Rosa Lia Chauca, Social network for children and families.
Red para la Infancia y la famila- Perú

Guatemala initiated a period of remilitarisation since 2002. This military supremacy had been until now camouflaged by the government in its efforts of portraying a ‘respectable image’ in the eyes of the international community. The final aim of this action was to obtain a 1,300 million dollars loan from the IMF, credit that was finally conceded.

In order to get the loan, six military public officers, who had been recently appointed in the ministry of internal affairs, were dismissed. However, the chief of the ministry, General Arévalo Lacs, who had also been judged by Amnesty International and The United Nations Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) for his damaging role in the civil war, remained in power. In the process of building up this ‘acceptable image’, the government also began ‘official’ trials against some public officers accused for corruption.

Nevertheless, just after the loan was conceded, there were several extreme cases of human rights violations committed by the government. One of them is the assassination of one of the witnesses that testified in a trial against the Guatemalan vice-president Reyes López. Impunity, as a common practice clearly reflected in the well-known case of bishop Geradi murder; guarantied that these assassinations were ultimately judged as cases of street violence, protecting at the same time, the real perpetuators.

The almost forgotten Peace Accords were once again mentioned. It was also referred that one of the highest violations to the Peace Accords was the preservation of the Presidential Military Assembly (Estado Mayor Presidencial), the highest military body in government responsible for organising and executing actions of military intelligence and repression. Within this context, is worth noticing that since 1999 the national budget assigned to military actions has increased, in sharp contrast to the reduction of the national expenditure to national police forces, health and education.

In this sense, the militarist nature of society and national security begins now to re-establish our almost forgotten old remembrances of terror. These military actions have been favoured by the acknowledged international war against terrorism, which encourages the reactivation of policies forces for national security. The governmental party (FRG) benefits from a widespread international support specially promoted by USA. This support is encouraged due to the party’s alliances with the neo-liberal ideas that ensure a favourable position for foreign interest in the region. In this way, the FRG in order to consolidate in power is seeking to maintain the old-seated relationships with military commissioners and civil patrols. Based on fear and disbelief, people might opt to support the old authoritarian model.

Poverty levels increase steadily as shown in the case of Jocotán and Camotán in Chiquimula municipality where exist cases of starvation. According to the fourth rapport of the National Human Development Plan (INDH) presented by UNDP on the 27th October 2001, the gap between the rich and the poor has increased. Just the 2% of the total population has an earning over 2 million Quetzales per year (280,000 US$) in sharp contrast, the majority of Guatemalans live in poverty and extreme poverty.

Within this economic and social context, people still strive to find the bodies of their love ones, struggling at the same time, in recovering their historical memory. This means to maintain a struggle against those who strive to keep in silence all the happenings of the 80s and 90s. One does not have to forget that those who control the past, control the future, and also control who we are.

Against this background, and within the mental health field, we have to create participatory spaces where people could have the minimum guaranties for security and could speak freely about their past and claim their rights. The political terror implemented in the 80s, as a form of rumours, death threats and diverse forms of violence, is still used as mechanism of intimidation to which people respond with fear, disbelief and sometimes submission, since they are afraid of political repression. As Perren-Klinger (1996) asserts, these are normal responds to abnormal situations, since the threat is still latent. Simililarly, Koonings y Krujit (1999: 2) has pointed out that from all Latin American countries Guatemala is the typical example of a society of fear.

People continue to be engaged in the process of exhumations of their relatives, to which the government respond with indifference and mechanism. Despite of all the internal conflicts that exhumations arise within communities, they bring tranquillity and peace to people especially when the grieving process is done in accordance to the local traditions.

As mental health workers we must contribute in strengthening human rights in Guatemala. In doing so, we can provide instrumental support to the victims of human rights violations, specially those victims of torture. We are far in building up a more egalitarian society, despite of this; our only alternative is to persevere and to resist.