PERALTA: "Thank you for the love you always showed me when I came here with my father, the general Rios Montt." PERALTA: Zury Rios walks on stage to near-silence and almost immediately rubs history in their faces. UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #1: (Singing in Spanish). Most are dressed in their Indigenous outfits. Yet the people here don't move closer to the stage. So for 10 minutes, the man on stage cajoles, begs, threatens. PERALTA: Efrain Rios Montt was a military dictator in the '80s, and in 2013, he was convicted of genocide against the Mayan people in these same lands. She's not Indigenous, and her father is infamous. But the candidate they're waiting for, Zury Rios, is controversial here. PERALTA: "Otherwise," he says, "our presidential candidate will not come on stage." We're in the mountains of Quiche, smack in the middle of Guatemala's Indigenous heartland. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).ĮYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: The man on the stage begs people in the park to gather in front of him. Yet in an election with nearly two dozen candidates, not a single one is Indigenous, and Guatemala has never had a Native president. By some estimates, about half the country identifies as Indigenous. Guatemalans will go to the polls this weekend to elect a new president.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |