Human Rights Report

The US State Department has just released their "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004", covering 196 countries. Considering the source, I found the Guatemalan report to be a surprisingly unbiased and extremely detailed review of the current human rights situation here.

The comprehensive summary covers assassinations, disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests, corruption, military embezzlement, threats, violence against women, labor violations, child prostitution, racism, and other human rights violations.

Over the next few days I will try to break the Report into more accessible pieces, as the full report can be daunting... as well as depressing.

For those of you who wish to read the complete document, the address is:

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41762.htm

Article: Gold conflict continues

Gold project meets opposition in Guatemala

By Frank Jack Daniel

SIPACAPA, Guatemala, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. gold and silver miner's project is at the center of a conflict between the Maya Indians' traditional values and an impoverished country's need to attract foreign investment.

The future of Glamis Gold's half-built Marlin mine may provide some indication of whether Guatemala can become a mining nation while giving Mayan peasants a sense of autonomy, something they have lacked since the Spanish conquest.

Many of the Mayans see the mine in the civil war-scarred highlands as a symbol of foreign intervention and a threat to the environment and their agrarian way of life. But Glamis Vice President Steve Baumann says the project will create wealth in a neglected part of one of the hemisphere's poorest countries.

The Reno, Nevada-based company is looking to Marlin as a way to grow after a failed hostile takeover bid for Goldcorp Inc., a fellow midsize producer.

Glamis expects the mine to produce 217,000 ounces of gold and 3.33 million ounces of silver annually over 10 years -- if it can weather the criticism and protests directed against it.

"Over the life of the project, we will pay about $60 million in total taxes, including money that goes to the communities in the form of a royalty," said Baumann, watching local Maya Indians direct site-traffic below.

The $250 million project in the highland San Marcos province has encountered vehement opposition. Led by the Catholic Church, critics say Glamis is no different from gold-hungry Spanish conquistadors who invaded Guatemala more than 500 years ago.

Opponents say the mine will cause environmental and social damage and leave very little in return.

At an anti-mine march organized by the Catholic Church, thousands of Mayan villagers shouted the slogan, "Bread today, hunger tomorrow," protesting what they perceive as Glamis' short-term promises.

"It's another exploitation in an evolution that began 500 years ago, when the Spanish came to look for gold," said Roberto Magari, from the Catholic Church in Sipacapa.

San Marcos Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini, under government protection since authorities discovered a plot to kill him in the midst of anti-mine protests, called for the mine to share its profits with Guatemala.

The nation will charge Glamis 1 percent of the value of metals extracted from its soil, plus taxes, but that may not be enough for some farmers.

"We don't want gold; what we want is to defend our way of life and our water," said Timoteo Tujil during a moment in the cool, quiet courtyard of Sipacapa's colonial rectory, a gathering-place for local anti-mine activists.

The peasant farmer is worried that the mine will suck up or contaminate the region's sparse water supply, affecting his ability to make a living.

VIOLENCE

The villages scattered across jutting peaks and valleys in Guatemala's highlands are fertile ground for opposition to government initiatives.

In 1996, Guatemala emerged from a 36-year civil war fought mainly in these highlands as leftist insurgents tried to convince poor Indians to challenge army rule.

Brutal "scorched-earth" anti-insurgency tactics by the U.S.-backed army left about 200,000 dead or missing, mostly Mayans, according to a 1999 report by a Guatemalan truth commission supported by the United Nations.

Scars left by the war run deep, and mistrust of outsiders is so widespread that only recently have a few foreign companies considered investing in the region.

Construction began last year on Glamis' Marlin project, which soon attracted trouble.

Last month, tensions exploded and a villager was shot dead as police and soldiers helped escort equipment through road blockades set up by Mayan peasant highlanders.

Glamis Vice President Baumann and the government say the violence was the work of a few agitators dedicated to misinforming the population. Others see the conflict as a reaction to development projects imposed from above, with insufficient grass-roots support.

'TEMPORARY POSTPONEMENT'

Glamis appears to be working to counter the stereotype of foreign plunderer, paying for community school teachers, setting up a community trust fund and employing locals -- about 800 at the moment - to help run operations.

The company is also building new roads and putting in new power lines to some of the remote villages and hamlets that will supply labor for the mine.

The company's efforts have won the backing of the World Bank, which issued a $45 million loan to help develop the project, but have not convinced local activists.

"Why doesn't the World Bank spend $45 million on irrigation and education projects so people here can farm commercially?" asked Magari, adding that villagers were not properly consulted about the mine.

Guatemala Vice President Eduardo Stein said the government would honor its commitments to Glamis, even if it means using force to protect the mine and its workers.

However, no new extraction licenses will be issued for now, he said, and a commission is looking at ways to reform mining law and propose how best to consult indigenous communities.

"We might be facing a temporary postponement of the development of the mining industry in Guatemala that could last not months, but a few years," Stein said.

Article: Gangs in U.S.

FBI cracks down on gangs of El Salvador
By Andrew Buncombe, The Independent
26 February 2005

The FBI has established a special task force to counter the growing menace of an El Salvador-based street gang whose members have spread throughout parts of the US. The move comes as President George Bush has set aside $150m and appointed his wife to head an initiative to keep teenage boys from becoming gang members.

The task force was set up to tackle Mara Salvatrucha, commonly referred to as MS-13, whose members have been responsible for more than three dozen killings in the past two years. Its existence was revealed during a conference this week in San Salvador to discuss gang violence.

The task force senior official, FBI veteran Robert Clifford, has said there was no evidence to support rumours that MS-13 was linked to al-Qa'ida and was conspiring to bring terrorists into the US through Mexico.

