Wednesday, 6th December- food at 6.30pm, talk at 7.30pm (Café prices apply)

Venue: La Ruca, Gloucester Road, Bristol

Meet Guillermo Chen, director of the Fundaciòn Nueva Esperanza, Guatemala

On the 10th anniversary of peace in Guatemala, Guillermo Chen, director of the Fundaciòn Nueva Esperanza talks about how an inspiring cultural education project is giving hope to the continuing struggle for justice, indigenous rights and identity in Guatemala.

‘Education for indigenous children is the only way to combat intolerance, build a lasting peace and improve quality of life for our communities’

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This December marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of Peace in Guatemala. The 1996 peace accords brought an end to a bloody 36-year conflict, in which 200,000 people, (the majority indigenous Mayans) died or ‘disappeared’.

The peace accords set out a framework for transforming Guatemalan society through principles of democracy, equality and respect. The reality is that the government has made little progress. Violence and human rights abuses in Guatemala are rife and the justice system is incompetent. Inequalities of land distribution, wealth and access to education are increasing.

Progress has been left to the inspiring and courageous work of civil society organisations.

The Fundaciòn Nueva Esperanza is one such organisation. It has developed a unique philosophy to educate children of Mayan Achi descent to participate and contribute to society whilst maintaining their threatened language, traditions and cultural values.

Ffi; Contact Stuart on 07791 034138

Voluntary donations requested

For the tech junkies among you, Xeni Jardin, co-editor of Boing Boing (one of the world's most popular blogs) is currently out and about and posting from Guatemala. She's been posting on an electic range of issues and topics, including: violence against women campaigning, filesharing in Guate, and making tortillas...

It's also worth flagging up the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group who get a mention on Xeni's blog and Xela Teco which is "a new micro manufacturing enterprise concerned with the fabrication, installation and repair of low cost environmentaly sound infrastructure improvements. Xela Teco is located in Quetzaltenango Guatemala, and aims to serve NGOs and the general populace in the greater Quetzaltenango region".

By Michael Fernandez

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As we approach the ten year anniversary of the signing of the peace accords in Guatemala, the question of what has actually changed since then has obviously arisen. From reading articles, opinion pages, and indeed talking to countless people who have lived their entire lives in the country, the general consensus seems to be 'very little,' and most would agree that the Guatemalan government has completely failed to implement the agreements reached back in December 1996. Evidence of this failure is everywhere: the scourge of impunity that continues to prevail in Guatemala – nowhere more evident than in the lack of progress in the genocide case against Ríos Montt and his high command; the glaring inequalities and extreme poverty in a country where an estimated 75% of the population live below the poverty line; and the continuing violence and intimidation against those struggling to improve the human rights situation and bring social justice to Guatemala.  

My time working as an international accompanier in Guatemala with ACOGUATE has given me the opportunity to see first hand the lack of progress since 1996, and indeed how many of the original causes for the outbreak of the internal conflict back in 1960 are still prevalent to this day. While many accompaniers spend their time living in communities and accompanying witnesses involved in the genocide case, I was asked to form part of the so-called 'short term' team, which accompanies other individuals, communities and organisations that are under threat due to their work or their struggle for justice. The main case I have been involved in, that of the sacked farm workers of the Finca Nueva Florencia, is clear evidence of how land and labour rights are continuously denied to the campesinos of Guatemala, and how the power of the large landowners in the country continues unabated.  

In March of 1997, less than three months after the signing of the peace accords, 38 families of the Finca Nueva Florencia formed a union to negotiate with the landowners for better pay and working conditions. This was in large part due to the fact that, despite the wealth of OTTMAR SA, the company that owns this mainly coffee producing plantation, workers received less than ₤2 per day. Just one week later, in violation of article 209 of the Code of Work, all members of the union were sacked. Ever since then members of the union have been fighting for compensation for salaries not paid since that date and for their reinstatement. Despite 13 decisions in the courts in favour of the sacked workers, including two the Constitutional Court, the conflict is yet to be resolved, and the landowners have been able to continually delay and block any court rulings with countless appeals and motions.  

