Roosevelt Has Never Been This Happy!

An ad from a Guatemalan Hooters:

I really don't know what I could possibly add to this.

Via Edge of the American West.

sink hole to end all sink holes

This is a truly amazing photo of a sink hole that opened up in Guatemala City after all the rain from Tropical Storm Agatha. (Hat tip.) It's been a rough week for Guatemala, with both Pacaya and the torrential rains.


The shot is CC licensed on flickr by the Gobierno de Guatemala. Just unbelievable.

Volcanic Eruptions in Guatemala and Ecuador

This has been a banner year for ash spew. My guess is that we will see a short term global temperature dip as a result of all of the recent activity. Cue climate change denialists... Now. Volcán Pacaya near Guatemala City and Volcán Tungurahua returned to active eruption this past week. Pacaya apparently emitted more than just ash on nearby communities, and the linked article includes a short but harrowing tale of one mother hiding with her kids under the bed as marble-sized hot rocks rained on her house.

I don't know either Pacaya or Guatemala City, but I do know Tungurahua and its nearby tourist haven Baños from years of traveling to Ecuador. Back in the 1990s Baños was a hopping backpacker's town, full of the retinue of Israeli, Australian, and Gringo shoestring travelers making the trip from Buenos Aires to Bogotá. Of course, this also meant there was a large ex-pat community running businesses catering to the travelers. I have fond memories of Baños, though I haven't been there in close to ten years. I spent part of my honeymoon there, including a day riding horses on the slopes of Tungurahua.

Baños's economy began to struggle in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to a series of eruptions from Tungurahua, which re-awoke in 1999. The latest major eruption, which sent ash to Guayaquil and on to the Pacific, will undoubtedly hurt the local economy again. In some ways, it seems that the precariousness of Baños's economy is analogous to the position Ecuador holds in the international economy-- dependent on outside dollars (both literally and figuratively), on the whims of natural phenomena beyond its control (be it volcanic eruptions, El Niño-induced droughts, etc.), and on the irrationalities of the international economic order. Baños is not only downstream from Tungurahua, it's also just upstream from a major hydroelectric dam project- the Agoyan Dam on the Pastaza River made famous again a few years ago in the opening scenes of John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hitman. It's a beautiful place, but its trapped, as Ecuador is more generally, between the grinding pressures of natural instability and international "development."

(Cross posted here.)

Around Latin America

-One of the top officials of the Stroessner regime has died, and with him, hopes at getting answers for some victims' families have died as well. Alberto Cantero, who spent 10 years in prison for his role in "disappearances," passed away at the age of 75 this week, taking with him to the grave secrets of how victims of the 35-year-dictatorship were tortured and killed and where they are buried.

-In Argentina, former detention centers are facing disrepair as the Buenos Aires government has not paid for their upkeep. These centers, while no longer in use, still serve as powerful sites in retaining the memory of the horrors of the 7-year dictatorship that left upwards of 30,000 Argentines dead.

-The trial of former Costa Rican president Miguel Angel Rodriguez has begun in Costa Rica. Rodriguez is charged with corruption after he allegedly accepted bribes from a French telecommunications company while in office.

-PBS aired "Worse than War" tonight. In it, Daniel Goldhagen confronted former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who led the government during some of the most brutal massacres of Guatemala's decades-long civil war. You can see the Rios Montt footage from the documentary here.

-In Brazil, the poor continue to be disproportionately affected by last week's floods and landslides. The Rio state government has begun destroying favelas on lands deemed unsafe, dislocating hundreds of poor cariocas. The flood has also indefinitely shut down trips to the Christ Redeemer statue, as workers try to dig the railway and roads to Brazil's iconic statue out from all of the mud.

-Speaking of the favelas, I highly recommend this article, which details the relations between favela residents and the police who often occupy the favelas for long periods of time in the "war on drugs."

