Immigration article

Legal or illegal: Hispanics are the backbone of California farms

AFP News

Mecca, United States - Arnolfo Caceres has just earned another 75 US cents by filling a crate of lettuce in this desert town where illegal immigrants are the fuel that drives California's crucial agriculture industry.

Central American peasants like the 56-year-old Caceres, most of them undocumented laborers, form the backbone of the workforce in the fertile Coachella Valley farming hamlet of Mecca, 185 miles east of Los Angeles.

And like many of the thousands of illegal workers here, Caceres feels a strong sense of frustration at becoming the sudden focus of national attention as conservative lawmakers in Washington push to pass a draconian new law that would kick illegal immigrants out of the United States.

"If they kick us out, who will pick the fruit and vegetables?" asked fellow laborer Jose Figueroa.

"What will they do, get a gringo to work in the fields?" added the young man from Cuernavaca, Mexico, who harvests carrots for eight to 10 hours a day, six days a week.

Many of the laborers in the oasis town dismiss the US immigration reform plans as "rhetoric," and are proud that the Hispanic-dominated protests in US cities last weekend were so huge that they made a strong community statement against the proposed criminalization of illegal immigrants.

"It's too much that they say that undocumented immigrants are criminals, they are just working people," said Maria Gonzalez, who teaches in Mecca's public high school.

People in Mecca have what they need to live and their primary goal is to save enough to send 100 dollars home every two weeks to their families in Mexico, Guatemala or
El Salvador.

Read the entire article

Tags: Guatemala, Immigration, Immigrants, Mexico, News

Immigration & Opinion Polls

Hey everyone...

Sorry I haven't updated the journal lately. "What happened?", you might ask. (Go ahead, it's ok.)

Well, I'm glad you asked. There's a very simple explanation for my unbloggedness (inblogicity? deblogsure?) during the past few days...

Absolutely nothing interesting is happening here in Guatemala.

Yeah, alright, so I'm lying. The truth is that all sorts of scary, fascinating, and exciting stuff is happening. Not surprisingly, much of that madness has overflowed into the hallowed halls of Incidencia Democratica. The end result: I'm up to my ears in busy.

And as much as I love you (and you know I do) when the choice comes down to keeping you up-to-date on Guatemalan news or rejoicing in a few hours of precious sleep... well, sleep wins 7 times out of 10.

I know, how selfish of me. Which makes me feel all the worse for this: I need your help!

As you probably already know, the U.S. Senate is debating a controversial immigration bill that will impact, one way or another, the lives of millions upon millions of people.

Coincidently my coworkers and I at IDEM are about to embark on our new project of public opinion polls. Next week ten fresh-faced volunteers will arrive for training, and on Friday will go door-to-door conducting a practice poll.

Given current events, I suggested that our first "unofficial" poll cover the subject of immigration and the money that immigrants send back home to their families. We did a bit of brainstorming and came up with the following questions.

The trick is that the survey has to have "closed" answers... that is to say that we have to create not only the questions, but envision the answers that people are most likely to give.

Since you now know as much about opinion polling as I do, maybe you can help me out.

Here are the questions, and the possible answers. I'd be exceedingly grateful for any suggestions, questions, changes, or ideas that you might have. Just add them in the comments section.

Thanks!

1. How you ever traveled to the US or Canada to work? (yes; no)

2. How many times? (1,2,3,4,5 or more)

3. How many years, in total, did you live there? (1,2,3,4,5, 6-10, or 11-20 years)

4. Did you have a work visa? (yes; no; tourist visa)

5. If no, did you apply for a visa? (yes; no)

6. What persuaded you to work in the US or Canada? (There's no work here; I needed to earn more; I wanted to try my luck there; I was encouraged by a friend or family member; to get away from the violence; so I could open a business in Guate; other.)

7. Once there, were you able to send something back to your family members in Guatemala? (yes; no)

8. More or less how much each month? ($1-$99; $100-$200; $201-$300; $301-$400; more)

9. How did your family use the assistance you sent? (Food; clothes; repair/buy house; education; bills: gas, water, electricity; home appliances; pay off debt; other.)

10. Why did you return to Guatemala? (I prefer living here; I was deported; for family reasons; I couldn't take it anymore; I earned enough money; other)

11. Do you plan on returning to the US or Canada to work in the future? (yes; no; don't know)

Questions 12-20 are basically the same, but would be asked of someone who has a family member currently living and working in the US or Canada.