Many of the union members have left, simply unable to fight for so many years, while a systematic campaign of intimidation and reprisals from the landowners has been waged in an attempt to force the remaining eleven members to give up. For the four families who continued living in their houses on the plantation in particular, the hardships have been devastating: their electricity and water have been cut off; their children have not been allowed to attend the school on the plantation or use the playground; they have been denied access to the farm's health clinic, with children being refused vaccinations despite the fact that the vaccinations were a government programme; they are not allowed to cut firewood on the plantation; letters have been sent to all the landowners in the area urging them not to give the sacked workers employment; and security guards have been installed to harass and intimidate them.

Since May of this year the intimidation has been particularly severe. On the 11th May, with OTTMAR claiming not to have the funds available to pay the sacked workers their compensation, the courts awarded two parts of the plantation to the union. Faced with the prospect of losing very profitable land, the landowners stepped up their campaign of intimidation, with a massive increase in the number of armed guards, dressed in military uniform. Shots were fired outside the houses of the families living on the plantation, a particularly horrific experience for their very young children, and the brother of the main union organiser was held with rifles pointed at him for simply cutting weeds. The workers also received notice that the guards had been ordered to shoot them if they entered the coffee plantations on the farm. Accusations have been made to the Office of Public Prosecution (Ministerio Público), but as yet, no investigation has been made into these intimidations.  

In the face of all this, the union members approached ACOGUATE about the prospect of international accompaniment. Since then we have been visiting them at least every two weeks in an attempt to show the landowners that there is international attention on this case, in an effort to dissuade them from further intimidation, and as an act of solidarity, offering the union members vital moral support. The effects of our presence have been noted, and according to the union members the level of intimidation, in particularly the gunshots in front of their houses at night has diminished. However, the intimidation does continue, and while shots being fired at your house once a week is better than every night, it is still an unacceptable situation.

I feel extremely privileged to have been able to visit and get to know the sacked workers of Finca Nueva Florencia. Their stories of hardship and tales of injustice have been truly eye-opening, and reflect many of the wider problems of Guatemala. I have been continually amazed, however, by their courage, conviction and determination to see this struggle through to the end, and this too is a reflection of the efforts of countless numbers of people and organizations throughout Guatemala. They retain hope and are now at a critical stage in their case. With the landowners running out of motions and appeals to block the case, the workers may soon get the land they are owed. The process is far from complete, however, and many obstacles remain, but the hope that is now there shows that through the efforts and sacrifices of courageous individuals and the hard work of numerous organisations and civil society working together, changes can be made.  

The fact of the matter, however, is that it should not require so much suffering and so many years of struggle to achieve justice. In a clear demonstration of how the peace accords have not been implemented, the Guatemalan state, by allowing the case to last for nearly 10 years, has completely failed in its duty to uphold its own laws, and to ensure the economic security of its people. Ten years is far too long to wait for justice, and it is too long to wait for the implementation of the peace accords, which once provided Guatemalans with real hope. It is time now for the Guatemalan government to bring about serious changes in the country, end the culture of impunity and ensure that land and labour rights are respected in accordance with the law.

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Background Information

Amnesty International USA has really informative section on its website about the land rights issue in Guatemala. The section includes video testimony from many of the key actors on the issue in Guatemala.

Including: researcher Sebastian Elgueta who explains AI's main concerns regarding Guatemalan land rights; Juan Tzib who talks about how the current Guatemalan laws affect campesinos (rural workers); Ingrid Urizar who talks about the difficulties campesinos face accessing the courts; and Daniel Pascual who talks about the current government's policy of evictions.

You are invited to an evening of inspiring conversation with guest speakers on Tuesday 5th December at 7-9pm at Latin American House Association, Priory House, Kingsgate Place, London, NW6 4TA.