MS-13 is one of several Latin American gangs that have spread to US cities. However, MS-13 is believed to be the only one that retains close links with the country from where its members originated.

Experts say the gang's expansion has accelerated in the past two years, during which time there have been 18 MS-13-related killings in North Carolina, 11 in northern Virginia and eight in Los Angeles. The National Drug Intelligence Centre, an arm of the US Justice Department, estimates there are between 8,000 and 10,000 members of MS-13 in 31 states and about 50,000 internationally.

The gang sprang up in California in the late 1980s, when Salvadoran refugees who fled the violent civil war formed protection groups against existing gangs in their neighbourhoods. The gangs flourished after members from the US were deported to their own countries and they now control everything from drug trafficking to public bus routes.

In Guatemala, police recently took over several bus routes after 100 drivers walked off the job in protest at the protection money demanded by gangs. In Mexico gangs have taken control of some of the migrant smuggling routes.The interest of law enforcement in these gangs has increased after several prominent Latin American politicians claimed they were linked to al-Qa'ida.

The gangs have been responsible for a series of high-profile crimes such as the murder of a pregnant woman, herself a former gang member living under a witness protection scheme, in the supposedly serene Shenandoah Valley, west of Washington DC.

John Moore, director of the federally-funded National Youth Gang Centre told The Independent: "Occasionally gang members show up in different cities but in the case of MS-13 they seem to have emerged all over the east coast."

Article: Drug invasion

Drug traffickers invade Mayan city in Guatemala

By Frank Jack Daniel

GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Heavily armed drug traffickers have invaded an ancient Mayan city in Guatemala, setting up camp amid pyramids and threatening academic research, archeologists said on Friday.

The Piedras Negras site, in a pristine jungle reserve in the northern department of El Peten, is considered one of the most important cities in the ancient Maya world.

But archeologist Stephen Houston, from Brown University in Rhode Island, said dangerous drug traffickers had now made Piedras Negras their own.

"Narcos are operating along the Usumacinta River valley. Some of them have basically encamped at Piedras Negras itself, which is kind of horrifying," said Houston, who has worked at the site since the 1990s and is in contact with park rangers.

The city, dotted with pyramids, ball courts and a palace, was populated for around 900 years, starting in the 7th century B.C. Located in the Sierra del Lacandon national park, the city is famous for its numerous carved stones, or stelae, key to deciphering Mayan hieroglyphics.

Guatemalan archeologists confirmed the presence of drug smugglers at the site.

Security sources said the traffickers, believed to be linked to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and heavily armed, want to cut landing strips in Sierra del Lacandon to open a new trafficking route from South America.

The remote city is rarely visited by tourists.

ARCHEOLOGICAL 'SUPERSTAR'

Houston, who described Piedras Negras as one of the "superstars of Mayan archeology," said the invasion threatened archeological and nature management work.

"These people, these drug dealers, they want any kind of responsible management of that area out of the way," he said.

No archeology projects are planned in the city this year, but Houston said future research could be jeopardized.

"By becoming a very dangerous zone in which to work clearly people are not going to want to go back there," he said.

Traffickers pay off security forces and move hundreds of tons of cocaine and heroin through Guatemala every year.

Like the neighboring Laguna del Tigre national park, also largely under trafficker control, Sierra del Lacandon lies close to Mexico, giving the traffickers an easy escape route from police.

Guillermo Gonzalez, head of Guatemala's drugs police, said, "It is very hard to enter the area by land, and every time we chase the narcos they flee across the border."

As well as drugs, criminal bands in the unruly El Peten region smuggle people, tropical hardwoods, wildlife and Mayan artifacts.

Gonzalez said the police and army were working with the U.S. Drugs Enforcement Administration to break up the gangs.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala said it was aware of drug traffickers operating at the archeological site and was monitoring the situation.

Article: Looking for Lucas

Ex-Guatemalan ruler sought by Spanish court

Madrid, Feb 21 (Reuters) - A Spanish court has asked Venezuela to extradite a dying former Guatemalan military ruler who is wanted in Spain over a deadly siege against the Spanish embassy, a court source said on Monday.

Romeo Lucas Garcia, suffering from Alzheimer's disease in Venezuela, was president in 1980 when Guatemalan forces stormed the Spanish embassy in search of leftist insurgents.

Thirty-seven people died in the assault. Three survived.

Spanish High Court Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska issued the extradition request last week. Court officials have yet to hear from Venezuela, said the source, who knows the case but asked not to be named because he is not authorized to talk about it.

Around 10 others are charged in the case including Guatemala's former interior minister Donaldo Alvarez Ruiz, who has been sought for extradition from Mexico.

The Spanish High Court originally took up the case as an investigation into genocide resulting from a complaint lodged by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, whose father died in the embassy siege.

The Supreme Court then said the High Court had no right to investigate genocide but has allowed part of the case to go ahead because Spanish victims were involved.

Guatemalan security forces attacked the embassy on Jan. 31, 1980, in search of suspected leftist insurgents after a group of Mayan Indians had taken refuge inside.

The attack was part of a scorched-earth counter-insurgency carried out by a series of military regimes for decades until civilian rule in the Central American country was re-established in 1986.

A Guatemalan truth commission blamed the military for more than 90 percent of all murders, disappearances and other human rights abuses during the war, which ended in 1996.

An estimated 200,000 people were killed or disappeared in the conflict.

