Article: Death Penalty

Inmates in hellish prison find hope, pride in learning

An education program started by inmates in a tough Guatemalan prison imparts a sense of personal worth, even to the students who are on Death Row.

By Catherine Elton
The Miami Herald

ESQUINTLA, Guatemala - When Audelio Díaz graduated from junior high last week at age 43, heavily armed guards stood by -- and a neighbor watched the ceremony through a mirrored window.

Díaz, two fellow graduates and two of their teachers all await execution on Death Row at the maximum security prison in Esquintla.

They prize their achievements in the unusual prison school, started by the inmates themselves. But they also hope the program will add a new dimension to a growing debate on the death penalty in one of the two Latin American countries that still have capital punishment.

"With what little we have here, we are showing society that we have the will and the desire to rehabilitate ourselves," Díaz told The Herald after the graduation ceremony in a stuffy corridor, with armed guards blocking the metal gates on either end.

Cuba and Guatemala are the only countries in Latin America that maintain the death penalty, both in law and practice. A handful of English-speaking Caribbean nations also maintain it. After a televised 1996 execution by firing squad shocked people around the world, Guatemala switched to lethal injections. The events are still televised, however.

No one has been executed since 2000, but there are some 30 inmates on Death Row, all of them men. Regardless of the crime, women cannot be sentenced to death in Guatemala.

Despite a worldwide tendency toward the abolition of capital punishment, Guatemala not only maintains it but took two measures in the 1990s to fortify it. Congress abolished the presidential pardon and added the death sentence for kidnappings, even when the victim is not killed.

PATH TO DEATH ROW

Díaz was one of several members of a notorious band of kidnappers sentenced to die for the well-publicized abduction of a wealthy farm owner's wife who was released unharmed.

Antideath penalty activists maintain that both of these recent measures violate the Inter American Human Rights Convention, which Guatemala ratified. And in addition to invoking basic humanitarian arguments for abolishing capital punishment, they cite some that are particular to the situation in this poor nation, which has just emerged from a decades-long civil war.

"The professional level of the judges is still very weak. The official defense system lacks economic and human resources and is unable to provide people with an adequate defense," said Kristin Svendsen, a Norwegian researcher for a death penalty abolition campaign at a think tank in Guatemala City.

"Loads of people are condemned to death on very weak evidence, which in almost all the cases is entirely testimonial," she told The Herald.

Svendsen added that some of the people on Death Row made confessions under police torture and that some Maya Indians who speak little Spanish were condemned to death in trials conducted entirely in Spanish. One of them, Svendsen says, didn't appear to understand that he'd been sentenced to death even months afterwards.

But opinion polls consistently reveal that capital punishment remains overwhelmingly popular here.

PRO-EXECUTION

''When I leave my house these days, I don't know if I'll make it back home,'' said Mario Castañeda, a 30-year-old bus inspector, in reference to the high murder rate in Guatemala City. "If we don't keep the death penalty, there will only be more violence. We need to be tough on crime."

Others say they support the death penalty because they doubt that the government can guarantee that convicts will stay in prison. In 2001, with the help of corrupt prison guards, 78 inmates escaped from the maximum security prison in Esquintla.

Experts believe that because of popular opinion, Guatemalan lawmakers see legislative initiatives to abolish capital punishment as political suicide.

In 2002, then-President Alfonso Portillo called on Congress to abolish the death penalty, but nothing came of it. Current President Oscar Berger has publicly spoken against capital punishment, but it is unclear whether he plans to act to abolish it.

"It's not the right moment. The crime problem affects many Guatemalans and has many of them quite indignant. To propose abolition now would be hurtful to them," congressman Otto Pérez Molina said.

Death Row inmates studying and teaching in the Esquintla prison -- commonly known here as “El Infierno”, or Hell -- don't expect the death penalty to be abolished any time soon.

The specter of execution, however, is not a deterrent for Fermín Ramírez -- convicted of the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl -- to continue his elementary school studies in prison.

Ramírez, 47, learned to read and write in prison. He says that even if he is executed, his work will be worthwhile.

"It will go down in the books, down in my history, that I did it, that I could do it," he told The Herald. "And that is something that fills me with pride.”

