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RIGHTS-MESOAMERICA:
Indigenous
Peoples Particularly Vulnerable
to Disasters
Diego
Cevallos*
MEXICO CITY, (Tierramérica)
- In the areas of Guatemala
recently devastated by Hurricane
Stan, which claimed the lives of
more than 655 people, indigenous
children last year played
Kumatzin, a board game in the
Maya language and with Mayan
illustrations, used as an
educational tool on how to
prepare for and survive natural
disasters.
If that game and other
preparedness initiatives had
been more widespread, perhaps
today the situation in Stan's
wake would be different, say its
promoters.
In early October, Stan smashed
into several impoverished areas
of Guatemala and southern
Mexico, part of the
"Mesoamerican" region. And the
area is now concerned about
Hurricane Wilma, which
strengthened into a category 5
storm Wednesday.
Indigenous people in the region
are included in official plans
for disaster prevention,
evacuation and aid, but without
taking into account their unique
cultural references and
knowledge.
The howl of the coyotes, the way
certain birds fly, the "sound"
of the Earth and the position
and shine of the moon are some
of the manifestations of nature
that can predict natural
disasters, according to the
indigenous "wise ones" and
elders.
But none of that has a place in
the official plans, which often
also ignore the languages and
the organisational modes of
native communities when it comes
to confronting shared problems.
"The tragedy wouldn't have been
as serious if plans existed that
took into consideration the
particularities of the
indigenous communities and their
cultures," Ramiro Batzin,
spokesman for the Sotz'il, a
Guatemalan indigenous
organisation, told Tierramérica.
Together with the Red Cross,
Sotz'il is working to create a
Maya Network for Disaster
Prevention.
The governments recognise that
the recent torrential rains
associated with Stan worsened
the marginalisation of the
descendents of the ancient Maya
Indians, who developed one of
the most advanced civilisations
in what is now Latin America. In
Guatemala and Mexico, the vast
majority of these indigenous
peoples today live in poverty.
"We weren't listened to. The
governments must realise that we
live in more vulnerable areas
and that we have a different
relationship with the Earth; and
that must be considered,"
Nicaraguan Jorge Fredrick said
in a Tierramérica interview.
Until July he served as the
chief councillor of the Central
American Indigenous Council.
The game Kumatzin last year was
updated after input from
children of the San Juan de
Comalapa community in the
Guatemalan department of
Chimaltenango. The game has not
been more broadly disseminated
due to lack of funding.
Meanwhile, the idea remains on
paper to create a network of
indigenous communities to
evaluate and define natural
threats and take appropriate
action.
Similar difficulties plague a
project to integrate and
organise prevention actions with
indigenous residents, an issue
proposed under the Puebla-Panama
Plan (PPP), a regional
development initiative extending
from Mexico through Central
America.
"What happened (with Stan)
reaches levels of catastrophe"
and serves as a lesson for the
PPP, which now "should transcend
the world of discourse and
treaties" and move "towards
action," said David Smith, in
Guatemala, director of the
Coordination Centre for the
Prevention of Natural Disasters
in Central America, CEPREDENAC.
PPP is an inter-governmental
development programme for
Mesoamerica, a
one-million-square-kilometre
area extending across nine
southern Mexican states and
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
and Panama.
The Kumatzin game is just one
step towards a disaster
prevention programme involving
the region's indigenous peoples,
but "we hope it will ultimately
reach all of the communities,"
said Batzin.
"Kojetza'n tqetamaj nqato'qi
chuwäch k'ayewal" (learn to
protect ourselves from disaster)
is the motto of Kumatzin, "the
plumed serpent", inspired by "Riskland",
a children's game created by the
United Nations International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
Translated to one of the Maya
languages, Kaqchikel, and
adapted to the indigenous
context through images that
highlight their culture and
traditional writings, the game
is intended to teach children
how to prepare for and prevent
the worst impacts of natural
disasters -- and to transmit
that knowledge to adults.
On the game board, players move
along a winding route that
crosses rivers, populated areas,
bridges and deforested zones.
Along the way they encounter a
smoking volcano, people cutting
down trees, but they also see
indigenous homes and smiling
children.
Just a few kilometres from where
the game was first played, the
rains and flooding brought by
Hurricane Stan killed dozens of
people and caused vast material
damages.
A similar thing occurred in the
area around San Pedro Yepocapa,
a community where the Sotz'il
organisation put together a
compilation in 2004 of ancient
indigenous beliefs about the
warning signs from animals, the
stars and even dreams about
impending disaster.
Stan brought to light "the
precarious situation in which
the indigenous peoples live and
the lack of attention paid by
the state," Gilberto Atz, head
of Guatemala's National
Coordinator of Peasant
Organisations, told Tierramérica.
According to Batzin, "it's clear
that in cases like the recent
disaster, the authorities always
attend first to the communities
where there are no indigenous
peoples," as part of the "institutionalised
discrimination that exists."
Diego Esquina, mayor of the
Guatemalan town Santiago Atitlán,
complained to the national
government for concentrating its
first response to Stan on the
people in the south, where
sugarcane production is
concentrated, and for ignoring
the west, which is inhabited
mostly by native peoples.
In Mexico, many members of the
indigenous communities were the
last to receive aid after Stan
roared through because they live
in the least accessible areas.
Southern Mexico, bordering
Guatemala, is home to
three-quarters of all Mexicans
over age five who speak an
indigenous language.
"These disasters underscore the
injustices and structural
marginalisation in which the
indigenous peoples live," said
Blanca Martínez, director f the
Fray Bartolomé de las Casas
Human Rights Centre, based in
the Mexican state of Chiapas.
"There is no institutionalised
programme here for protection or
civil defence for indigenous
peoples, only a general program,
and that has proved
insufficient," she said.
(* Diego Cevallos is an IPS
correspondent. With reporting by
Jorge A. Grochembake in
Guatemala. Originally published
Oct. 15 by Latin American
newspapers that are part of the
Tierramérica network.
Tierramérica is a specialised
news service produced by IPS
with the backing of the United
Nations Development Programme
and the United Nations
Environment Programme.)
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