"Dirty Hands" returns

One thing I'll say for Bush is that he's dependable. You can absolutely count on him, in any given situation, to make the absolutely worst choice possible. It's like a gift, albeit an evil one.

If you can stomach it.... here's the story:

Negroponte draws criticism south of border

By Lisa J. Adams, AP

Central American politicians and human rights activists issued stinging criticism Thursday of John Negroponte, nominated to become America's first intelligence director, citing the career diplomat's active backing for the Contra rebels and support for a government involved in human rights abuses.

John Negroponte, now U.S. ambassador to Iraq, served as ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, a time of intense conflict in Central America in which the United States played a central role.

Negroponte assisted the U.S.-backed Contra rebels in their attempt to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government. In the process, activists claim, he ignored human rights abuses by the Contras and their Honduran hosts.

The effort to oust Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government produced a huge scandal in the United States when it was learned the United States secretly sold arms to Iran and used the money to fund the Contra operation.

"What an outrage!" said Bertha Oliva, the coordinator of the Committee for Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras, an independent group representing civilians believed to have vanished while in government custody. "The United States has invented a position to reward someone who was a dangerous person."

In Nicaragua, Tomas Borge, former interior minister for the Sandinista regime and a current leader of the Sandinista opposition party, said Negroponte "is the most efficient and ideal representative for the Bush administration's primitive international security policy."

"He is faithful to Bush's excessive and ultra-right policy in Iraq and other parts of the world," he said.

The new U.S. intelligence chief has denied accusations that his reports to Washington dramatically underplayed human rights problems in Honduras.

During 2001 confirmation hearings for his U.N. ambassadorship - an appointment that was delayed for six months because of the controversy over his tenure in Honduras - Negroponte testified that he did not believe death squads were operating in Honduras.

However, a 1993 Honduran government human rights report said 184 suspected leftists had disappeared in government custody, many of them at the hands of a U.S. trained Honduran army battalion.

"It was obvious that he knew what was happening," said Leo Valladeres, a law professor in Honduras who wrote the report. "They used outlaw methods to kill ... and it is absolutely impossible to believe that a diplomatic mission such as that of the United States was unaware of the situation faced by Honduras and Central America."

In neighboring Guatemala, a U.S.-supported government that was engaged in battle with left-wing rebels trained paramilitary squads that were found later to have committed large-scale civilian massacres.

In El Salvador, U.S.-trained army squads hunted down leftist rebels in offensives fraught with human rights abuses.

Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archives in Washington, said declassified documents on the Iran-Contra scandal also showed that Negroponte was involved in seeking more guns for the Contras - "the role that normally would be reserved for the (CIA) station chief."

Kornbluh also said the documents he cited showed that Negroponte helped clear the way for a secret agreement under which the United States would provide more CIA money to Honduran army generals and additional military and economic aid to the country. In exchange, he said, Honduras agreed to allow the Contras to continue operating on Honduran soil.

-----

Reporters Freddy Cuevas and Filadelfo Aleman contributed to this story from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Managua, Nicaragua.

Tainted Maize

Let them eat corn, eh?

Yummy. Want some tortillas, my friend?

Group says U.N. doling out banned foods

AP, Guatemala City - Environmental groups said Wednesday that they have discovered that banned genetically modified food — including a variety of corn forbidden for humans in the United States — is being handed out in U.N. food aid to Central America and the Caribbean.

A study backed by Friends of the Earth found that samples of World Food Program shipments collected in Guatemala included StarLink, a corn long ago pulled from the market in the United States because of concerns it could cause allergic reactions.

Discovery of StarLink corn in consumer products in the United States prompted several high-profile supermarket recalls of cornmeal, corn dogs, taco shells, soup and chili mixes in 2000 and 2001.

The study looked at 77 samples of imported corn in aid shipments or sold on the open market. Eighty percent was reported to include genetically modified material.

The grain sent to Guatemala was intended for human consumption in products like tortillas, members of the Central American Alliance in Defense of Biodiversity said at a news conference in Guatemala.

In Rome, World Food Program spokeswoman Anthea Web said that "we have found absolutely no evidence there is any health safety issue" with genetically modified foods.

Wagner Ochoa, a Friends of the Earth activist in Guatemala, said that several recipients of the food aid have complained that the corn "has a funny taste".

"Many of the people we have asked say that when they have corn of their own to eat, they feed the corn they get from the WFP to their chickens or pigs, because it's in bad condition," he added.

Ochoa said the WFP delegation in Guatemala imported 22,000 tons of corn last year, at a cost of 72 million dollars.

"There are regions in our countries with a surplus of corn and other grains, which means food could be purchased here, with guarantees that it has not been contaminated by transgenics," said the activist.

StarLink Logistics says on its Internet site that it is working to direct any remaining corn containing the questioned protein to animal feed and nonfood uses.

Article: Car batteries

Drugs in batteries, eh? Maybe that would explain why the Energizer bunny keeps going and going...

DEA says it broke up drug smuggling ring

By Mark Sherman, AP

WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities said Tuesday they have broken up a drug smuggling ring that shipped heroin from Guatemala to the United States hidden in car batteries.

Operation Jump Start has resulted in 100 arrests since October 2003, including those of the drug ring's leaders on Tuesday, Drug Enforcement Administrator Karen Tandy said. Authorities arrested 19 people in Colombia, Guatemala and New York.

The heroin was produced in Colombia, then placed in car batteries in Guatemala, Tandy said. From there, the cars were driven through Mexico and across the U.S. border.

"We brought an entire operation that was using this route to move Colombia heroin to a dead end," Tandy said. Colombia is a major supplier of heroin to the United States.