-In more bad news out of Brazil, the country is in shock after a 40-year-old worker confessed to the rape-murder of six teenage boys near Brasilia. The story comes in the wake of scandal within the Church after a Catholic priest was videotaped having sex with a 19-year-old former altar boy while others alleged they had also been abused by the priest.

-Finally, on a more lighthearted note, this is absolutely a battle I can support 100%:

The growing presence of alien spirits in the Brazilian caipirinha has led enthusiasts to attempt to "rescue" their national drink. The Save the Caipirinha campaign was launched last month with an online petition that has attracted 10,000 signatures from cachaca fans, chefs, and celebrities.

"We formally declare that we no longer wish to see our caipirinha being made with vodka or sake instead of cachaca," reads the campaign manifesto, the brainchild of the Cachaca Leblon brand. "We do not accept that this drink, which is famous and respected around the world, be disrespected in Brazil."

I couldn't agree more. When I first arrived in Brazil, "caipivodkas" were huge among young drinkers, and I was horrified. It wasn't just that it was flavorless alcohol with fruit in it; cachaca is so good as it is in Brazil that substituting it with vodka made about as much sense to me as substituting Brazilian beef with a hot pocket. I none-too-politely pointed out that I failed to understand why on earth I would consume a flavorless drink, much less one I could make in the United States, when they had such amazing cachacas that were unavailable to me in the United States. I'm glad to see the battle against caipivodkas (and caipi-sakis) gaining traction in Brazil, and will make it a point to consume many caipirinhas as a political statement next time I'm there.

Around Latin America

I had hoped to write in depth about some of these stories in individual posts, but an unexpected trip out of town will keep me from blogging for several days. I still hope to come back to a couple of these, but until then, the stories themselves are well worth checking out.

-Death squads in Colombia have apparently begun targeting Afro-Colombian activists. The racial tensions in Colombia are often under-acknowledged, but stories like this serve as a strong reminder that complex race-relations among Afro-descendants and others in the Americas are not the monopoly of Brazil and the United States alone.

-Also in Colombia, another 14 soldiers have been set free from jail in the Soacha murders case. Like the previous 17 soldiers, the men were set free on a technicality, thus setting back efforts against paramilitary actions and human rights violations in Colombia even further.

-Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has been cleared in the assassination of an opposition lawyer. The investigation arose when Rodrigo Rosenberg was murdered last May, with a videotape surfacing with Rosenberg claiming that if he were killed, it was because Colom had ordered it. The incident led to protests both against and in favor of Colom, and even the FBI had gotten involved with the investigation. The investigation ruled Rosenberg's death a suicide in which he tried to take down Colom's government with him, which sounds somewhat unlikely, but isn't so strange within the way the report narrates the events. They may be wrong still, but it appears Colom has emerged from this strange challenge to his office.

-Some in Brazil and the U.S. wonder if a new film on Lula's early years as a metal-worker and union leader will influence the elections this year. [I'll certainly have more on this later.]

-It turns out, Roberto Micheletti isn't the only perpetual participant in Honduran politics, as the Honduran Congress handed out 50 other lifetime government positions. And as for Micheletti himself, not only is he remaining in politics, but he plans to continue to be a very vocal participant.

-Finally, in Argentina, prison riots are bringing the issue of prisoners' rights to the fore in Argentina, which, like many other countries in the Americas (including the U.S.), suffers from an appalling penal system that demonstrates little concern for the conditions of prisons and rights of prisoners.

Around Latin America

-In good news from Guatemala, this past week, an army officer was convicted for his role in the disappearance of eight indigenous villagers in 1981. Colonel Marco Antonio Sanchez was sentenced to 53 years in prison, and three of his subordinates also received prison sentences. While this isn't the first incident of conviction in an "enforced disappearance" case, it does mark the first time that a high-ranking military officer has been convicted in such a case. Meanwhile, lawyers entered damning evidence from secret Guatemalan military archives in the case of charges of genocide against former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who seized power in 1982 during Guatemala's 36-year civil war and who oversaw some of the worst crimes against humanity during the war. While Montt is far from conviction still, the fact that a jury has found Sanchez guilty, combined with the horrible details of the military documents in the Montt case, allow hope that Montt finally pays for his crimes. And while an acquittal would be an injustice, the simple fact that formerly-secret military documents have now become public, revealing just how horrible Montt's "administration" (and others during the civil war) were will deal a major blow to any efforts to rehabilitate Montt or the right in this war.

