The Role of Maya Catholic Health Networks in Guatemala’s Armed Conflict, 1966 – 1996

Dr. Susan Fitzpatrick-BehrensCal State Northridge
Thursday, April 26
11:00-12:15
HSSB 2252

In the 1960s, paraprofessional health programs proliferated in the
Maya regions of Guatemala’s western highlands.. The programs
responded to medical needs in rural highland communities and coastal
coffee plantations where there were neither hospitals nor doctors. By
the 1970s, Maya leaders prepared through these programs provided
nearly 50 percent of Guatemala’s health care. With the advent of
Guatemala’s “armed conflict,” the military identified Maya leaders as
a threat and began systematically to target and murder them.
Foreigners engaged in paraprofessional health programs began to use
health networks as a kind of underground railroad to deliver their
promoters to safety. This medical network played a key role in the
exodus of Guatemalan refugees to Mexico during the worst years of the
armed conflict. It also played a central role in the provision of aid
to Communities of Peoples in Resistance (CPRs) during the worst
years of the violence. This presentation explores the issues of
health and activism associated with the development of these
paraprofessional programs.

vz 4/23