Federal drug agents first became of the smuggling operation after police in Southern and Southwestern states discovered heroin during traffic stops, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing investigations.

At least 20 kilograms, or 44 pounds, of heroin was entering the United States this way each month, the official said. A kilogram of heroin is worth $70,000 to $110,000, the official said.

The DEA said it is seeking to extradite nine people from Guatemala to stand trial on federal drug charges in the United States. Among them is Carlos Enrique Gonzalez-Hoyos, who was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York in November, the DEA said.

A Colombian, Gonzalez-Hoyos is serving a jail sentence in Guatemala, the agency said.

Article: Glamis Gold

At the end of this article a Glamis Gold VP states that mining is "what helped make the United States and Chile what they are today."

My question is: In the United States, how much did the indigenous people, the native americans, benefit from mining operations?

'This is a story we know,' foes of gold mine declare

A proposed gold mine in Guatemala brings promises of jobs, risks of pollution and a push by indigenous residents and their allies to kill the project.

By Catherine Elton
Special To The Miami Herald

SIPACAPA, Guatemala - Jobs in this remote, mountainous farm town are scarce, illiteracy is rampant and poverty is relentless. But the town sits on a gold mine.

Sipacapa and the neighboring municipality of San Miguel de Ixtahuacan are the site of what is about to become Guatemala's first modern-day gold mine, the Marlin Mine, operated by a subsidiary of Glamis Gold of Canada. Glamis representatives say Marlin will be a source of money for the municipality, jobs for its residents and development for the area.

But the news of underground treasure hasn't sparked the reaction that one might expect. Some villagers say the company will take too much of the profits while offering too few jobs and exposing locals to too many environmental risks.

''The Spanish came here 500 years ago. They gave the people here mirrors in exchange for the gold,'' said Timoteo Tojil, a resident of the largely Maya municipality of Sipacapa. "Now they want to take the gold and leave 1 percent. This is a story we know.''

The conflict over the Marlin mine has sparked an anti-gold fever across the nation as Maya Indians, the Catholic Church and environmentalists take to the streets and the airwaves, challenging government claims that foreign investment in mining will be a motor for Guatemala's development. The debate is similar to those raging in other Latin American countries, including Costa Rica, Honduras and Peru.

''We've seen a significant increase in mining, and in particular gold mining, in the last decade in developing countries because of globalization and high gold prices,'' said Keith Slack, a senior policy advisor for Oxfam America, which has a campaign to reform the gold mining industry. "We are also seeing a high level of conflicts as mining companies go to places with no experience in mining.''

MORATORIUM
Guatemala's anti-mining movement recently won a significant victory when the government declared a moratorium on mining concessions.

''We may not be institutionally strong enough today to guarantee an opening of mining projects. We might be facing a temporary postponement of mining in Guatemala that could last years,'' said Vice President Eduardo Stein.

But Stein dashed mine opponents' hopes of a cancellation of the Marlin contract. A unilateral break in the contract would cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mine opponents in Sipacapa say they do not rule out using violence to stop the mine. While there hasn't yet been any violence near the proposed mine site -- just the burning of a vehicle nearby -- events in other parts of the country are causing concern.

Just last month, an anti-mine protester was killed in a clash with police in the mostly indigenous department of Sololá. In the department of Totonicapan, also mainly indigenous, locals recently took several foreign hikers hostage, mistaking them for mining company workers.

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
Oxfam's Slack says mining around the region is increasingly becoming an indigenous-rights issue in addition to an environmental one, as mining concessions in remote areas often overlap with indigenous lands.

Maya activists and the Catholic Church in Guatemala assert that the Marlin Mine contract was granted without proper consultation with the local indigenous communities, as is required by international agreements that Guatemala has ratified.

And critics of the mine also take issue with its design, which includes an open pit and the use of cyanide to process the gold. Both of these features, environmentalists say, pose grave risks to the quality of local water sources. Finally, opponents say the royalty rate to be paid by the mining company is mere crumbs.

Marlin mine officials say their project is good for Guatemala. Steve Baumann, Glamis vice president for Central American operations, says that between income taxes and royalties paid to the central and municipal governments, the mine expects to put more than $60 million into the country by 2014.

''That's quite a bit of money that wasn't here before, and this is just one mine,'' he said, adding that mining is "what helped make the United States and Chile what they are today, and there's the same potential in Guatemala.''

Baumann expects the mine to be running by the end of the year. Opponents say they will do all they can to stop it.

TGIV

It's been a long, long week. I made some minor changes to the Incidencia Democratica website, tweaked the email design, and have been working to get our Daily Report online as early as possible. Today, in fact, was a record... at 10:25 am the report was "out there."

In addition, I had to prepare for a current events analysis this morning for a friend who works for Nisgua here in Guate and her family, visiting from Canada. (Terrific folks, by the way!) On Wednesday evening I have yet another presentation for a visiting delegation.

I also unilaterally decided to start enhancing our daily reports with photo-illustrations. 'Cause I didn't have enough to do already. Sheesh.

Actually, it started innocently enough. Our dearly departed Dania (she left us for the Guatemalan Forensic team) wrote an analysis about the ex civil defense patrollers (aka: paramilitaries) who are demanding compensation for their counterinsurgent efforts during the civil war.

"Hey" I thought "I've got a photo I could use with that!" So, after some quick editing, I uploaded it to our page. And waited for the compliments to roll in....

And they did. Kind of.

"How come Dania gets a photo with her story?" "You always liked her best!" "It's not fair... I want pictures too!" etc. etc. etc.

