Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Guatemala (Agenzia Fides) – “Mother earth, life for the nations” is the title of a Message written by Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini of San Marcos, President of the Pastoral Department for Migrants in the Guatemalan Bishops’ Conference, on the occasion of the National Immigrant Day in Guatemala, celebrated on September 7.
The Message reads: “This Year, we want to focus on the drama of the migrant populations on a national and international level, as they face inhumane treatment, especially in the deportations. We also wish to point out in Guatemala’s situation, the close ties between the unequal distribution of the earth’s resources and the growth of poverty, which is a fundamental cause of forced migrations.”
According to Bishop Ramazzini, “the wave of immigrants from poorer nations to wealthier nations are now determined by factors of an economic nature.” In fact, “the increase of poverty, the lack of opportunities, and the faulty implementation of development processes of an integral and long-lasting caliber, are the cause and effect of the growing rift between the wealthy and poorer nations and among the poor and rich classes of each country.” This rift is the fruit of a globalization process in which “the trade dynamic easily makes efficacy and productivity the absolute measure of all interhuman relationships,” thus turning globalization into “a process that foments multiple forms of inequality and injustice.”
According to the Bishop, “the problems that arise in this situation of structural injustice, that always affect the poor the most, should be resolved using ethical criteria.” The President of the Bishops’ Migration Department later mentions that apart from the reasons that have led an immigrant to leave his country, he then finds himself immersed in “a profoundly human drama that truly marks his emotions and sensibilities” due to the “separation from family members, the loss of the mother tongue, the loss of cultural roots, feelings of rejection on the part of the new culture, the loss of the affective ties with nature, attitudes of xenophobia, and the abuse they suffer in the workplace.”
There is also the problem of the illegal detentions and deportations in Mexico and United States that “always run the risk of violating human rights.” Evidence of this is seen in the violent treatment the immigrants suffer when they have to cross the border zones, where there is often “crimes such as human trafficking for sexual exploitation, prostitution, forced labor, slavery, and other similar forms of slavery and servitude.” Undocumented migration has not diminished, “and has been replaced by new routes, with more dangerous ways, as a result of the immigration policies and regulations which are increasingly more restrictive.” Thus, “the immigrants are more at risk, and there are more immigrants in general. In addition, there is a greater dependence on the coyotes and the cost of reaching their destination is increasingly more expensive.”
“As disciples of Jesus Christ, we should not and cannot allow injustices and indifference towards those to suffer to continue. In response to these realities…remaining indifferent makes us accomplices,” the Bishop said. He also asked that all dioceses, parishes, religious communities, and neighborhoods hear this cry of the immigrants and organize some type of act in solidarity and support for them. And addressing the authorities, he asks them “to promote and defend the dignity and respect of human rights of immigrants and refugees in our country.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 4/9/2008)
