The trial of former Guatemalan General Rios Montt, accused of human rights abuses and genocide against Indigenous Peoples, displacing nearly 30,000 Guatemalans and overseeing thousands of acts of sexual violence, is underway. Today, the defense asked that the trial be suspended. Follow the trial:

On Twitter:

@xeni

@RiosMonttTrial

@NISGUA_Guate

@PzPenVivo

Online:

http://www.riosmontt-trial.org/

http://www.wola.org/highlight/para_que_se_conozca_blog_covering_the_rios_montt_trial

http://www.ghrc-usa.org/

http://www.awid.org/eng%3D/Library/Guatemala-Genocide-Trial-Begins-Be-Part-of-this-Historic-Process

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2013/0404/Guatemala-Rios-Montt-trial-hears-testimony-on-conflict-era-sexual-violence

Former Guatemalan Dictator Rios Montt will finally stand trial for genocide during the Guatemalan Civil War – 30 years after the crimes he perpetrated took place.

The 36-year-long US-backed civil war officially came to an end in 1996. The state-sponsored violence led by Montt in 1982 and 1983 disproportionately targeted Indigenous communities.  The military campaign killed more than 200,000 Indigenous Peoples and displaced one million in Guatemala, as well as driving more than 200,000 to take refuge in Mexico.

MADRE has previously called for Montt’s prosecution following the sentencing of a former Guatemalan special forces member who took part in the murders of 201 Indigenous Peoples to 6,060 years in prison.

In 2011, MADRE traced the origins of an ongoing femicide, in which nearly 5,000 women have been killed, to the conflict that technically ended in 1996:

Multiple human rights investigations have found evidence that this violence against women was part of a systematic counterinsurgency strategy by the government. Over one million members of the Guatemalan army, paramilitary forces and police were trained to attack women with rape, mutilation and torture. Today’s attacks reproduce the gruesome tactics of these wartime atrocities.

Many Guatemalan feminists say that is because the perpetrators were never brought to justice once the peace accords were signed in 1996. They were simply re-absorbed into society, taking on new roles as police or in powerful criminal gangs that infiltrated many government agencies.

MADRE found that the same patterns of intentional, militarized violence against women were repeating themselves in Iraq following the 10 year US occupation. More of that analysis can be found here.

Despite a history of state-sponsored violence in countries including Colombia, Nicaragua, and Argentina, Montt will be the first ex-President to be charged with genocide in a Latin American court.

You’ve heard the story of the butterfly in Asia that flapped its wings and caused a tsunami in North America? In our increasingly globalized world, every policy change is a butterfly wing flap that has the potential to create a chain reaction that can result in food shortages, a climate crisis, or a democratic revolution halfway around the planet. In the case of biofuel, the United States’ purported attempts to cut down on oil dependence and even help the environment are a direct cause of malnutrition in places like Guatemala, where MADRE partners with the Women Workers’ Committee in Barcenas and the Indigenous women of Muixil.

A recent New York Times article observed that:

With its corn-based diet and proximity to the United States, Central America has long been vulnerable to economic riptides related to the United States’ corn policy. Now that the United States is using 40 percent of its crop to make biofuel, it is not surprising that tortilla prices have doubled in Guatemala, which imports nearly half of its corn.

The result has been severe and widespread malnutrition, and an uprooted population as families move to find work.

This problem is not new, nor is it limited to Guatemala. “In a globalized world, the expansion of the biofuels industry has contributed to spikes in food prices and a shortage of land for food-based agriculture in poor corners of Asia, Africa and Latin America because the raw material is grown wherever it is cheapest,” says the New York Times. What long-term good might be done by moving away from fossil fuel dependency is countered by the immediate human suffering of the unexamined consequences of new kinds of consumption. Misael Gonzáles of C.U.C., a labor union for Guatemala’s farmers, noted in the same article, ‘These people don’t have enough to eat. They need food. They need land. They can’t eat biofuel, and they don’t drive cars.’”

One analysis the article cited found that corn, which constitutes a large part of the Guatemalan diet and is now prohibitively expensive, cutting some families monetary access by half, would be 17 percent cheaper if the United States did not incentivize biofuel consumption.

As MADRE warned in a 2007 statement:

If we don’t reduce the demand for energy by consuming less, we risk a scenario in which most of the Earth’s arable land will be dedicated to growing ‘fuel crops’ instead of food crops. Growing agro-fuels on a mass scale is already jacking up food prices, depleting soil and water supplies, destroying forests, and violating the rights of Indigenous and local people in areas newly designated as ‘biofuel plantations.’

