Article: Land Conflict

Seven dead in battle over Guatemala ranch

NY Times
Tue 31 August, 2004

CHAMPERICO, Guatemala, Aug. 31 - At least 7 people were killed and 15 wounded Tuesday when riot police officers tried to evict squatters armed with assault weapons from a Guatemalan ranch, according to radio reports and ambulance crews.

Witnesses and radio reports said a battle erupted when about 2,000 police arrived at the Nueva Linda cattle ranch, near Champerico, in southern Guatemala, and were met by a crowd of about 3,000 people, some armed with assault rifles.

"This is like the war of the 1980's," said an ambulance worker, Wilfred Morales. Guatemala's 36-year civil war ended eight years ago.

Four of the dead at the ranch were squatters, Mr. Morales said. Radio reports said three policemen were killed.

Witnesses said about 50 heavily armed soldiers arrived later with government officials. The squatters retreated to trenches, while the police burned huts and property.

"This type of action should stay in the past," said Rigoberta Menchú, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for Guatemala's indigenous peoples and is now a member of the government. "This will need a major follow-up, we need to do a chronology of events and find out why this happened," she said.

Radio reports said soldiers and the police were preparing to evict more squatters from a neighboring farm on Tuesday evening.

The government-appointed human rights ombudsman, Sergio Morales, expressed outrage at the government's decision to use force and called for negotiation. "How is it possible that people want to resolve the problems of this country with bullets?" he asked reporters.

The government blamed the violence on criminals intent on destabilizing the country. "This is a group organized militarily with high caliber weapons," President Oscar Berger told reporters.

The squatters say they occupied the ranch last year to protest the kidnapping of a ranch-hand, allegedly by the owners.

Guatemala has a bloody history of conflict over land.

A United Nations-backed report published in 1999 said more than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during the civil war, most of them Mayan Indians killed in army-led massacres that formed part of a "scorched earth" campaign to root out leftist insurgents.

In recent years, tens of thousands of Guatemalans have occupied farms looking for land to cultivate or hoping to win labor disputes.

Cheap Seats

Today at lunch, my coworkers and I were discussing the big upcoming futbol ("soccer" to you Northern types) match between Costa Rica and Guatemala.

Erwin: Oh! Too bad you won't be able to see the game!

Me: Whattaya mean?

Erwin: The game... it's this Sunday.

Me: Uh-huh.... and?

Erwin: You're not going to be here.

Me: Why not?

Erwin: Um, you'll be in New York.

Me: Sunday?!!? This... Sunday? Right! New York!!! Is it September already?!?!

Erwin: (shaking in his head in a mixture of awe and pity): Soon, Canche, soon.

Yes.... that's how busy I've been. Usually a trip to the US warrants a month-long (at least) countdown with the days dragging by as if they were all first-period Geometry classes. But now I’m a mere five days away from flying home and it hasn’t even begun to sink in yet.

Maybe you could do me a favor? Drop me an email on Friday and remind me that I have to board a plane early the next morning? Perhaps even mention that the plane I board should be bound for New York? I’d appreciate it.

And for those of you who are wondering how I managed to find such an inexpensive flight home… the answer can be found by clicking here!

Success!

We have homepage. Sheesh, that took forever. I guess it’s true that it’s easier to build than destroy… the deleting process to mere minutes; the upload lasted nearly two hours!

What I’ve just realized, though, is that you are getting this story backwards. You’re reading the last journal entry first. Oh, that is SO unfair.

You already know the happy ending without having first passed through the nerve-racking dance on the edge of the abyss!

Why was I so freaked out? Because while I’ve built homepages before (um, you’re reading one them right now), I’ve never had to “pull the plug” on an old site and replace it with a fully functioning new site.

How many of you have ever erased an important file by mistake, and then had to pay dearly with everything from annoying error messages to complete computer meltdowns? Well I just had to erase 1,541 files! Nervous? I was sweating bullets! (And the one thing Guatemala doesn't need is more ammunition.)

There’s still plenty of testing to be done on the site during the next few days. But the good news is… there’s actually a site to be tested!

Nothingness

Incidencia Democratica no longer has a homepage.

And if I’m unable to upload the new page I’ll no longer have a job.

Dear Quique,

I’ve, um, decided to head to the States a few days ahead of schedule for, uh, personal reasons. Not sure exactly when I’ll be back. Er, probably not for a while.

Sincerely,
Rob

PS: Oh, by the way... I erased the hompage. Sorry!

Delete!

Well, this is it… there’s no turning back!

I have finished putting the final touches on the new Incidencia Democratica homepage. Now comes the part that scares the boo-hinkey out of me:

I have to ERASE the previous I-Dem website in order to upload the new version.

And there is no magical “undo” button for that move.

So wish me luck, because here I go…

(Well, first I think I’ll go tinkle. It just seems like a wise move under the circumstances.)

Article: Portillo in Mexico

Former Guatemalan president living, working in city where he was once accused of murder

Mexico City (AP) — Nine months after he disappeared under a cloud of corruption allegations at home, former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo is living and working in the same Mexican city he fled two decades ago to avoid arrest on murder charges, The Associated Press has learned.

