Followers of Rios Montt, armed
with machetes, held riots in Guatemala City on July 24 and 25
to demand that he be allowed to run. As of September 17, the Prensa
Libre newspaper reported 98 incidents of violence, including
20 assassinations, in this election period. Human rights organizations
denounce ongoing attacks and intimidation. Seven years after the
peace accords that ended the armed conflict here in Guatemala,
there are those who still want to use violence and intimidation
to rule this country.
A recent book by Edgar Alfredo Balsells Tojo, a judge who served
on the United Nation’s Commission on Historical Clarification,
describes Guatemalan society as caught between remembering and
forgetting. Balsells Tojo asks if it is possible for Guatemalans
to build a just and peaceful society as long as war criminals
enjoy impunity and power. Rios Montt’s candidacy is forcing
discussion of the past, including the role of the United States
in that past. Some, like the general himself, deny that the massacres
happened or claim that whatever was done was necessary to save
the country from communism. Though the Reagan administration supported
Rios Montt while he was in power, the U.S. embassy here has spoken
out against Rios Montt’s candidacy. Meanwhile, the forensic
anthropologists, who often receive death threats, continue their
patient labor of unearthing the bones of the men, women, and children
killed by the army.
On a recent Sunday I was attending worship at the Presbyterian
church here in La Esperanza, the community where I live. The church
is located next to the central plaza. As we worshiped inside,
the candidates for mayor held rallies, one after the other, in
the plaza. Lots of noise and flash, and few concrete proposals
to improve the life of the residents here. The current mayor,
part of the ladino minority in this mostly K’iche’
village, is a member of the FRG. Yet his family has dominated
political life in this community for decades, long before the
FRG was founded. Here, as in many places, the national party structure
overlays local power struggles.
In this electoral context, one of my students offered the following
reflection as part of his final paper for a course on Introduction
to the Bible. Heber Ruiz is an Episcopal priest serving in his
hometown of Totonicapan, a K’iche’ community close
to Quetzaltenango. Heber chose as his text the healing of the
deaf-mute man by Jesus in Mark 7:31-37. Jesus takes the man aside,
puts his fingers in the man’s ears, and orders the man’s
ears to open and his tongue to be unleashed. We often see Jesus’
miracles as something in the past, said Heber. Yet Jesus is ordering
the ears of the Christian community to be open to listen with
discernment to the speeches of the politicians. Jesus wished the
tongues of his followers to be unleashed to denounce lies and
injustices. The church should not be deaf and mute today, but
should assume responsibility for listening carefully to the world
around it, for speaking out and for working for peace and justice.
Good words for Christians in any context.
The election will be held here in Guatemala on Sunday, November
9. If a run-off election is needed, it will be held on December
28. As the human rights organization Amnesty International wrote
in a recent letter to the presidential candidates, these elections
offer Guatemala a chance to move away from its dark past. Please
hold the people of Guatemala in your prayers.
In the hope of God’s coming Reign,
Karla
For all of us
The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page
244
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