Blog 2. sean brown

http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/comunitario/Campesinos-bloquean-carreteras-cumplimiento-peticiones_0_359964211.html
Sean. Brown. Blog 2

Campesinos bloquean varias carreteras y exigen cumplimiento de peticiones
El artículo que elegí es de la Prensalibre, y estaba sobre bloqueos recientes en Guatemala por la comunidad campesina. Las principales áreas afectadas por estos bloqueos de carreteras son varias carreteras en Salcajá, Quetzaltenango, Cobán, Alta Verapaz, Huehuetenango, Petén e Izabal. La población protesta es en su mayoría campesinos, muchos de los que son indígenas. Tienen cuatro principales demandas del gobierno: la Ley de Desarrollo Rural Integral, la nacionalización del Servicio de Energía Eléctrica, la mejora de la agricultura, y la adopción del pacto El Pacto . La nacionalización del servicio eléctrico está siendo exigida para las subvenciones se pueden hacer a los agricultores rurales, así como la reforma agraria. Ley de Desarrollo Rural Integral, es un presupuesto para la política de desarrollo rural y dos-cien millones para la recuperación de la agricultura en las comunidades afectadas por desastres. Mejora de la Agricultura es obvio, y por lo que El Pacto fical, no puedo encontrar ninguna referencia concreta a lo que implica, pero tengo la impresión general que se centra en los sistemas fiscales, la distribución, y la reducción de la pobreza

I first chose this article because it reminded me of all the discussions we had in class about how the lack of government revenues from taxes does not allow for much help to the poor in Guatemala. I found this to almost be an answer to our discussion on what to do in order to help or address poverty, in this case specifically rural and indigenous poverty. The way I see it is the rural population has taken matters into their own hands and is now forcing the government to help. This reminded me of when we spoke about how politicians in Guatemala are often conflicted with helping the rural, more so the indigenous, due to the political repercussions of it. I guess protest is always a good way to get noticed. As far as the areas of the roads being blocked, on a map of Guatemala, they tend to either circle Guatemala City or are spread out around the country. I don’t know how big a deal these road blocks are, however it does seem to be causing quite a fuss in other articles I read. Also the fact that these protests are spread all around the country shows that this is not a regional problem, but more say a class or ethnicity problem

I get the idea that the demand for nationalizing the electricity/energy industry in Guatemala is an attempt by the rural population at equally distributing both the costs and benefits of this industry, which they are arguing are far from equal at this time.

I have a feeling that these road blocks were not a surprise to anyone in Guatemala, since on October 12 – around 15000 (mainly indigenous) marched through the capital of Guatemala to protest against the exploitation of natural resources(including mining and oil extraction )and lack of support for agriculture. Many of the articles pertaining to the protests refer to the recent extreme rainfalls (Jackie did a blog on this) of which have caused so much destruction to the landscape, for causing rural unrest, due to the destruction of livelihoods, ex : farms. This is where the call for agricultural improvement and the Rural development Act come into play, since both are being demanded in order to help with the recent damage, as well as help the rural population gain food security.

Again I could not find much on what the article meant by the fiscal pact other than reference to taxes and government spending [duh.] but what I found interesting was that it seems to me that it’s a good idea to slip it into the protest demands. Why not bring up any problem they have with the government while they have their attention, as well as the public. However the article did mention how a lot of things related to these demands were promised in the past election campaign and have yet to be realised.

Overall I am still a little confused as to how significant these road blocks/ protests are. They seem to be addressing the majority of key issue which affect the rural poor, so to me it seems as if this is a big deal. However, I did not see any article about this on the home pages of either el prensalibre or el periodico, so maybe that is a hint that it is not being taken seriously.