Portillo is working for a construction materials distributor, maintaining homes in the Mexico City and in Chilpancingo, 130 miles south of the capital, officials told The Associated Press. The information was believed to be the first disclosure of the former leader's secret life here.

Latin American leaders often flee their countries at the first sign of possible corruption allegations, taking up secret residence in foreign lands and rarely facing prosecution.

Portillo left office on Jan. 14 and fled to Mexico on a tourist visa a month later after he was implicated in an alleged corruption scandal in Guatemala. His whereabouts were unknown until now, although Mexican immigration officials announced this month they had granted him a one-year work visa. Those officials, apparently to shield Portillo, refused to say where he would be working and living.

However, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Francisco Bahena, owner of Materiales Bahena, said he had hired Portillo as a financial adviser because the two were old friends.

The company, located in Chilpancingo, is owned by Construrama, a materials distribution company in turned owned by Cemex, the third-largest cement producer in the world.

Portillo admitted in 1999, while running for president in Guatemala, that he had killed two of his former students while a professor in Chilpancingo in 1982. He said the killings were in self-defense and that he fled the state to avoid a trial. Portillo claimed he could not get a fair trial then. The case has since been closed, and he can no longer be charged in the killings.

However, he could still face charges in Guatemala, which is investigating allegations of corruption and negligence that range from failure to pay rent for a private mansion he occupied while in office, to taking millions of dollars from the army and distributing the cash to other government departments.

No formal charges have been filed in Guatemala, and Mexican officials say they have not received an arrest warrant. Therefore, the officials said, they issued the Mexican work visa.

Mexico and Guatemala have an extradition treaty, but it's too early to say whether Mexico would send Portillo home.

Officials close to the former president told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that he shuttles between a home in southern Mexico City and Chilpancingo. They said he would not be interviewed for this report.

Article: Violence Against Women

Soaring murder rate for women in Guatemala draws worldwide criticism

Sergio De Leon, Associated Press
August 28, 2004

GUATEMALA CITY - Some are victims of gangs, others of domestic abuse. Many are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

More than 300 women have been murdered in Guatemala since January, compared with 250 killed in all of 2003 and 184 in 2002, according to local media and the National Statistical Institute.

U.N representatives visited last year and expressed concern. Women in both Guatemala and Mexico have called on the government to stop the wave of violence.

The murders may appear random, but women's rights advocates also blame laws that are stacked against women, especially victims of domestic violence, and a culture that lacks respect for women.

“The form of expression is rage and hate,” said Andrea Barrios, of Guatemala's Legal Action Center for Human Rights. The women “have been tortured, raped, mistreated.”

Prosecutor Sandra Zayas said many women are killed by people they know, such as spouses or boyfriends they have previously reported to police for abuse.

Women abused by someone they know can get no physical police protection. Women's rights advocates have long demanded a change in the law so that offenders can to be put in jail.

Nearly a third of all female homicides in Guatemala City are related to domestic violence.

Carolina Claveria was fatally shot in January, and left to die in a fast-food restaurant bathroom. Her ex-boyfriend, who had been in trouble for attacking her before, was arrested.

Zayas argues the overall spike in female killings is simply a reflection of the growing violence in Guatemala, where people in small towns often take the law into their own hands and a culture of violence still persists eight years after peace accords ended 36 years of civil war.

One recent victim, 20-year-old Brenda Garcia, was found fatally shot on August 3 in front of the factory where she worked as a secretary. Police have no idea why she was killed.

Officials hope to slow the violence by appointing more prosecutors. Right now, 10 attorneys handle a monthly average of 1,500 cases of crimes against women - from homicide to assault.

Others say penalties must be increased. Rosa Franco, whose 17-year-old daughter was tortured, raped and killed in 2001, refuses to stop fighting for justice.

The killers “should go to jail, for at least 50 years,” she said

And perchance to dream

Well, I made it! The homepage has been tweaked, polished, and brought way up-to-date.

(I even considered trying to get ahead of the game by inventing next week’s news… Congratulations Roger Capron! You’ve been nominated for the Nobel Peace Price. Also: Aliens from another galaxy landed in the US and demanded: “take us to your leader”. Shortly thereafter they begged to be taken as far away as possible from “our leader.”)

Anyway, this weekend I will upload our new site onto the server. The address, if you want to compare the before and after, is www.i-dem.org. Yeah, it’s in Spanish, but you get the idea.

Anyway, I met the deadline and burned the cds… now I’m feeling dead tired and burnt out.

Its only 7:20pm, so I’m wondering just how much longer I have to wait before I can go to bed without feeling silly. I’ll try to hang in there until 8pm because I am, after all, a wild and crazy guy.

Sweet dreams to you all.

Article: Guatemala Drought

Guatemala Drought Threatens Hunger in Rural Areas

By Frank Jack Daniel
Fri 27 August, 2004 22:52

EL MITCH, Guatemala (Reuters) - Thousands of underfed children could face starvation if rains do not bring relief to drought-ravaged regions of Guatemala soon, government officials and aid agencies said on Friday.

