First CAFTA, now this...

The silence on the city streets was stunning. It was as if all of Guatemala had called it an early evening and went to bed with a mild headache. There was, to mix sports metaphors, no joy in Mudville last night.

The Guatemalan national soccer team faced the U.S. team yesterday in a World Cup elimination competition. The "chapines" lost to the "gringos" 2-0 in an exciting, and fairly evenly matched, game.

I'm not a big sports fan, but this year is something special for Guatemala. If they manage to end up in the top three teams of their division (which also includes Mexico, the US, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, and Panama) they will qualify for the 2006 World Cup to be held in Germany.

If they qualify, it will be the first time in....um, let's see.... EVER! Which is why the entire country has Futbol Fever.

Last Saturday, Guatemala whupped Trinidad & Tobago, 5-1. I swear, every time the Guatemalans scored a goal the entire city erupted in cheers, like human thunder. Once the game was over, the human lightening took over with spontaneous displays of fireworks brightening the city skyscape.

Last night there were no cheers, no fireworks... only a resounding quiet. One interesting detail of the story, though, caught my attention this morning. The United States team, in a effort to maintain as much home field advantage as possible, decided to hold the match in a place as far from latinos as possible... Birmingham, Alabama.

But read what happened:

Guatemala draws a crowd
By Steve Davis / The Dallas Morning News

Birmingham, Ala. – What made for a splendid soccer atmosphere at Legion Field did not exactly create the optimum competitive advantage for the home team.

Guatemala remains in decent shape to make its first World Cup finals, which would be epochal stuff in the small, Central American nation.

And transplanted Guatemalans now living in the United States certainly are embracing their big chance at the big time.

Although the percentage of affiliation was difficult to estimate, about half the 31,624 fan appeared to support Guatemala, and they did so with some righteous, come-early, get-loud passion.

U.S. Soccer officials incorrectly predicted a midweek match in the Deep South would make it difficult for Guatemalan-Americans to travel. U.S. census figures show just 1.6 percent of the Birmingham area's population is Latino, and only a small percentage of that is Guatemalan.

U.S. manager Bruce Arena was philosophical when asked about the seemingly inverted scene – Guatemalan supporters generally being louder that the Americans.

"We have a great country," he said, talking up the melting pot and the transplants' passion for the game and their homelands.

The road to Germany is a long and winding one... so stay tuned!

La Verdad

Well, hello!

Yes, it's been quite a long while since I've written a personal journal entry. The truth is that absolutely nothing has happened here in Guatemala during the past couple of weeks.

And if you believe that, you're probably the kind of person who still expects that Bush will eventually find those darned elusive weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Speaking of truth...I went to see the "The Passion" last night with a friend. One of the more moving moments (in a movie comprised completely of moving moments) occurs when a confused and conflicted Pilate confronts Christ with the question: "what is truth?" In the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar", the conversation is even more extensive:

Jesus: I look for truth, and find that I get damned.

Pilate: What is truth? Is truth unchanging law? We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours?

I can definitely relate to poor Pontius Pilate. Guatemala constantly mocks me with its concept of "truth". In fact, I have come to the conclusion that anyone who says that they know THE TRUTH about Guatemala is either a liar or a fool. And very possibly, both. Guatemala has proven, time and again, to be a land of contrasts, concealment, coincidences, and complexity.

That doesn't mean that one should simply "wash their hands" of the whole situation. On the contrary, the search for truth should be ongoing and exhaustive... and perhaps, at times even exhausting.

With this page.... the photos, the news, my rambling comments... I hope to share moments of truth with you. Lately, I've spent a great deal of time (ok, way too much time) editing and uploading photos from the recent anti-CAFTA protests for my photography section. I hope you'll take a look, and let me know what you think.

I'll also make an effort to give more life to this journal section, and to share more glimpses of Guatemala with you. Because, despite the fact that Guatemala defies definition... or perhaps because of that.... I love this country.

And that's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

(So help me God!)