Speakers include:

* Guillermo Chen, Director of the Fundación Nueva Esperanza, which provides bilingual education (Spanish and Maya Achi) in Rabinal, Guatemala.
* Jules Wilkinson, Guatemala Solidarity Network
* Carol Herbert, mother of two adopted children from Guatemala, who would like to propose the creation of a young persons group in the UK for children eight years old and over of Guatemalan birth

Refreshments will be provided - older children are welcome.

For further details contact: Carol Herbert carolinah61 [at] hotmail.com or 020 8209 1078.

This film 'The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez' is an interesting documentary following the story of a Guatemalan caught in the crossfire - literally and metaphorically. Here's a review of the film from Rotten Tomatoes.

You can read the report from Fergal Keane on the BBC posted at the time of his death. I'd also recommend reading Arte-Sano's blog post on the film who went to see it at the Latin American Film Festival in San Francisco. Here's a taste:

This is just a quick heads up about the Human Rights Watch Film Festival which is co-presenting three films with Discovering Latin America Film Festival between 23 November and 3 December:


Visit www.discoveringlatinamerica.org for full details.

Congratulations to Dominga Vasquez (Guatemalan women's rights activist with FUNDAMAYA) and Helen Woodcock (Peace Brigade's international UK volunteer) who have won the International Service Award for the Defence of the Human Rights of Women.

They have won the award jointly with Nizaam (Cookie) Edwards, Provincial Coordinator of the KZN Network on Violence Against Women and Intersect Coalitions in South Africa.

The following information is taken from the PBI UK website and the Protection Line website.

In April 2005 Amnesty International issued an urgent action after there was grave concern for Dominga Vasquez's life. FUNDAMAYA forms part of the coalition Frente Nacional contra la Mineria, National Front against Mining, which campaigns to raise awareness of the potential environmental damage caused by mining and the negative impact on indigenous communities living close to mines. Carlos Humberto Guarquez who also received death threats, is FUNDAMAYA's representative to the coalition.

Women human rights defenders under attack: 25 years of fighting to defend human rights

Amnesty International UK and Peace Brigades International will be celebrating Peace Brigades International's 25th anniversary at an event dedicated to the work of women human rights defenders, and the central role they play in the struggle for human rights and justice.

Dominga Vasquez will be talking at the event; along with Kopila Adhikari who works for Advocacy Forum against illegal detention and extra-judicial killings, in Kathmandu, Nepal; and Berenice Celeyta, is president of Nomadesc (Association for Social Research and Action); a non-governmental organisation dedicated to working with marginalised and oppressed communities in Colombia.

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The event will be held on: 6th December, 6.00pm at Human Rights Action Centre, 17 - 25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA. Entry is free and you can book from AI UK's website.

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UPDATE - Event confirmed in Manchester:

Human rights award acknowledges work of Indigenous Guatemalan woman and Manchester human rights defender.

Saturday 9th December 2006 (12.00 - 1.30pm) at: The Friends Meeting House, Mount Street (Behind Central Library).

Accused of terrorism during a campaign to raise awareness about the rights of Indigenous communities, Guatemalan Human Rights activist Dominga Vasquez is also the first woman in 500 years to hold the position of Indigenous Mayoress. She is visiting the UK to collect the International Service Human Rights award.

Hear this hugely inspirational woman, who, in the face of death threats, intimidation and racism, continues her work for justice and human rights in Guatemala. Don't miss the chance both to hear Dominga speak and to welcome this amazing woman to Manchester. Speaking with Dominga will be Helen Woodcock, Manchester resident and joint recipient of the International Service prize, who has recently spent over a year in Guatemala with Peace Brigades International, providing accompaniment for Dominga and other workers for human rights and social and environmental justice threatened with violence as a result of their work.

The Interamerican Commission on Human Rights has accepted to investigate a femicide case for the first time. More than a hundred letters were sent from a range of different organisations, urging the Commission to look into the case of 15-year old María Isabel Veliz. María Isabel was found dead on 18th December 2001 in an abandoned piece of land in Ciudad San Cristobal, zone 8 Mixco, Guatemala. It's been Maria Isabel's mother, Rosa Franco, who has taken the initiative after five years of being denied access to justice.