The Earth itself is, in fact, a finite resource; in order to preserve it, we must address overall energy consumption as well as ways to make the forms of energy we do use more generally renewable.

More than five years ago, MADRE observed that, “We need to consume less, not just differently, and steer clear of solutions that would expand the reach-and all the pitfalls-of industrialized agriculture. Creative and practical solutions for meeting our energy requirements-including some local, sustainable agrofuel programs-are being developed around the world. We can support proposals for developing sustainable renewable energy sources, while recognizing the need to reduce overall consumption .” That need to reduce overall consumption has never been addressed, and the world’s population continues to expand, having recently exceeded 7 billion. The only sustainable solution remains to consume less and in better ways.

Today is World Food Day, and this year’s focus is on agricultural cooperatives—powerful examples of active, life-changing community engagement.

Worldwide, women and girls are primarily responsible for feeding their families. Women are disproportionately, overwhelmingly impacted by the expanding global crisis of poverty. Climate change exacerbates food insecurity, causing droughts one year and floods the next, and forces people from their homes. These conditions all exacerbate poverty – and again, disproportionately impact women.

MADRE advocates for food sovereignty, meaning that every person has not only the right to food, but the right to choose what food we eat and an understanding of where that food comes from and how it is produced.

Today, we are highlighting three of our partners, whose work to promote food sovereignty allows them to feed their families and support one another through the many challenges they face. By embracing sustainable farming practices, women and their families have the opportunity to support themselves for generations.

In Sudan, Women Farmers Unite to grow the food their families need to survive and encourage young women to become farmers.

Unlike emergency food aid, Women Farmers Unite gives women the tools, resources and technical assistance they need to sustain their families for the long haul. With our Sudanese partner organization Zenab for Women in Development, we provide women farmers with organic seeds and supplies, including plows and a tractor. A special focus on young women helps ensure theirgeneration continues to provide a local, sustainable food supply.

Women gain the resources they need to grow and produce food, alleviating hunger, improving health and nutrition, and fueling local economies. By working together to grow crops, participants build a network of women farmers who share resources and boost their economic status. Elder women transmit skills and lessons to younger women. Many participants are using their increased incomes to pay for their daughters’ educations, breaking the cycle of poverty and increasing the chances for further political, economic and social empowerment.

In Nicaragua, women farmers are Harvesting Hope.

MADRE partners with Indigenous Miskito women to promote organic farming and provides families with vegetable seeds. Harvesting Hope organizes a seed bank, through which women cultivate, save, and share local, organic seeds from one growing season to the next. The program emphasizes sustainable land use methodologies, safeguards traditional Indigenous knowledge of natural resource management, and strengthens women’s economic self-sufficiency and participation in public life.

Through MADRE’s longtime sister organization Wangki Tangni, Harvesting Hope organizes local farmers’ markets where the women sell surplus produce.  The markets have become a focal point for community cohesion, with Wangki Tangni hosting innovative culinary contests, games, and musical entertainment. The markets also serve as an opportunity for Wangki Tangni to distribute popular education materials about women’s rights, collective Indigenous rights, and women’s health. Women are earning much-needed income for their families, and are able to pay for necessities such as shoes and school books for their children. In the process, women are boosting their economic autonomy and sense of agency.

In Guatemala, women are Farming for the Future.

Indigenous Ixil women living in the Quiché region of the Guatemalan highlands endured 36 years of civil war. The Quiché region was the area most severely affected; nearly half of all recorded human rights violations – including the killing of 200,000 Indigenous People – occurred here.

Today, many widows and single mothers are the sole breadwinners for their families. MADRE has established small chicken farms as a source of food security and income. The project improves families’ diets by providing eggs, generates income for women, and builds participants’ technical and business skills, in turn creating more economic opportunities for young people in Quiché.Based on a community-centered model of micro-enterprise, Farming for the Future not only brings in money; it also creates opportunities for women to learn and then teach other community members about human rights.

Women are also now in a stronger position to negotiate the distribution of work in the household and provide positive role models for their daughters and sons. Nutrition is improving, which will ultimately boost maternal and infant survival rates and the overall health of the community. Indigenous women are strengthened as leaders come together to attend human rights trainings and plan future community development projects.

Today is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People! It was established in 1994 by the UN to promote the achievements and rights of Indigenous Peoples across the world.

Here are just a few of the ways that MADRE works with our Indigenous partners for rights, resources and results worldwide.