"Holy cannoli, what have I done?" I sighed. So, to silence the demands I agreed to create an illustration according to theme of each new analysis. I'm such a fool. Because once that can of wiggly worms was opened... there was no going back.

Talk about brain sprain. Coming up with the photo of an ex patroller to illustrate an article about ex patrollers wasn't exactly Einstein-esque. But how do you illustrate free trade agreements, multiculturalism, or retired people and their social security funds?

And how do you do that without leaving the office?!? I definitely didn't have time to zip across the city doing on-the-spot photo shoots. Sigh. So I had to hit the archives and "repurpose" some old pics. Those of you who have spent waaay too much time looking at my photographs will surely recognize parts of these new illustrations. I'll put them on my site this weekend.

Well, our Weekly Report just went online, and that means my work week is over. As they say here in Guatemala: TGIV... thank god it's Viernes! (ok, not really.)

Have a wonderful weekend!

The Cost of War

If you want a (frighteningly) good look at exactly how much the war in Iraq is costing the United States ... not only financially, but in terms of health, education, and housing... visit the site www.costofwar.com!

You can even observe how this obscene squandering of resources impacts on a national, state, and county level.

Article: Massacre Trial

Guatemalan Court Won't Act Vs. Military

Sergio De Leon, Associated Press
Simon Watts, BBC Americas editor

Guatemala City - Guatemala's highest court said Friday it cannot try soldiers charged with participating in a wartime massacre of more than 300 civilians until a separate court determines if the country's postwar reconciliation law bars such prosecution.

The Constitutional Court's decision could affect several similar pending cases, both military defense and human rights lawyers said Friday.

Before a written copy of the decision was obtained by The Associated Press, two court officials along with Edgar Perez, an attorney who has been pressing for the soldiers' prosecution, said the court had effectively dropped charges against the soldiers.

But a review of the ruling showed the court decided that it cannot try the soldiers until the lower court rules. The court's ruling was issued in December but not distributed to the parties involved until Wednesday.

In it, the tribunal argued that it cannot rule on the charges against 17 soldiers because of appeals the defendants filed - one arguing that the National Reconciliation Law precludes their prosecution. An appeals court has not yet issued a ruling on that issue, the decision noted.

The law provides limited amnesty in connection with the country's 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996. Until now, the Guatemalan judiciary had interpreted the country's amnesty provisions as not applying to massacres.

Perez, counsel for the civilian Association of Families of the Detained and Disappeared, questioned the ruling, saying that the Constitutional Court had previously indicated that actions taken by the lower-court over the massacre case "were in line with the constitution and the federal penal code."
"But now they come around and say that the National Reconciliation Law" has to be considered, he said.

Lawyer Julio Cintron, who has defended military officials in the past, said the court's decision could serve as a precedent for some 20 other pending cases involving victims of alleged massacres.

Miguel Alvizures, director of the nongovernmental Legal Action Center for Human Rights, said the ruling "establishes a disastrous precedent."

Human rights campaigners immediately voiced alarm about the impact of this decision on the investigation of other atrocities.

Coming from the highest court in the land, it is an important precedent, but the same legal issues are being considered by other courts, and there are likely to be appeals.

Hundreds of massacres of civilians took place during Guatemala's civil war, as U.S.-backed military forces sought to weed out rebel forces in the country's isolated highlands. Some 240,000 people were killed or disappeared in the conflict.

The case at hand deals with the 1982 massacre of more than 300 civilians by a military squad specializing in counterinsurgency, in the village of Dos Erres in the country's northern Peten region.

The military accused village residents of being guerrilla sympathizers after they refused to join paramilitary groups to fight the rebels, according to a report issued by the U.N.-led truth commission that was established after the war.

The United Nations report said the commandos raped local women and used hammers for some of the killings.

In a 1994 exhumation requested by the Association of Families of the Detained and Disappeared, forensic anthropologists recovered the remains of 162 people, 67 of which belonged to children under age 12.

Our Culture is Our Resistance

The letter below is from a friend that I met many years ago in Guatemala. Jonathan worked as an advocate for and accompanier to indigenous communities displaced by the violence of Guatemala's armed conflict. He is also an extremely gifted photographer. A collection of his photographs, along with contributions from Eduardo Galeano, Rigoberta Menchú, Ricardo Falla, Julia Esquivel, and others, has been published in an remarkable book: "Our Culture is Our Resistance".

Dear friends,

I hope that you're all doing well. I know that most, if not all of you have already heard about my book "Our Culture is Our Resistance" and that many of you have bought it, either from me or elsewhere. However, I wanted to send out one last notice and appeal to promote it. Sales of the book have been going well, particularly the Spanish edition sales in Mexico, where the book has gotten a lot of press. The publisher of the Spanish language edition is currently considering doing a second printing. With your help, maybe we can boost sales of and interest in the English edition, and persuade the US publisher to do a second printing as well, which would get this largely ignored story of the atrocities that occurred (and continue to occur in some ways) in Guatemala, with mucho US complicity and involvement, out to a broader audience.

As you know, partial proceeds from sales of the book will go to support the work of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation in Guatemala to seek justice through legal cases for family members massacred during the war, to contribute to the strengthening of the rule of law in Guatemala, and to reveal the truth of Guatemala's recent past so that violence is never allowed to take place again. I am also sending 50% of the proceeds that I get from print sales to the AJR.