The forensic report revealed that Maria Isabel had been sexually assaulted, had her skull crushed, showed signs of being strangled and had her feet tied with barbed wire.

This case is the first murder of a woman in the country to reach the Commission. It's hoped that the CIDH will issue a resolution recommending that, assuming the case remains uninvestigated by the Guatemalan authorities, it should be sent to the Interamerican Court.

This news coincided with a call by women's organisations in Guatemala denoucing the impunity in the country. They pointed out that of 2,796 murders of women in the last few years, only 20 have gone to court and got a conviction.

The following in Spanish is from the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission weekly news report:


Violence against women was the subject of a rare article in The Economist (16-11-2006) about Guatemala. One of the first articles in the UK to mention to the 10th anniversary of peace accords:

UPDATE: This news from El Periodico or Siglo XXI (25-11-06)

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A recent episode, 5th November 2006, of Libre Encuentro (hosted by Guatemalan business supremo Dionisio Gutierrez) tackled the issue of violence against women: "Seguridad Ciudadana Y Situación De Violencia En El Pais". The programme featured a discussion between leading Guatemalan campaigners: Norma Cruz, Directora Fundación Sobrevivientes; María Eugenia Morales de Sierra, Procuradora de los Derechos Humanos en Funciones; Carmen Aída Ibarra, Fundación Myrna Mack.

This conference will be held on: Saturday 2nd December 2006 from 9:30 am. to 5:00 pm at Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1
 
This major conference brings together trade unionists, academics, NGOs and progressive movements from Latin America and the UK to explore the exciting political and social developments across the region, featuring films, music and discussion.


Guest speakers include: Harold Pinter, Tariq Ali, Wayne Smith, Victoria Brittain, Colin Burgon MP, plus key note speakers from Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and Bolivia, as Cesar Navarro or Aida Avella.

The conference will explore the effects of US policy on the region and the current wave of progressive changes most notably seen in Venezuela and Bolivia.

Wayne Smith is a key commentator on US policy in the region having spent 25 years working for the State Department. During this time he worked as Head of the US Interests Section in Havana. He will bring a unique US voice at this important stage in the history of the Americas.


Cost: £10/£6 unwaged (advance registration only – call CSC 020 7263 6452 or Justice for Colombia 020 7435 7241)

More info contact CSC: 020 7263 6452 or see website: Events

The conference is supported by Cuba Solidarity Campaign, Venezuela Information Centre, Justice for Colombia, War on Want, Latin America Bureau, T&G Latin America Workers’ Association, One World Action, Noticias Latin America, Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, Central American Women’s Network, Latin American Elderly Project, Caribbean Labour Solidarity, Liberation, Movimientos, GMB, Amicus

I was listening on BBC Radio 4 when they ran a story on the death of economist Milton Friedman. The usual snippets were gone over, e.g. Reagan and Thatcher (who said), "he was an intellectual freedom fighter"(?). But they neglected to make, in almost eight minutes of discussion, any mention of the impact of Milton Friedman's theories in Latin America. Simply an incredible oversight?

I thought I'd post two contrasting takes of Friedman's legacy. First, here's the obituary from El Iberoamericano. Here's a taste:

Interesting, there's no mention of Latin America here either in this obituary. Now here's Greg Grandin's take from his article in Counter Punch (17-11-06):


Whatever your take, Friedman's legacy on Latin America was enormous (disastrous or incredible depends on your political viewpoint). However, what can be noted is that those in favour of his economics don't seem to want you to know that 'Latin legacy'- while those against most certainly do. Draw your own conclusions...

Protestors clashed with Guatemalan police over the planned reopening by Skye Resources Inc., of the long-dormant Fenix nickel project near Guatemala's Lake Izabal and begin producing 11,000 tonnes of ferro-nickel late in 2008. Reuters reported:

We were contacted recently about a new initiative to enable people from the UK to support grass-roots projects in Guatemala. Seth Reynolds, director of Direct Sponsorship International Ltd, explained the objective behind the project:

"The idea of the organisation is to give small, local, grass-roots projects access to interested individuals and potential donors in Europe, through a central website. The website will contain information on lots of different grass-roots projects in various developing countries.

