In April of 2015 Guatemala was hit by a severe political crisis. The discovery of a network of illicit payments made to government officials in exchange for reduced customs duties on imported goods...Show moreIn April of 2015 Guatemala was hit by a severe political crisis. The discovery of a network of illicit payments made to government officials in exchange for reduced customs duties on imported goods led to massive social uprising in the country. The event has been referred to as the“La Línea scandal” (The Line), the name of the custom fraud ring. This scandal became the final straw in a country that has always struggled with social unrest and corruption. Citizens began to rise up. Protests, marches and strikes broke out on the streets of Guatemala City and several other provincial capitals. Universities, schools, shops and companies joined the protests.1 The social uprising following the scandal can be described as the largest social movement since the civil war.2 Some authors view the social uprising as “the emergence of civil society”, since protestors largely belonged to the country’s professionals and among those who influence public opinion.3 Four years later, in 2019, indigenous activist Thelma Cabrera of the newly established party “Movimiento para la Liberación de los Pueblos” (MLP) became the most successful indigenous presidential candidate in Guatemalan history. Attaining 10% of the votes, Cabrera tripled the amount of second most successful indigenous candidate. In a country where roughly half its citizens identify as indigenous, indigenous representation within formal politics has been minimal. This thesis explores the relationship between the 2015 La Línea scandal and sudden rise of indigenous politics in Guatemala, as proven by the success of the MLP in 2019. The question that this thesis seeks to answer is: What explains the relative success of indigenous politics in Guatemala after the 2015 la línea corruption scandal? In Chapter 1, I will provide a literature review that examines the two schools of thought in indigenous politics that explain the success of indigenous party formation: the institutionalist approach and the ethno-populist approach. The work of multiple academics will be discussed and compared, to contextualise the diverging ideas that are present in pre-existing literature surrounding the topics in this thesis. I argue that neither of these two schools are applicable in the Guatemalan case. Contrastingly, I provide literature on the theory of “triggering” events, which I will prove to be relevant in indigenous politics in Guatemala. Chapter 2 provides a framework of the historical context that led up to the La Línea scandal in 2015. It starts with a description of the 36-year civil war that lasted between 1960-1996, and the period of democratic return and the peace process. Then, it examines expansion of indigenous rights that were implemented as part of the peace agreements. Contrastingly, I argue that the formal implementation of these documents did not lead to substantial change for indigenous peoples in Guatemala, by demonstrating that violence and corruption scandals result in the continued marginalisation of indigenous groups. Furthermore, I examine the two previously established indigenous political parties URNG and Winaq and their failure of becoming an integrated part of the political landscape. In Chapter 3, I highlight the continuous corruption scandals and impunity of the Guatemalan state and state officials. Furthermore, I focus on the establishment of the CICIG and its involvement in the uncovering of the 2015 La Línea corruption scandal. It continues with a broad summary of the 2015 La Línea corruption scandal, after which I will elaborate on the CODECA, MLP and Thelma Cabrera. Then, the chapter looks at the 2019 elections. In conclusion, I argue that the 2015 La Línea corruption scandal and the sequential success of indigenous political party formation in Guatemala can be explained through a lens of “triggering events” theory.Show less
This thesis is about the confrontation between two forms of justice. One institutionalized as law, and the other, depending on situational embodied forms of doing justice. Further, it is about the...Show moreThis thesis is about the confrontation between two forms of justice. One institutionalized as law, and the other, depending on situational embodied forms of doing justice. Further, it is about the confrontation between sources of law. One source relates to sovereign nation states as top down mechanism, and the other, to indigenous peoples as bottom-up process. The analysis applies a bottom-up approach, as suggested by decolonial critical thought, that questions elemental assumptions about dominant neoliberal institutional frameworks. This thesis cannot solve these tensions. It tries to investigate their dynamics on the basis of a specific case, which is, the ethical tribunal, established by Maya Mam indigenous peoples in 2012, that accuses the Canadian mining company Goldcorp for committing human rights violations through its extractive activities in the area of San Marcus Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. Instead of coming up with a solution, the thesis wants to question dominant legal frameworks that permit human rights violations and reveal the capacity of informal legal compositions to install grounds of justice. It was identified that the ethical tribunal contributed to unfold the seemingly uncontested nature of neoliberal extractive activities through its potential to challenge impunity and establish access to cognitive, and epistemic forms of justice.Show less