Article: Thousands Protest SOA

By Patrick Mulvaney, The Nation

More than 16,000 people converged on Fort Benning this past weekend to protest the School of the Americas, a US-run training camp for Latin American soldiers. Officially renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001, the SOA was founded by the US Army in Panama in 1946 and moved to its current location at Fort Benning, near Columbus, Georgia, in 1984.

Graduates of the facility return to their countries to utilize their training domestically and are consistently cited for human rights violations throughout Latin America. Its alumni include many notorious human rights abusers, including Manuel Noriega, the former Panamanian dictator, and Roberto D'Aubuisson, the late Salvadoran death squad leader.

The protest marked the fifteenth annual demonstration of its kind, and was the largest ever, a welcome sign that progressives aren't lying down in despair after November 2. "I'm here because there's been no accountability for manuals that were found here," said Laura Slattery, an activist from Oakland, California, referring to SOA instructional material advocating torture that was first revealed in Pentagon documents released in 1996. "And I'm concerned about the fact that we're teaching military skills to soldiers in Latin America," she continued, "and, in turn, they're using those skills to kill the poor, labor union leaders and church leaders."

Indeed, throughout the decades, countless atrocities in Latin America have left trails of blood leading to the SOA. In one of the most widely publicized cases--the midnight massacre of six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter in San Salvador in 1989--a UN Truth Commission implicated twenty-seven soldiers, nineteen of them graduates of the school. And in Peru, Honduras, and throughout the hemisphere, human rights groups have repeatedly linked SOA alumni to heinous crimes. As Linda Aguilare, a student activist whose family members in Guatemala were tortured and killed by the military, said simply: "It's a school of assassins."

Read the complete article

Article: Guatemalan workers

Guatemalan labor disputes fueling violent stand-offs

As lawsuits over wages languish in court, peasants look for a better life in Mexico

By Catherine Elton
Special to The Miami Herald

EL TUMBADOR, Guatemala - As tens of thousands of peasants fled to neighboring Mexico in the 1980s to escape the crossfire of Guatemala's civil war, Roberto Morales stayed on the coffee farm where he'd lived and worked his whole life.

But now, eight years after the government and leftist rebels signed a peace accord, Morales and nearly 200 other workers from six coffee farms in the western province of San Marcos are seeking political asylum in Mexico.

These farm workers, who shocked the nation last month with their announcement, say that farm owners owe them nearly $1 million in wages and severance pay, that their lawsuits languish unresolved in the courts and that they want to leave because they don't believe that their rights are respected here.

''The people are getting desperate. There is law here, but there is no justice,'' Morales told The Herald.

Peasant organizations say labor conflicts such as these are all-too-common in a country steeped in a long history of farm worker exploitation and where tens of thousands of peasants lost their jobs after world coffee prices crashed five years ago. Farm owners say peasant groups exaggerate the extent of abuse in order to pursue their larger anti-capitalism aims.

What's certain is that labor disputes are fueling tense and sometimes violent stand-offs between farm workers and owners. Across Guatemala, peasants have seized dozens of farms, a traditional tactic to pressure owners to resolve labor or boundary disputes.

During the term of former President Alfonso Portillo, police evicted peasants from only four occupied farms. But days after pro-business President Oscar Berger came to power in January, police evicted peasants from a farm they had occupied because of a labor dispute with their former employers, relatives of First Lady Wendy de Berger. The dispute was later settled.

By June, police had evicted peasants from about 30 farms. And Agriculture Chamber President Carlos Enrique Zuñiga told The Herald that the chamber is ``pressuring the government to do more evictions.''

REPORT ON EVICTIONS

A U.N. evaluation of evictions carried out from January to June concluded that of the 50 percent of the cases where investigators could determine the reason for the occupations, most of them were because of labor disputes. Half the evictions were violent, including one in August where three police officers and six peasants were killed.

''It's no big deal here when someone violates labor laws, but it's a huge scandal when someone violates private property laws,'' says Clara Arenas, an anthropologist who specializes in agrarian issues. ``The system forces workers to take over farms, but then everything that happened beforehand, when the peasant was a victim, is ignored.''

For their part, land owners say there's no excuse for violating constitutionally guaranteed private property rights. Activists and lawyers from the Catholic Church's labor program in San Marcos in fact shun land seizures.

''For us, that tactic isn't the right approach because it creates another problem,'' said Carlos Meoño, a Church lawyer who represents the San Marcos peasants seeking asylum in Mexico. ``We have to hit the government where it hurts most, which is making it look bad in the eyes of the international community.''