People will be able to search these according to their interests, and then become sponsors to a project of their interest. They will be able to set up monthly direct debits online through the site and therefore support locally-managed solutions to local problems in developing countries".

Direct Sponsorship is currently in the initial stages of development. They have already begun working with three small, local NGOs in Guatemala to develop the project's systems and processes, so as to ensure these systems work for both parties.We'll be following its development with interest here on this blog.

Just spotted this local news- Swindon Advertiser - great to see this kind of initiative bringing young people from the UK together with young people from Nicaragua and Guatemala. It's great to see the Swindon Ocotal Link got funding for this. I remember Bruce Clarke mentioning this youth exchange project when he wrote after his trip to Guatemala in the wake of hurricane Stan in October 2005.

The article continues:

Iraq and the Middle East continues to dominate the media's attention on US foreign policy. However, to any seasoned Latin America watcher the parallels between current US foreign policy in the Middle East today with that in Latin America, and in particular Central America, in the 1980's are striking. Arguably, not since the Iran Contra scandal has this link been so apparent.

Every now and then there are very symbolic moments that cut through the black out and hint at this equivalence. I remember one such poignant moment hearing the reporting of one of the first US casualties in the Iraq war: Jose Gutierrez. Jose had lost his parents in the 36-year civil war in Guatemala. He survived life on the streets in Guatemala City, and later arrived in the US after a two-thousand-mile trek through Mexico, joining the US military. The irony that one of the first US victims in Iraq was Central American, was entirely lost on the vast majority of Western media.

When George W. Bush was elected in 2000, it gradually dawned on me that a number of key US administration's officials and advisers were veterans of Ronald Reagan's Central American policy in the 1980's. Every now and again a John Negroponte would pop up on the news here and an Otto Reich there. These were people with more than a passing interest in the patronage of anti-Communist governments in El Salvador and Guatemala and anti-Communist insurgents in Nicaragua (see box).

According to Greg Grandin, New York University Professor of Latin American history, the links between the current Bush administration's revolution in foreign policy and Reagan's hard line in Central America are even more profound than the simple recycling of personnel.

"It was Central America, and Latin America more broadly, where an insurgent New Right coalesced, as conservative activists used the region to respond to the crisis of the 1970's, a crisis provoked not only by America's defeat in Vietnam but by a deep economic recession and a culture of sceptical antimilitarism and political dissent that spread in the war's wake. Indeed, Reagan's Central American wars can best be understood as a dress rehearsal for what is going on now in the Middle East."

Grandin continues: "It was in these wars where the coalition made up of neo-conservatives, Christian evangelicals, free marketeers, and nationalists that today stands behind George W. Bush's expansive foreign policy first came together. There they had near free rein to bring the full power of the United States against a much weaker enemy in order to exorcise the ghost of Vietnam- and in so doing, begin the transformation of US foreign policy and domestic culture."1

Specific echoes between Latin America and the Middle East are numerous. They include how the US has: supported for dictatorial regimes implicated in genocide (compare Saddam Hussein with Efrain Rios Montt); used the 'War on Terror' (illicit drugs, arms, immigration and organised crime) as the pretext for US military intervention on a grand scale (e.g Plan Mayan Jaguar [Guatemala], Plan Colombia, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom [Afghanistan]); introduced neoliberal economics to the benefit of key US economic interests (CAFTA, Iraq, Afghanistan).