Article: U.S. Military Aid

U.S. Resumes Military Aid to Guatemala

By John J. Lumpkin, Associated Press Writer

Thursday March 24, 2005 5:31 PM

Guatemala City (AP) - The United States is releasing $3.2 million in military aid to the Central American nation of Guatemala, more than a decade after such aid was cut it off due to human rights abuses during the country's civil war.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the lifting of the sanctions after meeting with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger Thursday. Since the mid-1990s, the United States has provided a relative pittance, with only $350,000 approved for tightly controlled purposes, such as maintaining U.S.-Guatemala contacts in 2005.

The Bush administration is proposing to ramp that up to $900,000 in 2006, in addition to the lifting of sanctions. The money is intended for a number of uses, including assisting in training and the modernization of Guatemala's armed forces.

Berger, appearing with Rumsfeld in a press conference in the Guatemalan capital, said the human rights abuses committed by the Guatemalan military are a thing of the past.

"The shadows that plagued our army have disappeared," Berger said through a translator.

Rumsfeld, saying Central America has reached a "magic moment," said he was satisfied Guatemala's military was developing toward a force that could assist in peacekeeping operations and cooperate with other militaries in Central America.

"I've been impressed by the reforms that have been undertaken in the armed forces," he said. "I know it is a difficult thing to do but it's been done with professionalism and transparency."

Still, the amount of money being provided to Guatemala is less than the millions provided overtly and by the CIA to support repressive right-wing regimes in their wars against leftist guerillas during the last half-century. In Guatemala, at least 120,000 people disappeared before a peace accord was signed in 1996, 36 years after the civil war began.

Under Berger's administration, the Guatemalan military has decreased in size from 27,000 to 15,000, and is transforming its forces for cooperative peacekeeping missions instead of internal counterguerilla warfare. Berger has also altered some of the legal code governing the military and changed the chain of command.

Guatemala has also contributed peacekeepers to the mission in Haiti. Rumsfeld has pushed for more security cooperation between Central American nations despite their history of squabbles and internal strife. Guatemalans have also taken part in several U.N. operations in Africa.

During the 1980s, overt U.S. military aid totaled about $30 million, less than that supplied to the governments of El Salvador and Honduras, which fought similar conflicts.

But the killing of an American innkeeper in 1990 and the subsequent cover-up forced the U.S. government to cut off that aid, though millions more kept flowing secretly from the CIA to Guatemala's military commanders until 1995.

Though the U.S. government has provided only a small amount of security money, some for counternarcotics assistance, to Guatemala, economic aid has exceeded $100 million a year.

Guatemalans have had continued problems with crime and drug-trafficking. According to the federal attorney general's office, violent crime killed 8,120 people in 2001 and 8,767 in 2002. Some estimates provided by U.S. officials suggest that 80 percent of cocaine intended for the United States passes through Guatemala or its territorial waters.

Earlier this month, President Berger signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States, prompting some protests in his country. At least one demonstrator was killed. The measure must still be ratified by the U.S. Congress.

The United States has reached agreements with El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Guatemala is the third nation to ratify it.

Article: CAFTA deaths

US Lawmakers Urge Probe of CAFTA Protester Deaths

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eleven U.S. lawmakers urged the Guatemalan government on Friday to fully investigate fatal violence by security forces this week against protesters opposing a free-trade pact with the United States.

"Given the long history of the Guatemalan state's violent responses to protest, we regard official claims that police were fired upon and that the heavy-handed response was necessary ... with a healthy degree of skepticism," the 10 Democrats and one independent said in a letter to Guatemala's ambassador to the United States.

In their letter, the members of the U.S. House of Representatives said "two protesters were shot and killed by police (on Tuesday) when they fired live rounds to disperse a march of teachers and farmers near Huehuetenango.

Organizers say a male victim was shot at close range, and local hospital staff said four others were receiving emergency care for bullet wounds from police rounds, one of them in critical condition."

Reuters reported at least one person was killed in a clash on Tuesday between police and opponents of the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Guatemala's legislature approved the agreement last week by a vote of 126-12, with 20 lawmakers absent.

John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the United States' largest labor organization, also called for an investigation in a separate letter to Guatemalan President Oscar Berger.

The union group strongly opposes CAFTA, which is expected to come before the U.S. Congress in the next few months.

The 11 lawmakers who called for an investigation have a history of opposing trade agreements.

