PEACE BOAT - Voyage 69



	Life Onboard	LAST UPDATE August 8, 2010
site design imagesparkle.com

July 4, 2010

Giving a Voice to the Oppressed – James Rodriguez

James Rodriguez said he hopes to capture the experiences of people who are going through hardship in Guatemala.

James Rodriguez has spent countless days capturing the pain and suffering among indigenous people in Latin America. His work as an independent photojournalist has had a dramatic impact, especially in Guatemala where he does most of his work. The country is still reeling from one of the bloodiest wars in the region in which at least 250,000 people were killed and another 45,000 disappeared, mainly after they were detained by government forces. The government is still guilty of carrying out new acts of violence against its citizens, Mr Rodriguez said during a lecture to Peace Boat participants. "Five percent of Guatemala's population own 80 percent of the economic wealth and this is the same group that controls the army which did a lot of the atrocities during the war."

site design imagesparkle.com

This photo documenting life in Guatemala is one of many that Mr Rodriguez showed participants during his photography workshops.

Mr Rodriguez was onboard from Dublin to Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala to give a series of workshops in photography as well as discuss social issues affecting Latin America. He became interested in working to protect human rights when he joined Peace Boat as an English language instructor on the 41st Global Voyage. Mr Rodriguez then began working as a human rights observer in Latin America in 2004. His role was to accompany people who were trying to pursue reconciliation after Guatemala's 36-year civil war which ended in 1996. However, he said he was surprised that the Guatemalan media was ignoring the plight of the thousands of people who disappeared during the conflict while in government detention. Many of these people were suspected to be supporters of guerilla fighters and almost all of them are assumed to have been killed and their bodies hidden.

Participants learnt from Mr Rodriguez to make a series of photo essays about their experience on the 69th Voyage.

"My job as an observer was to go with women who were looking for the bodies of their husbands who had disappeared," Mr Rodriguez said. About 500 widows had formed a small group which was dedicated to finding these bodies so that they could be buried properly. But despite peace existing in Guatemala, many military leaders do not want the bodies of these people to be found because they could be used as evidence for possible war crime tribunals. These women were receiving death threats, but there was no mention of this in the newspapers, Mr Rodriguez said. "So I started my own project, I started to document this, photograph it and put it in my blog." His blog is being used by independent magazines, newspapers and websites to create a network whereby his stories are read by many people around the world.

Mr Rodriguez also spoke about his home country of Mexico ahead of planned stops in the Mexican ports of Manzanillo and Ensenada.

This network is crucial to helping the indigenous groups of Guatemala because extreme injustice throughout the country is still a daily occurrence. International mining companies are supported by the government and military in evicting communities from their land in very brutal methods. These communities are the same groups which suffered from many massacres during the civil war and are often powerless to prevent their homes from being destroyed, Mr Rodriguez said. He documented the burning down of a a village by military forces in order for the land to be used by a Canadian mining company. When his photos were published around the world, there was public outrage in Canada and it has had a lasting impact on the way in which these companies operate in Latin America. James Rodriguez said he hopes that his work and that of other independent journalists has the power to stop injustice and force governments, militaries and large corporations to become more accountable for their actions.