Though America is financing a genocide in Gaza and Lebanon right now, there have been other, quieter genocides with which America has been complicit in the past. By quieter, I mean less media coverage, not less tragic.
“500 Years” documents one of those stories. Colonialists, investors, agri-business conglomerates and big construction companies have wreaked havoc upon Guatemala in their drive for sugarcane, coffee and bananas as well as uranium, nickel, silver, zinc, gold and oil.
Why have companies flocked to Guatemala?
It is not that other countries, like the US, don’t have the capacity to grow and mine these needed items. It is because international companies can more cheaply harvest and mine these raw products in poorer countries – not having to deal with fair worker salaries or devastating environmental impacts.
Perhaps we thought that the poorer countries would be grateful beneficiaries of Western investment. But a betrayal by Guatemalan nationals in power colluding with outside business interests resulted in a genocide of the Mayan Ixil.
How did the Mayans fight back?
“500 Years,” a film project financed by such august entities as the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Bertha Foundation and Sundance, is a crash course on following the money and the unrelenting 500-year resistance of the Mayans. Through documenting two historic trials it explains how a people were exterminated, a country destabilized and a mass migration to the US border established.
Though “500 Years” at 108 minutes was a little long for me, I’ll be honest that the court sequences and interviews in the film were not only inspiring but gripped me emotionally.
The first is the trial against infamous José Efraín Ríos Montt for genocide. He was a Guatemalan military officer and dictator known for directing much of the bloody Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996) that ravaged the land and its people.
In order to usurp Mayan land to accommodate world-wide business contracts, corrupt Guatemalan politicians like Montt ordered over 600 Mayan villages destroyed and over 200,000 indigenous people murdered. Some surviving Mayans were moved to government camps. In over 100 testimonies, Mayan individuals documented what had been done to them.
In a second surprising historical event, Otto Fernando Pérez Molina, a retired general and 2012-2015 President of Guatemala, was put on trial by the people of Guatemala for corruption that included receiving millions of dollars in bribes for awarding more than 70 contracts to various companies.
What makes this an important film?
Excellent archival footage documents both court cases. We are sitting in suspense when the judge in each case reads the verdict. For the traumatized Mayans, it is the first time in 500 years of resistance that they finally have their day in court.
Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis, director and producer respectively, have studied Latin American history and produced several important documentaries that not only help viewers understand the current border crisis but introduce us to the people who have suffered.
Credits
Director: Pamela Yates
Producer: Paco de Onis
Production Company: Skylight
Featuring: Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj, Matilde Terraza Gallego, Daniel Pascual Hernández, Andrea Ixchíu Hernández and Julio Solórzano Foppa
Editor: Peter Kinoy
Cinematographers: Melle van Essen and Rene Soza
Co-Produces: Beatriz Gallardo Shaul and Raul Estuardo Socon Canel
Music Composer: Roger C. Miller
Released: 2017
Official Website: https://500years.skylight.is/en/
. . .
Join us on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/itsjustmovies!