Obviously, because this is a "test run" for training purposes the questions are simple and few. But all of us at IDEM are very interested in the results, and are considering using this same topic for a later, full-fledged poll.

Let me know what you think!

Tags: Guatemala, Immigration, Opinion, Poll, News

Dollars to Donuts

I'm back from El Salvador.

Absolutely fantastic trip... I learned more about opinion polling than I ever would have thought possible in a mere two days! The folks at CS Sondea in San Salvador were extremely friendly, and unbelievably generous with their time, resources, and wisdom.

Of course I now face the uphill battle of putting that intensive, and highly-technical, training into use here at Incidencia Democrática. New programs to learn and more work to do. Which is great because I didn't know what do with all that spare "free time" on my hands.

(For those of you who may not know, the previous sentence was absolutely dripping with sarcasm.)

As for El Salvador itself, I was very glad to be back after a seven year absence. Like Guatemala, much has changed and yet much remains the same. Two brief examples:

The Changed - It was very difficult to get my mind around this one. Do you know what El Salvador's official currency is? The U.S. dollar!

It has been since 2001 when, in a process known as "dollarization", the U.S. dollar replaced the Colon, the national money named after Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón, in Spanish).

Many of the people I spoke to were unhappy about the change, saying that it resulted in much higher prices... especially for basic foods and services. Others mentioned that it was humiliating to have the faces of U.S. presidents on the coins and bills on the currency that they use every day as their national currency. ("Where are our heros?", asked one cab driver.)

For me it was shocking to be one country "further away" from the States and yet see the prices for everything listed in dollars. Gone was the thrill of doing the mental mathematics of currency conversion and the pleasure of using a foreign money (with its unquestionably attractive and colorful banknotes).

Sad to say that after my trip to El Salvador, I returned to Guatemala with a pocket full of U.S. quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. Sigh.

The Same - Ok, this is a very personal confession. I like coffee and donuts. When I first visited El Salvador (many, many years ago) I was secretly thrilled to see a Mister Donuts shop. I always remember the chain as an air-conditioned oasis from the Salvadoran heat, with a menu that combined U.S.-style donuts with delicious local food (ie: pupusas and horchata).

Even though Mister Donut has disappeared from the United States (bought out by rival Dunkin' Donuts) it was evidently continues to do well in El Salvador. In fact they now have a Mister Donut - Paris, where the waitresses wear berets, the walls are covered with sepia photos of France, and a gorgeous stained glass ceiling lights up the room. Oh, and the donuts are yummy, too.

My only regret about the journey to El Salvador was that it only lasted a few days. I look forward to returning soon!

By the way, for those of you who might complain that "dollars and donuts" hardly reflects the beauty and complexity that is El Salvador... I agree. But I had to write about something.

And you should be mightily relieved that the something I chose wasn't a prolonged discussion of the work-related aspects of this trip (unless, of course, you're really into crosstabbing polling variables for qualitative data analysis.)

Tags: Guatemala, El Salvador, CS Sondea, Mister Donut, Travel

On a bus to El Salvador

Quick and personal tonight...

Living in Guatemala means that you always have to "stay on your toes" because you never know what's coming next! (In fact, it could be said Guatemala is a country of de facto ballet dancers.)

For example: yesterday Quique, my boss at Incidencia Democratica, asked if I wouldn't mind traveling to El Salvador tomorrow morning.

"Sure!", I replied.

Which kinda goes to show the extent to which I have become Guatemalatized over the years. A more "normal" person would, perhaps, have first asked "Why?"

The why, it turns out, has to do with a new service that we at Incidencia will be offering in the near future: public opinion polls. To that end, "CS Sondea", a respected Salvadoran polling organization, is assisting us in the early stages of the project.

So tomorrow at 7am I will board a bus for San Salvador to receive two days of training in the software that CS Sondea uses to compile polling data and compute the results.

Yeah, I know that sounds kinda geeky. But I am excited about the trip and looking forward to meeting the folks at CS Sondea. Who knows... I might actually learn something, too!

By the way, if you don't hear from me in the next few days, don't worry. It's probably because my hands are too full of pupusas to be able to type.

Tags: Guatemala, El Salvador, CS Sondea, Travel, Pupusas

International Day Against Racism

You might not have known it (due to the staggering lack of media coverage) but today is the International Day Against Racism.