US experience in Central America seems to be increasingly seized on by desperate US officials and advisers as Iraq unravels. US Vice President Dick Cheney told the US electorate in the campaign for reelection in 2004 that El Salvador, with 50 percent of its population below the poverty level, was a model for what his administration hoped to achieve in Iraq. William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, appeared on TV to hail Central America as an "amazing success story" for US foreign policy. Pentagon officials have reportedly turned to the "Salvador option," (reported in Newsweek in January 2005, see also Craig Murray blog), which meant relying on local paramilitaries to impose order. As journalist Robert Kaplan put it recently: "Fifty-five Special Forces trainers in El Salvador accomplished more than did 550,000 soldiers in Vietnam."

When Senator Trent Lott argued in favour of the 1998 "Iraqi Liberation Act," which made the removal of Saddam Hussein official US policy (passed unanimously by the Senate), he reminded his colleagues of the success of the Reagan Doctrine and US patronage of the Nicaraguan Contras. "We supported freedom fighters in Latin America willing to fight and die for a democratic future". With Daniel Ortega's recent election in Nicaragua the comparisons between US foreign past and present, have started to make the headlines. Now more than ever, Central Americans with first hand experience of the US imperial workshop, as Grandin puts it, should be heeded.

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1. "Empire's Workshop: Latin America, The United States, and the rise of the new imperialism" by Greg Grandin is published by is published by Metropolitan Books.

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The Revolving Door

-Elliott Abrams, Bush's current deputy national security adviser in charge of promoting democracy throughout the world;
-John Negroponte, former UN ambassador, envoy to Iraq, and now intelligence czar;
-Otto Reich, secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere during Bush's first term;
-John Poindexter, convicted of lying to Congress, conspiracy, and destroying evidence in the Iran Contra scandal during his tenure as Reagan's national security adviser, was appointed by Rumsfeld to oversee the Pentagon's stillborn Total Information Awareness programme.
-John Bolton, ambassador to the United Nations and an arch-unilateralist, served as Reagan's point man in the Justice Department to stonewall investigations into Iran-Contra.

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US Military Support For Guatemala

For the first time since military aid to Guatemala was suspended in 1990, $3.2 million in non-lethal military aid resumed flowing in March 2005. The administration released aid that had been frozen “in the pipeline” since 1990 over the Guatemalan military’s involvement in human rights abuses, including the murder of U.S. innkeeper Michael Devine (John J. Lumpkin, “U.S. Resumes Military Aid to Guatemala,” Associated Press, March 24, 2005).

The House of Representatives went a step further, lifting the ban on regular IMET (training in combat, tactics, war fighting strategy, and technical skills), maintaining in place only the ban on FMF (Foreign Military Financing, which generally pays for weapons and equipment).

Guatemala and Indonesia had been the only two countries specifically restricted from receiving IMET; the House also loosened restrictions on Indonesia (Expanded-IMET courses on non-combat subjects including civil military relations had been permitted for Guatemala since the Peace Accords were signed in 1996). However, the Senate disagreed, and the final version of the bill maintained the bans on regular IMET and FMF for Guatemala. [Source: Washington Office on Latin America]

It's nice to see the Sunday Times bigging Guatemala up for a change... well it would be nice if perhaps they did it once. Amazing to see this paper giving so much press to a British team moaning about their chances in winning in this particular international sporting event (Modern Pentathlon World Championships). Are they getting their excuses in early?
 
That this kind of writing may be reinforcing outmoded stereotypes about countries like Guatemala (that sports journalists are barely qualified to write about) is by the by. It's seems pretty evident that the journalist (David Powell) in this case has never been anyway near Central America.


Bartu and Powell are forgetting something crucial. Sport is a source of pride for all nations- and Guatemala is no different. The impact that sporting success can have in Guatemala, whether it's Juan Carlos Plata or Jaime Viñals is enormous. Questioning the right of a country like Guatemala to stage an international sporting event because the President will be in attendance implies a snooty chauvinistic regard for other nations that ironically is hardly sporting.

The sentiment that smaller nations take part just to make the numbers up- makes you wonder whether people like Powell and Bartu just see international sport as an opportunity for self-interested ego tripping and back slapping.

If international sport is really more than that- its about making it more inclusive. And perhaps we could start by stamping out this kind of bigoted attitude represented above.