Low rainfall in July and August has destroyed corn in at least four departments of the poor Central American country, putting at least 4,000 families at risk of severe food shortages, aid agencies say.

Guatemala has enough food supplies to help the affected areas for the moment but will struggle if the drought continues.

"If it doesn't rain in the next two months we will have a more serious problem," Guillermina Segura, head of the World Food Program in Guatemala, told Reuters on Friday.

A 15-month-old girl died of malnutrition last week on the country's southern coastal plains, the Guatemalan media said.

Elsewhere, the El Progreso department in central Guatemala is traditionally the driest in the country but normally receives heavy rains at this time of year. The rains have been scarce this season, although some weather forecasters predict the drought will end soon.

NO RAIN, NO HARVEST

Several communities like El Mitch, a village of 300 landless families relocated from a nearby valley after Hurricane Mitch hit the area in 1999, are facing food shortages because of the drought.

The people there are laborers on neighboring farms. The drought has ruined crops, leaving them without work or money to buy food.

"We eat only tortillas and beans, and since there has been no rain, there is no harvest, there is no work and the corn is expensive," said Mabel Odeth Caitan, 20, clutching her hollow-cheeked 3-year-old daughter to her hip.

In nearby village El Paso, papaya farmer Julian Hernandez sat in the dusty yard of his wooden hut.

His grandson Alvaro was slumped in a nearby hammock, wailing. At 18 months old he weighs just 7 lbs (3.2 kg) and his discolored skin hung loosely from his bones.

Alvaro's brothers and sisters play barefoot in the dirt beside him, most with clumps missing from their brittle hair -- another sign of malnutrition.

"The situation in this region is very delicate, we all need rain to eat," Hernandez said.

He says he now has food and medicine for the children because of government and business donations after the family was featured on television news.

Nearly half of all Guatemalan children suffer from chronic malnutrition, the highest percentage in mainland Latin America, the United Nations says.

Poverty in many regions worsened when job cuts followed a collapse in world prices for coffee -- Guatemala's main export crop.

Segura, of the World Food Program, said the Quiche department in the north of Guatemala is suffering a "serious malnutrition problem." Peasants have been hit by the collapse of world prices for cardamom, a spice popular in Asia.

In 2002, scenes of babies with swollen bellies brought international attention to the east of the country, and alerted many urban Guatemalans to the desperate poverty of their rural neighbors.

Since then the government of President Oscar Berger has put together a program praised by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO.

However, on a recent visit to the country, FAO chief Jacques Diouf warned that serious rural investment was needed to prevent worsening food shortages.

zzzzzzzzzz

must...

sleep...

now.

The Best Medicine

Because sometimes you just need to laugh...

A sandwich walks into a bar.
The bartender says "Sorry we don't serve food in here."

A jumper cable walks into a bar.
The bartender says "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."

A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

A bear walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a
vodka and ...............................................Tonic.
The bartender says, "Sure but why the big pause?"
The bear says, "I use 'em for catching fish."

Two antennas meet on a roof, fall in love and get
married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception
was wonderful.

Two eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly; but when
they lit a fire in the boat, it sank, proving once
and for all that you can't have your kayak and heat
it too.

Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese.
And there are 5 people in my family, so one of them
must be Chinese. It's either my mom or my dad, or
maybe my older brother, Colin. Or my younger brother
Ho-Cha Chu. But I'm pretty sure it's Colin.

(Thanks to Kim for these laughs!)

A regular Einstein

Have you ever had a really good idea?

And then, right in the middle of a meeting, decided to share that really good idea with everyone?

And, while you were sharing that really good idea with everyone (and everyone's heads were nodding as if to say “my, that is a really good idea”) you suddenly realize that the person most likely to have to work their butt off to make this really good idea happen, is none other than… you?

And then it’s too late. It’s too late. And that voice in your head, the one you should listen to more often than you do, is screaming “shut-up, shut-up… for the love of all things good and decent, shut-UP!” But it’s too late.

The idea is laying there on the table for all to see. In fact, everyone is staring at it… waiting. Waiting for the boss-man to lean back in his chair, and say it.

“So……”

And then you’re screwed. And the worst part is, you did it to yourself!

Well, at our Monday morning meeting it was mentioned that this Friday there would be a gathering of Guatemalan social investigation organizations, which Incidencia Democratica would be attending. Or maybe hosting. I wasn’t really paying that much attention. (It was a Monday morning meeting, I remind you.) Anyway, the question arose of how best to present our work, in particular, the Daily Report.

Someone mentioned something about printing (blah,blah,blah), someone else said something about putting them all on a CD (yadda-yadda) and then, for no apparent reason whatsoever, I said “I have an idea.”

“Why don’t we burn our entire homepage onto CDs and hand those out?” And if that weren’t enough, (and this is where the inner voice started screaming) I added “in fact, we should use the new homepage design and…. and...” Damn.

The problem with the new homepage? It’s not finished. Mostly because it requires tediously reformatting and updating every single one of the old Daily Reports. Guess who’s job that is?

Guess who is in the office at 10:30pm? Guess who is not going home anytime soon.

