The bogus gospel of free trade and free religion

When mining interests wanted Guatemalan land, Maya claims were pushed aside

May 20, 2014 12:15AM ET
by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is associate professor of political science at Northwestern University and the author of "The Politics of Secularism in International Relations."

Religious freedom and economic liberalization go hand in hand. Or so we are told.

The Maryland-based Religious Freedom and Business Foundation (RFBF), a lobbying group that promotes “respect for freedom of religion or belief,” claims that “religious freedom is good for business.” Yet contrary to the gospel preached by the RFBF, economic liberalization has brought repression and dispossession to at least one community, the K’iche’, a Maya ethnic group from the western highlands of Guatemala. Their experience suggests a different and darker story connecting free markets and free religion.

Part of that story involves what counts as religion. Those who tie religious freedom and free markets fail to recognize the K’iche’ people’s relationship to their land (and their associated cultural and religious practices) as religious, so the fact that the changes associated with economic liberalization make it impossible for the K’iche’ to continue their cultural and religious life does not register as depriving them of anything of significance. Neoliberal advocates convince governments to accept the property and resource rights of companies, and then religious freedom advocates reassure the indigenous population and others that they haven’t suffered a religious setback. Both moves ensure that indigenous people lose their culture and capacity to carry on the lives they were living — as well as any claim to harm.

In recent years, 87 Maya communities in the department of El Quiché, represented by the K’iche’ People’s Council (KPC), unanimously rejected the mining and hydroelectric projects proposed for Guatemala in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement and other treaties. Foreign commercial companies responded to those rejections with offers to reward them with a higher percentage of profits, failing to understand, as Dianne Post points out, that “the reason these projects were rejected is not monetary but is linked to the refusal to allow destruction of the earth for religious and cultural reasons.” The KPC’s refusal to acquiesce in these projects has led to discrimination and violence, including massive violations of K’iche’ cultural heritage and land rights facilitated by collusion among multinational mining corporations, the police and the Guatemalan state.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/5/free-trade-religionguatemalakicherights.html