issue 226 - December 1991 Guatemala's killing fields The Indian
majority in Guatemala is still being slaughtered five centuries
after the Spanish invasion. Bob Carty reports on the resistance
that never stopped. Twice a week the tourists arrive. They pour
out of buses, cameras ready, and surge through the town of
Chichicastenango ('Chichi' for short) in the highlands three
hours west of Guatemala City. On market days, Chichi's plaza is
crowded with 10,000 Mayan Indians wearing a riot of colour -
purples, reds and blues - woven into dresses, pants, shawls and
blouses. Some tourists stride up the steps of Saint Thomas
church, ignoring the signs asking non-Mayans to keep out. They
snap pictures of native men who look away in silence. The men
carry tin pots that smoke with the incense of tree resins
burning on hot coals. Each Mayan watches how straight his smoke
rises, to see if he is sincere enough to communicate from his
heart on earth to the heart of the Mayan sky. Inside the church
a Catholic mass is said at