Inb’u’tz ch’uyujk’in tunorox (Good afternoon to you all) Chiquimula is located in the south east of Guatemala close to the Honduran border. In August 2009 it was identified as the country’s second most violent department, with 99 murders registered between January and June. In the executive summary of the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Verified Annual Report for 2009, Chiquimula is named as a centre for drug trafficking, with emphasis on the activities of the Mexican ‘Zetas’ cartel in the area.
Chiquimula is also one of departments that has suffered most from the drought that is affecting numerous communities in the departments comprising the so called ‘dry corridor’,including Baja Verapaz, Zacapa, Chiquimula and Jutiapa. The drought has caused a huge loss of crops, resulting in high levels of malnutrition, particularly among children.
The situation worsened last year, and on 8 September 2009, President Colom declared a state of calamity. 13 countries donated food in an effort to help the most vulnerable. “According to the government, this crisis affected an estimated 2.5 million people, especially those located in the dry corridor, and an undetermined number of children died of causes related to chronic malnutrition.”
An estimated 34.1 million dollars of aid arrived in Guatemala (equivalent to 270 million quetzals). However, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that US$600 million was needed to confront the malnutrition affecting children in the region.
At the time, the National Co ordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) calculated that 2,628 families in Chiquimula had lost 762,729 quetzals worth of white maize (around US$95,000), representing a 50% reduction in normal production. This loss of essential crops resulted in 43% of children under the age of five affected by malnutrition. “The food crisis was caused by climactic and economic phenomena, which led to losses of crops and a rise in the prices of basic grains, affecting the availability of food,” said the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), in its 2009 report on Guatemala. “If the right to food is to be fulfilled, historic and structural challenges must be overcome.”
A high percentage of the population of this region is indigenous Chortí. According to people interviewed by PBI, the Chortí Mayan people have a history of involvement in indigenous and campesino resistance to repression. Members of the ‘New Day’ Chortí Campesino Central Coordinator in Chiquimula, for example, say that during the 1960s, the area was an important centre in the struggle against the socio-economic injustices afflicting the country’s population. The region’s social movement began to emerge, evolving during the internal armed conflict and after the signing of the Peace Accords. According to “Guatemala: Never Again”, the report of the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHAG), the military base in Rio Hondo (department of Zacapa) played a key role in forced disappearances and other human rights violations that took place in the early 1980s in villages like El Jute.
During the last three years, two major development projects have been proposed for the Chortí region. These include, among other aspects, the construction of three hydroelectric plants and a highway.
Read more in the Guatemala Bulletin (PDF 2.2 MB)