-In bad news for women's rights in Brazil, a Brazilian doctor who performed abortions was found dead in her car last week. Authorities are investigating whether Dr. Neide Mota Machado's death was a murder or a suicide. Machado had had her medical license stripped earlier this year, after she was accused of performing nearly 10,000 abortions in Brazil (where abortion is illegal save for cases of rape, severe deformation of the fetus, or of a threat to the life of the mother). For those who feel that making abortion in the United States legal only in the cases of rape, incest, or health risks to the mother, it is worth pointing out that over 230,000 women entered hospitals due to complications from botched illegal abortions in 2008 alone.

-Finally, one of the darker aspects of the U.S. embargo on Cuba emerged in a recent story that alleged that "a dozen Cuban children with heart defects were forced to endure unnecessary surgery because the U.S. embargo blocked them from receiving American-made catheters." While the U.S. apparently made such exports to Cuba legal back in 1992, the paperwork is enough of a "hassle" that medical companies have little reward in going through all the bureaucracy imposed by the limited embargo, which allows medicine to get to Cuba. Even so, after $142 health care items were approved to go to Cuba in 2008, only $1.2 million worth of goods actually reached the island, according to this report. While I question the use of the term "genocide" to describe unnecessary surgeries on 12 children, there is no denying the fact that the embargo has very real consequences upon the daily lives and even survival of many Cubans, and this story just offers one more very stark reminder of that fact.

Several Human Rights Cases in Latin America

Between leaving New York and arriving in New Mexico, I suddenly found that I would be teaching (with all of the accompanying research and lecture-writing) at UNM this semester, on top of working on my dissertation, so blogging will not be as prevalent as I would like.

However, there are a few things related to human rights worth noting this week. First, Guatemala sentenced former military commissioner Felipe Cusanero to 150 years in prison for his role in 6 disappearances between 1982 and 1984. The sentence is a major one, because it is the first conviction of anybody for human rights abuses during the 36-year civil war. This is rather remarkable and depressing, given that upwards of 250,000 people were murdered during the civil war, and the armed forces committed nearly all (80%) of those murders. It's almost inexcusable that it's taken 13 years for even one conviction, but you have to start somewhere, and hopefully, many more will follow. And at least Guatemala did not give Cusanero some weak sentence, either.

In Argentina, a new book by a mother of one of the disappeared from the Dirty War (1976-1983) reminds us just how heartbreaking and difficult those cases continue to be as they haunt their families. In fighting for human rights and against abuses, it's easy to lose sight sometimes of how this still affects people daily, but just reading the opening sentence (quoted in the article) is a devastating reminder of how real the effects for many remain.

In Chile, a judge has issued arrest warrants for another 120 intelligence officers connected to torture and other crimes against humanity during the Pinochet regime, even while many torturers remain on the public payrolls in Chile. And for any who still think Pinochet led Chile for purely selfless reasons for 17 years, the fact that he managed to earn $25 million (with $20 million of it having "no justifiable origin") would hopefully destroy any such notions. Unfortunately, Cold War zealotry dies hard, and he'll still have his defenders for years to come.