On this day in 1960, police in Sharpeville, South Africa, shot and killed 69 people (including eight women and ten children) who were demonstrating peacefully against apartheid. More than 80% of those massacred had been shot in the back.

In 1966, the UN General Assembly called on the international community to increase its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination, and designated March 21st as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Kofi Annan, U.N. Secretary General, today called on everyone, from parents to schools to governments, to fight everyday discrimination:

The focus of this year’s commemoration, “Fighting Everyday Discrimination”, challenges us to take meaningful steps to fight commonplace discriminatory practices in our societies. We are all aware that many of man’s greatest atrocities have had racial underpinnings, but the collective toll inflicted by routine racism is frequently overlooked. Indeed, the edifices of humanity’s most horrific crimes have often been built on the foundations of banal bigotry.

From name-calling in schools to hiring and firing decisions in the workplace, from selective media or police coverage of crimes to unequal provision of Government services, the mistreatment of racial or ethnic groups not only abounds in our societies, but often passes unchallenged. That such everyday racism remains prevalent is undeniable. But for it to pass unchallenged is unconscionable.

We must not tolerate the creeping rot of routine discrimination. Nor can we resign ourselves to it as a regrettable attribute of human nature. None of us is born to hate. Intolerance is taught and can be untaught. Legal guarantees are a fundamental part of this fight. But education must be its vanguard. Education can foster awareness and cultivate tolerance. It should begin at home -- where, after all, many racist attitudes have their origin -- continue in school, and become integral to our public discourse. In this struggle against intolerance, citizens must simultaneously be teachers and students.

The United Nations, through its awareness programs, international law-making and rights-monitoring roles, has an important part to play. But all of us need to join this battle. On this International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, let us reaffirm that ultimate success in this struggle rests with ordinary citizens speaking out against “ordinary” intolerance. It is they who must refuse to tolerate discriminatory acts in their daily lives. It is they who must ensure that there is nothing “everyday” about discrimination. And it is they who will benefit the most from communities built on rights and respect for all.

Today is also the anniversary of another important moment in the struggle against racism.

On March 21, 1965, more than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their "Freedom March" from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to win voting rights for African Americans.

According to an article published in the N.Y. Times the following day:

Backed by the armed might of the United States, 3,200 persons marched out of Selma today on the first leg of a historic venture in nonviolent protest.

The marchers, or at least many of them, are on their way to the State Capitol at Montgomery to submit a petition for Negro rights Thursday to Gov. George C. Wallace, a man with little sympathy for their cause.

Today was the third attempt for the Alabama Freedom March. On the first two, the marchers were stopped by state troopers, the first time with tear gas and clubs.

The article adds:

The marchers, a large majority of them Negroes, walked a little over seven miles today.

Governor Wallace is not expected to be at the State Capitol when the marchers arrive at the end of their 54-mile journey. An aide has said that he will probably be "in Michigan, or someplace" making a speech Thursday.

The article goes on to quote Dr. King:

"You will be the people that will light a new chapter in the history books of our nation. Those of us who are Negroes don't have much. We have known the long night of poverty. Because of the system, we don't have much education and some of us don't know how to make our nouns and verbs agree. But thank God we have our bodies, our feet and our souls."

"Walk together, children, don't you get weary, and it will lead us to the promised land. And Alabama will be a new Alabama, and America will be a new America."

Resources:

"None of us is born to hate" - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

The Big Parade: On the Road to Montgomery - NY Times article

Tags: Racism, Race, Freedom March, United Nations, Martin Luther King Jr.

"Cease the Hypocrisy"

US Told to Cease Hypocrisy On Issue of Human Rights

The Daily Observer

At least 400 intellectuals and other personalities around the world have called on the United States to close its detention centers and to cease its deliberate violations of human dignity in the name of the so-called war against terrorism.

Among the intellectuals are nine Nobel Prize winners: Nadine Gordimer (South Africa); Wole Soyinka (Nigeria); Harold Pinter (UK); Mairead Corrigan Maguire (North Ireland); Dario Fo (Italy); José Saramago (Portugal); Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemala), and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Argentina).