CAFTA & Chaos

The march was fine.

The march was great.

The march was peaceful.

OK, the university students taunted the cops some. And there was a fair deal of spray-painting of slogans damning the damage CAFTA will to do to Guatemala.

But the tensest moment of the morning was my pre-march realization that I only had one baseball cap to wear today... and it was a NY Yankees cap. Not exactly the kind of accessory you want to wear to a march where people are shouting "Yankees go home!"

Despite some smartass comments from friends and fellow marchers, I managed to avoid any type of lynching... and to keep the sun off my face... so what the heck. It was a good day.

Well, until all hell broke loose.

Without going into to much detail now (I just want to go home and rest), what basically happened is this:

As the protest march was coming to an end, confrontations between riot police and unruly youth broke out. I am 100% positive that these youth weren't part of the original protests. My guess is that they were mostly mareros (gang members). When they weren't tearing up the city, they were attacking the security forces with rocks and bottles.

The security forces were all too happy to respond with teargas, cork bullets, and rubber batons.

Today the part of the city where I live and work, descended into complete chaos.

Buses were destroyed. Windows were smashed. Captured youth were beaten by the police. I myself was on the receiving end of many a broken bottle and bouncing rock. Unharmed, thankfully, although my mouth still tastes like teargas.

I will, time and peace permitting, go into more detail and add muchos photos from these crazy days. I'll also try to explain why, when most people ran from the trouble... I ran towards it.

It has been a scary, informative, eye-opening, adrenaline-filled, and oddly satisfying week here in Guatemala. Wouldn't change it for the world.

Another day, another march

Well, CAFTA (the free trade agreement between the US and Central America) was approved last week by the Guatemalan Congress... despite various days of protests, which sometimes exploded in violence.

I spent four days on the streets, sliding back and forth between protestors and riot police... dodging bottles, rocks, cork bullets, and tear gas. I now have a lifetime's supply of photographs of baton-wielding security forces and spray-painted walls.

Yesterday I began editing some of the photographs to upload to the page, hopefully they'll be available later today.

Unfortunately, there's no rest for the weary... this morning a national strike has been declared to protest the Congress' approval of CAFTA (ie: selling out the country to the interests of transnational corporations and the U.S. government.)

At 8am a (hopefully) massive march will depart from the Trebol and head into the center of the city, where the streets are already lined with riot police and, according to the press, some1,000 soldiers are waiting in their barracks to assist the security forces during today's protest.

Here at the office we're working double-time to finish the Daily Report as soon as possible. The moment it is signed, sealed, and delivered (aka: emailed and uploaded to our homepage) we'll all be heading out to join the march.

Sheesh, I'm beginning to long for the days when I complained about being stuck indoors all day with the computer!

If you want to watch an extremely clever and informative cartoon about CAFTA, visit : Link: http://www.quixote.org/calf/

Proof

That I'm not making this up!

Here's a photo from today's La Hora, Guatemala's afternoon newspaper.

Article: CAFTA protests 2

Today was a wild, difficult, surreal day of tear gas-firing riot police, rock-throwing protestors, angry confrontations, and deafening explosions... intermixed with reggae music and long periods of absolute stillness.

For now, though... an decent article about today's incredible happenings:

Guatemalans Protest U.S. Free-Trade Vote
By Sergio De Leon
The Associated Press

GUATEMALA CITY - Police used tear gas and water cannons to beat back hundreds of demonstrators Wednesday who were trying to prevent Guatemala's Congress from approving a free-trade agreement with the United States.

The large-scale protests have forced Congress to delay plans to hold a vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Protesters hurled rocks and tried to break through a ring of police barricades set up two blocks from the Legislative Palace.

After many lawmakers were unable to reach the building on Tuesday, the army said it was ready to deploy 500 troops to help maintain order, though the government said it would not immediately use them.

Edwin Ortega, leader of the Union of Labor and People's Action, said the heavy security presence on Wednesday "is a clear signal that they plan to sign the treaty today, independent of the fact that the population categorically rejects it."

President Oscar Berger met with leaders of the opposition movement on Tuesday but they said he rejected their call to put the treaty to a popular vote.