Finally, only marginally related, a major obstacle to Alvaro Uribe's quest for a third term was overcome yesterday, as the Colombian House of Representatives approved the referendum bill for a third term (probably made him feel a bit better as he tries to recover from H1N1). It's still not a lock - the Court could surprise people and rule it unconstitutional, and the Colombian people could vote it down. But neither of those outcomes is very likely, given Uribe's support both on the courts and among the general Colombian population. For all of the spastic reactions from the right against Ecuador's Correa for seeking a second term or Manuel Zelaya trying to get a referendum for a second term before being unceremoniously overthrown in a coup, Uribe is currently the one Latin American leader that really seems to be pushing the boundaries of "democracy" with his efforts towards re-election right now.

Chile, Panama Lead Latin America in Incarceration Rates; Brazil Still Has Highest Total Number

While not as high as the U.S., a recent study has shown that Chile and Panama have the highest rates of imprisoned among their populations, with rates of 310 and 275 per 100,000, respectively. And I admit, I was somewhat surprised - I had expected Brazil to be higher (though it is fifth, with 226 per 100,000, behind El Salvador and Uruguay). On the other end of the spectrum, Bolivia has the lowest rates (85 per 100,000), followed by Guatemala (88), Paraguay (100), Ecuador (118), and Nicaragua (120).

Of course, extrapolating that data to actual population stats, Brazil's prison population is quantitatively higher than any other country in Latin America. What's more, statistics don't reveal the appalling conditions of Brazilian prisons (or elsewhere - I can't help but think that, with overcrowding going well above 120%, Panamanian prisons are also in bad shape). The report also makes several other observations that should be common sense, but still need to be said: that the crime rates are due to socio-economic factors like wide gaps between wealthy and poor, and not to a breakdown in societal morals; or that the death penalty (used in Guatemala and the U.S.) does not deter violent crime. I don't know if this report will accomplish any real change, but it does highlight the problems facing many countries in how to deal with crime, the appalling conditions many prisoners are facing, and the need to push hard for basic human rights for prisoners, too, no matter how heinous the crime.

Jury Rules in Favor of Hospital in Deportation of Brain-Damaged Guatemalan

A couple of weeks ago, I commented on the pending decision of a jury in the case of a brain-damaged Guatemalan whom a Florida hospital shipped back to his country instead of continuing to care for him. Well, last week, the jury rendered its decision:

A hospital that sent a seriously brain injured illegal immigrant back to Guatemala - over the objections of his family and legal guardian - did not act unreasonably, a jury found Monday.

Deputy Court Clerk Carol Harper said the unanimous six-member jury found in favor of the hospital and against the guardian of 37-year-old Luis Jimenez, a Mayan Indian from Guatemala.

[...] The hospital had cared for Jimenez, who was uninsured, for three years. But it was unable to find any nursing home to take him permanently because his immigration status meant the government would not reimburse his care. [...]

The lawsuit filed by Jimenez's cousin and legal guardian sought nearly $1 million to cover the estimated lifetime costs of Jimenez's care in Guatemala, as well as damages.

The hospital said it was merely following a court order - which was being appealed at the time - and that Jimenez wanted to go home.

This is a pretty disappointing decision. Obviously, the hospital was not in the easiest spot. What really disturbs me about this case, though, is that the hospital dumped Jimenez while the legal decision on what was to be done with him was still in the appeal process. And both sides on the case agreed that the laws need to better address the issue that affected Jimenez:

"There is no doubt that the state government and the federal government has to address the situation," [Jimenez's cousin and American caretaker's lawyer] said. "They can't let something like this happen again." [...]

But [hospital CEO and president Mark E. Robitaille] agreed lawmakers must step in to ensure hospitals are not put in the same position in the future.

"This is not simply an issue facing Martin Memorial. It is a critical dilemma facing health care providers across Florida and across the United States," he added.