Also, Alice Walker, Danny Glover, Ramsey Clark and Howard Zinn, from USA; Albert Kasanda, Republic of Congo; Jitendra Sharma, India; Samin Amin, Egypt and Gerard Depardieu and Pierre Richard, France; Eduardo Galeano and Mario Benedetti from Uruguay, and the Cuban artists Silvio Rodríguez y Pablo Milanés.

Below we reproduce the full text of the declaration:

"The 62nd Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights will begin next March 20th in Geneva, coinciding with the broadcasting of the new footage of the US military torturing Iraqi prisoners.

The United States and its EU allies have successively prevented this Commission from condemning the massive and systematic violations of human rights promoted in the name of the so-called war against terrorism.

"The EU governments have refused to admit the testimonies and evidence submitted by citizens of their countries, who have been victims of several forms of torture at the Guantánamo navy base. They have also allowed the flight of CIA aircraft carrying prisoners to illegal detention centers in Europe and elsewhere.

We, the undersigned call upon intellectuals, artists, social activists, and men and women of goodwill everywhere to join our claims: the Commission on Human Rights or the Council that will substitute it, must demand the immediate closing of the arbitrary detention centers created by the United States, as well as the ceasing of all the deliberate violations of human dignity."

Tags: Guatemala, United States, Human Rights, Guantánamo, News

Guatemala & Racism

United Nations gives Guatemala racism warning

BBC News

The UN Development Program has urged Guatemala to overcome what it called "historically racist attitudes" towards indigenous peoples.

Unless Guatemalans end this situation, the country could become ungovernable, the UNDP report warns.

There are crucial social and economic differences between indigenous people and people of European or mixed indigenous origins - known as Ladinos, it added.

Maya Indians make up about 50% of population - most live in poverty.

According to the UN report, on average the Ladino majority in Guatemala earns more than twice the monthly income of their indigenous counterparts.

The report also highlighted problems such as poor transport links in parts of the country which are mainly inhabited by indigenous people.

The UNDP warned that should the government fail to act, "the country will become increasingly hard to govern".

Last year, five Guatemalan politicians were found guilty of racial discrimination against indigenous activist and Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu.

However, the UN body also highlighted some advances made for the indigenous population in the 10 years between 1994 and 2004, particularly in terms of literacy and health.

Resources:

Diversidad Étnico-Cultural: La Ciudadanía en un Estado Plural

Tags: Guatemala, Indigenous, UNDP, Mayan, News

Starbucks coffee beans in hot water

Starbucks to Install Cargo Security Devices

By Ted Bridis

Starbucks plans to install high-tech sensors to detect tampering with its cargo containers filled with coffee beans shipped from Guatemala.

A study by the Homeland Security Department warned such containers can be opened secretly during shipment to add or remove items without alerting authorities.

Q: What would a terrorist add to a shipment of Guatemalan coffee?

A: Why, milk and sugar of course!

(hehe... sorry about that.)

Read the entire article

Tags: Guatemala, Starbucks, Coffee, News, Bad Joke

Wal-Mart Double Dose

Call it coincidence. Or synchronicity. Or just wicked timing. But every once-in-a-while two pieces of information come together at just the right moment. (Or the wrong moment, depending on your point of view.)

Today a family member sent me an email from the AFL-CIO's Working Families e-Activist Network entitled "Are You Paying the Wal-Mart Tax?"

That newsletter, with its infuriating facts concerning Wal-Mart's lack of adequate health care coverage for many of its workers, arrived at the very moment I was reading an article about Wal-Mart's expansion into Central America.

So, basically: bad news on top of bad news. I've included both items below for your reading "pleasure".

Are You Paying the Wal-Mart Tax?

Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest employer, with 1.39 million workers in 2005. It rakes in profits at a rate of more than $21,000 per minute. Its CEO earned $17.5 million in 2005, and five members of the Walton family are on the list of the 10 wealthiest Americans.

And the company has wrung at least $1 billion in economic development assistance from state and local businesses in the past 20 years.

Yet despite record profits, Wal-Mart still refuses to provide decent health care coverage for its workers. The result is millions and millions of dollars drained from state coffers as taxpayers pay health care costs for many Wal-Mart employees.

Wal-Mart’s workers rely on public funds for health care more than employees from any other company. In at least 19 of 23 states reporting, Wal-Mart was the No. 1 employer with workers on the public health care rolls.

In Washington state, almost 20% of Wal-Mart employees get their health benefits from the state. In Arizona and Maine, 10 got state coverage. In New Jersey, Wal-Mart is the eight-largest employer, but it has more workers on the public health rolls than anyone else.

