Indigenous Peoples and the Previous Consultation: Normatization or Emancipation? A view from Guatemala

Abstract

This article treats the changes over the past decades regarding relations between indigenous peoples and the States in Latin America, particularly since the introduction of a body of rights of international origin that in theory substantially modifies the dynamics between these peoples and other ethnic minorities with the States. The way this influence occurs with regards to the State is very broad. To demonstrate this phenomenon, the cases of Colombia and Guatemala are contrasted. In Colombia, the effect has been to change the narrative and institutional practice, while in the Guatemala, the State has been absent and reticent in the exercise and implementation of the rights of indigenous peoples. To analyze this aspect, this article discusses the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in the Ixil region of Guatemala, where the effect of the presence of the State has been a strong repression of the indigenous population which have had their ancestral lands usurped, to the point that 75% of their lands is in the hands of two persons of foreign origin. On the basis of proven responsibility of the army of Guatemala - which executed several massacres against the Ixil people at the beginning of the 1980s, the dictator and general Efraín Ríos Montt was found guilty of genocide in 2014, but his sentence was overturned a few days later for alleged defects in the proceedings.

Keywords

• Colombia
• consulta previa
• Estado
• Guatemala
• legislación internacional
• neoliberalismo
• pueblos indígenas.