There have been some victories for the broader issue of the rights of illegal immigrants in the years since the hospital deported Jimenez in 2003. Gaspar did win the appeal that was pending when the hospital shipped Jimenez back to Guatemala, establishing the precedent "that state judges cannot authorize what is tantamount to private deportation of undocumented immigrants, and that hospitals have to follow the federal requirements that are in place for the discharge of all people, including undocumented immigrants." Still, the fact that Jimenez was deported despite this later ruling, and that the hospital, in spite of clearly violating the court decision and legal process, will not have to pay for the care (and let's not forget, Jimenez was hit by an American drunk driver - he was not injured through his own actions or decisions) that now falls on Jimenez's family in Guatemala, is a disappointing ruling. Hopefully, the appeal works out in favor of Jimenez and his family, and they can benefit from some of the broader legal rights born out of the Jimenez case.

Around Latin America

-It's been a really busy week. For starters, Manuel Zelaya has apparently returned to Honduras, but what's going to happen next is anybody's guess.

...UPDATE: Apparently he entered briefly, but has returned to Nicaragua to avoid arrest. We'll see what follows...

-Brazil has agreed to allow Paraguay to sell its surplus energy from the Itaipu dam to Brazilian companies other than the state-run Eletrobras. The Itaipu issue has been a stickler for years - Brazil needs more energy as it grows, and Paraguay has had a surplus thanks to the agreement to share power from the dam between the two countries when it was built back in the 1970s. Although Lula had originally said he would not review the contract from the 1970s when Lugo won election, he has since taken a more diplomatic stance (as is characteristic of his administration), and it now seems I was correct in suggesting that this would not be nearly the diplomatic crisis between the two countries that some scholars thought it would be.

-There's also great news on how Brazil has stemmed the spread of AIDS:

Two decades ago, it would have been hard to imagine finding an upside to an HIV crisis of the scope that Brazil had on its hands. The World Bank estimated that 1.2 million Brazilians would be infected by the turn of the century — by far the highest number of any country in the region. But today, there is plenty of good news to go around. Thanks to aggressive intervention, Brazil has only about half as many HIV cases as predicted. And the country's popular President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula for short, has taken the show on the road: HIV/AIDS assistance is becoming a powerful tool in the president's growing diplomatic chest.

The article traces how Brazil's government offered free antiretroviral medicine to victims beginning in 1996 and aggressively launching both treatment and prevention programs (in what is simultaneously a reminder that government health programs can and do work, and that even Fernando Henrique Cardoso got some things right in his administration). It also links those efforts to Brazil's broader diplomatic accomplishments since Lula took office in 2002, and is well worth reading in its (relatively brief) entirety.

-I've commented before on Brazil's efforts to build alliances with African countries. Those efforts have not gone unnoticed, as Mozambique President Armando Guebuza this week called Lula's government "a true ally and partner in the fight against poverty." I've said it before, and I'll say it again: when discussing Brazil's ascendance as a global economic and political actor, one cannot overstate the strides made via Lula's insistence on negotiating with any legitimate government, regardless of ideology, if the other governments had things to offer Brazil and vice versa. By refusing to exclude countries like Venezuela or China or the U.S. over ideological issues, Brazil has greatly strengthened its presence globally, and has made many friends where other countries and regions like the U.S., the EU, and others have been alienating countries. And Lula's focus on Africa has seemed genuine and useful for both Brazil and Africa, and I can only hope (though with baited breath) that the next Brazilian president will continue this trend.

-While things are goign smoothly between Brazil and Paraguay, the same cannot be said for Brazil and Budweiser's owning company, AmBev - the anti-trust organs in Brazil are hitting AmBev with a record-setting fine of $150 million reais ($79 million dollars US) for "anti-competitive practices" dating back to 2004 in Brazil. Although the fine only marked 1% of AmBev's 2003 income, the announcement was enough to make stocks drop in Brazil Wednesday.

-In broader economic terms, Latin America may have gotten some good news this week, as Nouriel Roubini, known as "Dr. Doom" for his depressing-but-ultimately-accurate prediction of the economic crisis the world began to face last year, offered some rare optimism in discussing Latin America's outlook:

Major emerging powers such as China, India and Brazil are among nations that may recover fastest once the global economy picks up, Roubini told reporters at the conference. He also mentioned Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Peru as countries better- positioned to grow. Countries facing the biggest challenges include emerging markets in Eastern Europe, such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Ukraine, he said.