So, for those of you wonderful souls who have written letters lately and are waiting for replies, I beg your patience. I will soon enough be free of this enormous undertaking and my bed-to-office-to-bed existence.

Unless, of course, I get any more bright ideas.

She a Scorpio?

Ah, reminds me of my house in El Rosario....

Woman Moves in with Scorpions

Kuala Lumpur (Reuters) - Scorpions will be the bedfellows of a 24-year-old Malaysian woman for more than a month, as she tries to set a new world record for living with the venomous animals.

Nur Malena Hassan moved into a glass box with 6,000 scorpions at a shopping mall in Kuantan, about 160 miles east of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, Malaysia's New Sunday Times reported.

Nur Malena showed no sign of fear as she entered the box, the paper reported, and scorpions soon began crawling over her body as she was monitored by medical staff and officials from Guinness World Records.

The current record is held by Kanchana Ketkaew of neighboring Thailand, who was stung nine times while she lived in a glass room with more than 3,000 scorpions for 32 days in 2002, Guinness says in its book of records.

Ketkaew, who took the record from a previous Malaysian holder, said at the time she had built up immunity to scorpion bites over six years performing with the bugs for tourists.

Nur Malena, who may leave the glass box for only 15 minutes a day, was to have started her record attempt several days ago but struggled to find enough scorpions.

N.Y. State of Mind

I just purchased my plane tickets! I’ll be in New York from September 4th through the 19th. I’ve been waiting forever for the peak summer prices to drop, and drop they did. The flight will cost $450 r/t… all taxes and etc included.

So why the trip?

Basically, I need more socks. And books. And my personal stuff, family photos, mementos, etc. I’ve been living out of two suitcases for the past four months.

I think people are beginning to notice that I’ve been wearing the same pair of pants since mid-April. (I don’t even want to describe the uncomfortable scene that ensues every time I have to wash that pair of pants at the laundromat.)

And I miss my family! The great news is that I’ll be home for my nephew Matt’s thirteenth birthday party… yep, just in time to escort the young man into his official teenage punk years.

Strangely enough, in this oh-so-connected world we live in, while in “Nueva York”, I’ll still be able to do my job every morning. Talk about telecommuting, eh? (So if you’re reading this Quique… tranquilo, hombre… the international news section is on its way!)

One final benefit to the timing of the trip is that I’ll be arriving just as the Republicans are fleeing Manhattan. I just hope the noxious cloud of conservatism dissipates before my plane lands; otherwise we might be forced to land in New Jersey, where the air is clearer.

Whum-bump

I woke this morning to the sound of thunder (how far off, I sat and wondered.)

No, not thunder… the sound of my pulse beating in my ears:

Whum-bump, whum-bump, whum-bump.

What I couldn’t explain was:

1. Why was my pulse racing so?

2. Where were the cymbals coming from?

I realized that the answers to my questions lay not in my head, nor in my bed, but once again, outside my window.

There, in Parque Central, in an impressively multicolored and sonorous display, a parade of high-school marching bands. Which, evidently, had already neared its completion.

Now, I ask you… just how tired do you have to be to sleep through marching bands performing outside your window???

A Journal a Day

A journal entry every day?!? Oh, that was a brilliant decision. What the heck was I thinking?

Here’s the deal… I’m ex-PAC-ed out. I’m also Iraq-ed out. And natural disaster-ed out. In fact I’m all news-ed out.

It’s been a long week; I’ve put in 70-75 office hours, easily.

Today, over lunch, I glanced at my co-workers – who were practically dozing in their soup – and said “this is the most wretched collection of Friday faces I’ve even seen!”

(Friday, I might add, is our longest workday… not only do we produce the Daily Report, but we also publish the Week-in-Review.)

Ah, but tomorrow is Saturday! And though I work with Guatemalans in a Guatemalan organization in Guatemala City, in the department of Guatemala, in the country of Guatemala…

Tomorrow I let my inner gringo run free!

It should look something like this:

• Sleep in. (maybe even turn on the alarm clock, just so I can have the pleasure of turning it off!)

• Read Photographic magazine while consuming coffee and a donut at American Donuts.

• Ride bus to the Miraflores Mall in zone 11, where I’ll have a personal pizza at Domino’s and finish reading “The Last Enchantment”, a novel about Merlin and King Arthur.

• Off to the movies to see “King Arthur” (yes, it’s a theme day, I guess). Popcorn mandatory.

• Sip a cappuccino, or two, while studying “Photoshop for Photographers” textbook.

• Bus back to zone 1 for pseudo-italian dinner at Piccadilly’s (cheap and yummy).

• Up to the apartment to watch “Big Fish” dvd on my laptop.

• And then, go to bed.

No wait… I can’t go to sleep yet… I have to write another #$&% journal entry for my homepage!

Ex-PAC, part 2

Well, it happened… Congress ceded to the demands of the ex-PAC, and passed the law approving the payments. As with all things Guatemalan, there’s a lot more to this story than meets the eye. In the next few journal entries, I’ll try to explain some of the “shades of gray” in this decidedly un-black & white issue. This weekend I’ll also post the photos from last week’s protest.