Farming for the Future

Indigenous Ixil women living in the Quiché region of the Guatemalan highlands endured 36 years of civil war. The Quiché region was the area most severely affected; nearly half of all recorded human rights violations – including the killing of 200,000 Indigenous People – occurred here.  Ixil women are among the poorest people in Guatemala, which itself has the highest infant mortality rate in Central America and one of the world’s worst rates of malnutrition for children.

MADRE is establishing small chicken farms as a source of food security and income for Ixil women in Guatemala. Implemented in cooperation with Muixil, the project improves families’ diets by providing eggs, generates income for women, and builds participants’ technical and business skills, in turn creating more economic opportunities for young people in Quiché. Based on a community-centered model of micro-enterprise, Farming for the Future not only brings in money; it also creates opportunities for women to learn and then teach other community members about human rights.

Defending Territories and Traditions

On the North Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, Indigenous Peoples face entrenched human rights abuses, including poverty, the denial of education and healthcare services, and the degradation of the ecosystems that are the bedrock of their traditional diet, economy, cultural practices, and very identity as Indigenous Peoples. Having survived and resisted genocide, colonization, forced assimilation, and multiple invasions by the United States, families here now face further danger from governments and corporations seeking profits from the minerals, timber, fish, and other natural resources located on Indigenous territory.

MADRE has co-founded the Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Autonomy and Development (known by its Spanish acronym, CADPI) to promote the education, culture, political participation, and community cohesion that people need to effectively demand their rights and develop their economy and government according to their own vision. CADPI offers art and music classes, human rights trainings, and children’s recreational and skills-building programs for local Indigenous and African-descent communities. CADPI’s museum, Casa Museo, displays the work of local artists, organizes international cultural exchanges, and encourages appreciation of Miskito culture among young people in the area.

Voices for Justice

In Peru, more than half of all people – and nearly 80% of Indigenous Peoples and those of African descent – live in poverty. Indigenous women face the additional challenge of gender discrimination. They are underrepresented in local government, exposed to gender-based violence and lack access to health care. Maternal mortality in the region is 185 deaths per 100,000 live births, as compared to an average of nine per 100,000 in industrialized countries. Indigenous women who seek health care often encounter professionals who do not speak their local language and cannot fully explain reproductive health information.

MADRE and our partner CHIRAPAQ (The Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Cultures of Peru) are using radio to share information on health, domestic violence, women’s political participation, food security, climate change and more in these geographically isolated communities. Together, MADRE and CHIRAPAQ are training Indigenous women and men in radio production and broadcasting, providing equipment to a network of radio producers and developing programming to promote women’s human rights and collective Indigenous rights.

Demanding a Political Voice for Women

MADRE partners with the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (better known by its Spanish acronym FIMI) to equip women leaders in Bolivia with the skills they need to succeed in politics. The project brings Indigenous women leaders from around Latin America to conduct trainings with Indigenous Bolivian women who want to run for public office. In order to reach the greatest number of Indigenous women leaders, FIMI and MADRE are working with Bartolina Sisa, the largest Indigenous women’s organization in Bolivia, to train Indigenous women for leadership roles at the local, national and international levels.

In March, MADRE sent one of our Helping Hands shipments to Guatemala that included toys, sewing supplies, clothing, medical equipment and over-the-counter medication, toiletries and school supplies. These shipments are made possible entirely through donations from you, our supporters. Aid – sending things to people who need them – should be incredibly easy; when you have too much of something, and someone else has too little, you should simply be able to give it them. Unfortunately, international aid is often a complicated and time-consuming process, and getting supplies from our generous donors to our partners and sister organizations often requires a great deal of effort from our dedicated staff. So why do we devote time to this particular project, when so much work requires our attention?

Oh, well, that’s easy:

What wouldn't you do for this face?!

When the supplies arrived, our Program Director Natalia (future MADRE!) got a lovely email from Ana Ceto, the head of MUIXIL, one of our sister organizations in Guatemala, letting us know how happy they were to receive them:

Helping Hands, helping students!

I’m attaching photos of people that received the presents that I
received from MADRE.  Thanks a lot for everything.  I’m letting you
know that the people are so happy.  Inform your team that the work you
all accomplished is enormous.

The young man that received the medical equipment was happy; he is getting his degree in medicine and he hasn’t had the money to buy this equipment.  His family ran out of money because one of his brothers got sick with leukemia and died.  Because of this, they ran out of money and days before, his mother had asked me if I had friends that could help her son because he was really interested  in studying, but he didn’t have money to buy his equipment.

At least on the trip that I made all was worth it; I brought him something useful.

Well, I wish you the best and take really good care of yourself.

