Surviving in the Rainforest:
The Realities of Looting in the Rural Villages of El Petén, Guatemala

Cultural Education in Guatemala

Cultural education should be a priority if past destruction is to be mitigated in the future. This destruction is not manifested only by looting, but also through the destruction of the sites due to agricultural and/or construction activities. El Petén suffers from this problem, mostly around the lakes of the central area, which had a high Precolumbian occupation. Today, several villages surround Lakes Petén Itzá, Yaxhá, Macanché, Quexil, and Petenxil, among others. The villages of San Miguel, San José, San Andrés, Santa Elena, San Benito, and even the capital city of Flores are literally settled on mounds. In San Miguel these can be up to ten feet high. Frequently, the population finds objects while making necessary excavations for construction.

In Flores, for example, the Catholic Church was built over Precolumbian remains in the 1700’s, on the highest point of the island. Years later while fixing the drainage system under the church (1980’s) two stelae were found buried under its foundations. The island’s inhabitants, as well as the rest of the Petén population, are aware of these features but prefer not to notify IDAEH because of the fear that their lands can be confiscated or that they will be forced to leave their homes. At this moment, while land legalization procedures are being made, several properties that have mounds and other archaeological features are being flattened or bulldozed to secure the ownership of the land. ⁵⁸   On the other hand, a large variety of objects have been recovered by the people and kept in their houses as decoration in small private collections that are visible only to the families’ close friends.

Plantations located in the Coastal piedmont have very important sites on their properties, while each day, towns and villages destroy what is left in the highlands by cultivating the land. The highlands, with its fertile volcanic soils and the different altitudes, are rich in archaeological occupation. Part of Guatemala City, too, is located on top of Kaminaljuyú, one of the major Mesoamerican centers in the Late Preclassic (300 B.C.-250 A.D.) and Early Classic (250-600 A.D.) periods. The construction of modern residential areas on the western side of the city has destroyed important archaeological remains.

Endnote

58. For many years, ownership of land has been based on agarradas (meaning "to grab the land"). Immigrants, attracted by the idea of large tracts of land, arrived at the desired area and claimed their "stakes". From that moment their ownership was official. Today it still happens, but to a lesser degree. For that reason official land legalization is a priority.

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