Last February, the government signed an agreement with four indigenous organizations to address agrarian conflicts from the Private Secretariat of the Presidency. The indigenous representatives demand actions before the 100 days of government, which expire this month.
One of the organizations, the Peasant Unity Committee (CUC), affirms that they are willing to engage in dialogue to achieve the resolution of land conflicts, but they ask the Executive authorities for certain short-term progress.
“The 100 days are going to be for an evaluation of the government and saying: ‘This is incorrect, they are not doing this well, they want to correct it’, or else, we cannot continue the dialogue tables because it wears us out, that is, We do not have the resources as organizations, nor the technical team of economic resources,” warned Daniel Pascual, a member of CUC.
He explained that it is not the first government they have worked with, since the organizations have focused on the motherland since the Peace Accords. They are aware that in 100 days not all the problems they foresee will be solved, but certain short-term goals can be met.
“In practice we have to see if following 100 days these bodies such as the MAGA, Land Fund and the undersecretary of dialogue, if they are already operating and are already addressing the most delicate cases, is a parameter for us,” Pascual exemplified.
The undersecretary of dialogue was established to address agrarian conflicts following the previous government dismantled the institution that was in charge and it became part of the functions of the Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights (Copadeh).
The institution highlights four advances that have been made since the signing of the agreement. The first is the political and technical space to address the issues of the agreement that has been established with the Peasant Council, the Private Secretariat, the Executive Coordination Secretariat of the Presidency, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food, and the Ministry of Economy .
They also point out that specialized teams are being established to provide attention to the most urgent agrarian conflicts. In addition, opportunities are being explored to design programs that link territorial policies and discussions to incorporate the Ministry of Economy and the principles of the social economy in public policy for development.
Pascual emphasized that they also request that the representatives in the Land Fund be changed because they do not agree with the management they have carried out. He adds that some of the members of the institution’s Board of Directors have remained since the institution’s creation.
A meeting has already been held on the matter to evaluate it. This council is chaired by the Minister of Agriculture, and is made up of a director from the Ministry of Finance, one from the National Council for Agricultural Development (Conadea), one from the Chamber of Agriculture, two from indigenous organizations with legal personality, and one from the movement federated and non-federated cooperative.
“Without changing its own law, it is in the regulations, the internal policies of the Land Fund and the modification of that of the board of directors, because there are some people there who are linked to corruption and have been on the Council for 26 years,” the peasant leader.
On the other hand, in the medium or long term, Pascual indicated that a legal framework is needed on agrarian matters that includes a specific law on indigenous lands, as well as one that allows agrarian conflicts to be differentiated from criminal proceedings.
“At least political clarity is needed on the part of the legislators for Guatemalan agriculture and to address the agrarian conflict, which is not in the foreground at this moment, but is still there in the arrest warrants and even pronouncements of the private sector ”, argued the indigenous leader.
Incomplete
Along these same lines, the Institute of National Problems of the University of San Carlos (Ipnusac) carried out an analysis, which recognizes the importance of the four organizations that were taken into account, but other indigenous sectors, environmentalists, businessmen and property owners are needed. land.
This is because other dialogue mechanisms for agricultural care that have been established in previous administrations have not produced results because they did not integrate all groups.
“By not including other mainly private sectors, they reduced their operating margin. Although it is in force, it fails to channel resources and provide concrete results in matters that return to the current partial agreement,” the document states.
The Ipnusac recognizes the political will, but does not fail to emphasize that it is necessary to resume the related legislative agenda.
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