By Alejandro Aguirre Batres, Executive Director, CONGCOOP

A healthy macroeconomy and stable economic growth, contrasts with the reality faced by more than 8.2 million Guatemalans who live in conditions of poverty and extreme poverty, inequality, without health services - mainly in rural areas, without rural development - and despite the fact that there is economic growth for the business elite, there is no development for the majority of Guatemalans. 

Statistical records of the Multidimensional Poverty Index reveal that in 2019, the Guatemalan population in poverty comprised 61.6%, of which 19.9% was in extreme poverty. These indicators were confirmed in INE's 2018 Census, which states that 59.3% of Guatemalans live in poverty and 23.4% in extreme poverty. In other words, the State and the government are failing to fulfil the commitments made in the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs 2022. 

Guatemala is an unequal country because the concentration of income causes huge gaps in access to development, between the richest inhabitants of the country and the majority of the impoverished population. According to statistics from the Secretariat of Food and Nutritional Security, SESAN, from 1 January to 21 August 2020, 13 children under 5 years of age died from acute malnutrition, while in the same period in 2021 there were 26, all between 6 and 24 months, and only one was 2 years old.

Macroeconomic growth anchored in remittances is not synonymous with development because it does not reach millions of peasants and indigenous people who face extreme poverty and malnutrition, making it difficult for Guatemala to achieve the goals set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

The policies promoted by the state and the government only benefit the economic elite, the monoculture industry, businessmen, traders, the extractive industry, bankers and landowners.  

The national state hides social inequality, poverty and exclusion, with the constant rise in the price of basic goods and inflation. Improving access to and management of land and water resources requires better governance of land and water resources and greater integration of public policies, together with larger and more strategic investments aimed at guaranteeing food security and sovereignty and reducing poverty. A reality that is not being addressed by the state and government. 

In Guatemala, educational exclusion is evident, which leads to a lack of quality employment, as the labour supply does not meet the demand. Annually, the national productive sector generates up to 40,000 formal jobs; however, 200,000 young people join this same market each year, joining the "informal sector of the economy", generating greater unemployment. This indicator generates the social phenomenon of "migration" of young people who risk their lives in search of better opportunities in the United States. According to press reports, some 300 migrants leave Guatemala daily. This figure contrasts with the 128,441 migrants deported to the country in 2021, who were detained at the southern border. Migration is an escape, an emergency exit from the lack of employment due to the precarious situation faced by migrants living in conditions of poverty, extreme poverty, violence, hunger, exclusion and other realities.  

A weak democracy on the verge of collapse is the product of weakened public institutions, poor governance and the absence of prompt and enforced justice, which makes it a country where impunity reigns. This impunity generates violence and racism, which is one of the country's deepest problems. A state alienated from its population, an economic elite insensitive to poverty and inequality, with a government that defends corruption and impunity, with a "corrupt pact" headed by the president of the Republic, which seeks to maintain the levels of corruption and impunity in the country.

In addition, gender inequalities in all aspects of Guatemalan women's lives constitute an abysmal gap. According to data on women in Guatemala, contained in the UN Women Report on Guatemala 2017, reveal a high fertility rate in adolescent girls aged 13 to 19 years (one in five births corresponds to child and adolescent mothers). A heartbreaking 28% illiteracy rate among indigenous women and 19% among non-indigenous women. In addition, 1,195 women were murdered in 2019, despite the existence of a Law Against Femicide and other forms of violence, adding that vulnerable female victims were between the ages of 20 and 30. There is also an abysmal gap that is reflected in the fact that Guatemalan girls and adolescents living in the territories face obstacles in accessing basic services such as drinking water, electricity, less access to education, political participation, decent and well-paid work. They face discrimination and exploitation at all levels of society and are seen as sexual objects without respect for their rights. 

All of the above clearly shows that in Guatemala there are two worlds, one for a small group that benefits from this macroeconomic stability, this weakness of democracy, this co-optation of state institutions, and a large majority of the population that faces poverty and inequality. It is therefore imperative to make progress in the fulfilment of the SDGs in the country.