Real Revolution

Finally, a Real Revolution

A civil-society movement emerges in Central America.

• By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY

Much has been made about the claim issued in November by the U.S. Joint Forces Command that Mexico, along with Pakistan, is at risk of becoming a failed state.

Associated Press

In this image taken from a videotape, lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, who was slain by gunmen in Guatemala City on May 10, alleges that Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom wanted him killed.

Yet in a ranking of the Western Hemisphere's most at-risk countries, where criminal networks threaten to overwhelm the authority of the state, Mexico might not even make the top 10. Central America and parts of South America are in far worse shape.

Take Guatemala. With a murder rate of 47 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2008, it has become one of the most dangerous and lawless countries in the region. This was highlighted by the May 10 murder of attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg, who alleged in a videotape released after his death that state corruption extends all the way to the president's office.

Is there anything that can be done to reverse this slide into full-blown chaos? A group of civic activists thinks there is, and you may be surprised to hear their project doesn't involve asking for foreign aid. Rather, a key component of the ProReforma project would seem to be aimed at keeping U.S. "advisers" at the State Department and like-minded international do-gooders at bay.

ProReforma is a made-in-Guatemala solution to what it calls the country's "chronic crisis." The project seeks to amend the constitution so that individual rights trump "interests," be they general or special. Says ProReforma President Manuel Ayau: "A system based on equal rights for every individual will bring about a state of affairs where people can pursue their own happiness in a peaceful environment."

Making individual rights sacrosanct would be an attack on the status quo, which regularly sacrifices equality before the law to please noisy or wealthy interests. In doing so, it has plunged the country into a bottomless pit of poverty and violence. Chief among the rights ProReforma seeks to restore are property and contractual rights. It is worth noting that while these are supposedly values of the rich, grass-roots groups such as the 15,000-church Evangelical Alliance are giving Proreforma strong support.

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One reason for the most recent deterioration in public security is Mexico's crackdown on drug trafficking, which has sent hoodlums scurrying south. But Guatemala is especially vulnerable to the pernicious effects of the drug war because its political economy has been unable to generate wealth.

What is more, the push by international development "experts" and local special interests to spend scarce government resources on "social" goals -- such as housing and sports -- has starved law enforcement and the judiciary. Although there are plenty of laws on the books, criminals operate with impunity.

Limiting the power of government to take precedence over the rights of individuals is crucial. ProReforma puts it this way in one of its educational brochures: "No country, in no time has had success with a democratic model that grants the right of excessive intervention to government." Yet Guatemala keeps trying to make it work. "Through six decades since World War II and after many attempts" by all sides, be they "populists or elitists, civilians or soldiers, from the left or from the right, it is evident that the system of intervention, mercantilism and paternalism has produced neither prosperity nor peace."

How would strong individual rights change the future? Mr. Ayau argues that when individual rights always trump interests the culture that underfunds and politicizes the courts will begin to change. As to poverty, consider that would-be entrepreneurs are barred from competing in many markets because powerful interests make the rules and regulations. Without a market economy the country cannot create wealth.

There is nothing new in the classical liberal argument for individual rights. What is new here is the scope of this project. Recognizing that the beneficiaries of its proposed reform are ordinary Guatemalans whose rights are regularly violated by the political class, ProReforma has spent two years on a national education campaign.

Tapping into popular frustration, a campaign brochure argues that Guatemalans must do more than chase the "vain illusion" that "some day a good and illuminated man will come to power." They must force change to "a style of government that will facilitate success for whoever comes to power."

ProReforma needed 5,000 petition signatures for its proposal to be introduced into Congress for debate; it has collected more than 73,000. Now the ideological left has begun a campaign of its own, marked by vituperative and personal attacks against ProReforma's promoters. The proposal might be defeated, but the good news is that ProReforma's civic education project has already succeeded. Today, more Guatemalans are aware of their inalienable rights. The question is how they can wrest those rights from the collectivist left.