Maya justice in Guatemala

Anna-Cat Brigida has an interesting story on the application of Maya justice in contemporary Guatemala for Fusion.

In dozens of Mayan communities in Guatemala, robberies, debts, and even homicides are resolved in just hours by elected indigenous leaders. When a new case arises in Santa Cruz, Zapeta receives a call on his red Nokia phone, and heads to the scene of the crime. There, he listens to the victim and the perpetrator, then tries to elicit an honest confession from the accused. Zapeta draws on the principles of the Pixab’, the Mayan oral tradition, to dole out a sentence that brings healing and satisfaction to victims.

The 60-year-old handles cases nearly every day, a decline from several years ago when he resolved up to five per day. Now, he hears about 30 a month.

“In the [state justice] system, telling the truth represents your sentence,” Zapeta told me in Spanish on a sunny Friday morning in Santa Cruz, a city in the highlands of Guatemala’s indigenous department of Quiché. “For us, telling the truth is your liberation.”

It's pretty short and worth a read. There are many problems with Guatemala's criminal justice system, even in its improved form, that makes this an attractive alternative. However, the lack of checks and balances, the sole (?) reliance on testimony from the victim and alleged perpetrator, and the susceptibility of the position to abuse of power and corruption, would make me think twice.