Postscript (20-11-06): We were wrong, the venue was great

So Britain got silver and Bartu ate humble pie, as reported in The Times:

...all of which kind of leaves you wondering why they bothered to report these 'voiced reservations' in the first place.

When General Efrain Rios Montt decided to run for President of Guatemala in the 2003 election, who took a calculated risk. To pursue his controversial candidacy, he knew he would need to sacrifice his immunity from prosecution as a sitting deputy in the Guatemalan Congress. In March 2004, Rios Montt's new life without immunity from prosecution resulted in his nominal house arrest pending trial in connection with the death of a journalist in the run up to the 2003 elections. The charges in this case were quashed in January 2006.

However, the trial was a sideshow in the scheme of things for Rios Montt. For the last six years the public prosecution service (MP) have been dragging their feet in another case that involves Rios Montt's role in genocidal massacres in Guatemala while Minister of Defence, Chief of the Armed Forces and President during the early 1980's.In October 2006, the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) and the Centre for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH) formally urged the public prosecution service (MP) to take the genocide case involving Rios Montt to the next stage in the legal process.

The timing of this demand went beyond coinciding with B'elejeb' Tz'i' (the Mayan Day of Justice, 5th October). If Rios Montt should be formally charged, he would not be able to register as a candidate in the 2007 elections. From 1st April 2007, Rios Montt will be able to formally present himself as a candidate to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and once he has formally registered as a candidate, he will again be immune from prosecution. The fear, shared by the AJR and CALDH, has been that public prosecutors will be leant on to run out the clock, allowing Rios Montt to present his candidacy and recover his immunity from prosecution. For this reason, both organisations have begun a campaign to focus minds in the MP and raise awareness of this critical time in the progression of the 'genocide cases'.

Then later in October this year events took a dramatic twist. It began with the Constitutional Court (CC) quashed an earlier ruling by the CC to allow Rios Montt to stand for the Presidency in 2003. Rios Montt was previously barred, in accordance with the Guatemalan constitution, from running for the Guatemalan Presidency for his participation in a coup d'etat in 1982. Rios Montt's legal team vowed to challenge this, but worse was to come for them.

On 26th October the European Parliament debated and passed a resolution on the legal proceedings against Rios Montt. Part of the motion urged: "the Guatemalan institutions fully to cooperate and do everything in their power to shed light on the human rights violations and to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice and that the findings of the investigations are made public, as called for in the international arrest warrant issued by the Spanish Audiencia Nacional on 7 July 2006 against Jose Efraín Rios Montt, Oscar Humberto Mejía Víctores, Angel Anibal Guevara Rodriguez, German Chupina Barahona, Pedro Garcia Arredondo and Benedicto Lucas Garcia, all of whom are accused of crimes of genocide, torture, terrorism and illegal detention."

On 27th October, the Guatemalan Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) received the arrest warrant issued by the Spanish Audiencia Naciónal via the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry. On 31st October the CSJ sent it to a lower court (Tribunal Quinto de Sentencia). The stage was set for Rios Montt to face justice.

In a seemingly inexplicable yet momentous decision all the same, on 6th November the Guatemalan Court (Tribunal Quinto de Sentencia) ruled that although six of the accused by the Spanish Audiencia Nacional under judge Santiago Pedraz should be detained with a view to extraditing them, Rios Montt should not be. According to recent press reports, the reason that certain Guatemalan authorities are suggesting to explain Rios Montt's latest escape from justice, is down to some sort of clerical error on the part of the Spanish. Supposedly, goes the explanation, only the part of the arrest warrant on the fire in the Spanish Embassy in 1985 has been submitted and not that relating to the cases of genocide in 1981-3 that concerns Rios Montt.

While this latest episode has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous, there is now a definite sense that the net seems to be slowly tightening around the intellectual authors of genocide in Guatemala. Whether Rios Montt will finally be netted is yet to be seen.