I ask that you please circulate this information widely and tell your friends, encourage your local bookstores to carry the book, and local libraries, universities, etc. to purchase it, and bring it to the attention of any and all press contacts that you might have. And if you know of venues that would be interested in hosting one of the two educational exhibitions that I have, please let them (or me) know about them (see info about the exhibits below). This powerful and beautiful publication and the exhibitions associated with it are important tools for telling the story of the suffering, struggle, and courage of the Guatemalan people.

In late February and in early March I will have two expositions and book presentations combined with public forums about issues related to the book in Guatemala (more info coming soon about this, as well as about an educational publication that I'm working on for the uprooted communities in Guatemala). That exhibition will then travel to Mexico City, San Salvador, Managua and other cities in Latin America. There will almost assuredly be a third book related exhibit going to the University of Granada in Spain in the late Spring, that will presumably stay in Europe and travel to other venues.

I am grateful for anything and everything that you can do to help promote my book and for all that you can do to support and be in solidarity with the Guatemalans and the people of other countries who continue to struggle for truth, peace, equality, and justice for all.

For peace with justice,

Jonás - Jonathan

Our Culture is Our Resistance

Spanish language edition

Photographs by Jonathan Moller

Traveling Book Exhibition Information

Bad News & Good Words

In reviewing the international news this morning I became, once again, frustrated, angry, and depressed.

Not only because of the tragic train accident in India where 56 people died (52 women and children) returning from a wedding, or the unsuccessful search for a plane in Afghanistan with 104 people on board that mysteriously disappeared in a freak snow storm, or the 10 tons of sulfuric acid that leaked from a chemical plant in southern Sweden, forming a poisonous gas cloud over the city of Helsingborg.

While those stories break my heart a hundred times over, what really shakes my faith in humanity aren't the tragic accidents, but the cold-hearted declarations of hate and violence.

Today I had to stomach "our" new Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, responding to a question about US plans to attack Iran. In a veiled, roundabout threat she replied "the question is simply not on the agenda at this point."

She didn't say "no"... she didn't say "of course not"... she just said it's "not on the agenda at this point".

Even scarier than slippery diplomats, though, are in-your-face Mighty Military Men.

Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who led US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, bragged in a public forum:

"Actually it's quite fun to fight 'em, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling. You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

His comments, during a panel discussion hosted by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, were met with laughter and applause from the audience. The Pentagon response? Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised the general as having set a stellar example for troops in his service abroad.

After all that... well, I'm ready to unplug everything: the radio, the tv, the phone and the computer... and my mind. I get to the point of not wanting to know any more.

And then, by pure grace, I open up the final news story for the day. And there it is...

An article about a speech given by Nelson Mandela, the 86-year-old former political prisoner and Noble Peace Prize recipient. Just reading the excerpts I feel my soul begin to stir again. Talk about light at the end of a very long tunnel!

And so, for my benefit and yours, I hunted down the complete text of this brief, but inspirational speech. Here are the words of a gentle man speaking a profound truth:

'While poverty exists, there is no true freedom'

Nelson Mandela addressed a crowd of thousands in London's Trafalgar Square today at the first mass rally of the Make Poverty History campaign. This is the full text of his speech.

Thursday February 3, 2005

I am privileged to be here today at the invitation of the campaign to Make Poverty History.

As you know, I recently formally announced my retirement from public life and should really not be here.

However, as long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.

Moreover, the Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty represents such a noble cause that we could not decline the invitation. Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times - times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation - that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils.

The Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty can take its place as a public movement alongside the movement to abolish slavery and the international solidarity against apartheid.

And I can never thank the people of Britain enough for their support through those days of the struggle against apartheid. Many stood in solidarity with us, just a few yards from this spot.

Through your will and passion, you assisted in consigning that evil system forever to history. But in this new century, millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains.

They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free.

Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.

And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.

While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.

The steps that are needed from the developed nations are clear:

The first is ensuring trade justice. I have said before that trade justice is a truly meaningful way for the developed countries to show commitment to bringing about an end to global poverty.

The second is an end to the debt crisis for the poorest countries.

The third is to deliver much more aid and make sure it is of the highest quality.

In 2005, there is a unique opportunity for making an impact.

In September, world leaders will gather in New York to measure progress since they made the Millennium Declaration in the year 2000. That declaration promised to halve extreme poverty.

But at the moment, the promise is falling tragically behind. Those leaders must now honour their promises to the world's poorest citizens. Tomorrow, here in London, the G7 finance ministers can make a significant beginning. I am happy to have been invited to meet with them.

The G8 leaders, when they meet in Scotland in July, have already promised to focus on the issue of poverty, especially in Africa.

I say to all those leaders: do not look the other way; do not hesitate. Recognise that the world is hungry for action, not words. Act with courage and vision. I am proud to wear the symbol of this global call to action in 2005. This white band is from my country.

In a moment, I want to give this band to you - young people of Britain - and ask you to take it forward along with millions of others to the G8 summit in July. I entrust it to you. I will be watching with anticipation.

We thank you for coming here today. Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom. Of course the task will not be easy. But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.

Make Poverty History in 2005. Make History in 2005. Then we can all stand with our heads held high. I thank you."

(The BBC also has a link to the video of this speech. I really recommend listening to Mandela's voice as you read these moving words!)

Gonzalez: Torture & Prayer

Unfortunately, Alberto Gonzalez was sworn in yesterday as the new US Attorney General. The Senate confirmation vote was 60-36, with all of the "no" votes coming from Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent Jim Jeffords of Vermont.

"Mr. Gonzales was at the heart of the Bush administration's notorious decision to authorize our forces to commit flagrant acts of torture in the interrogation of detainees," said Sen. Edward Kennedy. "The war room in the White House became the torture room."

