CAMINOS
Sponsors New Accompanier in Guatemala
DJPC's CAMINOS program is sponsoring Rick Clifford as
its seventh human rights accompanier. Below, Rick details his background
and decision to provide genocide case accompaniment to indigenous
Guatemalans. See DJPC's website or suscribe to the CAMINOS newsletter
to follow Rick's reports during his six month stay in the villages
of Xix and Illom.
To all the members of the Denver Justice and Peace Committee I first
want to sincerely thank you for your financial and political support
of the people of Guatemala as well as the human rights accompaniers
who have been with the indigenous people of Guatemala since 1996.
I look forward to providing you with updates on the current situation
in Guatemala and the latest developments in the genocide cases against
Efrain Rios Montt and Romeo Lucas Garcia, two former Guatemalan military
dictators on trial for using a "scorched earth" policy against
civilians throughout the country. This policy and others like it resulted
in over 183,000 civilian deaths during the 36-year insurgency that
ended in 1996.
Some of you already have already met me, Rick Clifford, DJPC member,
high school English teacher in the Denver Public Schools, part-time
activist on local and international issues, and off-the-beaten-path
world traveler. However, I would like to give everyone a few more
biographical details in order to show you how my life experiences
lead up to my decision to work as a human rights accompanier to Guatemalan
witnesses of crimes.
To make a long story short, I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in
1964 and grew up in a small town in Central Wisconsin with my parents,
four brothers, and one sister. At a young age I learned about patience,
cooperation, and sharing. My six years as a newspaper carrier taught
me personal responsibility and the value of completing a task. During
the 70's and 80's I attended many different kinds of schools: a Catholic
primary school, a public high school, a British Anglican college,
and a state university. Although I majored in English and minored
in history, never did I hear one word about the U.S. government's
CURRENT role in maintaining the disparity between rich and poor around
the world. Like many Americans I was told that US actions in Latin
America were necessary to defeat communism and protect "democracy."
I can still remember the shock and disgust of many US citizens when
three American nuns and one lay missionary were killed in El Salvador
in 1980 by US-trained Salvadoran soldiers and again in 1989 when six
Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter were murdered
by Salvadoran graduates of the United States' School of the Americas.
Unfortunately, neither mass media nor my university professors discussed
the connections between Catholicism's liberation theology and a US
foreign policy which viewed "liberation" as a threat to
transnational corporations' exploitation of the Latin American workforce.
After college I worked as an English teacher in Spain and had an opportunity
to hear a point-of-view that was critical of the U.S. government's
imperialist policy towards Central and South America. I also met people
who were strongly opposed to the U.S. military bases located in southern
Spain. While working in Japan in the early 90's I saw tens of thousands
of Japanese protesting the presence of the US military in Okinawa,
the island where three US Marines raped a 12-year-old girl in 1996.
Finally, when I returned to the United States after living overseas
for five years, I saw that free trade and corporate globalization
backed up by US military might were no longer promoted exclusively
by business-minded Republicans. Democrats in the White House now promoted
free trade agreements like NAFTA, FTAA, MAI, and the World Trade Organization
as if it were the answer to all our problems.
Since joining DJPC in the mid 90's I have been involved in discussions
on the growing imbalance between rich and poor, human rights crises
at home and abroad, environmental degradation worldwide, and America's
callous consumer culture. Activists in Colorado, friends around the
country, and concerned individuals I have met in Spain, Japan, the
Philippines, and Mexico have expressed similar worries. In 1997 my
older brother Jim, a promoter of "independent" unions for
maquiladora workers in Mexico, showed me the pitiful living conditions
of the workers and told me about poverty wages and dangerous working
conditions they encounter at the sweatshop factories located on the
Mexican side of the US-Mexico border. (It's just one example of how
the global economy provides huge profits for a few, cheap products
for millions, at the expense of the billions of poor workers.)
In May of 2002 I completed my Masters Degree in Education and decided
to take a year off from teaching and do some traveling and teaching
overseas. Last fall I discovered that CAMINOS was looking for an accompanier
to begin working in the communities of Ilom and Xix beginning in January
of 2003. Whether by luck or by providence, the six-month commitment
to work for CAMINOS coincided with my schedule. Rather than teach
English overseas as I had originally planned, I saw CAMINOS human
rights work as an opportunity to improve the possibilities for justice
and peace to take root in Guatemala, learn how rural, indigenous people
live under dire economic conditions, and teach my friends and family
more about the political situation in Latin America. I look forward
to relaying my observations and those of the Guatemalan/Ixil people
with whom I will be working closely. I wish you all a peaceful and
just 2003. Siempre.
Rick Clifford
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