When the Spanish conquerors arrived here, they found little gold or silver to be mined, but a vast population of indigenous people they used as forced labor. As recently as the early 1940s, a statesponsored system of debt peonage was in place, driven by the government's goal of converting Guatemala into a major coffee-exporting nation.

Farm owners such as Zuñiga maintain that, by and large, labor abuse is a thing of the past.

He says most workers here are treated better than many migrant farm workers in the United States.

Peasant activists admit that the labor code favors workers, but they say it is violated all the time and that employers are rarely punished. Labor Vice Minister Mario Gordillo says his ministry is woefully underfunded and understaffed. And when it does manage to investigate workplace violations and impose sanctions, they have no way to enforce them.

The president of Guatemala's justice system says the biggest problems facing labor suit plaintiffs is the defendants' myriad opportunities to stall cases.

MAIN COMPLAINT

Like the San Marcos cases, involving dismissed coffee farm workers, the bulk of the labor complaints are over failure to pay legally required severance pay, of one month's salary for every year of employment.

''Everyone lost in the coffee crisis, not just workers. Some farm owners lost everything, they went broke and couldn't fulfill their commitments,'' said Zuñiga.

But Morales and the other farmers seeking asylum in Mexico say it's the employers' responsibility to set aside money for severance payments, and it's the state's responsibility to hold them accountable.

That's why they say that if they don't see signs that their cases are advancing by the end of this month, they're heading to Mexico. Until then, their lawyers are busy meeting with Guatemalan officials in hopes that someone gives their clients a reason to stay.

Close the SOA

Together we will create a culture of justice and peace. Together we will shut down the School of the Americas!

On November 20th and 21st, join Susan Sarandon and Martin Sheen; Carlos Mauricio and Neris Gonzales, torture survivors and plaintiffs in the successful lawsuit against Salvadoran generals now living in the US; Betita Martinez, long time Chicana activist and historian; Ruby Sales, prominent civil rights activist and native of Columbus, Georgia; Bob King, vice president of the United Auto Workers; Bishop Gabino Zavala, Bishop President of Pax Christi USA, Kathy Kelly, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and founder of Voices in the Wilderness; Sr. Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking; Rev. Graylan Hagler, National President, Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice, grassroots activists from Mexico and Argentina, labor leaders from Colombia and many more dynamic speakers gathered on stage in front of the main gates of Fort Benning, Georgia.

Join, also, rousing musicians from around the country, including many of the long-time musicians that have been an essential part of our November presence: Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, Charlie King and Karen Brandow, Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow, Francisco Herrera, Jon Fromer, David Rovics, Dave Lippman and Llajtasuyo. Newcomers to the stage this year include Kim and Reggie Harris, Utah Phillips and Chicago-based ska/reggae band Los Vicios de Papá.

Click here for more information, including the complete schedule of events.

Be a peacemaker this November.

Feliz Navidad

Santa Claus came early this year, and dropped the price of a Guatemala-to-NY roundtrip ticket by nearly $100. When I saw the price dip below $500 I was on that ticket like snow on a unshoveled sidewalk.

So the good news is that I’ll be ho-ho-home for the holidays from December 11th until January 9th. Yep, a whole hot chocolate and candy cane month in New York. (You might want to send condolences to my mom and Bob.)

How, you must be wondering, did I convinced Quique to give me a month off from work? That’s easy… I haven’t told him yet! (Come to think of it, posting this to my public homepage might not be the best idea, career-wise.)

No, I have no worries. First of all, my spending a month in the USA is like a 30-day mental vacation for Quique. Just yesterday, for example, he asked me if I needed help with anything, “like, say, packing.”

Secondly, the true mark of a civilized culture is how much importance is given to family and holidays. Our office, like most others in Guatemala, will be closed from mid-December through the first week in January. The few days that I’ll “miss” while in New York, I’ll simply do the long-distance telecommute and work from home.

I guess all that remains to be said is:

Matt and Pete.... I have multiple snowballs with your names written all over them.

Sarah, the little princess, cute as a button.... Ditto.

Little Andy, aka: Moopsie.... Ready, set, GO!

Little Marcello.... Scoot over, Sponge Bob is on.

