Visita Presidencial

The President of Guatemala, Álvaro Colom, made a visit to Tactic this afternoon in conjunction with the implementation of his new “Mi Familia Progresa” (My Family Progresses) social program. Mi Familia Progresa has a Q270 million ($36 million) budget and the help and support of USAID. Through the Mi Familia Progresa program, Guatemalan families with children under the age of 15 having been identified as living in extreme poverty in the targeted poorest municipalities of Guatemala will receive 300 Quetzales a month (~$40), granted that their children attend school and complete required check-ups at the local health center.

Thousands and thousands of selected Tactiqueños (almost exclusively indigenous people) were gathered outside a local school since 6 a.m. waiting for their first payment. Banrural, a Guatemalan bank with the largest presence in rural parts of the country, is in charge of allocating the Mi Familia Progresa money. Since it is believed that women will be more apt to use the money for its intended purpose, the payments are being given to the mothers of the families. The bank employees and community leaders had all the women lined up by their aldea or caserío in an orderly fashion. I have never seen such an organized event in Guatemala.

I got to the school around 9 a.m., but Colom didn’t arrive in his helicopter until nearly 3 in the afternoon. Since I work with people in the Tactic Muni and because I am a friend of our mayor, Hugo, I had some special privileges during the visit. Hugo appointed me as his personal photographer, so I was allowed to stay within the roped off area to take pictures of the President and the Ministers who came with him.

After the Presidential entourage touched down in their two helicopters in an adjacent soccer field, the group made its grand entrance to the music of the marimba to start the event (although I am sure the majority of the people were much more interested in receiving Q300 than seeing the President). First a couple of the Ministers spoke, then Hugo gave a few words and presented Señor Presidente Álvaro Colom.

Colom sang the praises of Mi Familia Progresa and worked to dispel any criticisms and fears about the program (including that it was the government’s plan to register children so that they can later be stolen). He said he hoped the hearts of the program’s critics would be opened over the holiday season to realize its true value. I definitely would not count myself as a critic of Mi Familia Progresa, but I am skeptical of simply writing checks to families every month as a solution to poverty when the Guatemalan educational system in and of itself is in shambles. But I am hopeful that with proper and vigilant oversight that the program will be beneficial (in its intended areas of education and health) to poor families in Tactic.

Guatemala is a country full of political division and very much lacking in political ideology. Most Guatemalans will oppose someone, not because of his/her policies, but because of his/her party, of which there are more than a dozen. I felt the best part of Colom’s speech was when he said, “Poverty has no political affiliation. Poverty exists in all parts of our country, and it is our charge as the government to work to alleviate it.” I think Colom’s words can be extended to a macro level to say:

Poverty has no national affiliation. Poverty exists in all parts of our world, and it is our charge as human beings to work to alleviate it.

Something to ponder over the holiday season.