Tragedy

Two and a half years ago when Crescent Hill folks were preparing for the first mission trip to El Estor, several people found on YouTube disturbing video of eviction of squatters (people living informally on others' property) off the land near the nickel mine (pictured above) that its Canadian owners were interested in operating again. This week Dennis Smith, Crescent Hill's guest speaker from last week, shared with us the very disturbing news that - apparently in a reprise of three years ago - national police and nickel mine company security guards - apparently - have shot and killed three people and wounded four others in a more violent eviction of squatters. It remains to be seen if Crescent Hill folks inquire about this with Estoreño partners, since - at least in 2007 - the vice president of the Estoreño presbytery had served as a paid consultant to the nickel mine company. When Smith was here, Smith opined that the nickel mine company was probably the most benign of the big three economic actors he saw in the Izabal area: drug traffickers, African palm and sugar cane planters, and the nickel mine company. Perhaps he has revised his opinion now.

P.S. From reading on the Web, it seems clear that this is part of an ongoing conflict between some organized Q'eqchi' communities - including one in La Union, where a Presbyterian mission church exists - and the Canadian nickel mine owner and some El Estor business interests, with the Guatemalan government leaning towards the nickel mine. As among Mayan indigenous folks around the country with other extractive, etc. operations, some Q'eqchi folks believe their lands were stolen some 40 years ago when the nickel mine company was awarded the land and the mine was constructed. Backing the Q'eqchi' are some human rights advocates and international treaties. Behind whoever owned the nickel mine - for years - was the Guatemalan military, which may or may not have operated the then dormant mine area as a torture site in the 1980s and 1990s, and - now - a paramilitary group representing mine-friendly El Estor business interests. On top of Dennis Smith's discussion of drug traffickers in the area, this paints the area in a somewhat different light.

P.P.S. The deaths and injuries reported Tuesday apparently resulted in part from a roadside ambush of a van carrying some communitiy leaders and community organizers. The nickel mine company - trying to develop the world's largest nickel mine, which could ultimately strip mine much of the area around El Estor - was recently bought by a larger Canadian company: Hudbay Minerals. Write the following Hudbay executives and ask that they suspend development of the mine until they have settled land claims of Q'eqchi' communities, that they reveal any ties to the paramilitary groups apparently behind some of the killings, and that they cooperate with any investigations: Peter R. Jones, Chief Executive Officer, or Michael D. Winship, President and Chief Operating Office, Hudbay Minerals, Dundee Place, Suite 25011 Adelaide Street. East Toronto, Ontario, M5C 2V9, CANADA.

-- Perry

English classes promotion

Publicity efforts for the joint Crescent Hill-James Lees-Covenant Community English as a foreign language ministry - which seems destined to serve a lot of Guatemalan Americans - continued, with a sign going up in front of James Lees/Covenant Community (above) and Pastor Jane and Ada going Sunday afternoon with flyers to an apartment complex near Jane's home in which a lot of the residents are Spanish-speaking. This publicity is none too soon, since I think the first week of classes/registration is supposed to be in eight days (we still need to develop registration procedures/materials).

-- Perry

Saturday conversation

Carlos reported - to the bilingual Sunday school class - that he and Pastor Gerardo spoke by phone Saturday. While Crescent Hill folks fasted and prayers, the Estoreño Presbytery did indeed meet last weekend. They talked about the issue of ecumenism – church unity – about which they and Crescent Hill folks had communicated. Use of the word ecumenism troubled them initially partly because of its association the rebels during the civil war. They decided that ecumenism might have a secular, analogical connotation, as the rebels – they decided – used the term to describe efforts to unite different rebel factions. The presbytery also incorporated an 11th local group, a New Dawning congregation with half a dozen Presbyterian families that have moved to the Izabal area. Leaders of the now 11 congregations pledged that their churches would pray for Crescent Hill church every Sunday. Reciprocally, Pastor Gerardo also asked Crescent Hill folks to pray for him, his health, and his ministries and for leadership development for the whole presbytery. Apparently Gerardo will turn 63 next week and he’s feeling tired from the weight of pasturing two congregations, advising the presbytery youth and women’s groups, and representing the presbytery on the national level and he’s concerned about who will take his place as his slows down. (Keep in mind that Gerardo’s father recently died also). Crescent Hill folks are to share with Estoreño folks their thoughts on ecumenism also (hopefully further enriched by the content of the CBS piece about “Christian unity” – in general and in Louisville – that some 100 Crescent Hill folks viewed Sunday after church. No word on their response to news of Crescent Hill church's fast and vigil and larger Guatemala Mission Weekend.