Article: Minugua Speech

Guatemala City, 15 November 2004

Secretary-General's message to the closing ceremony of the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA)

I deeply regret that I am not able to be present for this important occasion in the history of Guatemala, but I am with you in spirit.

We at the United Nations are proud of our work for peace in Central America. That work had its origins in the historic Guatemalan town of Esquipulas, where the region's leaders resolved to put aside deep differences and came together to bring peace to the isthmus. The United Nations achieved many “firsts” in this region: in multi-dimensional peace-keeping, in the protection of human rights, and in the pioneering work carried out by truth commissions. Here in Guatemala, the United Nations Verification Mission stands as a successful example of UN peace-building, with valuable lessons for operations in other parts of the world.

But most of all, it is Guatemalans who should be proud of what they have accomplished in recent years. The road to peace was not the work of one government or one political party or one group in society. Several administrations did their part, as did a broad spectrum of groups in civil society, as well as the URNG. Their efforts spanned years, and showed great determination throughout. As a result, the people of Guatemala brought an end to an era of terrible violence. They continue to implement a truly national agenda, embodied in the peace accords signed eight years ago. They have made enormous progress in managing the country's problems through dialogue and institutions. And they have cooperated closely with the international community, opening their country to an unprecedented degree of scrutiny and involvement in national affairs. In these ways and more, the peace process has matured so much that the time has come for MINUGUA to depart.

This is not to say that serious problems do not still plague Guatemalan society. Too many people fear for their safety and security. There are wide-ranging social inequalities. Discrimination across ethnic, cultural and linguistic lines remains disturbingly prevalent. And Guatemala has fallen short of its obligations to pay reparations to war victims and to substantially increase tax revenues to pay for much-needed social investments. Still, such challenges can be addressed within the peaceful framework of democracy.

The closure of MINUGUA should not be seen as the end of the peace process, but rather, as the beginning of a new and necessary phase in which national actors assume full responsibility for monitoring and promoting the goals of the peace accords in the future. The UN family will remain engaged, focusing its efforts on the ongoing challenges and goals defined by the peace accords. In addition to the ongoing work of the UN Development Programme and the other funds and programmes, the United Nations has indicated its willingness to continue to accompany Guatemala in its quest to strengthen the rule of law and build strong institutions capable of guaranteeing the human rights of all its citizens. The United Nations and Guatemala have signed agreements providing for the opening of an Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and for the creation of a special body to investigate clandestine groups -- clear signs of the country's commitment to address these challenges.

But henceforth, the major protagonists in this story will be the Guatemalans themselves, as it should be. The Government and other branches of state, political parties, civil society groups and the media all have their respective roles to play. Civil society organizations in particular are increasingly playing a healthy watchdog function, pressing the State to assume its obligations.

MINUGUA could not have helped Guatemala reach this point without the support and the welcome it received from the full spectrum of the country's people. State institutions, the human rights community, victims' organizations, news media, women's and indigenous groups, all around the country, cooperated with a genuine sense of being part of a common mission. The international community, and in particular the six “Friends of Guatemala” – Colombia, Mexico, Norway, Spain, the United States and Venezuela – also provided invaluable support. And of course, the many MINUGUA staff members, international and Guatemalan, gave deeply of their skills and devotion. Let us remember that in 1998, six United Nations staff perished in a helicopter crash, along with the pilot, making the ultimate sacrifice while serving the cause of peace.

MINUGUA may be leaving Guatemala, but the United Nations remains firmly committed to peace and development in Guatemala and the entire region. I very much look forward to continuing this close and evolving partnership.

Article: Minugua donation

UN donates documents on Guatemala's peace process to university library

11 November 2004 – The United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) today donated all documents pertaining to its 10-year efforts to establish peace in the country to the University of San Carlos, located in the capital.

At a ceremony in Guatemala City, the papers were handed over to the institution's new Library of Peace. Also transferred were records of the Historical Clarification Commission which documented the human rights abuses committed in Guatemala during its 36-year war.

In addition, the UN's audiovisual material was given to Guatemala's Channel 33 and the University's film and radio library.

In making the donation, the Mission, which wraps up its work next month, voiced hope that all Guatemalans will be guaranteed full access to this material so that they can better understand their county's recent history and the positive steps taken since the peace accords were signed in 1996.

"It is important to the peace process that these documents can be used by the Guatemalan people," MINUGUA spokeswoman Seda Pumpyanskaya told the UN News Service. "It is also important to MINUGUA's transition in giving over responsibility for the peace process to the Guatemalans themselves."