Opponents argue the treaty would hurt local farmers and workers through competition with cheaper imported goods and with powerful foreign companies.

They also oppose a section of the law granting concessions to private companies for infrastructure construction projects, saying it would lead to privatizing public services.

The United States signed the free-trade agreement last May with Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The Dominican Republic signed later.

President Bush said the accord would open new markets for U.S. goods and services while encouraging economic and democratic reforms in Central America. But he didn't have the votes in Congress to win approval last year because of opposition from U.S. businesses and unions worried about competition from Central America.

Article: CAFTA protests

Foes of free-trade pact clog streets, thwart vote

GUATEMALA CITY - (AP) -- Authorities said late Tuesday they were prepared to send troops into the streets of the Guatemalan capital, after almost 1,000 protesters prevented lawmakers from voting on a pending free-trade agreement between Central America and the United States.

Demonstrators blocked the legislature for hours, delaying a session during which some lawmakers wanted to put the free-trade pact to a vote.

Col. Wilfred Estrada, a spokesman for the army, said he received an order from the security detail in charge of protecting the president to ready 500 soldiers and military police who would be deployed if a new round of protests erupted today or Thursday.

Interior Secretary Carlos Vielmann said the country's national police force was in charge of responding to protesters, but said that ''should they falter . . . they would have some small support from'' military forces.

No one was hurt or arrested during Tuesday's protests, but legislators unable to make it to their offices were forced to spend most of the day in auxiliary buildings nearby.

''There aren't enough lawmakers for quorum and when some who want to enter the building get close, they aren't allowed to,'' said Mariano Rayo, a congressman who got to the legislature early but then was prevented from leaving.

Other lawmakers wanting to leave the building successfully made it to the street, only to be chased for blocks by protesters. Demonstrators eventually dispersed, allowing the legislative session to begin. Lawmakers quickly passed a resolution pledging to compensate those who could be hurt by the ratification of the free-trade agreement.

Protesters had promised more protests but it was unclear whether the proposal approved late Tuesday -- and the plan to deploy troops -- would alter those plans.

Memories...

I'm exhausted.

I'm soaked with sweat.

My face and arms are sunburned.

I haven't eaten anything in the past 12 hours.

And I'm slightly bruised from spending the day caught between passionate protestors and overzealous riot police.

Ah..... just like the good ol' days!

(More, much more, on the Anti-CAFTA protests coming soon!)

It kinda looked...

like this:

Article: Social Cleansing

Police blamed in Central American gang murders

By Frank Jack Daniel

Guatemala City, March 6 (Reuters) - On the front line of a crackdown against Central America's violent street gangs, some police are executing suspects in tactics reminiscent of the region's Cold War era death squads, according to the United States and rights group.

Dozens of gang members' dead bodies showing signs of torture have been found in Central American cities in the last few months and human rights groups say security forces are applying a policy of "social cleansing."

The U.S. government, an ally of Central America's leaders, said in an annual human rights report last week that vigilante groups and police forces in Honduras and Guatemala have summarily executed youths and gang members.

On the streets of Central America, rights activists say it is an open secret that rogue cops are using torture and murder to try to wipe out the gangs, known as "maras".

"Everybody here talks about the executions -- men in blue, black and gray cars shooting at kids in poor neighborhoods, kidnapping them and taking them to lonely sites where they tie their hands and shoot them in the head," Honduran activist Berta Oliva said.

"We know which are the police killings. A gang member will shoot you in the street. We don't torture people," said Guatemalan mara member 'Psycho', 24, blue gang symbols tattooed up his neck and into his hairline.

The gangs are behind gruesome crimes across the region and are particularly feared in Honduras, where they are blamed for killing 28 in a machine gun attack on a bus.

Last year, Honduran gang members dumped decapitated heads in the streets with notes telling President Ricardo Maduro to stop his anti-gang crackdown.

Despite tough laws in El Salvador and Honduras which allow police to arrest youths sporting gang tattoos, under-funded and corrupt forces have been unable to contain the crime wave.

"The state doesn't have the resources to solve the problem with social programs so it uses 'dissuasive violence' as a control mechanism," said Emilio Goubaud, an expert on Guatemala's maras.