Lawmakers in more than 30 states are working to pass the Fair Share Health Care Act, already enacted in Maryland. The legislation would make sure that large, profitable companies like Wal-Mart pay their fair share of covering their own employees’ health care in those states.

Our new AFL-CIO report details the impact of Wal-Mart’s stingy behavior on taxpayers and state budgets. Download the report today:

The Wal-Mart Tax: Shifting Health Care Costs to Taxpayers (PDF)

Of course the question which hangs gallows-like in the air is: if Wal-Mart treats its workers with such disdain in the United States, how will it act in countries where the phrase "worker's rights" is still considered an oxymoron?

Wal-Mart gets majority of Central American grocer

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which entered the Central American grocery market by investing in a joint venture in September, on Wednesday said it had obtained majority control of that company and would rename it Wal-Mart Central America.

The move further extends the world's biggest retailer's reach in Latin America, giving Wal-Mart a stronger foothold in the largely poor region of around 41 million people that bridges Mexico with South America.

The United States generated roughly 80% of Wal-Mart's $312 billion in sales for the latest fiscal year, but international operations are growing faster. The success of the company in Mexico, where it is the No. 1 retailer, has also heightened its interest in Central America.

Central American Retail Holding Co., which will become Wal-Mart Central America, has 375 supermarkets and other stores in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica and posted sales of about $2.2 billion in 2005, Wal-Mart said.

Mike Duke, vice chairman of Wal-Mart and head of Wal-Mart International, said in a statement that there were no immediate plans to change the names of any of the store formats operating throughout the region.

Read the entire article

Tags: Guatemala, Wal-Mart, Walmart, Health_Care, News

Hipos in Guatemala

Almost 17 years living in Guatemala, and I'm still learning something new every day...

I was sitting at my desk today, working like a madman, (that's in case my boss Quique is reading this) when Jenny, our receptionist, hands me a glass of water.

Me: Um, thanks!

Jenny: It's not for you.

Me: Then why did you give it me?

Jenny: So that you can help me drink it.

At this point a dull throbbing sensation begins at the base of my skull. I shake my head, in part to ease the pain and in part to convey the fact that I have absolutely no idea what she is talking about. (This actually happens quite frequently in my life.)

Me: ¿Qué?

Jenny: You have to hold the glass while I drink the water.

She bends down and opens her mouth. She nods. I shrug. I start to extend the glass towards her face when...

Jenny: No, no, no. Use your left hand!

At this point I figure that reason has pretty much left the building, so I switch the glass to my left hand, hold it up to her mouth, and begin to pour. (Slowly, because although I am utterly baffled I am not cruel.) She finishes the entire glass of water.

Jenny: Thanks.

Me: Ok, so what kind of witchcraft did you just perform here?

Jenny: Well, now you're my slave for all eternity.

Me: Yeah, I kinda figured it would be something like that.

Jenny: No, actually I had the hiccups.

Me: And my giving you water to drink from my left hand cured you?

Jenny: I'm not hiccupping, am I?

{Pause for a long moment of deep silence and intense scrutiny}

Me: Huh. I'll be darned... I guess it did work!

So there you have it. A cure for hiccups straight from Guatemala. Don't say I never gave you anything.

Oh, by the way, the Spanish word for hiccups is "hipos" (ee-pos) which, for some reason always makes me smile.

Tags: Guatemala, hiccups, Home Remedies, Folk Wisdom, Cure

Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, etc.

I'd like to take a break from the Guatemalan news tonight.

Instead, I want to congratulate a member of my family... my nephew, Peter Perri.

Pete has advanced through the cub scouts and webelos, and has just become a Boy Scout! (That's him in the middle of the photo, looking darned grown up if you ask me.)

Even though I wasn't able to watch him "cross the bridge" at his Blue & Gold dinner, I want Pete to know that his crazy uncle in Guatemala is very proud of him!

I guess the only advice I can offer you Pete... having been a Boy Scout myself... is this:

When you go camping, never store bottles of honey in your sleeping bag. Bears like honey. (And I'm not talking about Winnie the Pooh here, either.)

Congratulations again, Pete!

ps: Thanks to Bob Cruickshank for the excellent photo.