MINUGUA chose the University of San Carlos, which has a 300-year academic tradition, because of its historic commitment to fight for the rights of the people. Numerous professors, students and administrators at the institution were targeted during the armed conflict.

Article: The Days After

O.K., Folks: Back to Work
By BOB HERBERT
The New York Times

Mr. Bush's victory on Tuesday was not based on his demonstrated competence in office or on a litany of perceived successes. For all the talk about values that we're hearing, the president ran a campaign that appealed above all to voters' fears and prejudices. He didn't say he'd made life better for the average American over the past four years. He didn't say he had transformed the schools, or made college more affordable, or brought jobs to the unemployed or health care to the sick and vulnerable.

He said, essentially, be very afraid. Be frightened of terrorism, and of those dangerous gay marriages, and of those in this pluralistic society who may have thoughts and beliefs and values that differ from your own.

As usual, he turned reality upside down. A quintessential American value is tolerance for ideas other than one's own. Tuesday's election was a dismaying sprint toward intolerance, sparked by a smiling president who is a master at appealing to the baser aspects of our natures.

Which brings me to the Democrats - the ordinary voters, not the politicians - and where they go from here. I have been struck by the extraordinary demoralization, even dark despair, among a lot of voters who desperately wanted John Kerry to defeat Mr. Bush. "We did all we could," one woman told me, "and we still lost."

Here's my advice: You had a couple of days to indulge your depression - now, get over it. The election's been lost but there's still a country to save, and with the current leadership that won't be easy. Crucial matters that have been taken for granted too long - like the Supreme Court and Social Security - are at risk. Caving in to depression and a sense of helplessness should not be an option when the country is speeding toward an abyss.

Roll up your sleeves and do what you can. Talk to your neighbors. Call or write your elected officials. Volunteer to help in political campaigns. Circulate petitions. Attend meetings. Protest. Run for office. Support good candidates who are running for office. Register people to vote. Reach out to the young and the apathetic. Raise money. Stay informed. And vote, vote, vote - every chance you get.

Democracy is a breeze during good times. It's when the storms are raging that citizenship is put to the test. And there's a hell of a wind blowing right now.

E-mail: bobherb@nytimes.com

Read the complete article

Article: After the Wars

Despues de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars

A Riveting Radio Documentary Series in English and in Spanish, to Air on More Than 200 Public Radio Stations

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Despues de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars, a provocative radio documentary series produced both in English and in Spanish will begin airing November 12th on more than 200 Public Radio stations nationwide including WNYC in New York, KQED in San Francisco, WBEZ in Chicago, and WAMU in Washington, DC. Providing the most comprehensive coverage of Central America in many years, the incisive reports can be heard as a 13-part series on Latino USA, and as documentary special programs on many stations throughout the country.

When the peace accords of the 1990s brought an end to the region's bloody civil wars, the world stopped watching Central America. But as the war in Iraq proves once again, it is the aftermath of the battle that presents the greatest challenge to peace and democracy.

The legacy of those wars continues to impact not only Central America, but also the social fabric of the United States, as the Central American population in the U.S. becomes the fastest-growing Hispanic group in the country.

Despues de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars presents an in-depth and up-to-date look at the people of these nearly forgotten lands of our hemisphere, both at home and abroad.

For Despues de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars Executive Producer Maria Martin has achieved a unique international collaboration by assembling a team of public radio's most talented, award-winning reporters to work with the new generation of public radio journalists and their Central American colleagues. Contributing reporters include NPR's John Burnett and Mandalit del Barco, and CNN's Maria Hinojosa.

Despues de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars is produced by GraciasVida Productions, in partnership with NPR's Latino USA, Radio Bilingue, Latinos in Public Radio, Youth Radio's International Desk in association with National Geographic, and Texas Public Radio, and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

For more information, contact Creative PR, 888-233-5650, info@creativepublicity.com, or Producer Maria Martin, mariamartin@afterthewars.org, 512.707.7030 (Texas), 011.502.832.7066 (Guatemala) or visit http://www.creativepublicity.com or http://www.afterthewars.org

US Travel Warning

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman

GUATEMALA

October 29, 2004

This Public Announcement is being issued to remind U.S. citizens of the serious security situation in Guatemala. Although the majority of tourists visit without mishap, violent criminal activity on the highways in Guatemala has increased. Crimes against foreigners have included murder, rape, and armed robbery, increasingly in conjunction with highway banditry. This Public Announcement expires on May 1, 2005.

