Urgent statement from the University of San Carlos of Guatemala
From the Central American Studies Group of the Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Studies of the University of Buenos Aires and the CLACSO Working Group “Anti-imperialism: transnational perspectives in the global south” We wish to express our deep concern about the publicly known events that occurred during the election process of the rector of the University of San Carlos of Guatemala (USAC) and about the institutional crisis that has resulted from it.
Since the 40s, the University of San Carlos has been constitutionally autonomous and the leading institution of higher education in the country. Since then, it has embraced the reformist spirit initiated in 1918, whose greatest achievement is expressed in the pairing of autonomy and democracy. Autonomy is understood as independence from external powers over university life. Thus, autonomy is not truly autonomy without internal democracy, without the participation of the university community in decision-making. This is why students, faculty, and graduates, although with varying degrees of influence, have the fundamental right to elect their authorities. The establishment of autonomous and democratic universities has made it possible to significantly raise their academic standards and, therefore, contribute to building more just and socially and economically developed societies.
At USAC, one of the oldest universities in the region, this fundamental right to elect authorities has been challenged by regulations with the exclusion of schools and regional centers, but what happened in the recent election violated the minimum guarantees established in the already questioned political rules of the institution.
This fraudulent process is concerning given its context within the current university and national situation. Unlike other universities in the region, the University of San Carlos (USAC) is one of the most politically powerful institutions in the State: by legal mandate, it has the power to initiate legislation, its annual budget is equivalent to 5% of the General Budget of the Nation, and it holds more than fifty voting seats in the most important strategic institutions of the State. It has representatives in public institutions such as, among many others, the Guatemalan Social Security Institute (IGSS), the Development Councils, the Monetary Board, and, particularly, on the Nominating Commissions for selecting the authorities of the country's justice system.
This is no small matter, at a time when trials for crimes against humanity and major corruption cases involving state and economic agents are progressing.
Likewise, the closure of even the smallest democratic practice occurs at a time of a surge of new student and teacher actors who question the state of affairs within the institution, demand spaces for participation, democratization and real university autonomy; and reflect and act critically on the national situation.
The authoritarian closure of the country's only public university not only violates the fundamental right to participate in the institution's political life but also challenges its autonomy, and acts as a condition for the possibility and realization of the colonizing pretensions of legal and illegal political-economic power and of partisan political power that has been socially questioned since the formation of the so-called "pact of corrupt individuals".
We express our concern, we stand in solidarity with the USAC educational community expelled from the electoral process, and we hope for a democratic and peaceful solution to the current institutional crisis.
July 6, 2022
CLACSO Working Group
Anti-imperialism: transnational perspectives in the global south
Central American Studies Group
from the Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (UBA)
This statement expresses the position of the CLACSO Working Group on Anti-imperialism: Transnational Perspectives in the Global South and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.
