Securing Rights
"That is my cause [leading the people's struggle]... It wasn't born out of something good, it was born out of wretchedness and bitterness. It has been radicalized by the poverty in which my people live...And by the exploitation and discrimination which I've felt in the flesh. And by the oppression which prevents us performing our ceremonies, and shows no respect for our way of life, the way we are. At the same time, they've killed the people dearest to me...Therefore, my commitment to our struggle knows no boundaries nor limits. This is why I've traveled to many places where I've had the opportunity to talk about my people."
-Rigoberta Menchú, excerpt from Crossing Borders
|
As one of the URNG's most
prominent leaders, Menchú traveled to the United Nations headquarters in 1982
to lobby for the rights of Guatemalan indigenous. Overcoming personal
inexperience, discouragement, and discrimination, Menchú taught herself how to
navigate the complex international politics. She explained the horrific
situation in Guatemala, and promoted indigenous "rights to life, their rights to freedom of organization, [and] their rights to freedom of expression." (Menchú, Crossing Borders) After many years of lobbying, a UN resolution
critical of human rights violations in Guatemala was passed successfully.
Menchú also helped pass a Universal Declaration of Rights of
Indigenous Peoples and a UN High Commissioner for Indigenous Peoples, which finally recognized the legal and political rights of indigenous people worldwide.
|
"When we first arrived there to lobby, our hearts sank, we felt intimidated, we felt so small compared to the great monsters of political intrigue already there...We looked like oddballs and we were treated as such. Some officials were offhand and rather suspicious, as if we were making things up. I think they were embarrassed for us...
On countless occasions they had to throw me out of the main conference hall. The police would come and tell me, ‘Madam, this is a government area, you can't come in.’ I would pretend that I didn't understand English, but they would throw me out anyway. Then I would go back in again. For twelve years I steam-rolled--literally steam-rolled--down the UN corridors, battering down all its doors."
-Rigoberta Menchú; Crossing Borders
Demonstrations
Menchú also led Guatemalans in
their struggle locally. Even before her exile, she led many protests to improve hazardous labor conditions on fincas and in cities. She describes a major labor strike in 1980 below:
"It was a strike of 80,000 peasants, sugar, and cotton workers in the south of the country and in the Boca Coast, on the coastal strip where the sugar and cotton plantations are. The workers stopped work. We began with 8,000 peasants, then, little by little, the number grew...We fought with nothing more than machetes, stones, and sticks...That's how we managed to paralyse the economy...for a landowner, seventy or eighty thousand workers on strike for fifteen days is pretty tough... |
We called the strike to demand a minimum wage of five quetzales (≈ $0.66 USD)...We only got three quetzales twenty (≈ $0.42 USD)...It was a fair wage. At the same time, we demanded better treatment for the workers. That is, they shouldn't give use hard tortillas, or rotten beans, but that the food should be fit for human beings." |
"We set up barricades, threw 'propaganda bombs' and held lightning meetings. We had to complete each of these actions in a couple of minutes, or it would mean a massacre. And so, we were organised in such a way that the barricades would be opened, the propaganda given out, and the meeting held all at the same time...We were so worried, so afraid, that the enemy would arrive."
-Rigoberta Menchú; I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala
Justice
In 1999, Rigoberta Menchú led the crusade against ongoing impunity in Guatemala by filing a complaint "charging former head of state General Efraín Ríos Montt and other senior Guatemalan officials with terrorism, genocide, and systematic torture" ("The Guatemala Genocide Case", CJA.org) in Guatemalan Constutional Court.
Verdict: the judge ruled Ríos guilty, and sentenced him to 80 years in prison.
Verdict: the judge ruled Ríos guilty, and sentenced him to 80 years in prison.
However, the verdict was overturned just days later on a technicality. Nevertheless, the case was a step forward in prosecuting the egregious human rights violations in Guatemala. |
"Although diminished by the reversal of the conviction, the case is still historic...That the Guatemalan judicial system, still fragile and subject to corruption, was able to try a senior political leader [and] hold him responsible for gross human rights violations and international crimes...was widely seen as a landmark victory for the rule of law. Human rights advocates also lauded the trial as a watershed moment for the indigenous population that was targeted during the war, saying it was the first time they were able to present their case in Guatemalan courts and receive a measure of justice for the human rights violations their community suffered." |