Guatemala

Information about Guatemala
Personal history of Vitalino Cuca, our counterpart
Other Info


Information about Guatemala
Guatemala is located in Central America. According to Maya-Toltec, Guatemala means “the land of trees”. Others believe the name is derived from the Nahua’s and means “in between the trees”. In short, the exact origin of the name is not yet clear.

Some facts about present day Guatemala

– Guatemala has 22 districts
– Guatemala covers an area of 42,042 square mile
– Guatemala has a population of 13 million, 66% roman catholic
– Languages: Spanish and 23 native languages
– GNP: USD 14,784 million
– Per capita income: USD 1,392
– Political system: republic with president
– President: Oscar Berger

Some historical facts

Until 1524 Guatemala was predominantly Mayan. In that year the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado conquered Guatemala and the Roman Catholic Church established a presence there. In 1839 Guatemala became a republic.

From 1898 to 1944 dictators Manuel Estrada Cabrera and General Jorge Ubico ran the country. After Ubico's overthrow in 1944 by the “October Revolutionaries” a group of left-leaning students, the country was led by liberal-democratic coalitions of Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas led a coup in 1954 with covert U.S. backing. In 1960 the country was plunged into a civil war between military governments, right-wing vigilante groups, and leftist rebels that would last 36 years. Death squads murdered many people, this is still going on. In 1977, the U.S. cut off military aid to the country because human rights were being stepped on. By the end of the civil war, 200,000 citizens were dead.

A succession of military juntas dominated during the civil war, until a new constitution was passed and civilian Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo was elected and took office in 1986. He was followed by Jorge Serrano Elías in 1991. In 1993, Serrano moved to dissolve Congress and the Supreme Court and suspend constitutional rights, but the military deposed Serrano and allowed the inauguration of Ramiro de Leon Carpio, the former attorney general for human rights. A peace agreement was finally signed in 1996 by President Álvaro Arzú Irigoyen.

In 1999, a Guatemalan truth commission blamed the army for 93% of the atrocities and the rebels (the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit) for 3%. President Clinton apologized for U.S. support of the right-wing military governments. The army has not acknowledged its guilt.

In January 2000 Alfonso Portillo Cabrera who was closely associated with the former dictatorship of Efrain Rios Montt became president. Portillo apologized for the former government's human rights abuses and pledged to prosecute those responsible and compensate victims!
In July 2003 conservative Oscar Berger was elected president..

At the present time peace has not been established and as usual the underprivileged classes pay the price.

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Personal history of Vitalino Cuca
(Vitalino Cuca is director of the Jac de Wit Clinic and is a board member and director of the association AGDI. Mr. Cuca assists in the preparations of the projects and oversees the execution. He reports to Flor Ayuda on a regular basis about the progress.)

Vitalino Cuca: ‘The story of my life in an aspirin.’
- As reported in the school paper of the Jeroen Bosch College -

" “When I ask Vitalino how everything got started he looks at me with a smile but also with a certain desperation: “Where do I start?........

Everything really started in the Catholic Church. My parents are very religious and they wanted me to become a priest. I myself did not like that because I wanted to get married. I worked as a mason and built houses. One day the pastor approached me and said “stop doing this work; you have to build on people instead of houses.” At that time I did not know what he meant, but now I do. From that moment on I started to do welfare work. In 1969 I became a volunteer for a church sponsored healthcare program. My life changed completely: a civil war started in Guatemala. The discrepancy between rich and poor was tremendous and thankfully the churches then took it up for the poor Indians. Catholics and Protestants were united in this war; even priests, nuns and ministers were fighting the government. My pastor carried a weapon under his clothes. He took the weapon from under his clothes and put it on the altar. He looked up to heaven and said: “I do some things for my God”, he looked down at his weapon and said: “and other things for my Goddess.” My wife and I also joined the rebel movement. My pastor was my commander. At one time when I stood before him I would pray to God, the next time I would salute him.

When we were in the mountains with the guerillas I had my first opportunity to go to Europe. I had to go to a meeting in London because the priest himself could not go and also did not want to leave. I arrived in London, did not speak a word of English and stood in this luxurious room and thought: “What am I doing here?” At these political gatherings in Europe I had to raise money for our fight for freedom. People then also asked me what else they could do for Guatemala. Then I started to think about that and started to write things down and also began to visit people in the Netherlands.

I have often been very scared, especially after I had been to Europe. I was afraid to be picked up when the plane landed in Guatemala, because I was working against the government. A committee was formed within the guerilla movement to publish the facts about the civil war in order for the whole world to know what was wrong in Guatemala. I worked in various groups, every time with different people. In every group I had a different name and I had many false passports. It would happen that someone from one group called someone from another group and asked: “Raoul just visited you, didn’t he?” and the other one would answer: “No, Antonio was just here.” In both cases they were talking about me. My children always knew exactly when I was Vitalino or Raoul or Antonio. They knew that instinctively: they knew my work was life threatening. I owe a great deal of gratitude to my family: they always supported me, despite all the risks I have taken. This is the story of my life in an aspirin.” Everybody has to laugh about this expression as in Guatemalan this means “in a nutshell”’. "

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