More on Maria Margarita

Forgive the lack of posts, it hasn’t been for lack of material. I have my hands more than full enough with what is going on, on a daily basis.

At the most basic of levels, the violence and unrest ongoing in Polochic is the product of almost 500 years of pillage and oppression. As throughout history, the current state of affairs situates indigenous communities on one side, opposed by large industry and landholders on the other. Through trickery or force, many communities have been divested of ancestral lands. In recent times, when they challenge this marginalization, they are met with bullets and machetes of private security forces, which seek to wipe them out. Meanwhile, the State looks away, or worse, lends a helping hand to these landed interests. Although this is indeed an oversimplification, it is with these same broad strokes that many histories throughout the Americas have been painted in kind. I need only leave my hotel room and venture into communities around El Estor to see this reality.

Thinking back to the case of Maria Margarita – why would something like this happen to a wife and mother of two in a small community outside of El Estor? By all accounts, she lived a life of service for her family, her community and the Q’eqchi people. Those that survive her suspect that it are these last two features that made her an identifiable target. Her role as a community leader extended beyond just Parana: because of the relative isolation of these areas, there is little national or international support. As a result, the affected communities need to rely on each other for resources, strength and support. This also seems to be a potential weakness that the company tries to exploit. If they can divide the communities, and created rifts inside and between them, they can further isolate them in a classic divide-and-conquer scheme. This was a killing that, as many suspect, was politically motivated, a move to further intimidate and divide campesino communities. Her death was not simply a murder, it was an assassination.