A hug, see you soon”

Thank you to our staff and supporters for all you do for this program, so we can keep receiving pictures like this.

They match!

“Our bodies are still used to torture and divide our communities” –Indigenous woman, Polochic, Guatemala

(c) Nobel Women's Initiative

The Nobel Women’s Initiative recently released a report on violence against women and women human rights defenders in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. The report, entitled “From Survivors to Defenders,” follows a delegation to these three countries, and reflects on input from government agencies, non-governmental organizations and women on the ground.

As the report explains, the current epidemic of violence against women in the region is the result of many factors: a history of militarization in the countries, backed largely by the United States, the ongoing military and police presence in the context of the drug war, corrupt and inadequate justice systems, and targeted attacks on human rights defenders that go unprosecuted.

We’ve seen this through our work with Muixil and the Women Workers Committee in Guatemala, where women still feel the effects of a decades-long civil war and where women continue to seek justice in a corrupt system for the crimes committed against their loved ones. And we’ve seen this through our work in Nicaragua, where women’s rights are increasingly deteriorating in the context of the war on drugs. Our partner Mirna Cunningham recently alerted us that girls in the Miskito region of Nicaragua are being sold to drug traffickers for sex.

As stated in the report, “peace is not just the cessation of war.” In fact, efforts to create security in the region, within the context of the war on drugs, have done the opposite, especially for women. The report found that most women did not feel safer with heightened military and police presence. This is particularly telling, given an increasing US military presence in Honduras. Most troubling was news that in May, two pregnant women were killed during a raid (we wrote a blog entry about this surge in militarization here).

The epidemic of violence against women in Central America deserves a response. And that response should not mean an increase the foreign and domestic military and police presence in the country, emboldening military officials sometimes guilty of atrocities. The response, as put forth in the report, must be based in human rights. It requires justice for women and their families, sending a message that people who commit crimes against women and women’s human rights defenders will not walk free. It requires consultation with women in communities hard-hit by drug trafficking. And it requires support and protection for women.

The report reminds us that we each can offer some of this protection to the women of Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala. We can do this by acknowledging their search for justice and their fight against violence and publicly denouncing acts of violence against women and human rights defenders.

We recently heard the story of an Indigenous Guatemalan woman named Catarina. We’re sharing it with you to show just what your support has meant—to one woman among many.

Before Guatemala’s devastating civil war reached her, Catarina lived peacefully with her family in a community called Nebaj.

But when the terrible violence spread to their village, Catarina and her two daughters fled to the mountains—where they faced disease, sickness, cold and extreme hunger.

“We were chased by soldiers, we always tried to hide. There were constant bombings. My daughter Rosa was good and healthy but one day, a bomb fell near my daughter Rosa and now she is deaf,” said Catarina.

Lacking food, Catarina and her daughters struggled to survive. Often, they were forced to subsist off a meager diet of wilted herbs and plants.

But Catarina no longer has to worry feeding her children.  Now, she has the essential skills and means to provide for her family, thanks to your support of Farming for the Future.

MADRE works with Muixil, a grassroots group of Indigenous Ixil women in Guatemala. Together, MADRE and Muixil created Farming for the Future, establishing small chicken farms as a source of income and nutrition for Ixil women and their families. Catarina was able to start her own chicken farm, selling eggs and using the proceeds to put her daughters in school.

Thanks to the success of Farming for the Future, MADRE and Muixil hope to double the number of participants in the chicken farming project to at least 100 women in the next year.

What’s more, Catarina has had the chance to participate in trainings where she learned about her human rights, including the right to vote.

“Before, I was very poor and scared, I never spoke. But Muixil accepted me, and I participate in trainings and meetings. Now I participate in the community, and I have no fear. I know I have the same rights as men. I received the support from Muixil, and I thank all the women who help us in other countries far away,” said Catarina.

Check out the photos below to see the impact of your support.

All photos copyright Muixil

Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate mothers and to honor the invaluable work they do—at home, in the workplace, in the public sphere, everywhere. Here at MADRE, our work to advance women’s human rights is shaped by the realities mothers worldwide face daily. We work together with mothers to change these conditions and to demand their rights. We start by listening to their stories.

This Mother’s Day, we’re sharing these inspiring stories with you. Today’s story comes from Ana Ceto, a leader of MADRE’s sister organization in Guatemala, Muixil.

As a very young child in the northern highlands of Guatemala, Ana Ceto grew up at the height of a civil war, in an area where that war was most fiercely fought. Human rights abuses, especially against Indigenous Peoples, were widespread. She saw fields rich with produce and effort burned to nothing. Food was scarce and violence everywhere.