This study provides a critical analysis to the issue of malnutrition in Guatemala by looking at the constraints of national food security policy. Even though there are a number of programs and...Show moreThis study provides a critical analysis to the issue of malnutrition in Guatemala by looking at the constraints of national food security policy. Even though there are a number of programs and strategies designed to tackle malnutrition, it is found that they are often not implemented nor executed. This thesis suggests that this can be attributed to weak institutionalism, such as a lack of capacity, coherence and strength, present throughout multiple levels of the national food security and nutrition system (SINASAN). This research first analyses this problem from a historical perspective by examining the high levels of poverty and inequality which are deeply rooted into Guatemalan history and society. A state of food insecurity, a state in which malnutrition is more likely to emerge, is worsened when there is a lack of accessibility and availability to food resulting from income poverty and inequality. This directly implies that levels of malnutrition can only be reduced if poverty and inequality are also tackled. This complexity to the issue of malnutrition is, and will stay, an enormous obstacle for political institutions in creating sustainable and efficient food security programs and policies. Noticeably, weak institutionalism in Guatemala increases this barrier. Namely, a lack of continuity in government administrations leads to temporary and inconsistent food security strategies and excessive bureaucracy, a lack of coordination and structure withhold the proper implementation of food security projects from national level to local level. In other words, this study exposes that Guatemala finds itself in a vicious cycle which delays the reduction of malnutrition.Show less
The 1996 Guatemalan Peace Accords were the result of a long Peace Process that marked the end of a 36-year lasting civil war. These Accords aimed to end violent conflict and reconstruct the country...Show moreThe 1996 Guatemalan Peace Accords were the result of a long Peace Process that marked the end of a 36-year lasting civil war. These Accords aimed to end violent conflict and reconstruct the country. The majority of individuals involved in this Peace Process were male, but a range of women managed to take part in the Peace Process through both formal and informal channels. This thesis focusses on this formal women’s involvement, where two women were placed on the negotiating teams and a range of women’s organizations formed part of the civil society structure within the Peace Process. Women in Guatemala’s pre-conflict society faced significant barriers to the full exercise of their rights. Openings into the Peace Processes therefore provided women with opportunities to influence the outcome and thereby improve the status of women overall in Guatemalan society. In recent decades, there has been increasing scholarly attention to the lack of women’s involvement in peace processes, focussing mainly on ways to overcome this lack of involvement. Although further scholarly attention has been set on peace processes as a way for women to advance their status in society, empirical evidence regarding this line of reasoning is often lacking. This thesis aims to fill this gap by undertaking a literature based qualitative research in the form of a within-case study. Various indicators on the status of women in Guatemalan society are compared across time to determine if women’s involvement in the Guatemalan Peace Process has impacted the Peace Agreement and following policies, and in turn has led to changes in the status of the general population of women throughout Guatemalan society. This research demonstrates that through formal involvement in the Guatemalan Peace Process the status of women has not improved as much as envisioned, but still progress has been made. The findings of this thesis indicate that women in such processes cannot be expected to raise certain topics on the basis of their gender. Furthermore, it demonstrates that women’s participation in peace processes could lead to social transformation, but that the nature and features of such an involvement are limiting or strengthening to the eventual results in terms of women’s status in society. This establishes the need to thoroughly analyse how the nature and features of their involvement can be deployed to maximize the effect of women’s inclusion in peace processes as a way to establish societies with a higher degree of gender equality.Show less
Lynchings became a common practice in Guatemala after the signing of the peace accords in 1996.Since lynching has become a source of serious concern in post-war Guatemala, it is of vital importance...Show moreLynchings became a common practice in Guatemala after the signing of the peace accords in 1996.Since lynching has become a source of serious concern in post-war Guatemala, it is of vital importance that the underlying causes of this phenomenon receive a more profound analysis, in order to discern, and consequently address, the root causes of this issue. Due to the often complex and multi-causal nature of violence it is imperative that these problems be tackled from a similar multifaceted perspective. However, the incidence and geographical dispersion of lynching in Guatemala provide clues as to possible factors and conditions of interest as focal points for further analysis.The central hypothesis of this thesis is that widespread loss of social capital and the profound alteration of fundamental social and communal relations have left communities vulnerable to ‘frontier’ practices such as vigilantism and lynching. In the absence of a strong and capable legitimate power, the democratic transition left rural and marginalised communities isolated in an already volatile political and security situation, while pre-existing social disjunctions persisted. In an attempt to re-establish order in a context of psychosocial and collective trauma, perched on the razor’s edge of a near-defunct legal system, violence remained as the only tool in their armoury to settle conflict, exert social control, and impose moral authority.Show less