-In a stomach-churning story of despicable actions, a jury is considering a lawsuit against a Florida hospital that deported a brain-injured illegal immigrant back to Guatemala in 2003.

The lawsuit seeks nearly $1 million to cover the estimated lifetime costs of his care in Guatemala, as well as damages for the hospital's alleged "false imprisonment" and punitive damages to discourage other medical centers from taking similar action.

Jimenez was a Mayan Indian who was sending money home to his wife and young sons when in 2000, a drunken driver plowed into a van he was riding in, leaving him a paraplegic with the mental capability of a fourth grader. Because of his brain injury, his cousin Montejo Gaspar was made his legal guardian.

Jimenez spent nearly three years at Martin Memorial before the hospital, backed by a letter from the Guatemalan government, got a Florida judge to OK the transfer to a facility in that country. Gaspar appealed.

But without telling Jimenez's family - and the day after Gaspar filed an emergency request to stop the hospital's plan - Martin Memorial put Jimenez on a $30,000 charter flight home early on July 10, 2003.

The outcome of the case could play a major role in how hospitals deal with illegal immigrants in the future, making the case of major importance not just to health-care, but to immigration issues, as well as the basic decency of treating any person, regardless of nation, race, or creed, respectfully and tenderly.

-Many people are aware that the Atacama Desert is the driest place on earth; some parts of the desert in Northern Chile have never seen recorded rainfall. It is, suffice to say, extremely dry, and any rainfall can cause major problems. And I mean any rainfall, as this week, .001 inches of rain led to a state of emergency that led to power outages and school closings.

-In the "politically-charged pension awards" category, Argentina is giving a "special pension" to 18 individuals who hijacked a plane with the hopes of gaining control of the Malvinas/Falkland Islands back in 1966. "will grant a special pension to the nationalist group of 18 civilians who in 1966 took command of a commercial flight to Rio Gallegos and had it re-routed to the Falkland Islands with the purpose of taking over the Malvinas for Argentina."

-In the "racial stereotype? or just not funny?" department, apparently the "Yo quiero Taco Bell" chihuaha died this week at the age of 15. And in the funniest pet-news I've heard since learning that the lady-magnet Spuds Mackenzie was female, it turns out that that male-voiced symbol was "Gidget".

-Extinction of any species sucks. Here's hoping that the 90-something year old Galapagos giant tortoise "Lonesome George" is rescuing his breed from the brink of extinction.

-Finally, in touching and sad news, a woman has been arrested for killing twin Mexican midget wrestlers. El Espectrito II and La Parkita, 35, were found dead in a hotel room. Prosecutors suspect the anonymous, 65-year-old suspect and a friend posed as prostitutes and planned to poison the wrestlers to unconsciousness and rob them as part of a broader wave of female gangs robbing men. Unfortunately, the normal dosage of drugs to knock a man unconscious was enough to kill the two wrestlers. The memorials (fans showing up at the funeral in masks) have been touching, and for all the senselessness in so many violent acts, this one seems particularly senseless.

Microlending in Guatemala

As some of you may know, I am in Guatemala at the present, which is why I have been writing very little of late. However, to see someone writing about the place and to promote Southwestern University, where I teach, check out the blog Microlending in Guatemala, written by a recent graduate of the school.

Lots Going On Around Latin America

Regular writing on my own work has taken up most of my time lately, leaving me unable to comment in depth on some stories from Latin America lately (though I thank Erik for picking up some of my slack). Still, it seems worthwhile just offering another quick pointing to several stories of interest across Latin America recently, and hopefully, I'll be back to regular blogging soon (though it depends how writing elsewhere goes).