At 18, Ana began her work to demand human rights. She struggled to document the identities of displaced people rebuilding their lives. She worked with organizations to identify victims. She collected testimonies from survivors of massacres.

At 23, Ana, along with other community members, founded Muixil, a grassroots organization of Indigenous Mayan women working together to promote the health, well-being and rights of their families and communities.

Today, the vibrant colors of traditional weaving dance before her eyes when she gathers the wares produced by the women’s weaving cooperative in her home of El Quiche. Chickens cackle and cluck in the yards of Indigenous women in the community, many of them widows and single mothers. With help from Muixil, these projects help women build independence and economic self-sufficiency. They sell their weavings at market, and chickens produce eggs to sell and for their families to eat. Many mothers use the money they raise to send their children to school.

Ana herself is a mother of three small children. She knows how important it is to be able to provide for her children, put food on the table and send them to school—a right Ana had to fight hard for.

MADRE and Muixil also work together to help Indigenous women participate in political processes.

Recently, Ana testified before the United Nations Human Rights Committee, as they reviewed Guatemala’s human rights record. She described flagrant violations inflicted on Indigenous Peoples and women. She lent an impassioned voice to the findings of  the “Report on Violations of Women’s Human Rights in Guatemala” submitted to the Committee by MADRE, Muixil and other human rights groups.

“MADRE has given us strong support. You gave us the first funds for the weaving cooperative and made this trip to New York possible. We are very thankful,” she told the MADRE staff after her testimony at the UN.

When she visited the MADRE office, Ana showed us the women’s weaving. “We make designs according to the different traditions in our communities. When we show our products, people like what we make. The women are very active, very proud,” Ana said.

The Muixil weavers’ woven bags, scarves, bracelets, bookmarks and belts are a beauty to behold. This Mother’s Day, you can purchase these products at the MADRE Webstore and support mothers like Ana!

Every Mother’s Day, you’re reminded to call your mother. You’re reminded to send her flowers. You’re reminded, in essence, to appreciate all the things your mother has done for you.

But what if we really appreciated mothers all year long? What if we lived in a world where policies actually supported mothers?

What would this world look like?

For starters, our governments would recognize that mothers sustain families and communities. They would make that job easier. Governments would preserve social services, for child care, food assistance, health care and more. They wouldn’t cut them from budgets, forcing mothers to pay the price for Wall Street’s catastrophic failures.

In communities around the world, it is women, and particularly mothers, who take care of most people. And when public services are slashed, it’s mothers who pick up the slack. When childcare services are slashed, mothers still care for children, but without help. When food assistance services are cut, mothers are still expected to feed their families. When access to health care is restricted, the responsibility to care for the sick falls on women.

Mothers have always been society’s default safety nets. But today’s budget cuts are pushing mothers to the breaking point.

In a world where mothers were really appreciated, women’s reproductive rights would be secure. We would all understand that women must have the freedom to decide whether and when to have children, and whether to end a pregnancy. A woman who chooses to become a mother would have the health care and support she needs for a safe pregnancy.

And every woman would know that she and the children she mothers have a shot at a healthy life. Health means more than a lack of disease—it means access to food and clean water, to education, to economic opportunity. It also means a commitment from our government leaders to make sure these resources are within reach.

Mother’s Day in the US was born 140 years ago, as a day to honor the commitment of mothers to peace. And mothers worldwide have never stopped working to prevent war, to survive and to rebuild families and communities out of the rubble.

If mothers were really appreciated, their global call for peace would halt our leaders’ constant march to war.

MADRE is working to make this vision of a better world a reality. MADRE’s founders chose the name MADRE—Spanish for mother—to honor the women who demand their own and their families’ safety, health and human rights.

This Mother’s Day, let’s rededicate ourselves to these women and all mothers, who understand that mothering is about more than raising kids. It’s about building the world we all need.

In Kenya, we’re working with the Indigenous Information Network (IIN) to run shelters for girls fleeing forced marriage, a practice that sacrifices girls’ education and endangers their health in early pregnancy.

In Palestine, our partnership with Midwives for Peace helps pregnant women living under Israeli occupation access maternal health services that are often cut off by blockades and military checkpoints.

In Sudan and Guatemala, we’re helping women and their families grow local, sustainable food and access clean water. And around the world, we’re fighting for international laws that support all mothers and all women.

This Mother’s Day, we’re also sending a message to President Obama: “Family planning and abortion rights are essential to women’s health and safe motherhood.” Join the call at www.madre.org/mothers.