Tags: Boy Scouts, Scouting, Peter, Perri, Family

2005 Guatemala Human Rights Practices

The U.S. State Department has just released their 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. According the State Department, "these reports describe the performance of 196 countries in putting into practice their international commitments on human rights."

Not surprisingly, the one country that isn't subject to any scrutiny is the United States itself.

And while the Bush administration certainly lacks the moral authority to judge the protection of human rights in other countries, the report on Guatemala is certainly worth reading for a detailed analysis on the current problems that plague this country.

Here is the introductory section:

Guatemala is a democratic republic with a population of approximately 12.7 million. In 2003 national elections, generally considered by international observers to be free and fair, Oscar Berger of the Grand National Alliance coalition (GANA) won a four-year term, which began in January 2004. While the civilian authorities generally maintained control of the security forces, there were some instances in which members of the police force acted independently.

While the government generally respected the human rights of its citizens, serious problems remained. Corruption and substantial inadequacies in the police and judicial sectors, widespread societal violence, and impunity for criminal activity continued. The following human rights and societal problems were reported:

• unlawful killings committed by members of the security forces

• widespread societal violence, including numerous killings

• police involvement in kidnappings

• harsh and dangerous prison conditions

• arbitrary arrest and detention

• failure of the judicial system to ensure full and timely investigation, fair trials, or due process

• failure to protect judicial sector officials, witnesses, and civil society organizations from intimidation

• impunity

• discrimination and violence against women

• trafficking in persons, including commercial sexual exploitation of children

• ethnic discrimination, particularly against indigenous people

• ineffective enforcement of labor laws, including child labor provisions

Read the entire Guatemala Report

Tags: Guatemala, Human, Rights, Report, News

International Women's Day

Every March 8th the world celebrates International Women's Day. In honor of this important date I'm posting a terrific press release written by the U.S.-based organization Freedom House.

Women in Many Countries Still Face Basic Challenges to Human Rights

"Violence against women in Latin America is not an isolated problem only found in places like Ciudad Juarez; it continues to be endemic problem around the globe," Windsor noted. Freedom House urges governments to eliminate all discriminatory language against women in legal codes, and further strengthen the specific statutes that prevent violence, including classifying domestic violence as a criminal act.

Read the entire article

Tags: Guatemala, Women's Day, Human Rights, News, Women

What the army giveth, the army taketh away

Ok, I have to confess that I didn't see this one coming.

I just recently did a prolonged rant on why I oppose the hiring of 3,000 ex soldiers to form a paramilitary police force in Guatemala.

I'm somewhat surprised that there hasn't been more of an uproar concerning this desperate and dangerous decision by the Berger administration.

Today, however, one very unlikely group did voice their adamant opposition this controversial crime-fighting measure: private security firms!

In an article published today in elPeriódico, Abner Guoz writes:

The decision by the Defense Ministry to recruit 3,000 former soldiers to provide public safety hasn't exactly benefited everyone. Private security companies have come out on the losing end, as many of their top employees have responded to the government's invitation.

Agents and supervisors, attracted by the possibility of earning an average monthly salary of Q3,000 (US $400), have left the companies where they had been working. A private security guard earns an average salary of Q2,000 (US $266) per month.

To make up for the personnel deficit, security firms have had to travel to the far-flung corners of Guatemala, claims Rodolfo Muñoz Piloña, president of the Association of Private Security Firms.

Sadly for Mr. Muñoz Piloña, he doesn’t receive much sympathy from the government:

Interior Minister, Carlos Vielmann, responded that in this, as in many other cases, the deciding factor is the law of supply and demand. "If you want to keep your people, pay them more", he said.

The article concludes that the 3,000 recruits will soon begin their training. According to military spokesperson, Orlando Archilla:

At the moment we're working on the administrative details, such as the tailoring of the uniforms. But we hope to begin the training before the end of the week.

Read the entire article (español)

Tags: Guatemala, Military, Security, Agents, Army

Land reform and the rural poor

At the dawn of the third millennium, three-quarters of the world's 852 million men and women suffering from hunger are found in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their survival.

Most of them are landless farmers or have such tiny or unproductive plots of land that they cannot feed their families.

For many of these poor farmers, new development opportunities in rural areas would allow more equitable access to basic land and water resources while offering an escape from hunger and poverty.