-To follow up on Erik's post, indigenous peoples in Peru have responded to Garcia's sending of the military to extract oil from indigenous lands by saying they will return to "ancestral laws" and interpret any invasion as an act of aggression.

-Things have gotten really ugly really quickly in Guatemala in the wake of the murder of lawyer last week. Rodrigo Rosenberg was killed while riding his bike, and a video of Rosenberg was released that said if he were killed, it was because president Alvaro Colom had ordered the killing. In response, mass protests calling for Colom's resignation and supporting Colom have burst out. The UN and the FBI are getting involved to help solve the case, while an individual who, via Twitter, recommended people withdraw their money from one of the banks (currently of major relevance to the events, as the assassination apparently involves Rosenberg, two of his clients who were also murdered, Colom, and charges of corruption) is under house arrest, charged with trying to spark a panic. Meanwhile, both Colom's supporters and his opponents are claiming the other side is propped up by money from drug cartels. I hope to have more analysis on this later, but right now, I fully agree with Boz: if there is any truth to any of these claims, then it means that the drug cartels have entered national politics in Guatemala, and that is nothing but bad news.

-Massive rains and flooding in the northeastern states of Piauí and Maranhão in Brazil have left 300,000 people homeless, and it appears no sign the waters will go down for at least a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, a recent drought in the Center-South has forced Brazil to increase its importation of gasoline from Bolivia for energy needs, as hydroelectric energy production has dropped.

-Chile marked the 50th anniversary of the Torres del Paine national park by increasing its preservation-and-maintenance funding from $60,000 to $800,000/year, and asked UNESCO to put the park on the wildlife heritage list.

-In more environmental news, Argentina has established quota limits for fishing on three types of fish, in an effort to try to stave off over-fishing and eventual extinction of these species.

Mexico extradites former Guatemalan President back to Guatemala

Mexico has finally sent former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo back to Guatemala after nearly 4 years in exile. Portillo was elected in 1999, and served from 2000 to 2004. During that time he managed to turn the Guatemalan government into a cesspool of corruption and stole just about everything he could before leaving office. When the Berger government came into power in 2004, they realized what had happened and started pushing corruption charges against Portillo. Portillo quickly fled and had been hiding in Mexico ever since.

Portillo is a member of the FRG party (Guatemalan Republican Front), the same party as former dictator Efraín Rios Montt who oversaw a scorched earth campaign and the massacre of thousands of indigenous people in the early 1980s during the Guatemala's civil war. The party is now a coalition of evangelicals and organized crime. Their support of corruption and organized crime is so blatant that the party has publicly tried to block various pieces of legislation in the National Assembly to combat corruption and stall bills that increase penalties for members of organized criminal groups. 

Back in 2003, Portillo was an important supporter of Rios Montt's attempt to get on the ballot as a presidential candidate in the 2003 elections, despite a constitutional prohibition on former dictators running for president. Since the FRG was actually in power at the time, executive pressure helped in getting Rios Montt on the ballot, and making a complete joke of Guatemala's justice system. As part of the FRG's campaign in 2003, the party staged a massive riot in Guatemala City in mid-2003 (now referred to as Jueves Negro, or Black Thursday), that led to widespread destruction, injuries, and one death in the capital. Since that time, many members of the FRG have been prosecuted for their violent actions, but Portillo has yet to face any court for what he did during his term. I'm not very optimistic about Portillo spending the rest of his life in prison, but hopefully I'll be surprised.

Rigoberta Menchú and the Guatemalan Presidential Elections

This article on why Mayan, indigenous human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize and presidential candidate Rigoberta Menchú finished 6th out of 12 in the Guatemalan election (garnering 3% of the total vote) is fascinating. It gets into traditional political reasons why she fared relatively poorly (it was her first time running, she’s never been a candidate for anything before, etc). However, what’s of real worth in the article are the reasons for her low performance based on politics of identity, gender, and race.

