Human Rights #1

On February 28th, the US State Department released their "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004" for 196 countries.

Many governments were offended by the reports which they criticized as being politically-skewed and erroneous. Others like Mexico, stated that "unfortunately the report is true" but questioned the U.S. government's "moral authority" to evaluate the human rights situation in other countries.

As the Mexican human rights ombudsman stated: "Sucede que el burro está hablando de orejas", which roughly translated means: who is the donkey to criticize the big ears of others? In English, the same phrase would be "it's the pot calling the kettle black." Get it?

At any rate, the Report on Guatemala does contain very valuable and interesting information which I will be summarizing for you over the next few days. The first section is a general overview of Guatemala in 2004 (my comments are in blue):

* Elections were held in 2003, and Oscar Berger of the Grand National Alliance --GANA-- won a 4-year term, which started in January.

* The judiciary is independent; however, it suffered from inefficiency, corruption, and intimidation.

* The Government occasionally tasked the army with providing personnel to support the police. (Basically crime is so bad that the army has to patrol the streets along with the police.)

* The influence of organized crime remained pervasive but waned considerably within the executive branch. (The amazingly corrupt previous administration of Alfonso Portillo had close ties to organized crime.)

* The civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces.

* The Guatemalan population is approximately 12.1 million.

* Apparel, nontraditional agricultural exports, and tourism grew rapidly, earning more than traditional exports of coffee, sugar, and bananas.

* Remittances (the money immigrants send to their families back in Guatemala), totaled approximately $2.5 billion, and constituted the largest source of foreign exchange. More than 30% of the population depended on remittances to raise the family income above the poverty line. (In other words, an additional 4 millions Guatemalans would be living in poverty without those funds!)

* More than 50% of the work force and 60% of the poor were engaged in some form of agriculture. (And this is the population most vulnerable to the negative effects of the CAFTA free trade agreement.)

* Land distribution was highly skewed: 1% of farms contained more than one-third of all cultivated land. (Think about that.)

* There was a marked disparity in income distribution, and poverty was pervasive, particularly in the large indigenous community.

* Combined unemployment and underemployment reached an estimated 18%, and 70% of the population was employed in the informal sector. (Informal sector means: unsalaried, full-time work, such as street merchants or food vendors, etc.)

* Approximately 57% of the total population and 71% of persons in rural areas lived in poverty; 22% of the population lived in extreme poverty. (Extreme poverty is defined as people living on less than $1 per day)

The complete Report is available at:

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41762.htm

Posted by elcanche at March 2, 2005 07:01 PM