Rural public health systems and accountability politics: insights from grassroots health rights defenders in Guatemala
Date: May 2020
Author(s): Julia Fischer-Mackey, Benilda Batzin, Paulina Culum & Jonathan Fox
Publication type: Scholarly Journal Article
Published by: The Journal of Peasant Studies
As the pandemic reveals how multiple intersecting inequalities affect public health, the work of rural activists defending their communities’ rights to health, land, and gender, ethnic and environmental justice demonstrate how intersectional analysis can be put into practice. In the interviews that are included in this Journal of Peasant Studies article, Guatemalan Maya Tz’utujil activists Paulina Culum and Benilda Batzin describe how ‘health rights defenders’ seek justice for rural indigenous communities – work that the pandemic makes more critical than ever. Their strategies and insights have implications for addressing rural health rights around the world.
Julia Fischer-Mackey is a researcher with the Accountability Research Center who received her PhD from American University’s School of International Service. She has conducted development program research and evaluation in several countries, including Guatemala. She is interested in questions of power, knowledge and evidence, and has experience with thematic areas including health, gender, and environmental justice. juliamackey@gmail.com
Benilda Batzin comes from San Pedro La Laguna, has a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and has experience working on various community development and environmental protection issues. She serves as a liaison between CEGSS staff and the defenders, provides accompaniment and capacity building to defenders, coordinating strategy to achieve health rights for indigenous populations in the department of Sololá and throughout Guatemala. When this interview was conducted, Benilda was working as an advisor. In October 2019, the CEGSS staff elected Benilda to succeed CEGSS’ founder, Walter Flores, as executive director of the organization, effective January 1, 2020. She also continues to advise the health defenders in Sololá. benilda@cegss.org.gt
Paulina Culum is a renowned indigenous community leader from San Pablo la Laguna, Guatemala. She began participating in different arenas, including in a literacy campaign, when she was 13 years old. In 1998 Paulina was a founding member of the organization Women Weaving a Good Life, which works on women’s rights, access to land, defense of territory, and food sovereignty. She has participated in the Peasant and Indigenous Women’s Association (RECMURIC) and in 2014 she began working with the Network of Community Defenders of the Right to Health. She has participated in forums in Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, USA and Mexico. paulinaculum65@yahoo.es
Jonathan Fox is a Professor in the School of International Service at American University and Director of ARC. His books include Accountability Politics: Power and Voice in Rural Mexico (Oxford 2007) and Mexico’s Right-to-Know Reforms: Civil Society Perspectives (co-editor, Fundar/Wilson Center 2007). He collaborates with a wide range of public interest groups, social organizations and policymakers and currently serves on the boards of directors of Fundar (Mexico), the Bank Information Center (Washington DC), and the Community Agroecology Network (Santa Cruz). For online publications, see http://jonathan-fox.org/.