I thought the following was interesting, unusual, and much needed response to the Gonzalez candidacy:

As Senate Votes On Gonzales Nomination,
Faith Leaders Seek Forgiveness

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 /U.S. Newswire/ -- As the United States Senate votes to confirm Judge Alberto Gonzales as the next US Attorney General, religious leaders are seeking forgiveness.

Sister Dianna Ortiz, a US-born survivor of torture in Guatemala, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director of The Shalom Center, and Dr. George Hunsinger, Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and organizer of Church Folks for a Better America, today offered prayers seeking forgiveness for the US government's complicity in torture and for confirming a man who contributed to such an inconsistent policy.

The three were part of a group of more than 225 religious leaders who last month signed an open letter to Gonzales asking him to embrace and advance standards of international law and honor the dignity of all God's creation. Organized by Church Folks for a Better America, the list of signatories to the letter includes Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh leaders from across the United States. The letter and full list of signatories is available at www.cfba.info

Dr. Hunsinger explained the impetus for offering the prayers, "As we continue to lament our government's refusal to abolish torture in all its forms, we pause to ask God to forgive us for our failures." Hunsinger continued, "While we cannot stop his confirmation, we can ask for forgiveness for our inability to stop it and for our leaders' who have in effect endorsed torture by voting for him."

Excerpts from the prayers:

Sister Dianna Ortiz, a US-born survivor of torture in Guatemala.

"In the name of the tortured Christ of yesterday and today, we cry out to our leaders to repent...You who lead us swear to God in solemn oaths, and bow your heads in reverential prayers. How can you gaze upon the tortured Jesus hanging on the cross when you do the same to others? There is no redemption without forgiveness, but there is no forgiveness without repentance. And so, we, entwined in the sin you have sown, to the tortured Christ of yesterday and today, do say, forgive us for our failure our leaders have imposed."

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director of The Shalom Center

"We confess to you that our rulers have -- by torturing prisoners -- tortured, tormented, and defiled Your Image; have poured forth pain, contempt, humiliation, and death rather than compassion on those who, as prisoners, can do no harm; have inflicted rather than relieving suffering and despair. You Who are the Giver of Law, we confess to you that our rulers have violated the law that all humanity has agreed to in the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture, forbidding the use of torture against such prisoners; have violated our own Constitution, which forbids "cruel and unusual punishments"; and have violated laws passed by our own Congress to forbid torture."

Dr. George Hunsinger, Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systemic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and organizer of Church Folks for a Better America.

"Today is a day of national shame in which we have all been made accomplices in torture. Officials tolerating the intolerable have been rewarded, while we ourselves have acquiesced, and no one in high places has been held accountable. We cry out to you, O God, for forgiveness and deliverance -- for our nation, for our leaders, and for ourselves."

But can you name them?

From AOL Sports News:

Worldwide media exposure is one of the benefits of being the host city for the Super Bowl. Sunday's game will be televised to 222 countries in a Super Bowl-record 31 languages.

The NFL estimates a potential worldwide audience of at least 1 billion people, with the game being carried in Arabic, Basque, Cantonese, Catalan, Danish, English, Farsi, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Greenlandic, Hindu, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish and Thai.

Now what's really amazing about this story is that, by almost all counts, there are only 192 countries in the world (give or take a Taiwan or an East Timor.)

Which means that:

1. AOL has discovered secret countries that no-one else knows about, or

2. Mars, it turns out, has already been colonized, or

3. A certain sports writer needs to re-take Geography 101.

El Sarape

Just returned from lunch with the IDEM crowd.

About twice a week we head to El Sarape, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on 8th Avenida. Really, it would be quite easy to walk right by this place without ever realizing it was there. Even if you were to notice it, you might still be unimpressed by the tiny space and underwhelmed by the décor... Mexican movie stills stapled to every inch of the white walls. You might even be tempted to quietly back out the door and look for a more "established" eatery.

And, oh, what a mistake that would be.

Because Christian, the guy behind the counter... the guy who takes your order... the guy who brings you your food... the guy who clears the table... and the guy who will charge you on your way out... also happens to make the most delicious tacos you're ever likely to taste!

I'm not exaggerating when I say that we consciously have to limit ourselves to keep from overeating each and every time we go there. I suspect that one day we might even decide, en masse, not to return to the office, but rather to keep eating tacos until the place shuts down or we pass out from "tacovereatis".

So, for those of you lucky enough to find yourself in Guatemala City... El Sarape is on 8th Avenida between 12th & 13 Calles. You can thank me later.

For the rest of you... a photo:

Alert: HR office break-in

Rights Action office broken into, robbed in Guatemala City.

February 1, 2005

Rights Action is a non-governmental organization based in the United States and Canada, with a regional office in Guatemala. Rights Action funds and supports community-based organizations in southern Mexico, Central America, Haiti and Peru that plan and carry out their own community development projects, that promote and defend political, economic, social and cultural rights, and that provide emergency relief in crisis situations.

On the morning of Monday, January 31, 2005, personnel in the office of Rights Action in Guatemala found that the office had been broken into and robbed. Based on an assessment of the conditions of the break-in, Rights Action concludes that the motive for the break in was not economic, but rather to steal information.

Upon entering the building the burglar entered only the main office where all the information from the organization is stored, breaking a window to gain access to that office. A laptop containing a large amount of information was stolen. In the same office, the CPU for the local area network server computer was taken from the desk, disconnecting all the cables, and left in the middle of the floor, as if in preparation to steal it.