YOUTHS TORTURED

Central America was ravaged by civil wars in the 1980s and right-wing death squads linked to the army and police ran wild in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

After the wars the death squad culture remained, and in the 1990s hundreds of street kids were killed in crime clampdowns.

Now, rights groups say security forces and vigilante groups are applying the same methods to the mara threat.

Last week, Guatemalan firemen found the tortured body of Sergio Gomez of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang, the third youth from the same neighborhood tortured and killed since December.

Gomez's parents and friends said he was arrested by police hours before his battered corpse was found.

Honduras' leader, Maduro, recently admitted police had killed some gang members, but insisted they were isolated cases. Guatemala also denies a policy of "social cleansing," and says any police that break the law will be punished.

Police blame the deaths on turf wars between the gangs.

"These could be revenge killings between them made to look like it was the police," said Guatemala City police detective Julio Mendez.

The maras have their roots in Hispanic gangs in Los Angeles and established a strong presence in Central America when, as illegal immigrants in U.S. jails, they were deported home in the 1990s.

Somebody pull my plug!

I just finished reading "Mona Lisa Overdrive" a darkly futuristic novel by William Gibson. In the story, the internet has evolved to a point where data can assume actual shapes, like buildings, scenery, and even human form. In order to navigate the web, you connect yourself to your computer and mentally enter this alternative world.

One of the characters, Bobby (also known as "the Count") decides to "move" full-time into the matrix. He hires a nurse to take care of his body, keeping his physical self alive while his mind takes up permanent residence in cyberspace.

I know just how Bobby feels.

It seems as if I've been living inside my computer lately. Between doing research on the internet, reading the online news, updating the Incidencia Democratica homepage, editing digital images for illustrations, and trying to keep my own homepage current with journal entries and photographs... well, I spend more time in the virtual world than the real world.

Which is infinitely ironic when you consider that my job, and part of my personal calling, is to analyze, interpret, and share my views on Guatemalan and international "reality" with others.

Don't get me wrong... I love what I do, both professionally and personally. I love the fact that the lines between those two parts of my life are blurred to the point of nonexistence. I love the fact that I'm constantly challenged, creatively and intellectually.

Heck, I've been giving my brain such a workout lately that I'm beginning to develop massive mental muscles! (Hoo-ah!)

But still I worry that I'm missing out on the world beyond my laptop.

In the book, the Count's body finally withers away, leaving his consciousness trapped for eternity in cyberspace. To avoid a similarly tragic fate, I need to seek a better balance between the screen and the street, the web and the world.

I'm open to any ideas or suggestions. In fact, I'm Count-ing on you!

Typing in Quiché

You asked for it... I (finally) found it: good news from Guatemala!

Guatemalan Linguists Introduce New Software Prototype in Mayan Quiché Language

By Sergio De Leon, Associated Press Writer

Guatemala City (AP) -- Guatemalan linguists have distributed a prototype for a computer program that operates in the Mayan Indian language of Quiché, a project aimed at preserving the ancient language and raising its profile worldwide.

The prototype was developed by language experts at The Academy of Mayan Languages in conjunction with computer students at the state-run San Carlos University, and was distributed this week to about 100 potential users for their feedback, including native speakers, publishing houses, consultants and cultural experts.

The project was inspired by a law, passed last year, that promotes the use and preservation of native Indian languages, Academy president and linguist Modesto Baquiax Barreno said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.

The law "challenged us with the important goal of distributing writings in the Mayan languages, and that led us to take advantage of existing technology," Baquiax said.

Academy director Rigoberto Juarez said designers hoped the project would "raise the status of the language to that enjoyed by others in these types of systems on a worldwide level."

"As Quiché speakers ... we want to give our language the same political profile that other languages have."

The program was created with OpenOffice.org software to operate on the Linux system.

The prototype contains menus, instructions, help texts, and grammatical and spell-checking programs in the Quiché language, a feat that took "hard and extensive work," Baquiax said, noting that designers inserted 8,000 Quiché words in the program. About 1.2 million of Guatemala's 14 million inhabitants speak Quiché.

In the future, the academy hopes to design programs in the majority of the other 21 Indian languages spoken in Guatemala.

