood from the indigenous peoples. And for that, you have to be there, living there, walking there. Something like this, like Heidegger’s “dasein”, with the idea of being there, as existence, but not individual existence but collective existence.
Many wonder, was there a revolution? What did the native peoples achieve with this uprising, what structural changes. There was no revolution from the Marxist point of view, which means change of system, changes of structure. But if we realize, there was a change in the acceptance of the native peoples. From now on, even Guatemalan criminals know that the native peoples have been living here for many centuries and that now, without recognizing their ancestry, they say: “the ancestral peoples.” Towns with a well-defined body of authorities, which are constituted according to community values and principles.
What is the root of the fear that is born in the Creoles-oligarchs-bourgeois, when the indigenous peoples assume their right to rebel? Because here the liberal idea of the “Indian problem” is demystified, a strategy coined by indigenismo in 1940. Indigenismo proposed as strong ideas that the problem belongs to the Indian, then the ideas arose of integrating, assimilating, caring for the Indian. . In my article: How has indigenism affected Guatemala?I try to analyze this situation.
This moment of indigenous mobilization puts on the political board that the problem is not the Indian’s. The problem is that of the State and, in any case, a problem of the State and the elites that control it against the “Indian”, to keep their lands and territories. Mariátegui at the time said: the “problem is the economic and social system.” It is the model of the excessive ambition of the Creole-oligarch-bourgeois-drug trafficker, to stay and plunder the assets that exist in the indigenous territories, it is what they do not want to leave and therein lies the fear.
When we talk about indigenous peoples, it does not mean only talking about “education, culture, progress, love and heaven.”[1]. The fundamental demand of the original indigenous peoples is “land and territory”, which is what the narco-landowners, now grouped in the Chamber of Agriculture, are afraid of. Solving the problem of land and territory would be the way, it is to solve the problem of large estates and small estates and, with this, migration, colonization and indigenous slavery would be partially resolved (which still exist in lands that have in their power the Germans)[2]. The farmers, the drug dealers, etc., would be left without much land and without exploited labor, and the great deal of the Torrebiartes would fall, when they created their Association for the Defense of Private Property (ACDEPRO)[3]the narratives promoted from the digital newspaper La República[4] and 21st century[5].
So, if the people’s project is land and territory, why the defense that is exercised today to reestablish bourgeois democracy? Why isn’t a revolution promoted as a result of the class struggle? The people embarked on the defense of democracy, not only to restore stability to the country, but to overcome this democracy.[6], to build a new model of country, of republic. With a Plurinational State model, which has as its fundamental axis, the political-economic proposal of the people, as a fundamental element of its paradigm, which is much deeper than the good life.
The Guatemalan creoles-oligarchs-bourgeois are afraid of this. If this happens, then we will be facing a revolution. (to be continue)
[1] mariategui_7_essays.pdf (in culture)last seen on November 22, 2023.
[2] Ba Tiul, Kajkoj Máximo, Guatemala: Modern Slavery and the Destruction of Man, en Klaus Vellaguth (HG), One World-No Slavery, Herder, Germany, 2022. Ba Tiul, Kajkoj Máximo, “SLAVERY 21ST CENTURY” (Cobán Footwear Factory): By Kajkoj Máximo Ba Tiul | essaysraftulum (wordpress.com). last seen November 22, 2023.
[3] (1) Facebooklast seen November 22, 2023.
[4] Latest news from Guatemala today live | Republica.gt (republica.gt)last seen on November 22, 2023.
[5] The Century – The GT Centurylast seen on November 22, 2023.
[6] For a new democracy – Rebelionlast seen on November 22, 2023.