Although the majority of tourists visit without mishap, violent criminal activity on the highways in Guatemala has increased and tourists, among others, have been targeted. Buses of all categories, tour vans and private vehicles have been stopped, with drivers and passengers robbed, sometimes with violent results. Armed robbers have intercepted vehicles on main roads in broad daylight. Crimes against foreigners have included murder, rape, and armed robbery, increasingly in conjunction with highway banditry. Recent cases of highway banditry have included the rape of women and female minors.

The police force suffers from corruption, inexperience and lack of funds, and the judicial system is weak, overworked, and inefficient. Criminals, armed with an impressive array of weapons, know there is little chance they will be caught and punished. In some cases, assailants have been wearing full or partial police uniforms and have used vehicles that resemble police vehicles, indicating some elements of the police might be involved. In several recent cases, the assault occurred within minutes of the tourists' vehicle being stopped by the police.

Gangs are also a growing concern, both in Guatemala City and in rural Guatemala. Gang members are often well-armed and they sometimes use unprovoked violence. Gang members are believed to be responsible for a substantial increase of frequently violent robberies on inter- and intra-city buses that resemble U.S. school buses; U.S. Mission personnel are not permitted to travel on these buses. Mission personnel continue to observe heightened security precautions in Guatemala City and on the roads outside the capital city.

U.S. citizens are urged to be especially aware of safety and security concerns when traveling in Guatemala. Criminals look for every opportunity, so all travelers should remain constantly vigilant and take appropriate measures to limit risk and losses. Any perception by assailants of resistance by victims may provoke a violent response. The most common highway robberies involve pickup trucks pulling up next to the victims' moving vehicle with occupants brandishing weapons, or isolated roads being blocked and the tourists' vehicle forced to stop. Travel on secondary roads increases the risk of a criminal roadblock; robbers have used mountain roads advantageously to stop buses, vans and cars in a variety of ways.

U.S. citizens who are victims of crime are urged to contact the Consular Section of the Embassy for advice and assistance. U.S. citizens should update their contact information at http://travel.state.gov/travel/abroad_registration.html or at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City. The Embassy is located at Ave. la Reforma 7-01, Zona 10. The Embassy telephone number is (502) 2331-1541, the fax for the office of American Citizen Services is (502) 2332-4353, the Embassy website is http://usembassy.state.gov/guatemala/, and the e-mail address is: AmCitsGuatemala@state.gov.

More information about tourist security is available from the Tourist Protection Office of INGUAT (the Guatemalan Tourist Board) at 7a Avenida 1-17, Zona 4 Centro Cívico, Ciudad de Guatemala. The direct telephone line for tourist assistance is (502) 2-421-2810, the PBX is (502) 2-421-2879, and the fax is (502) 2-421-2891. The e-mail addresses are asistur@inguat.gob.gt or info@inguat.gob.gt. For emergencies, INGUAT may be reached 24 hours, seven days a week at (502) 5202-5389. Tourist groups may request security assistance from INGUAT, Attention: Coordinator of the National Tourist Assistance Program. The request should be submitted by fax, e-mail, or special messenger service and should arrive at INGUAT at least three business days in advance of the proposed travel, giving the itinerary, names of travelers, and model and color of vehicle in which they will be traveling.

Updated information on travel and security for Guatemala may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 within the U.S., or from overseas, 1-317-472-2328. U.S. citizens should consult the Consular Information Sheet for Guatemala, the Worldwide Caution Public Announcement, and the travel publication A Safe Trip Abroad, all of which are available on the State Department's Internet site at http://travel.state.gov.

Article: Travel Warning

Guatemala Alert Issued After Americans Raped, Attacked

[Reuters] The United States issued a serious security warning for Guatemala on Wednesday after a series of attacks on U.S. citizens in the Central American nation, including the rapes of children.

A statement from the U.S. Embassy said there have been three serious assaults on U.S. citizens in 10 days. In two of them minors were raped.

The statement did not come with a recommendation to avoid travel to Guatemala, which is battling a surge of violent crime. Buses and trucks are frequently held up in broad daylight.