Stereotypes are powerful constructs embedded in humans’ minds that are difficult to be changed. Furthermore, in the region of Latin America, machismo and marianismo beliefs dictate the proper...Show moreStereotypes are powerful constructs embedded in humans’ minds that are difficult to be changed. Furthermore, in the region of Latin America, machismo and marianismo beliefs dictate the proper behaviour of men and women and establish norms of conduct. Hence, existing cultural expectations regarding the role of females in the society translate into concrete realities that limit females’ availability for professional development. This Bachelor Thesis studies the influence of gender stereotypes, machismo and marianismo beliefs in Guatemala on the outcome of the 2015 general elections in the country and the defeat of Sandra Torres. To this end, articles from both national and international newspapers are analysed through critical discourse analysis. Since media conveys knowledge and reinforces meaning regarding the position of males and females in the society, it is discovered to be a powerful influencer on the way the Guatemalan population votes. Therefore, this Bachelor Thesis provides an explanation about the relationship between media representation of Sandra Torres and her loss in the 2015 general elections. Additionally, the results of the analysis of the case study in Guatemala illustrate how media strengthens existing cultural norms and expectations regarding the role and the behaviour of females, which in turn impact people’s attitudes towards women in a certain manner; thus, obstruct females to engage with politics and to develop a professional career in the field.Show less
This thesis discusses the impact of cultural memory and local transitional justice mechanisms on national, regional, and international transitional justice mechanisms. Through analysing the impact...Show moreThis thesis discusses the impact of cultural memory and local transitional justice mechanisms on national, regional, and international transitional justice mechanisms. Through analysing the impact of murals and memorials that emerged after the exhumations of mass graves in Plan de Sánchez, Guatemala on local activism, this thesis finds that active memory during transition can lead to local actors taking charge of their transition. This occurred in Plan de Sánchez through taking legal issues that weren't being addressed on the national level to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, a court case that fuelled changes to both regional and international approaches to transitional justice.Show less
This thesis argues how to create a decentralised approach to artist initiatives, using a non-'western' centric framework, which dominates the art world by creating centres and peripheries. Using...Show moreThis thesis argues how to create a decentralised approach to artist initiatives, using a non-'western' centric framework, which dominates the art world by creating centres and peripheries. Using Guatemala as an example, it shows that it is possible to create a discourse that considers the socio-economic condition of the nation-state, its cultural background and the necessities of the population, to develop an art scene based on artist initiatives that are not depending on the major ' western' institutions in the art world. This leads to admit a higher relevance to artist initiatives and their impact on the development of art and cultures not just in their respective community, but also on a broader scale, as participants in the cultural development and the education of a country.Show less
Teboul, Léo-Paul Ned Alfred Marc Eli François 2018
How is the postcolonial subject's identity formed, in a nation which in addition to being postcolonial also happens to be postwar. The importance in bridging both the fields of Post-colonialism and...Show moreHow is the postcolonial subject's identity formed, in a nation which in addition to being postcolonial also happens to be postwar. The importance in bridging both the fields of Post-colonialism and Memory studies, is crucial to further understand the identity creation processes in Latin America. The case of Guatemala, and its 36 years long raging Civil War,has provided informants that were interviewed in order to shade a light onto their truths, and further our understanding of the identity of the postcolonial subject.Show less
During the Guatemalan Civil War, which lasted from 1960 to 1996, the indigenous Maya people of Guatemala have suffered immensely. Namely, 170.000 Mayas were killed and thousands have had to flee to...Show moreDuring the Guatemalan Civil War, which lasted from 1960 to 1996, the indigenous Maya people of Guatemala have suffered immensely. Namely, 170.000 Mayas were killed and thousands have had to flee to Mexico. In 1996, the Peace Accords were signed and promises were made for social justice of the Maya people in the education system, which had excluded them for centuries. At the same time, the World Bank started sponsoring a programme of heavily decentralized schools in Guatemala, called PRONADE schools, where local communities could easily open and manage primary schools through funding of the Ministry of Education. This thesis seeks to test to what extent social justice of the Maya people has been realized in these PRONADE schools compared to traditional public schools. Thereby, the approach of the Word Bank in