Ya Basta

Violence in Guatemala isn’t all that bad. At least there aren't flesh-eating zombies lurking around every darkened corner of the city.

Sorry. I went to see “The Dawn of the Dead” today. And I was so mightily relieved that legions of the undead weren’t waiting to eat my face as soon as I stepped through the movie theater doors, that I sighed to myself “see, it could be worse.”

In retrospect, though, I think it’s a telling sign of how bad the situation actually is when you can find fleeting comfort in the thought “well, at least there aren’t any zombies here.”

The comfort was fleeting, indeed. The simple act of picking up today’s newspaper was enough remind me of Guatemala’s real life horror stories, where the blood isn’t make-believe, and the dead stay dead.

Today's Prensa Libre included:

• An interview with a street performing clown who was shot by thieves who stole his meager day’s earnings.

• A story about Guatemala’s gangs that estimates their numbers at 175,000 youth.

• Threats against progressive congresswoman Nineth Montenegro and her family.

• A report on a 68 year old woman asphyxiated in her home during a robbery.

• Three men shot to death in separate incidents yesterday.

• And the account of police inspectors who, trying to investigate the shooting death of a nine-year old boy, were chased from the neighborhood by heavily armed men in two vehicles, presumably drug dealers.

Yesterday’s March Against Violence took place in the context of a nation that has suffered --this year alone-- over 4,000 violent deaths. Yet the mood of the massive march was defiant, energetic, stirring, uplifting, and inspiring.

What the march lacked in political content, it more than made up in sheer emotion and passion. There was an amazing alphabet soup of participation…

artists & activists
bishops & bureaucrats
clowns & congressmen
deans & drag queens
executives & evangelicals
farmers & families, etc.

… that cut across the divisions of age, class, ethnicity, religion, and ideology.

For this one unprecedented moment, the people of Guatemala were united under one common slogan: “Ya Basta! con tanta violencia” … “Enough Already! with so much violence.”

The march, in the end, wasn't about all of the violent deaths (nor a fictional tale of the undead) but rather a loud and joyous defense of life!

Posted by elcanche at August 14, 2004 09:31 PM