In some of the cases, the attackers wore police uniforms and used police-like vehicles to trick their victims into stopping, the embassy said.

It was not clear if the attackers were police, although the embassy statement said police might have been involved in some of the attacks. The embassy declined to give further details.

While the vast majority of victims are Guatemalan, the embassy registers attacks against hundreds of U.S. tourists every year and is concerned that criminal activity is on the increase.

In recent months, high-ranking officers in Guatemala's notoriously corrupt police force have been suspended for alleged involvement in gangs dedicated to kidnapping and assault.

Several members of the office for professional responsibility, whose duty is to monitor police behavior, were recently fired for alleged corruption.

"We are retraining the remaining personnel, so that they work against the bad police," police spokesman Oscar Piveral said.

We’re watching

The U.S. elections are big news in Guatemala. The Bush vs Kerry battle has been front page news here since Sunday. Articles, opinion pieces, editorials, letters, and debates… all focused on tonight’s vote in el Norte.

Kinda funny if you consider that most US citizens couldn’t find Guatemala on a map, much less name the current president. (You, of course, knew that it’s Oscar Berger, right? Right?)

Anyway… there are plenty of reasons for Guatemalans to care about the outcome of the elections. Guatemala’s fate has always been -- for better or worse -- (and yes, sadly, mostly worse) closely tied to that of the USA. Hence the saying here: “when the US sneezes, Guatemala catches a cold.”

The US is Guatemala’s largest trading partner, buying more Guatemalan products than any other nation, and selling more products to Guatemala than any other country. CAFTA, the free trade agreement awaiting the approval of the US Congress will impact the Guatemalan economy in ways that are, frankly, frightening to consider. (As one of my coworkers likes to say “how fair can trade be when it’s between David and Goliath?”)

Then there’s the immigration issue. Guess how much money hard-working Guatemalan immigrants will send back to their families here this year? A million dollars? Ten million? A hundred million? A billion? Nope… this year Guatemalans living abroad are expected to send over 2.5 billion dollars in “remesas” (money transfers) back to their loved ones in Guatemala. Obviously, every threat of mass deportations of immigrants sends chills down Guatemala’s collective spine.

How about tourism? Not counting the “unofficial” income from the remesas, tourism is now Guatemala’s main industry. And although Guatemala attracts tourists from around the world, the number of European visitors pales in comparison to that of visitors from the States. When folks from the states fear to fly, or can’t afford to travel, Guatemala takes a major hit.

Let’s not forget the drug trade. After all, the Colombian cocaine that passes through Guatemala is heading in one direction…. “up” to the States. The drug cartels, the smuggling, the money laundering, the increased crime rates, and the emerging local drug market are all a result of the South feeding the North’s habit.

Even the war in Iraq has touched Guatemala profoundly. Did you know that the first US soldier killed in Iraq was from Guatemala? He was granted US citizenship posthumously. The recent revelations of abuse, humiliation, and torture in the Abu Gharib prison also haunt many Guatemalans, themselves victims of horrific violence at the hands of the military (many of whom were trained in techniques taught at the now infamous “School of the Americas” in Fort Benning, Georgia.)

The list of interdependence goes on and on: youth gangs, labor concerns, transnational corporations, human rights issues, development projects, soaring food and transportation costs due to spiraling gasoline prices, etc, etc, etc.

So, yeah, Guatemala cares what happens tonight in “Gringolandia”.

And perhaps Guatemalans even have an insight into US politics that helps them understand what befuddles the rest of the world…

General Efrián Rios Montt, one of Guatemala’s major political players, is an conservative evangelical who assumed power in the 80s by bypassing the nation’s democratic system. In a effort to defeat the “terrorists” he launched a scorched-earth military campaign that resulted in thousands of innocent deaths. He sought to fight crime by the brutal and pervasive application of capital punishment. His embrace of violence and blatant disregard for human rights made the country a pariah in the world community… outcast, excluded, and condemned internationally. Yet his populist speeches, wrapped in pseudo-Christian terminology, appealed to cheap patriotism and a desire for “la mano dura”, a strong-fisted sense of security.

Sound familiar?

The good news is that when Rios Montt ran for “reelection” (in quotes, because he was never really elected in the first place) in 2003, he was soundly rejected by the Guatemalan voters.

These same Guatemalan voters look to the States tonight with hope and trust that voters there will likewise choose wisely.