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Guatemala Natives Claim Rights
By demanding the their rights,
Guatemalan indigenous peoples
are commemorating Wednesday the
International Day the UN
established to help solving the
problems of that important
social sector.
Teresa Zapeta, head of the
Indigenous People s Defender s
office, reminded that
marginalization, exclusion and
discrimination mostly affects
women.
She added that besides the Maya
and Garifuna population, women
have scarce access to
indispensable services such as
health and education.
At least 15 in 100 indigenous
females receive medical
attention during pregnancy and
have their babies in a hospital,
while 6 out of 10 are
illiterate, a number even bigger
in the most far-off communities.
Only 0.3 percent of the Maya
feminine population has access
to the university while in the
case of men the figure reaches
2.9 percent.
Besides, the issue of land, from
where native peoples have been
historically and permanently
evicted, is still unsolved.
The National Indigenous and
Campesino Coordinator denounced
the vulnerability of traditional
kinds of common land property,
which have existed for years but
without documents to prove it.
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