El Mirador Gives a View into Guatemala’s Challenges & Potential

Deep in the Petén jungle of northern Guatemala lies one of the largest ancient cities in the Western hemisphere. El Mirador is the site of some of the earliest Mayan temples, yet few people outside of the archaeological community have heard of it, much less visited. Sadly the same can be said of its host country. The obstacles in developing El Mirador have parallels in those faced by Guatemala as a whole, including violence, poverty, corruption, narcotics trafficking, and environmental destruction.

El Mirador was discovered in 1926, but detailed investigation did not begin until 1978. 2003 saw the first major investigation, stabilization, and conservation programs. El Mirador is distinguished from the numerous other Mayan sites in the area by its age and size. It was built centuries before many of its neighbors, flourishing from around the 6^th century BCE and reaching its height from the 3^rd century BCE to 1^st century CE. El Mirador declined along with other Mayan centers during the Post-Classic period, and was finally abandoned around the 9^th century CE. At its height, El Mirador likely had a population of well over 100,000. The civic center stretches over 10 square miles and contains several thousand structures, including La Danta, which may be the largest pyramid in the world by volume.

Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom hopes to capitalize on El Mirador in his strategy of economic development. While 350,000 tourists visit Tikal each year, only 3000 travel to El Mirador, a disparity demonstrating the site’s potential for growth. Under Colom’s “Cuatro Balam” plan introduced in 2008, the Maya Biosphere Reserve, which spans roughly one fifth of the country, will be divided into an archaeological park in the north and agricultural zone in the south. An $8 million electric minitrain will transport the target 1 million tourists a year (by 2023) to the reserve and its Maya studies center. Colom hopes to reduce crime in his country by tackling poverty, but development is not that simple. Tourists avoid El Mirador for reasons other than the lack of publicity and the necessary two-day jungle trek. Crime in Guatemala, moreover, also has more complicated roots than those of poverty alone.

The state of Guatemala today is impacted by the legacy of the violent 36-year civil war that ended in 1996. Since the conclusion of the war, guerilla armies have moved out of the Petén, making space for drug traffickers, cattle ranchers, loggers, poachers and looters. Since the 1970s, the region’s population has mushroomed from 25,000 to over 500,000. The migrant stream includes peasants and squatters looking for farmland and economic opportunities. Many are indigenous people who had been the victims of “massacres, human rights violations and other atrocities” during the war. Although indigenous people, mainly Mayans, form approximately 40% of Guatemala’s population, the poverty rate within the group is 76% (as represented in the country's GINI coefficient, map at top right). The Petén is also the site of powerful drug organizations that use cattle ranches to launder money and conceal their operations. According to a recent State Department report, “entire regions of Guatemala are now essentially under the control of drug trafficking organizations… these groups enjoy a ‘prevailing environment of impunity.’” Narcotics gangs are easily able to bribe government officials, including perhaps the region’s governor, who is currently under investigation for money-laundering. It is unclear how much money intended as investments in El Mirador will remain in the region. Violence is rampant (as evident in the map of homicide rates) and drug traffickers have their own security forces, which easily outgun government officials responsible for maintaining law and order in the Reserve.

Whether carried out by peasants or drug organizations, almost all human activities in the Petén include unsustainable practices leading to environmental degradation. The World Wildlife Foundation reports that the Maya Biosphere has lost 70% of its forests in the last 10 years. Illegal logging, poaching and fires used to clear land (shown by red dots in the map below) are undermining local biodiversity. Although such despoliation threatens the tourist economy, the conservation has been difficult to promote in the country. The 1996 “peace accords” reference to every Guatemalan’s right to land has been broadly interpreted. As a result, even though environmental laws are very strong on paper, in practice they are often not enforced, due both to a lack of power and to the fear or infringing on human rights of indigenous peoples. Further complicating the situation is the fact that some Guatemalans would rather see the northern Petén privatized for agriculture development rather than preserved by the government for tourism.

The combination of these problems led the Global Heritage Fund to list El Mirador as a site “On the Verge” of irreparable loss and destruction in October 2010. Unfortunately, little has changed. A New York Times article from 2000 on El Ceibal, a national park within the Maya Biosphere Reserve, mirrors the 2010 article on El Mirador. Despite its rich cultural history, natural beauty, and the official end of its civil war, Guatemala has not been able to escape violence, poverty, inequality, corruption, illegal activities and environmental destruction. El Mirador is in many ways a microcosm; development of the site will hopefully signify progress in the country as a whole.