The designers also will urge computer manufacturers and software designers to take the languages into account when designing their products, including redesigning keyboards to meet the languages' specific needs.

"Some in this country say it is difficult to write (in Quiché) and that it is impossible to learn because it doesn't have a fixed grammatical structure or because the sounds are different and strange," Baquiax said. "Those are discriminatory arguments."

The software is the second recent project in Guatemala aimed at promoting the Central American country's majority Mayan cultures. In December, President Oscar Berger announced the establishment of a university dedicated to rescuing and developing ancient Mayan knowledge.

The Mayans were a complex society known for building massive pyramids and cities. They were advanced astronomers who created a calendar to measure time that rivals those of today, and were accomplished mathematicians who introduced the concept of zero.

The Mayan Empire emerged in about 250 B.C. in and around what is now Guatemala, reached its peak from about A.D. 250-A.D. 900 and ended with the arrival of Spanish conquerors in the 16th century.

--The Academy of Mayan Languages (in English): http://www.iisd.org/50comm/commdb/desc/d37.htm

Human Rights #1

On February 28th, the US State Department released their "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004" for 196 countries.

Many governments were offended by the reports which they criticized as being politically-skewed and erroneous. Others like Mexico, stated that "unfortunately the report is true" but questioned the U.S. government's "moral authority" to evaluate the human rights situation in other countries.

As the Mexican human rights ombudsman stated: "Sucede que el burro está hablando de orejas", which roughly translated means: who is the donkey to criticize the big ears of others? In English, the same phrase would be "it's the pot calling the kettle black." Get it?

At any rate, the Report on Guatemala does contain very valuable and interesting information which I will be summarizing for you over the next few days. The first section is a general overview of Guatemala in 2004 (my comments are in blue):

* Elections were held in 2003, and Oscar Berger of the Grand National Alliance --GANA-- won a 4-year term, which started in January.

* The judiciary is independent; however, it suffered from inefficiency, corruption, and intimidation.

* The Government occasionally tasked the army with providing personnel to support the police. (Basically crime is so bad that the army has to patrol the streets along with the police.)

* The influence of organized crime remained pervasive but waned considerably within the executive branch. (The amazingly corrupt previous administration of Alfonso Portillo had close ties to organized crime.)

* The civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces.

* The Guatemalan population is approximately 12.1 million.

* Apparel, nontraditional agricultural exports, and tourism grew rapidly, earning more than traditional exports of coffee, sugar, and bananas.

* Remittances (the money immigrants send to their families back in Guatemala), totaled approximately $2.5 billion, and constituted the largest source of foreign exchange. More than 30% of the population depended on remittances to raise the family income above the poverty line. (In other words, an additional 4 millions Guatemalans would be living in poverty without those funds!)

* More than 50% of the work force and 60% of the poor were engaged in some form of agriculture. (And this is the population most vulnerable to the negative effects of the CAFTA free trade agreement.)

* Land distribution was highly skewed: 1% of farms contained more than one-third of all cultivated land. (Think about that.)

* There was a marked disparity in income distribution, and poverty was pervasive, particularly in the large indigenous community.

* Combined unemployment and underemployment reached an estimated 18%, and 70% of the population was employed in the informal sector. (Informal sector means: unsalaried, full-time work, such as street merchants or food vendors, etc.)

* Approximately 57% of the total population and 71% of persons in rural areas lived in poverty; 22% of the population lived in extreme poverty. (Extreme poverty is defined as people living on less than $1 per day)

The complete Report is available at:

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

C'est la vie

Hey, where are you going?

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United States is no longer the top destination for people seeking asylum in industrialized nations. So where are the refugees now seeking refuge?

France!

Yep, the number of asylum applications in France rose 3% last year to 61,600. The United States dropped from 73,780 to 52,360. Britain came in third with 40,200 refugees, followed by Germany and Canada.

Last year, fewer refugees came to the United States from its major sources, including China, Haiti, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and Indonesia.

"If genuine refugees are not now claiming asylum because they're concerned that the system is loaded against them, that obviously would be very worrying indeed, and it may be the case in some countries," said UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville.

(I don't get it... I thought we had the Freedom Fries!)