What tomorrow may hold is an interesting question. Is there any group, political or otherwise, that is willing to challenge the constitutionality of this law in the courts, and face the wrath of the ex-PAC?

Guatemalan ex-paramilitaries win compensation
By Frank Jack Daniel

GUATEMALA CITY, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Guatemala on Thursday agreed to pay former paramilitaries hundreds of millions of dollars for wartime activity that rights activists say included massacres, rapes and torture.

The ex-paramilitaries had threatened to block roads and airports if Congress failed to give them $600 each for helping the army crush a rebel uprising in the 1980s.

"We are satisfied that we have overcome this crisis," said Felipe Yaxon, leader of the paramilitary groups organized by the army into civil patrols across much of the countryside.

The paramilitaries say 1.3 million people are due the money. Congress says the number is closer to 700,000.

The $600 offer, first made by former President Alfonso Portillo in 2002, was widely criticized as a strategy to help former dictator Efrain Rios Montt's bid to win the presidency in last year's elections.

President Oscar Berger, who took office in January, promised to honor the deal during his election campaign.

Rios Montt mobilized the paramilitaries in the 1980s to combat insurgents. Men in almost every village were given arms and told to guard their communities from guerrilla activity.

Human rights groups blame them for some of Guatemala's worst war crimes.

In 1999, a U.N-backed report said more than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during the 36-year civil war that ended eight years ago. Most were Mayan Indian civilians killed by the army or civil patrols, it said.

The paramilitaries were unpaid and supposedly volunteers, though many say the army forced them into service.

"We had no choice, either we patrolled for up to 24 hours at a time or the army killed us," said Erasmo Ramirez, 46, from coastal region of Santa Rosa.

The civil patrols were officially disbanded a year before peace agreements signed by the government and leftist guerrillas in 1996.

Article: Racist History

Guatemalans face their racist history in new exhibit
By Frank Jack Daniel

GUATEMALA CITY, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Mayan Indians make up more than half of Guatemala's population but wealthy schoolgirl Maria Jose Soto knows only one -- her maid.

Soto, 17, visited a new exhibition in Guatemala City this week designed to combat racism in this violent Central American country.

Mayan Indians, most of them poor, are 60 percent of the population in this nation of 11 million people, where the white minority holds most of the wealth and political power.

The multimedia show, which opened on Wednesday, uses life-size photos, floor maps and sound to show a history of conquest and domination dating back to the ancient Maya civilizations.

"Let's face it, it's a discriminatory country, with a terrible history of exclusion and inequality," Vice President Eduardo Stein said at an opening ceremony. "Many citizens still believe that ... Indians are an obstacle that have stopped Guatemala progressing."

Racism is part of daily life for many Mayans, especially women, whose vivid hand-woven clothes make them easily visible both in cities and remote highland villages.

When Maria Tuyuc tried to enter an exclusive disco wearing traditional dress last month, she was refused entry by bouncers who allegedly told her "this place is not for servants."

Her sister was Guatemala's first Mayan woman legislator. In a video at the exhibition, Rosalina Tuyuc says that security guards often tried to stop her entering Congress.

Soto liked a video that juxtaposes images of wealthy joggers and a poor man struggling under a heavy load strapped to his head, but she doubted it would change attitudes much.

"We already know most of what we saw, but we do nothing to change it," she said.

But the decision by her exclusive school, Colegio Internacional, to take pupils to the show was a step in the right direction, organizers said.

"DEEP AND SERIOUS RACISM"

"We want to give people the elements to understand the way they feel about themselves and other people, before changing their ideas," said exhibition director Tani Adams.

"One visitor had tears in his eyes ... at the prospect of seeing things that have never been said out loud," Adams said.

Five years in the making, the project explores what U.N. rapporteur Doudou Diene called "deep and serious racism" during a recent visit to the Central American country.

The racism against Guatemala's Indian majority is more than just daily indignities and poverty.

During Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996, 200,000 people were killed or forcibly disappeared. The vast majority were Mayan civilians killed by the army, a U.N-backed truth report concluded in 1999.

Exhibition co-organizer Elaine Gurian is former deputy director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and has worked on ethnic reconciliation projects in Australia and New Zealand.

"The Holocaust museum opened 60 years after the Holocaust. The unique thing in Guatemala is how close to the destruction they are willing to have this conversation," she said.

The Undead of India

Well, that is definitely the first time that a major tragedy has made me laugh.

This morning, just outside of Calcutta, two trains collided, killing at least 38 people and injuring 55 others.

Ha, ha, ha!

(No wait, that’s not the funny part.)

I placed the news story right near the top of the international news section of the Daily Report, and sent it off to Quique, the director of Incidencia Democrática, for final editing.

As I am such a responsible worker (ahem, ahem), even after finishing my section I continue to review the international news websites up until the very moment that we hit the “send” button and email the report to thousands of our subscribers.

Usually any last-minute, “stop the presses”-type changes are of a depressing nature. “Quique, Charley has just been upgraded to a class 4 hurricane”, or “Quique, the estimated dead in the supermarket fire is now up to 400 people”, and so forth.

This morning, however, I burst out laughing!