Many people tend to assume that “Mayans” are one culture, one people, one language, unified in the way that the Incas or the Nahua (of which the Aztecs were but a part) were. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although Spaniards who tried to enter the Yucatan and Central America in the 16th and 17th centuries often described the Mayan “empire” (based, in part, on the massive constructions at places like Chichen Itza and Copan), they Mayans were never unified. They have remained, through the centuries, very loosely bound linguistically, and there hasn’t been the level of political unity and organization that could constitute an “empire”. This isn’t to say the Mayans have ever lacked political organizational skills – they simply weren’t a broad, unified group that covered lots of territory in a single ruling entity. This is pretty common knowledge to those who study Latin America, yet the broader misperception persists, despite the Mayans in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador having very different dialects and even languages, cultural practices, and political organzation and beliefs.

The article does a great job in making clear the diversity within the ethnically Mayan groups, whether it’s distinguishing the linguistic variations from one tribe to another; bringing up how gender norms and the patriarchal system in many Mayan communities, particularly among the elderly, may have worked against her; or discussing how Menchú is seen as an outsider despite being Mayan, simply because she has tended to be more involved in the international human rights movement, travelling often, than staying in Guatemala in her community.

I agree with the article’s assessment that, should she choose to run in 2011, she may have a better chance, simply because she’ll have more experience and knows better what she needs to do (though I find the article’s mentioning of the Mayan Calendar’s prediction for something amazing in 2012 to be a little….colonialist – in the sense of “ah, those indigenous traditions” – it’s not intentional perhaps, but if you’re going to mention some central aspect of their cultural beliefs, why include that one?). Still, it’s a good article that does a fine job dissecting why she may have only gotten 3% in a country that’s officially 40% indigenous.

Political Violence in Guatemala

Despite the Guatemalan civil war (which resulted in hundreds of thousands of dead indigenous peoples in a state-led campaign of genocide, among other things) having ended more than 10 years ago, there are signs that things may actually be getting worse in many ways. While the murder campaigns against indigenous peoples have subsided (though the poverty and racism has not), political violence is at an all-time high since 1996. Clara Luz López, a candidate for city council in Casillas, was shot and killed on her way home, bringing the total of political deaths to 40 up to now, with another 11 days before the election (September 9). Things are so bad that Álvaro Colom, one of the top presidential candidates, has a doctor who specializes in bullet wounds with him at all times, and travels only by helicopter.

Much of the violence comes from the rising involvement of drug lords in politics. Eager to see their influence spread to the political realm, many involved in the higher levels of the drug trade have resorted to violence to intimidate or remove opposition. The fact that the drug lords have managed to gain so much power in the post-civil war period is just one more way in which the U.S. drug policies have failed. Drug producers and transporters have continued to remain steps ahead of the law, and combatting the production instead of the consumption has neither slowed down consumption nor production, instead creating even greater violence in Latin America and elsewhere, including Afghanistan, where heroin production is growing astronomically again. Yet we continue to ignore the problem, while Guatemala once again is descending into a climate of terror and fear. There's no telling how the election will go, or if this violence will abate, but things are definitely bad in Guatemala, and there's no proof they are going to get better anytime soon.

Central America. Good Times.

In another example of the extremely depressing violent history of Central America, check out this story from the Guatemala Solidarity Network. 3 Salvadoran politicians were recently murdered in Guatemala. There was no attempt to cover this up. Interestingly, 4 Guatemalan police officers were arrested for the crime. They were then murdered in their jail cells. Interestingly, one of the murdered Salvadorans was the son of the vile Roberto D'Aubuisson, who organized the death squads of the 1980s.

Information on the case is sketchy. Was there a cover up? Were the Guatemalan officers killed because they did this so stupidly, i.e. in a vehicle tracked by GPS? Don't know. But in any case, wow. These were prominent Salvadoran leaders. Guatemala, not a good place.

I'd like to think that Central America is continuing on its long, slow road to stability. But with things like this, I just don't know.

Good times.