In Guatemala, the production of palm oil is causing conflict. The indigenous population is fighting back, emergency services react with violence.
Guatemala City – Many food manufacturers rely on palm oil. It can be found in nut nougat creams, sachet soups, biscuits and numerous ready-made products. But the reputation of the edible fat is bad. It is considered a climate killer and promotes the emergence of monocultures. In Guatemala there is now resistance to the palm oil industry. The Latin American country is one of the largest producers in the world.
More and more areas in Guatemala are being used for the production of palm oil. The indigenous population does not want to accept this fact – they are fighting for their land rights. As the news channel Al Jazeera reports, the conflicts between the population and companies continue to grow, as industrial areas have almost doubled in the last ten years.
Palm oil production is causing conflict in Guatemala
The world’s dominant producers of palm oil are Indonesia, which has lost large areas of its rainforest, and Malaysia. The Southeast Asian countries produce more than 80 percent of the raw material used worldwide. In Latin America, Colombia comes first, followed by Guatemala. Last year the country produced more than 800,000 tons of raw palm oil – around 80 percent is exported.
Some regions have a particularly large number of oil plantations. For example in the department of Izabal in northeast Guatemala. Oil palms are grown there on nine percent of the arable land. Experts complain that this brings with it major social and ecological problems. “The expansive spread of the oil palm is expropriating the communities from their land,” says Marcelo Sabuc from the CCDA to Al Jazeera, which campaigns for smallholders and indigenous peoples. “It also destroys the environment.”
Palm Oil Production in Guatemala: Pollution and Social Conflict
The Christian Initiative Romero (CIR) had already drawn attention to the dark side of the palm oil industry in Guatemala in 2019. In a study, the association came to the conclusion that the production of the oil is destroying the rainforest, polluting the water and causing land grabbing. “Residents from communities near oil palm plantations report water shortages as well as skin diseases, vomiting and headaches from contaminated water and toxic fumes. Small farmers complain about the loss of their livelihoods, plantation workers complain about the precarious working conditions ”, it said in a message from CIR. Another palm oil study also came to worrying conclusions.
Marcelo Sabuc also speaks of contaminated waters. In recent years there has been occasional mass deaths of fish in the rivers near palm oil plants, reports Sabuc.
Many of the 17 million people who live in Guatemala belong to indigenous groups. Depending on the survey, the proportion of the total population is estimated at 40 to 60 percent. “Half of the Guatemalans are affected by poverty, more than ten percent even by extreme poverty. The majority of the indigenous population also has to live with oppression and exploitation and has little experience of the country’s economic growth, ”writes the medical aid organization Action Medeor.
Palm oil in Guatemala: “My husband died for the country”
The precarious situation of many indigenous people is not a result of palm oil cultivation, argues the industry. “The problem of agricultural conflicts in Guatemala is a historical problem that affects various actors, not just a specific sector,” Karen Rosales, executive director of the Guatemalan Palm Farmers Association, told Al Jazeera. One of the main causes is the weakness of the state, which does not care about the legal status of land and human rights. “This absence of the state definitely creates the conditions for conflict,” emphasizes Rosales.
Such a conflict is simmering in the village of Chinebal, which is around 280 kilometers from Guatemala City. One of the country’s leading palm oil companies is planting oil palms on the farmland there – but the municipality is opposed to it.
In a protest last year, the police cracked down on the population. A resident was shot dead by the emergency services. The village community emphasizes that he was unarmed. “My husband died for the country,” his widow tells Al Jazeera. “I will not leave here. When the police come, they will have to kill us all. “(Tvd)