“Quique, has the report gone out yet? No? Thank goodness! Erase the India story!”

Quique gave me that look that he always gives me when he thinks I’ve lost my mind (it’s a look I know well.)

“It was a simulation!”

While reviewing the breaking news, I saw that the India Railroad Company was frantically announcing that they had been testing a new disaster preparation program, when a fake news bulletin was reported by a Railroad spokesperson (who evidently had missed a meeting) as being true!

So, no train crash. No deaths. And no injuries… well, except maybe for a certain spokesperson’s bruised ego.

The New Poverty

(from “The Soul and the Operator”)
By John Berger

The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied…but written off as trash.

The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.

Border Crossings

And on the lighter side of the news…

In 1992, after many years of dispute, the International Court of Justice in the Hague ruled on the definitive border between El Salvador and Honduras. As a result, a bi-national Border Survey Team was created to mark off the border, and post signs.

The team, which evidently has taken its own sweet time in completing its mission, recently discovered a most unusual situation.

In an area called “El Pepeto” they encountered a humble house that rests exactly on the border between the two countries. So, every day, the occupants eat in Honduras and sleep in El Salvador!

According to a Survey Team member, the family “understands that the border passes through their home” and that “they’re ok with that.”

I, however, wonder if they’ll soon grow tired of having to show their passport every time they need to use the bathroom!

The Sounds of Sirens

I woke up this morning to the sounds of sirens.

A scary symphony of sirens… wailing, whining, warning.

I jumped out of bed (ok, ok… reluctantly crawled out of bed) and anxiously made my way to the window. There, 16 floors below, were fire engines, ambulances, and rescue units as far as the eye could see.

“Hmm,” I thought “this can’t be good.”

My mind raced to find an explanation… was the building on fire? Had I slept through an earthquake? Had, perhaps, the zombies come after all?

I watched as the Sunday crowds in Central Park came running up to the edge of the road and… waved. Waved at the passing fire engines. Waved at the parade of passing fire engines.

“OK, then,” I nodded, and went back to bed.

And slept until the bombs went off.

No, not that kind of bomb. Not the “another martyr for Allah” kinda bomb. These are the “big ol’ fireworks” kinda bombs. Launched from a metal tube set on the ground, they shoot up approximately … oh, let’s say roughly…16 floors high, where they explode with a massive, reverberating, gringo-awakening blast.

Once again, I headed to the window. This time the streets were lined with women dressed in religious apparel. “Fire-fighting nuns?” I wondered as my sleepy brain tried to catch up with my eyes.

And then I saw about fifty women carrying a wooden processional float decorated with flowers and a statue, and remembered that today is the celebration of Our Lady of the Assumption, the patron saint of Guatemala City.

As the firecrackers crackled and the marching band played, I realized that living next to Parque Central isn’t terribly conducive to sleeping-in… especially on the weekends!

Mumbling something about “if you can’t beat them” I showered, dressed and descended to the people-packed park. It was definitely a festive atmosphere. I too became swept up in the excitement when I realized that, along with all the other concurrent celebrations, there was a Book Fair!

Much to my shock, amazement, and delight I found a vendor that was selling “like new” hardcover books in English!!!! I picked up six (including titles by Ann Patchett, Robert B. Parker, Anne Rice, and Dean Koontz) for $25. A major find, given that I’ve already read all the paperbacks I brought with me four months ago!

So, yes, living in the city’s center can sometimes be rough on sleep… but it also has its advantages!

You’ll have to excuse me now, I have some reading to do!

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!

Boo to the Bad Guys

Well today is the day of the massive March Against Violence. Over 500 organizations and tens of thousands of people are expected to participate. Strangely enough, it has been declared an entirely apolitical event, meaning that you’re allowed to carry banners and shout slogans against violence, but not to criticize or designate blame.

Which is weird. I mean, after all, who is in FAVOR of violence? What is the purpose of the march then, what are its goals? If the government itself is going to participate (the vice president will be marching in the president’s absence) who exactly is the message directed at? The “bad guys” perhaps?

It sounds not unlike those purposely vague policies of the US government… the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, the War on Terrorism.

What you never seem to hear about are plans, programs, and policies that address the root causes of the problems. Why do people use drugs? How do we create a more just economic system that meets the needs of all people? What actions have lead to the current situation of anger, contempt, and even hatred directed at the US?

Today’s march begs the questions:

• Who is behind the violence?
• Is organized crime involved?
• Is drug addiction part of the problem?
• Why are so many youth attracted to gangs?
• What government programs address these issues?
• To what extent are unemployment and poverty factors?
• Why are the police & justice system incapable of stemming the violence?
• Etc.

Anyway… I’m about to hit the streets. I’ll give you the full scoop tomorrow!

A breather

Today was a quiet day in Guatemala City. Yesterday’s tensions seemed to fade in the early morning heat, and the city seemed determined to catch its breath before bracing for tomorrow’s massive March Against Violence.

The march could possibly be one of the largest in Guatemala’s history. As the horrific indices of crime and violence affect us all, the march will include a stunning spectrum of organizations: churches, labor unions, campesino and indigenous organizations, women’s groups, universities, human rights defenders, and many others.... including one camera-carrying Canche.

