Group items tagged

This article discusses how many indigenous peoples throughout Latin America are experiencing a loss of cultural tradition, along with conflict and violence because of religion. Of the 40 million indigenous people who live in Latin America today, the most prevalent religion is still Roman Catholicism; however, over the years, other religions have surfaced such as Protestantism and Evangelicalism. The emergence of different religions have changed the collective behavior of indigenous people, along with breaking away their traditional nature.

Throughout Latin America, indigenous communities are losing their sense of tradition, stemmed from large established religious denominations and lesser known groups. While some churches focus on social concerns, others focus on spiritual concerns, creating a division between communities and families. The "sects" have taken on the role of dividing the people and lowering them to interests of the dominant powers. Anthropologists and religious leaders blame the sects for employing indigenous peoples with money and advertising beliefs that go against their way of life.

The article discusses how there are plans to re-open a military base in the town of Ixcán in order to build a highway that will stretch 330 km across north-central Guatemala to Honduras and the Caribbean Sea to the east. The purpose of the highway is to protect foreign investment. However, there is widespread resistance amongst the iindigenous peoples of Ixcán due to the 102 massacres committed between 1979 and 1988 in the area.

This article focuses on the various indigenous groups in Guatemala. Divided up into various sections, it talks about such peoples affect on the country's culture, economy, and religious views. It is important to read about these groups affect on the country because they make up a large number of the population and have been and will continue to be very important in the direction the country takes.

This article talks about education for indigenous peoples in Latin America

The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs created and maintain this website. Many topics are discussed in length about indigenous people - the issues they face, their values and political systems - from multiple continents, including Argentina, Guatemala, Panama, and Peru from Latin America.

Venezuela, under the rule of Hugo Chavez, expelled the U.S. Evangelical group "New Tribes Mission" in 2005. The group was active in indigenous communities in Latin America for over fifty years. The Venezuelan government believed that they were westernizing indigenous people by force, and blaming them of things, but disguising it as preaching the gospel.

In 2005, President Hugo Chavez accused New Tribes Mission, an Evangelical group from the US, of being "agents of imperialist penetration" and expelled them from Venezuela. The group had lived and worked in indigenous communities in Venezuela for many years, translating the Bible into indigenous languages to convert people. Their expulsion came soon after American televangelist Pat Robertson declared that the US government should have President Chavez assassinated.

This article is provided by conciliation resourced. The creators of the laws found in this article discuss topics on the agreement on identity and rights of indigenous people. They include identity of indegenous people, struggle against discrimination, and cultural, civil, political, social and economic rights. It is interesting to see these laws and wonder how often they are followed (not very often at all).

Guatemalan authorities work towards moving Guatemala away from its dark past. They want to ensure that people who are found guilty of having anything to do with the persecution of many indigenous people during the civil war are punished in some way.

This site addresses how drug and alcohol abuse in Latin America is widespread among the urban poor, and how the two contribute to daily violence. In poor neighborhoods in the Colombian cities of Medellín and Bogotá, approximately half of the population uses drugs--mainly marijuana, followed by cocaine and amphetamines. It is believed that heavy drinking in Guatemala is associated with Mayans, indigenous people trapped in poverty by discrimination and armed conflict.

This article talks about the Japanese immigrants of Brazil, first of whom arrived there more than a hundred years ago. Now, there are more people of Japanese descent in Brazil than anywhere in the world outside of Japan itself. It also talks about how immigrants at first have a culture shock and discusses the importance of integrating into the indigenous culture.

This article from CNN explains the clash between police and indigenous protestors who were blocking a highway in Macas. Three people were killed and ten were injured. The protest was for the new mining and water law that is being proposed since it will cut off some of the people water sources and, therefore, hurt their crops.

This site actually does not deliver news of any kind, but instead it is testimony to the struggles that the indigenous Guatemalans faced as a result of capital and investment into a country that is not one's own. This shows disregard to the people of Guatemala who originally used the land in peaceful and harmonious ways as a way of life in order to survive which provided many of them with a sense of culture. Here the country is being showcased as if it were a product or a good, which I guess to those not living there, it is.

This report, from Guatemala's Historical Clarification Commission, completed 25 Februrary 1999, discusses the human rights violations of the internal armed conflict. However, as of 7 August 2009, Amnesty International reported that many of the recommendations of this document have not been heeded, and the marginalization of indigenous peoples has not been rectified.

United Nations, World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization, Pan American Sanitary Bureau

In this video, the author of Reckoning makes a comparison between opening up a mass grave in Guatemala and charging 6 American Bush-era officials for torture. They are both ways of dealing with a recent violent past that and changing the possibilities for the futures of both countries. She also describes the snake dance that she wrote about in Chapter 1 of the book.

In an effort to tie the three bookmarked articles together, this piece also discusses relevant material to Nelson's "Reckoning" alongside the movie, "When the Mountains Tremble". This article too discuses the idea and reality of Femicide or the genocide against women in Guatemala that still occurs to date. While the other readings set up an outline of what acts occur against women and the lack of influence police powers have, this article flashes numbers at the reader as a shock value to paint a picture of the immense number of women who have experienced brutality. While the other articles have mentioned the extent to which corruption influences the lack of punishment, this author seeks punishment in a different way. While doing research in Guatemala, he took victims who have been harmed themselves or have lost close ones to the war to the mountains to confront the militia men as a form of satisfaction or justice since the impunity rate is 97% in Guatemala. He explained that the gratitude of victims explaining their feelings to murderers would be far more reaching than formal punishment from the criminal justice system ever could be.