schooling will be evaluated, using Fraser’s three-dimensional model of social justice as an indicator of success. Fraser’s dimensions of social justice consist of economic justice, cultural justice and political justice, which have frequently been applied to the education system. Fieldwork in Guatemala was carried out in March-April 2017, combining source analysis with in-depth semi-structured interviews. The results of this research show that, although the goals of the World Bank of equal access to quality education and the provision of bilingual education might have been partially realized, social justice still has a long way to go in the Guatemalan education system. Realization of economic justice in the PRONADE schools remains ambivalent, however, the PRONADE schools did score slightly better on cultural and political justice compared to traditional public schools, although by far not satisfactorily.Show less
The Guatemalan women´s movement emerged from the peace negotiations that put an end to the 36-year long armed conflict between the military government and insurgent groups. This was the first time...Show moreThe Guatemalan women´s movement emerged from the peace negotiations that put an end to the 36-year long armed conflict between the military government and insurgent groups. This was the first time that women participated in Guatemalan politics as a group. However, the movement has had difficulties bridging the boundaries of class, race and ethnicity in the post-war era. In a deeply divided society women´s organizations rarely cooperate with each other and have been reluctant to create a collective political identity. In recent years unity has been sought through cooperating on specific issues such as violence against women. In these rare instances of cooperation the organizations have mobilized under a strategic collective identity based on “unity around difference” and by framing their interests under the framework of human rights. This thesis finds that in the #NiUnaMenos protest, held on the 19th of October, 2016, solidary was created by drawing from the discourses of the revolutionary past and on a common understanding of history.Show less
This thesis analyses alternative forms of governance to manage land conflict and criminal violence in the Ixil region in Guatemala. Under conditions of weak state presence, European-centric...Show moreThis thesis analyses alternative forms of governance to manage land conflict and criminal violence in the Ixil region in Guatemala. Under conditions of weak state presence, European-centric governance approaches have been sceptical about governance in countries with a weak institutional culture and precarious democracy. However, on pointing out the democratic stance governance should achieve, they have overlooked alternative forms of order and the contribution of (non)state actors on the provision of services. In an attempt to solve this dilemma, this thesis proposes to broad the notion of governance to understand “who governs for whom, and how are governance services provided under the conditions of weak statehood?” (Risse 4). The study suggests looking at how are (non)state actors related to each other in the sense that they provide services otherwise not provided by the state. Based on a study of the Ixil region, this thesis describes operations and practices amongst an array of (non)state actors that work and cooperate, separately and together, for the provision of services through arrangements we characterise as ‘alternative governance’.Show less
Léo-Paul Ned Alfred Marc Eli Francois, Teboul 2017
The Maya communities of Guatemala have over the decades accurately represented the struggle faced by indigenous populations in Latin America. The struggle of those communities, is expressed by a...Show moreThe Maya communities of Guatemala have over the decades accurately represented the struggle faced by indigenous populations in Latin America. The struggle of those communities, is expressed by a lack of political representation and inclusion into the state apparatus. The dilemnas of national identity and muliticulturalism in Guatemala, put more strain on the hard relation between the Maya Communities and the Guatemalan State. Political representation being challenged by a controled civil society, forces indigenous representation communities to remain under represented.Show less
The thesis is concerned with the topic of democratic consolidation in Guatemala. The country became a formal democracy in the 1980s, but since that moment it has started an ongoing process of...Show moreThe thesis is concerned with the topic of democratic consolidation in Guatemala. The country became a formal democracy in the 1980s, but since that moment it has started an ongoing process of democratic consolidation. Within the same time period we see the emergence of neoliberalism in the region. Neoliberalism focused on the opening up of markets to international trade and included the introduction of many free trade agreements such as CAFTA-DR. While CAFTA-DR had as primary objective to facilitate trade, there were also political objectives attached to it that revolved around promoting democracy in the region. The aim of the thesis is to research how CAFTA-DR promoted democracy and to what extent it contributed to the strengthening of democratic institutions in Guatemala. The thesis identifies three main ways through which CAFTA-DR influences democratic consolidation. The agreement aims at increasing institutional transparency, strengthening the rule of law and enhancing accountability structures. While there are many elements present in the agreement that help to strengthen democratic institutions, obstacles are present that can significantly limit the effect of the agreement.Show less