As for the ex PAC, they left town last night with the threat of “paralyzing the country” on Monday if the payment isn’t approved by Congress before then. As tomorrow is already Friday… one might imagine that the beginning of next week could be quite interesting indeed!

Eye of the Hurricane

Well, today turned out to be anything but virtual. It was very, very real indeed!

Today I found myself standing in the middle of 6,000 angry ex-paramilitaries.

They were members of the former Civil Defense Patrols (PACs, in Spanish), created by the Guatemalan army to extend its lethal reach to even the most remote of rural communities. The PACs were comprised mostly of peasant farmers, forced by the military to abandon thier fields and instead seek out guerrillas and their supporters. Patrollers were also often forced to participate in property destruction, rapes, massacres, and extrajudicial executions.

In many cases PAC members committed serious human rights violations with or without the direct supervision of the army. The PACs were officially dissolved in 1996, shortly before the signing of the final peace accords.

Roughly 2 years ago, though, the ex-PACs suddenly resurfaced, demanding to be compensated for “services rendered to the country.” They asked for a payment of Q5,000 ($640) each. This may not seem like much… until you realize that there are between 500,000 and 1 million ex-patrollers!

Alfonso Portillo, the previous president, succumbed to their demands in a shameless effort to win their votes. He proposed dividing the total into three payments, of which only the first ($215) was to be paid during his administration.

The current president, Oscar Berger, inherited from Portillo not only the commitment to pay the remaining ex-PAC debt (estimated at 340 million dollars), but a government completely bankrupt from corruption.

So, today…

While Congress debated the “if, when, and how much” of the payments, ex-PAC from around the country gathered in front of the Congress building, stating that they were “ready to die if necessary” to achieve their goals.

I, of course, had to go and take photographs. I carefully squeezed my way through the tightly-packed crowd (experiencing flashbacks to Times Square on New Year’s Eve). Eventually I worked my way to the very center of the gathering, where a pickup with enormous speakers was broadcasting the latest news. I was graciously given permission to “climb aboard” and take photos of the waves of faces swirling around me.

As I lifted my camera, one of the leaders shouted into the microphone “hats in the air for the photographer”, and I suddenly felt thousands of eyes directed right at me. (yeah, gulp!) But then the hats were lifted, along with shouts and whoops. The photographs, I pray, should be remarkable! (I’ll download them tomorrow when I have a bit more strength left.)

After an interminable wait, retired General and current congressman Otto Perez Molina came out to address the 'troops'. Seeking a decent vantage point, he climbed up onto the pickup truck and stood right next to me.

He stated that the payment would be indeed be approved, and wished everyone a safe trip back to their homes. The crowd erupted with wild cheers, thunderous applause, and exploding firecrackers!

The multitude then dispersed for a new gathering in front of the Presidential offices. I meanwhile, out of memory and out of energy, decided to return to my own office.

Shortly after, I heard on the radio that the motion wasn’t actually approved by Congress. Evidently the other representatives became angry that Perez Molina had decided to unilaterally announce the passage of the bill, and decided to postpone the final debate for tomorrow. According to the press, members of Congress “fled” the building as soon as they realized the ex-PAC had moved on.

Now we wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Web Head

I’ve been spending so much time in the virtual world that I’m thinking of applying for residency there.

This homepage business can be fairly time-consuming. The whole idea of having my own site is to better communicate with my friends and family, right? But it’s like having to build the telephone before I can make the phone call!

Worse yet, I was cornered on Saturday by Quique and his daughter Lisa, a graphic designer living in Mexico City who redesigned the Incidencia Democratica homepage. They both wanted to know when I was going to make the new site public. (In fact, they were so absolutely devious together, that I’ve begun to suspect that the whole “mother celebrating her 75th birthday” was just a scam to get me to fall into their web-trap.)

So I’m now trying to update two sites at once... the result being that I may never see the light of day again!

Maybe I should download a picture of the sun and use it as a screensaver.

In Morning

Since returning to Guatemala to volunteer at Incidencia Democratica, I’ve had to arrive quite early at the office, day after day, to edit the international section of the Daily Report. What I’ve discovered is that, little by little, I’m becoming a morning person.

Ha ha! Just kidding. At five o’clock in the morning, any morning, every morning, I’d rather be under my bed’s toasty sheets than on the city’s chilly streets. My snooze button has been so constantly slapped, whacked, and smacked that it runs the risk of disappearing completely within the innards of my alarm clock.

It’s all the harder to get out of bed knowing that I will all-too-soon be face-to-screen with all the latest and most horrific news that the international scene has to offer. In a world where robots have gone mad (no, wait… that was a movie I saw yesterday.)

In a world where humans have gone mad, there’s very little inspiration to be drawn from the front page of the world’s newspapers. It too often seems as if our collective resources, intelligence, and creativity are channeled into the single-minded endeavor of finding ever more effective ways to harm one another. And then to justify it.

So where is the good news? Where is the inspiration? What makes life worth getting out of bed for, morning after morning after morning?