"Agrarian Reform: A Way out of Hunger and Poverty for Millions of Impoverished Small Farmers"

Today delegates from more than 80 countries descended on Porto Alegre, Brazil to participate in the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD). Organized by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with the support of the Brazilian government, the conference aims to tackle the tough subjects of "agrarian reform, social justice and sustainable development."

As Parviz Koohafkan, Executive Secretary of ICARRD, affirms:

We have just 10 years to reach 2015, the target date set by the international community to reduce by half the number of hungry people in the world. Since the very poorest are landless farmers everywhere it will not be possible to achieve the Millennium Development Goals unless we find sustainable solutions to the challenge existing in the world's rural areas. It is an appointment we cannot afford to miss.

If we want to reduce hunger and poverty in the world, we must go to the root causes of the problem. And in the poor rural zones, one of the main problems is the lack of secure access to factors of production, particularly land and water.

In this context, today's Prensa Libre newspaper ran a story about rural poverty and Guatemala's indigenous population.

The article, entitled "3 out of 4 Indigenous People are Poor", states that:

According to United Nations data, 70% of the rural Guatemalan population, especially the indigenous population, lives below the poverty line.

Indigenous peoples are the most vulnerable sector within the rural population, as they have the least access to basic services: education, health and housing.

In Guatemala, where they comprise over 40% of the population, three out of every four indigenous people live in poverty, according to the U.N.

The article adds:

The United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) "Human Development Report 2005" places Guatemala amongst the four countries with the greatest inequality of income. The others are Namibia, Central African Republic and Brazil.

37.4% of the Guatemalan population lives on less than US $2 per day. 16% lives on less than US $1 per day.

Resources:

Agrarian Reform: a way out of hunger and poverty for millions of impoverished small farmers

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD)

Prensa Libre - Tres de Cada Cuatro Indígenas Son Pobres

UNDP Human Development Report 2005 - "Inequality and Human Development"

The International Land Coalition

ONU: 850 millones de pobres viven en áreas rurales

Tags: Guatemala, Poverty, Land, Reform, Indigenous

Hurricanes & Emergency Aid

Two interesting and related stories in the news today.

First, some background: United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, is in Guatemala for a three-day, high level regional meeting on preparations for the forthcoming 2006 hurricane season.

Yesterday Mr. Egeland made a rather dire forecast...

UN: Next hurricane season could match 2005, or worse

By Mica Rosenberg, Reuters
02 Mar 2006

Guatemala City - This year's hurricane season could match the record breaking destruction caused by storms in 2005, the United Nations warned.

In 2005, an unprecedented 27 tropical storms, 15 of which became full-blown hurricanes, battered Central America and the U.S. Gulf coast, killing more than 3,000 people and causing tens of billions of dollars in damage.

"We have reason to fear that 2006 could be as bad as 2005," Jan Egeland, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs who coordinates U.N. emergency relief, told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We have had a dramatic increase in climate related natural disasters and at the same time we have more vulnerable people, so it's a double effect," he said in Guatemala, where he is meeting Central American leaders to plan for future disasters.

"That's why we need to prepare in order to prevent the damage."

Hurricane Stan killed more than 2,000 people in Central America last October. Guatemala was hardest hit with mudslides burying villages and washing away roads.

Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans and much of the U.S. Gulf coast in late August, killing about 1,300 people.

Guatemala's losses from Stan were nearly $1 billion, equivalent to more than 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product, according to a recent U.N. study.

The U.N. launched an international appeal for more than $30 million in hurricane relief here but has only managed to raise two-thirds of that amount so far.

Most is earmarked for reconstruction rather than prevention. Programs to reinforce buildings and train emergency workers are expensive but Egeland insisted that every dollar spent on prevention can save millions in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

"Haiti is the most vulnerable society in the region and Cuba is one of the best prepared, if not the best prepared for natural disasters," said Egeland. "The same hurricane which would take zero lives in Cuba would kill massively in Haiti."

Latin American and Caribbean nations are prone to floods, earthquakes and forest fires as well as hurricanes, the fallout from which is compounded by poverty and weak infrastructure.

In the second article, the United Nations just announced the creation of a new global emergency fund.

According to the article: "The idea is to give the world body the ability to quickly send emergency supplies to areas hit by natural disasters and other humanitarian crises, without having to wait for international donors to send checks."

Which sounds to me like a brilliant idea. Now if we can only get the United States (and some other major cheapskates... I mean, counties) to actually donate to the fund.

