Healthcare as a Building Brick? Unraveling the importance of healthcare in Guatemala’s post-conflict statebuilding process

Abstract

In this thesis, the municipality of Uspantán has been the stage setting for studying the importance of public healthcare provision in the overall attitude of the indigenous people towards the central government of post-conflict Guatemala. This municipality was severely affected by the armed conflict which raged through the country from 1960 until the signing of the peace accords in 1996. In this thesis the effectiveness and ascribed worthiness of the public healthcare system in Uspantán is examined. This is complemented by an examination on the conflict and its legacy in Uspantán and the Guatemalan state as system and idea. The central argument is that the overall attitude towards the central government of Guatemala is negative and that within this attitude, the ineffectiveness of the public healthcare system in Uspantán has turned out to play an important role. This outcome is subsequently applied to a broader context of statebuilding and peacebuilding.