-- Perry

What's next?

The Guatemala mission task force will follow up on Guatemala Mission Weekend by:

- Finding out about decisions at the Estoreño Presbytery annual meeting that the fast and vigil coincided with (including probably the incorporation of a new mission church into the presbytery).

- Participating in the Presbyterian World Mission Celebration in Cincinnati.

- Planning new parallel Bible and theological studies with Estoreño folks.

- Considering possibilities for Guatemala-U.S. travel.

-- Perry

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who participated in Guatemala Mission Weekend, September 19-21, especially to:

- Ada, Ana, and Andrea (and Doug and Lowell), who put together the Saturday morning fast and vigil.

- Speakers Delia Leal (who preached Sunday morning) and Dennis Smith (who spoke Monday evening), both of Guatemala City’s Central American Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies.

- Ellen, who landed Crescent Hill church the two speakers; Pastor Jane, who arranged for hospitality for the speakers; and Soni, who set up for the Dennis Smith talk.

- The two dozen people who participated in the vigil and Dennis Smith talk (and others who fasted and prayed from afar) and the hundred plus people who watched, listened to, and welcomed Pastor Leal at church that Sunday.

- The half a dozen people who started the new Sunday school year in the bilingual class that is exploring the “What Is Ecumenism?” piece Crescent Hill folks sent to Estoreño Presbytery leaders.

- The half a dozen plus Crescent Hill folks who gathered after church that Sunday to brainstorm about how to do outreach about the joint Crescent Hill-James Lees-Covenant Community English as a foreign language ministry to Spanish-speaking residents of the Clifton Heights neighborhood, many of whom turn out to be from Guatemala.

-- Perry

He's back!

One of the newest bits of news Dennis Smith discussed with folks who asked questions Monday night was the news that Honduran President Zelaya - ousted in a coup this summer that some Guatemalans wished the Guatemalan military would emulate - had snuck back into the country and was holed up in the Brazilian embassy. Dennis Smith argued after his talk that in an ironic way he coup leaders needed Zelaya to return to give the November election some kind of legitimacy. Smith also said the U.S. government has been gently pushing the coup leaders, revocking their visas so the coup-installed president and Supreme Court justices cannot travel in the United States. The coup-installed Honduran government is demanding that Brazil turn over Zelaya, have imposed a 24-hour curfew, blocked access to the capital by road and air, and is said to have begun attacking pro-Zelaya activists who have stayed near the embassy. Supporters of democracy in Honduras have called on U.S. folks to contact your Congresspeople (Congressman Yarmouth at (202) 225-5401) to urge them to push the Obama Administration to discourage the Honduran military and police from using violence against activists and to reinstall Zelaya as president. Please also pray for the leaders and people of Honduran, that they might find a peaceful, but just resolution to this conflict.

P.S. The crackdown against Zelaya supporters has grown even more ruthless, and now I would call Congressman Yarmuth (202-225-5401) and Secretary Clinton (202-647-6575) and urge them to persuade the Administration to recall the U.S. ambassador to Honduras and cut U.S. mlitary ties to Honduras.

-- Perry

Dennis Smith talk

Longtime Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Guatemala mission worker and Central America Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies educator and communicator Dennis Smith told three particular memorable stories at his Monday evening Fireside Room talk. All three were true stories (though he admitted that the first one was a composite):

- Let’s say you’re a sugar cane grower with a very small airstrip in the Izabal area. A man comes and offers you $25,000 if he and his colleagues can use your airstrip one day. All you have to do is not be there. There’s a catch: If you go to the local drug enforcement agents, who may or may not be working for this man and his colleagues – well, they know where your children go to school.