New UN fund to speed global disaster response

Reuters
Fri Mar 3, 2006

The United Nations next week launches a new global emergency fund to provide swifter relief to victims of natural disasters, but with far less money on hand than the $500 million it had hoped to raise.

The Central Emergency Response Fund will have just $188 million when it opens for business, which is nonetheless a significant improvement over an existing U.N. standby loan facility of $50 million.

Donations to the new fund, which will be able to make grants as well as loan money, have come from 19 of the 191 U.N. member-states: Armenia, Britain, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Grenada, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Sweden, Switzerland and Sri Lanka.

But some wealthy nations including the United States, Japan, Australia, Italy and Canada have yet to make pledges.

"Governments have committed to responding quickly and effectively to help those most in need, yet now that we have a global emergency fund, governments seem reluctant to actually put money in," said Sarah Kline, an official of international relief organization Oxfam.

Read the entire article

Tags: Guatemala, United Nations, Egeland, Hurricane, Relief

Guatemala Police Archives - New Update!

Here's an update on the amazing stash of police archives discovered last year.

I've included an edited version below, but I encourage you to read the entire article.

Guatemalan Police Files May Reveal Secrets

By Juan Carlos Llorca, Associated Press

Guatemala City - Technicians using soft-bristle brushes are working to preserve documents that could contain evidence of government involvement in the torture and disappearance of thousands of Guatemalans during the country's 36-year civil war.

But millions of other pages remain vulnerable to mold, rain, fire, vermin and sabotage in a leaky, humid police warehouse where they were discovered eight months ago. The Guatemalan human rights ombudsman's office doesn't have enough money, people or technology to examine what secrets they contain.

"There could be evidence of human rights violations, but we might never find out if the files decay or are destroyed," said Carla Villagran, director of analysis for the national human rights ombudsman, which stumbled upon the towering stacks of mildewing documents last June.

At least 48 million pages remain haphazardly piled to the ceiling across five rooms in a decrepit, two-story warehouse at the edge of a semi-abandoned police complex filled with junked cars in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood.

With $2.5 million from Sweden, the Guatemalans plan to buy high-speed scanners and build a digital archive of the files. The U.N. Development Program is providing advice and Spain has promised to send archive specialists. A razor wire-topped fence surrounds the building, and guards keep watch around the clock.

But the files remain vulnerable. There are no security cameras and an incendiary device could be tossed from the street through open windows or cracks in the roof and walls. Heavy rains regularly drench documents already coated in mold. Decades of dust and dirt make deciphering information difficult, as do rats, bats and other vermin.

Guatemala's civil war was Latin America's bloodiest in the 20th century. U.S.-backed military and civilian governments destroyed entire villages as they stamped out leftist guerrillas. About 200,000 people, mostly civilians, died or vanished before U.N.-brokered peace accords ended the fighting in December 1996.

Human rights groups hope the files contain evidence the National Police, which was disbanded in 1997 because of its notorious reputation, worked with other shadowy security forces that wrongfully imprisoned, tortured and killed suspected insurgents.

But potentially useful information, such as pictures depicting torture and lists of people classified as "disappeared," "assassinated" or "political detainee," — is mixed in with mundane paperwork, such as driver's license applications and a list of songs played by a police band.

"We haven't begun to look at the files," Villagran said. "Until now, we have just cleaned and prepared them for scanning."

Read the entire article!

Related journal entries:

Guatemala's Secret Police Files

Guatemalan Police Archives Update

Guatemala Police Archives Update #2

More Police files found!

Tags: Guatemala, Police, Archives, Files, Human Rights

A Basketball Hero

I realize that this particular journal entry has nothing to do with Guatemala, human rights, photography or any of the usual themes of my website.

But I just finished watching a video from the CBS Evening News that was so over-the top exciting, astounding, and inspiring that I had to share it with you.

It is the story of Jason McElwain, a High School basketball team student manager with autism, who finally gets his chance to shine! (I won't go into any more detail, because I don't want to ruin the ending.)

The link to download the 7MB Windows Media file can be found at:

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=34616

Just click on the "Download File" button (it's ok, it's perfectly safe) and then select "Save to Disk".

Trust me, you'll want to watch this beautiful story more than once!

For more on the story read this news article.

Tags: Jason, McElwain, Basketball, Autism, CBS