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GUATEMALA
Alejandro Cerón, Ana Lorena Ruano, Silvia Sánchez, Aiken S. Chew, Diego Díaz, Alison Hernández, and Walter Flores
Indigenous communities in Guatemala face health inequalities due to systemic discrimination. A study with focus groups in 13 rural municipalities documented 132 cases of mistreatment in public health facilities, ranging from indifference to violence, coercion, and racism. Discrimination was linked to poverty, language barriers, gender, ethnicity, and social class. Conclusions: Addressing mistreatment in public health settings requires tackling deeply rooted forms of discrimination, including racism. This will likely necessitate profound, complex, and sustained interventions at the programmatic and policy levels, extending beyond the strict domain of public health services. Future research should assess the prevalence of mistreatment and racism in indigenous areas and explore health care providers’ perspectives on this issue.
