Some 8,000 Guatemalan peasants staged protests this week to press for the approval of the indigenous nationality law. The delegation of peasants delivered a bill to members of Congress, where lawmakers pledged to study the bill. After delivering the bill to Congress, the demonstrators marched to the presidential residence, where their delegates met with representatives of President Alfonso Portillo. Indigenous peoples make up about 68 percent of the country’s population, and the fact that only three articles of the constitution refer to indigenous people is regarded by many as underscoring the racist and exclusionary attitude of the state. In addition some 700,000 families are suffering as a result of the agrarian crisis, which Portillo has refused to resolve.
