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Guatemala elections: Indigenous women take on corruption [1]
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Date: 2023-07
Guatemala’s upcoming general election on 25 June is a transformative moment for the country as Indigenous women activists seek to break into the political arena, in an attempt to promote women’s rights, environmental policies and other progressive measures that aim to help poverty-stricken Indigenous and rural communities.
These candidates are also trying to preserve the country’s fragile democracy, following recent setbacks under the leadership of right-wing president Alejandro Giammattei, who has been in office since 2020.
After the last elections in 2019, the representation of Indigenous deputies in the Congress of the Republic was less than 10%, despite the Indigenous population accounting for 44% of the population, according to the latest census in 2018.
In Guatemala, Indigenous peoples, who are predominantly Mayan, have always suffered discrimination, including during the long-running civil war (1970-96), when they were targeted by the state’s military forces. Today, 21.8% of the Indigenous population are affected by extreme poverty (compared to 7.4% of the non-Indigenous population). Indigenous women in particular face significant obstacles in accessing education and healthcare.
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Telma Suchí, 56, a social worker from the Maya Kʼicheʼ people, is running for a council seat in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's second-largest city, home to more than 200,000 people.
A survivor of obstetric violence, Suchí has spent the past two decades advocating for sexual and reproductive rights and fighting for better healthcare for women and girls and the recognition of Indigenous midwives. She made the life-altering decision to embrace a political career after becoming increasingly frustrated by the corruption of Guatemala’s traditional political parties.
“What the traditional parties have done is to enrich themselves or to steal from the municipal coffers,” she told openDemocracy. She believes that by holding a position in local government, she can support her community and also oversee the mayor's office, which is plagued by allegations of corruption and nepotism.
Suchí is a candidate for the Movement for the People's Liberation (MLP), a party founded in 2016 by Indigenous Mayan, Xinca and Garifuna and peasants. The MLP seeks to tackle government corruption and Guatemala’s lack of access to healthcare. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) ranks Guatemala as the country with the lowest investment in social affairs.
Suchí recalls witnessing the stark disparity between the resources available and the assistance provided to people in need. “I saw it in hospitals, in schools. They were giving people scraps when there were much more resources to give them,” she said.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/meet-the-indigenous-women-taking-on-corruption-in-guatemalas-elections/
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