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Recently, Public Square reporter Elsa Coronado A report The book describes the tragedy of one of the countless communities that have been ravaged by complex problems caused by the lack of management of the territory and its resources. The stories told by these Guatemalans raise many questions that can be summed up in one: What is the purpose of the state?
With the onset of winter, the dire condition of Guatemala’s main road infrastructure has reached a foreseeable crisis point. It is well known that during the administration of Alejandro Giammattei, MICIVI has become the core of his ability to govern through bribery. While it is the norm to solve the problems of successive governments, what is not the norm is the huge disaster caused by corruption turning into a governance system.
The destruction of the Parín-Escuintla route, a particularly sensitive stretch for big businessmen centered around Kashif, has triggered angry claims to the president for the immediate restoration of mobility that affects them. While it is true that the right to criticize is part of the citizens’ guarantees, it is shocking that not only have they not included in their claims the refusal of Congress to approve the state of disaster, but they have never taken any action to repent for their participation in the historic corruption that led to the collapse of the country.
(frasepzp1)
The unions are agents of power and can use it to collaborate in resolving the crisis. Yet they seem willing to fuel the sabotage orchestrated by a mafia cabal of politicians who seek to keep the government weak, intimidated and beholden to their interests.
Behind the scenes of the media scandals, the catastrophe that affects most Guatemalans remains invisible. The state’s harsh abandonment of rural communities constitutes the major debt that this chaotic society we call “the country” owes to most of its citizens.
Rural communities in Guatemala have become an extremely vulnerable human bloc. Although the situation is worsening, the root cause is not climate change in the strict sense, nor the onset of winter. It is the State that has failed to fulfil its fundamental obligation to lead the adequate and comprehensive management of the territory and its social and environmental components. This means establishing a long-term vision for the use of resources and building a mandatory capacity to regulate large-scale projects and monocultures that, in their implementation, completely ignore the impact they cause on the destruction of the territory and the displacement of large groups of people. .
Is it possible to manage well-being and achieve sustainable development in a region where laissez-faire favours big businessmen and basic living conditions are destroyed?
Many are forced to leave their places of residence and settle in dangerous places, vulnerable to floods, landslides, mudslides and other events that lead to tragedy. In many cases, they violate private property and are evicted without clear and fair procedures, using excessive force and abuse, such as burning houses and destroying crops. Finally, they are thrown into the streets and abandoned, without the necessary institutions to find solutions that allow them not only to survive but also to maintain the cohesion of families and communities.
No inter-institutional action has been taken to address the range of problems these communities suffer from the dismantling, abandonment and deprivation of scarce material resources and important natural objects. The palliative plans developed by the various authorities are inadequate, uncoordinated and, in many cases, manipulated by the clientelism of the mayors. They provide temporary relief, but the underlying problems are never addressed and the disasters keep recurring.
Even the most stable populations are trapped in poverty due to a lack of attention to the structural causes of poverty. This involves the construction of basic infrastructure: drinking water, drainage systems, accessible housing, rural roads, schools, health centers. As well as strategic actions to create jobs, agricultural advice, irrigation schemes and product marketing to protect food security. Structural poverty reflects the country’s historical abandonment.
(frasepzp2)
For the vast majority of Guatemala’s rural communities, the state of disaster is not a temporary event, but a way of life that will never be abandoned. Climate change will only exacerbate an already precarious situation. Because the well-being of human groups and their sustainability depend on conditions that the State must organize and protect. They are clearly defined in the expression used in the Political Constitution of the Republic: the realization of the common good.
So far, we have seen the government being cornered by the mafia-run power structure. Far from being appreciated, the ruler’s mild approach is being targeted at executive abuses and his behavior is becoming more threatening. Clearly, this is a deaf and dumb war with no room for any legitimate negotiation.
In the midst of an institutional crisis led by his political enemies, President Arévalo has the opportunity to create a government unprecedented in recent history: free from the caution that led him to seek approval from economic elites and fully committed to using all the resources of the executive branch so that they benefit the people. The state intervenes firmly in building the well-being of the majority, which is the area where it has free rein and where it can gain political support that cannot be expressed in other spaces. But this is not about the futile enterprise of patching up a failed state. It is about envisioning a way of governing that can produce profound changes.
The Semilla party that brought Bernardo Arevalo to power has an urban electorate that responds to institutional rhetoric and the media impact of political scandals. But the resistance to the attack must go beyond this boundary. The president must break out of this bubble and build popular power, which also requires leadership and coordination. This can become a bastion of real power, allowing it to maintain the shaky institutional power.
If it is able to effectively direct state resources (economic and human) towards decisive actions in favor of those who have been turned into victims by the system itself, the majority of the population will support it, because Guatemalans will finally have found a weighty reason to defend that elusive concept for most: “democracy.”
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