- A couple who had formerly belonged to the church pastured by Sunday’s guest preacher, Delia Leal, switched over to a megachurch in town where a local drug lord was a prominent lay leader. Through their church connections a bank connected with the drug lord offered this couple a loan so they could buy a house – a house they’d never be able to afford to buy otherwise, since they had no collateral. They went to the megachurch pastor – essentially Leal’s rival – and asked the pastor what they should do – whether they should take the money. (If they didn’t, they would certainly have to make the payments, given that through his backing of them the drug lord was on the line.) The pastor prayed over the check with them and encouraged them to go ahead.

- The nephew of a woman whose extended family lived in a neighborhood controlled by a gang was killed. Everyone knew who killed the nephew. Often in situations such as this the police or paramilitary or even government officials would have the man killed – both as a cause and a result of the inadequacy of the formal law enforcement and criminal justice system – and a tattooed young man would show up on the outskirts of time. This time, because the woman had relatives who worked in the Attorney General’s office, they asked her first whether they should have the man killed. The woman said No. As a Christian, I can’t condone this sort of killing. It won’t bring my nephew back, and it’s not right.

Smith explained how more than 100 years ago a Guatemalan president invited U.S. Presbyterian missionaries to Guatemala to develop a counterweight to the power of the Roman Catholic Church, which was sometimes at odds with the state. He explained that a majority of Guatemalans are either Protestant Pentecostals or Catholic charismatics. A Pentecostal leader, noting this fact, conceded not only Guatemalan Christians but also Pentecostals and Charismatics in particular – since they’re in the majority – must share some responsibility for the country’s violent, lawless culture.

Smith also reviewed history of the long civil war (now classified in some official international circles on a campaign of genocide against the indigenous Mayan population), the fall 2007 election and its aftermath (which could include the subsequent election of the current term-limited president’s wife as the next president), and the Honduran coup and its aftermath.

Smith explained that Rio Dulce and Izabal sit in the middle of a swath of land that goes from the Honduran to Mexican borders, that has become a transshipment belt for cocaine going from Columbia to North America.

Major economic actors in Izabal today would be: drug traffickers, operators of the nickel mine (and, elsewhere, extractive industries, which often use cyanide, in general), and large farmers (particularly of sugar cane and African palm trees, grown for their oil, which both produce export products).

Guatemala’s traditionally most powerful institutions, the military and the Roman Catholic Church, are both less powerful before. The shrinking power of the military is good in many respects, but the power vacuum – which gangs and drug traffickers have partly filled.

Smith recommended the following reading options:

On late 1800s Guatemala, The Divine Husband, by Francisco Goldman (who went on to write the nonfiction The Art of Political Murder)

After the talk, Smith said several other things that surprised me a little:

- The government is building a major highway that will go apparently go from Rio Dulce to Coban and beyond (running, coincidentally, through the drug transshipment belt, and probably swinging slightly north of El Estor, but still opening up the whole area quite a bit – probably both for better and for worse).

- Smith believes that the Izabal Presbyterians’ focus on evangelism and church growth is partly a product of this dangerous political, cultural, and economic situation, in which building up these places of comfort and solaces is a kind of resistance. The churches in our partner presbytery might have people who work for drug traffickers (indeed, Smith’s nephew delivers pizza for a pizza place that is a front for a drug operation), but it’s unlikely they would make a drug lord a lay leader (as at the Coban megachurch). Still, Smith says he thinks that Guatemala needs Guatemalans enhancing civil society, building religious and secular organizations and raising issues for discussion and debate – and, while our partners are building religious institutions, they are not raising issues for discussion and debate.

- Domestic violence against women is a problem, probably all the more so in rural areas of Guatemala, and it is a problem among church people too, where men might justify it as part of husband’s responsibility for disciplining his family.

- Ironically, the coup-installed Honduran govenment needed President Zelaya to return, in order to restore any kind of legitimacy to the elections later this fall. I'm not sure if Smith would still say this after the curfew, cut utilities to the Brazilian embassy, and bloody crackdown on Zelaya supporters. Smith also said pressure from the Obama Administration and European Community countries was beginning to faze the coup government, and it can no longer be so clear that that is the case.

-- Perry