Working people, students, and businesspeople have been holding mass protests against the tax increase, which raises the cost of most goods and services in Guatemala. The measure, which has antagonized business owners, hits workers and farmers particularly hard.

On August 1, thousands of workers, farmers, and students carried out a one-day strike to protest the tax hike, approved by Congress July 26. Cops fired tear gas to disperse the crowd that gathered outside the National Palace, after they had marched through the streets of Guatemala City, the capital. The education ministry closed public schools to prevent youth from carrying out a campus strike, so students instead joined other demonstrators in actions throughout the country.

The strike was called by Guatemala's main business association, CACIF. Around 90 percent of businesses were shut down throughout the capital, according to Chamber of Trade president Jorge Briz.

In the highlands town of Coban, 170 miles north of Guatemala City, 200 angry demonstrators, mostly high school and college students, stormed a police station. The youth abandoned the building after army trucks began to arrive. Soldiers have been patrolling the streets of Coban.

A few hours earlier the government imposed a state of emergency in the city of Totonicapan, 120 miles west of the capital, where protesters burned down the mayor's house, a bank, and a government office in protest against the tax hike.

Daily protests have been held throughout the country, from the capital city to smaller cities such as Quetzaltenango, Retalhuleu, Coatepeque, Jalapa, Mazatenango, Chiqui-mulilla and San Marcos.

In many cases demonstrators burn tires in the streets, which often leads to massive traffic jams. The bumper sticker "No More Taxes" can be found everywhere, from market stalls to pushcarts used by street vendors.

The VAT is a sales tax based on a percentage of the value added at each step of the manufacturing and distribution process. Prices rise as the tax is included in the price charged at the next step in the chain from production to consumption. Like other sales taxes, it is highly regressive--that is, working people pay a higher percentage of their income than do wealthy people.

On the morning of July 27, the day after Congress approved the tax measure, several hundred people gathered on the street in front of the national legislature, where there was a line of cops in front of the building. The police had allowed protesters to scale the outside of the building to tie banners to the columns and to address the crowd from a ledge with bullhorns. Most of the people appeared to be college and high school students and street vendors. Many of the vendors wore the distinctive clothing of indigenous women.

In an interview at the protest, Iván Castillo, secretary general of the National Revolutionary Union of Guatemala (URNG) in the metropolitan area of Guatemala City, said the government was raising taxes to make payments on its foreign debt, which is now $4.4 billion in a country of 12.6 million people. The URNG, which waged a guerrilla struggle against the government through the 1980s until a political settlement was signed in 1996, is today part of the electoral opposition to the current government.
 
 
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