Guatemala's History
The 1954 U.S. sponsored coup against a leftist, nationalist government of Jacobo Arbenz paved the way for four decades of repressive government and tragic suffering.
Severe social upheaval, brought on by the civil conflict, produced devastating repercussions that virtually crippled the country. Large-scale intimidation campaigns in the primarily indigenous countryside resulted in the death of nearly 200,000 Guatemalan civilians (app. 2% of the population).
Guatemala's civil war finally ended in 1996 with the signing of the Peace Accords. The Peace Accords formally disbanded guerilla groups and illegal paramilitary patrol groups who terrorized the population. But even now, Guatemalan's are struggling to recover from the acute socioeconomic burden of that war.
Today, many of the reforms promised by the Peace Accords are still a dream deferred. Repressive military structures, such as the Presidential Guard, have not been dismantled. Tax collection remains inadequate to fund basic health and education programs for the majority of Guatemalan citizens. Tremendous levels of corruption affect all levels of government.
While U.S. policy in the 1980s funded the Guatemalan military and denied abuses, U.S. policy in recent years has been much more constructive. The U.S. embassy in Guatemala in the last several years has played a positive role in human rights, judicial reform and anti-corruption initiatives.
Guatemala's Current Health Crisis
Rebuilding the fabric of Guatemalan society has been further hampered by terrible poverty and a thoroughly shattered health care system. Critical shortages in health care professionals, medicine, and affordable health care delivery extend throughout the entire country.50% of all Guatemalan children under two years old have some form of nutritional deficiency.
Guatemala's leading causes of death are easily treatable illnesses such as respiratory infections, diarrhea, malnutrition and malaria. The official death rate hovers around 50 per 1000 live births. These illnesses, primarily affecting young children, are entirely preventable. Of all malnutrition deaths, 75% are children under two years old. And 50% of all children under two years old have some form of nutritional deficiency. The most profound nutritional dilemmas (in order) include:
- Calorie and Protein
- Zinc and Iron
- Folic Acid
- Vitamin A
- Iodine
Public hospitals and public health clinics are dramatically under-funded and possess few medicines and little or no equipment. Overcrowding and bed shortages are commonplace, and specialized medicine remains virtually non-existent. Government run hospitals provide only 1 hospital bed per 1000 individuals. In many regions, there is only one doctor per 12,000 people, and one (usually poorly trained or untrained) health volunteer per 20 families.
Health services are customarily augmented by small isolated clinics without real or effective medical treatment or supplies. These facilities usually store few, if any, medications. In a country where an overwhelming segment of the population lives in a rural setting these shortages are profound.
Another difficult challenge is the fact that the Guatemalan government and public hospitals don't support rural midwives and health assistants. Midwives constitute an overwhelming portion of the health care services. There are regions of the country where up to 99% of all births are carried out with the help of a midwife.
Due to health care deficiencies, several rural communities report staggering rates of infant mortality -- as high as 100 per 1000 births. A pediatric primary care program, coupled with a midwifery training curriculum is absolutely crucial to stemming this near epidemic of infant deaths.
