By Deborah Dupre, author, columnist and rights defender. Published by examiner.com on 6 October 2012.
Thousands of indigenous Guatemalans shouted in anger Friday and the United Nations human rights officers have been dispatched to the Department of Totonicapan in western Guatemala where the military and police brutalized and killed six indigenous people protesting energy and education rights abuses Thursday.
“We have received alarming information that six indigenous peasants were killed and at least 30 injured,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Rupert Colville, told reporters in Geneva.
"We were protesting right next to them when they opened fire on us," said Rolando Carrillo, a 25-year-old protester with a bandaged arm and lacerated face he said was from being hit during the clash. Six of the seven dead peasants were buried Friday afternoon in Totonicapan, where thousands gathered as the coffins of local people shot to death passed through the town's central square.
Hundreds shouted "Justice! Justice!" while dozens of mourners hurled themselves toward the coffins in grief.
The Associated Press reports,"Thousands of indigenous Guatemalans shouted in anger Friday about the deaths that occurred during a protest over electricity prices and educational reform in a poor rural area. According to reports, a large number of indigenous people placed several roadblocks in protest against increased electrical tariffs and other basic service provisions.
Mr. Colville noted conflicting reports about the location of the incident. “Details remain unclear and our office in Guatemala is shortly sending two teams of human rights observers – one to Sololá Department and one to Totonicapan – to verify the facts and follow up on the incidents,” he said.
USA Today reports that the protesters were blockading a highway near Totonicapan, about 90 miles west of Guatemala City. President Otto Perez Molina has now acknowledged that government forces opened fire during the protest Thursday. Molina has said earlier that police and troops on the scene were unarmed and that protesters provoked the clash.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, visited Totonicapan during her mission to Guatemala in March. She met with traditional indigenous authorities to discuss a range of human rights concerns. Ms. Pillay had noted that, although indigenous peoples constitute the majority of the nation's population, they continue to be subject to exclusion and denial of their human rights.
Guatemala was among the first signatories of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, that underscores indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination, that is, to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights.
In a May protest, approximately 200 people armed with machetes and guns briefly seized an army outpost in a province bordering Mexico to demand justice for the killing of a man who opposed constructing a hydroelectric plant. In response, Molina declared a state of siege in the area and granted the army emergency powers.
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