Also from the administrative office, a file box that contains petty cash was removed and taken to the hall. The box had been forced open, and though it obviously contained the equivalent of approximately US$500, no money was taken. The burglar left a partially consumed juice can beside the box as if to draw attention to the fact that they had reviewed the contents.

Though the burglar left the cash and six computers distributed in the 3 offices, they stole a few items without value, including a keyboard, a cheap tape player, a box of keys and a box of candles and dried fruit produced by Rights Action counterparts.

It is notable that there was no sign of forced entrance to the building, though a window was broken to gain access the office where the server computer was located. The burglar apparently left over the roof since a key they had taken from the building was found on the roof terrace, as well as a footprint on the roofing.

Rights Action fears the office may have been subject to vigilance since the burglar chose the only evening in several months in which no one was in the office. The burglars left a Guatemalan identification card in the office, as though it had been dropped accidentally.

The break-in was reported the Public Prosecutors office, and the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights examined the crime scene the morning the break in was discovered. Representatives of the Human Rights Ombudsman's office also visited the scene. Rights Action expresses our gratitude to CALDH, SEDEM and the Unidad de Proteccion del Movimiento de Derechos Humanos for promptly accompanying Rights Action during the investigation. We express our solidarity with the organizations HIJOS and COMAPAG that both suffered burglaries during January 2005. Both are active in protesting the neo-liberal economic agenda and combating impunity.

www.rightsaction.org

Google TV

How would you like to Google your tv?

The fine folks at the famed search engine have now made it possible to search television content, through a service called "Google Video"!

According to Google,

Our mission is to organize the world's information, and that includes the thousands of programs that play on our TVs every day. Google Video enables you to search a growing archive of televised content – everything from sports to dinosaur documentaries to news shows.

Right now we're just testing this product, so you'll find programs only from a limited number of channels, which we've been indexing since late December 2004. You can expect to see more and more content as we continue to add new channels.

I typed in "Guatemala" and came up with shows about immigration, chocolate, dolphins, coffee, farming, and one very unlucky Jeopardy contestant with some seriously lost luggage.

You have to try it to believe it. Google my tv!

Next up: Google the contents of your refrigerator.

Article: Abuse asylum

Abuse victim's asylum claim deserves justice

By Carmen Valenzuela
Miami Herald - Opinion Section

Carmen_A_Valenzuela@hotmail.com

Attorney General John Ashcroft has referred Rodi Alvarado's asylum case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). Alvarado, a Guatemalan woman like me, suffered years of terrifying abuse at the hands of her husband, including repeated rape, severe beatings, threats, humiliation and violent attacks calculated to force her miscarriage.

Alvarado sought the protection of her government, but in every instance she was turned away. Eventually, in 1995, after more than 10 years of abuse, she fled Guatemala for the United States, seeking the safety she could not find at home. She had to leave behind her 7-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son and has been separated from them since.

Alvarado's husband, Francisco Osorio, is a former soldier in the Guatemalan military, which was renowned for its brutality at that time. He repeatedly expressed that he had the right to treat his wife as he did because of her gender and their relationship. A judge told Alvarado that he would not ''interfere in domestic matters or disputes.'' The police told her that they would not provide her any assistance because she should ``take care of it at home.''

I can well believe that Alvarado found no solace in the government. In 1990, I was kidnapped, detained and tortured by the Guatemalan Army's intelligence service, which wanted information about my activities and contacts with the government opposition.

For eight days, my hands were cuffed and my head was covered with a hood. I was almost suffocated to make me talk. A towel was stuffed in my mouth so my screams would not be heard. My thighs were beaten until they looked like eggplants. I still have the scars -- physical and emotional -- from the beatings.

But I was ''fortunate'' in that a national and international campaign put pressure on the government to release me. I was able to leave Guatemala and eventually granted asylum in the United States.

Alvarado was granted asylum in 1996 by a U.S. immigration judge, based on Immigration and Naturalization Service guidelines recognizing gender-based persecution as a basis for asylum. However, the INS itself appealed the ruling, and the BIA denied her asylum in 1999. In 2000, then-Attorney General Janet Reno vacated the BIA's decision. Then in February 2004, the Department of Homeland Security (which absorbed the INS) submitted a detailed brief urging that Alvarado be granted asylum and promising quick action.

In sending Alvarado's asylum case back to the BIA, Ashcroft has once again robbed Alvarado of the opportunity for a normal life. He appears to have based his decision not on the facts of the case but on the fear that if gender-based claims for asylum are recognized, the floodgates will open and this country will be inundated with women fleeing domestic abuse.

This is not likely to happen. In 1993 Canada recognized violence against women as a basis for granting asylum. Since then, these types of claims have made up a tiny fraction of all asylum claims, never more than 2 percent of the total. This reflects the reality that most women lack the ability or resources or, in many cases, the desire to leave their homelands and come to Canada or the United States.

Despite the administration's consistent rhetoric that it stands for family values, in this case it passed up a critical opportunity to protect a woman who fled constant beatings to protect her life. I hope that the BIA will treat her justly and allow her to stay in the United States. Meanwhile, though, she will have to endure continued uncertainty and separation from her children, who cannot join her in the United States until her status is resolved.

Alvarado and others like her who have suffered brutal domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence should, like me, be given a chance to begin a new life. If she is forced to go back to Guatemala, she will pay a high price for having tried to save her life. Impunity is rampant in my country. That is well understood by the U.S. government and immigration authorities, which have turned a blind eye to torture and other human-rights violations by governments in my country and elsewhere in Latin America.

Carmen Valenzuela, a physician, lives in Montgomery Village, Md.