CAMINOS
Brings Guatemalan Genocide Survivors to Denver
By
Hayden Gore
From
October 12-17. 2007, CAMINOS hosted a delegation of Guatemalan
genocide survivors from the Communities of Populations in Resistance
of the Sierra (CPR-Sierra), Mayan indigenous people internally
displaced by military repression during the 36-year Guatemalan
civil war. Our guests, Nazaria Tum Sanic, Pedro Bernal Raymundo,
and Baltazar Solano Canay, fled the Guatemalan military's genocidal
‘scorched earth' campaigns of the early 1980s and sought refuge
in the remote forest of the Cuchumatanes Mountains. There they
endured constant military bombardments and lived off the land
for 12 years. Incredibly, no one knew of their existence except
for the military that hunted them. In the early 1990s, the CPR
broke through the encircling military cordon and announced their
presence to the world. In response to their call for physical
protection and recognition of their status as a civilian population,
human rights accompaniers from programs such as CAMINOS lived
in their communities in order to dissuade possible military incursions.
Our
guests spoke at the University of Denver and Metro State University
on the history of
the CPR-Sierra and the struggle for survival during the conflict.
On October 14, CAMINOS hosted a dinner to honor and officially
welcome them to Denver.
Nazaria
Tum Sanic —CPR-Sierra international spokesperson and
administrator. Nazaria is responsible for project development
and accountability. She has also been instrumental in defining
and implementing women's projects within the CPR-Sierra, including
a recent project addressing the effects of the armed conflict
on CPR women.
Pedro
Bernal Raymundo —Public health worker and leader of the
five-person Equipo de Salud (Health Team). As a public
health promoter, Pedro is responsible for the health of the CPR-Sierra's
22 rural communities. In Guatemala, he has studied and worked
alongside a team from Doctors Without Borders and has been trained
by the Ministry of Education as a rural pharmacy assistant.
Baltazar
Solano Canay— Vice President of the CPR-Sierra's General
Council. Baltazar has served as an elected leader within the CPR-Sierra
since the 1980s, with more than 15 years in central leadership
positions. He also represented the CPR-Sierra in negotiations
for land settlements mandated by the 1996 Peace Accords. As
an elected official, both during and after the war, he is uniquely
suited to talk about indigenous democratic structures and the
struggle to sustain cultural identity in a changing Guatemala.