No answers today, just these questions.

I, Doubt it

I just saw the sci-fi film “I, Robot”.

Here in Guatemala, though, the film seems far more “fi” than “sci”.

It’s hard for me to imagine robots taking over the world, when I can’t even find an ATM that works.

I'm partied out

Today I went to a friend’s birthday party. The activities started at 10 am and didn’t finish until nearly midnight. In between there was food, drink, and music galore. The birthday girl was definitely the center of attention, dancing with everyone, telling hilarious stories, and even hosting the post-party party at her house.

All the more remarkable when you consider that she was celebrating her seventy-fifth birthday!

Elisa, the mother of my coworker Quique, and matron of the Alvarez family, received a day-long “Feliz Cumpleaños” from her friends and family today. It started with a Mass in her honor, including a special blessing from the priest. From the church we went en masse (pardon the pun) to a banquet hall, where the birthday gal was received with applause and the music of a six-man marimba band.

She proceeded to dance the day away, putting the slightly younger of us to shame. We then ate a delicious catered lunch, and the dancing continued to the salsa and disco beats of a local dj. Finally, after an eternal wait (ok, so it seemed to me) they brought out a colossal white birthday cake, which was absolutely delicious… despite its sheer lack of chocolateness.

Around 6pm, the marimba was wheeled out of the hall as everyone said good-bye with hugs and kisses. This being Guatemala, however, I knew that the party was far from over. Members of the immediate family (like 40 of ‘em) were invited back to Elisa’s house for Party, Part 2.

Evidently I’ve been adopted into the Alvarez clan, because not going to the house wasn’t even an option. Which was just fine by me!

One of the things I love most about Guatemala is the way family members and friends constantly tease each other. The attacks are relentless, biting, and funnier than hell. Sarcasm is king and Wit is queen. (Needless to say, I fit right in.)

At the very same time, though, signs of affection are abundant. Hands are held, arms embrace, and kisses flow fast and frequent. In fact, the fondness that Elisa was shown by her family was as close to “smothered by love” as I think I’ve ever seen. So the joking and jesting —which had me near tears, I was laughing so hard— is wrapped in this wonderful envelope of warmth and love.

Looking at her face, radiant with pride and joy, I knew (despite the tremendous pile of presents that awaited unwrapping in the next room) that Elisa had already received all she had hoped for on her 75th birthday.

Hazy Daze & Nights

A sticky-hot day here in Guatemala City. Which often happens on the days it doesn’t rain during the rainy season. The sky hangs low, and it feels as if you’re walking through clouds of heat. Add to that a Friday afternoon, and everyone’s energy levels are hovering around their ankles. A city of Spanish-speaking zombies, waiting for the weekend.

The evening, though, is different. Beautiful. The haze that drapes the night city sky swallows up and glows with the golden light of the streetlamps. Everything is bathed in a silky, warm light that softens the sharp edges of the city. For a moment the sensation is one of floating, flowing… a summer stream of people. For a moment life one can forget about life on the machete’s edge and can dream peaceful dreams.

The Truth Will Out

Bush Misspeak Cites U.S. Readiness to Harm U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush told a roomful of top Pentagon brass on Thursday that his administration would never stop looking for ways to harm the United States.

The latest installment of misspeak from a president long known for his malapropisms came during a signing ceremony for a new $417 billion defense appropriations bill that includes $25 billion in emergency funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we," Bush said.

(Have fun with this Freudian field day, folks!)

Henri Cartier-Bresson

"In whatever one does, there must be a relationship between the eye and the heart. One must come to one's subject in a pure spirit. One must be strict with oneself. There must be time for contemplation, for reflection about the world and the people about one. If one photographs people, it is their inner look that must be revealed."

Henri Cartier-Bresson, a remarkable photographer who died this week at 95 years of age.

[ Visit the Magnum Photos site for more info! ]

New Beginning

So, um…. hi.

Yes, I’m still in Guatemala, although you’d never know it by the screaming absence of recent journal entries.

I have been a bit busy lately. I’ve given a current events analysis to a visiting delegation, created a kick-butt power point presentation for a coworker’s workshop on security issues for United Nations volunteers, translated a meeting for a Canadian labor activist conducting interviews with local labor leaders, edited two cds of photographs for popular movement organizations, and assisted a local congressman with research for a book project on the origins of Guatemala’s civil war.

Oh, yeah… and then there’s work!

Add in: cleaning house, washing laundry, paying bills (which in Guatemala means standing in long lines), food shopping, studying, reading, and drinking cappuccinos… well, the time does fly by. And the poor abandoned homepage gathers virtual dust.

Today’s quote got me thinking, though:

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” Jim Ryun

Since my motivation has always been there, I realize what I’ve been lacking is the habit. So I’ve decided to make a bold (and admittedly terrifying) proposal: I will try to write a journal entry every single day.

(Those of you who were drinking coffee, or such, while reading the previous line might want to take this opportunity to wipe off the computer screen that you no doubt just sprayed. I’ll wait.)

I can’t promise quality, but I’ll try for quantity… after all, it’s the American way! So, I’ll “see” you tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after…