UPDATE: 15-11-2006

The inconsistent treatment of the accused still continues without being satisfactorily explained. Today's Prensa Libre ran an article explaining how not only has Rios Montt escaped any court order for his arrest in Guatemala, but now the order for the arrest of former President Mejia Victores has also been revoked.

The Belize-Guatemala territorial dispute was mentioned in Parliament (07-11-2006):

Chris Ruane (PPS (Rt Hon Peter Hain, Secretary of State), Office of the Secretary of State for Wales, Vale of Clwyd, Labour) Hansard source

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what help and assistance her Department has given to the Belize Government in their border dispute with Guatemala.

In a seemingly inexplicable decision, a Guatemalan Court (Tribunal Quinto de Sentencia) has ruled that although six accused by the Spanish investigation (Audiencia Nacional de España) under judge Santiago Pedraz (7th July 2006) should be detained with a view to extraditing them, Rios Montt should not be. The Spanish investigation was into the deaths of six Spanish citizens in Guatemala in the 1980's. You can read more on this breaking story in Spanish from the Guatemalan press: [El Periodico] [Prensa Libre] [SigloXXi].

The six accused are: Benedicto Lucas García, Oscar Mejía Víctores, Ángel Guevara Rodríguez, Donaldo Álvarez Ruiz, Pedro García Arredondo y Germán Chupina Barahona.

From Prensa Libre today- "the black hand" and important legal documents that get "lost"- doing whatever it takes to avoid justice:
The Center for Justice and Accountability in San Francisco, US, has released the following press release.

The Guatemalan press are covering the follow-up arrests (or non-arrests). [El Periodico]

Next Installment: Spain forgot to mention that Rios Montt was wanted for genocide... Are they really expecting us to believe that this can be put down to a clerical error? See the following from Prensa Libre 09-11-2006 today:

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Background information



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Dennis Bernstein interviews atttorney Almudena Bernabeu, private prosecutor Center for Justice and Accountability, and Matt Eisenbrant, Director of the Center for Justice and Accountability, about the progress in the genocide cases in Guatemala (July 10, 2006) on San Francisco-based radio show, 'Flashpoints'.

We've just been contacted by a really interesting initiative called Project Information Ixtahuacan. It uses the internet to improve communication in the new resettled communities following the effects of Hurricane Stan in October 2005. It is really important to be able to see where work is taking place, and where more work needs to be carried out. This is short description of the project taken from the website:

Post by Patrick Daniels and Jane Pelly

During November and December 2006, Guillermo Chen Morales, Director General of the New Hope Foundation (Fundación Nueva Esperanza), will be touring the UK and other European countries to share his experiences of developing and making education a reality for many young people in Rabinal, Guatemala. Much of the New Hope Foundation’s work is about promoting a more just society where indigenous Mayans in Guatemala (Maya Achi in Rabinal) have an equal stake in the Guatemala of tomorrow.


Humberto Ak'abal - Tz'olq'omin b'e (I walk backwards)

In 1999, the Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) calculated that during the period 1981-83, the loss of life in the northern Guatemalan town of Rabinal at the hands of the military was at least 4,441 people (20% of the population). The CEH also pointed out that while the proportion of Maya Achi to ladinos in Rabinal is 82% to 18%, 99.8% of the victims of these massacres were Maya Achi. These topline statistics are just the start of the compelling case for explaining the campaign of violence of these times as one specifically directed towards the Maya Achi people.

In 2003, the Community Museum Rabinal Achi, the Bufete Juridico Popular and the Association for Integrated Development of the Maya Achi in the Verapaces (ADIVIMA), wrote a book "Oj K'aslik" ("We're Alive") that has contributed to the recovery of the historical memory of Rabinal. Part of the conclusion of Oj K'aslik is that it's vital to "eliminate the structural roots of the internal armed conflict, which includes promoting programmes for the eradication of ethnic discrimination in Rabinal". This objective of peace building through cultural empowerment provides the basis for the work of the New Hope Foundation (FNE), which offers multicultural and bilingual education, integrated and sustainable development of the cultural identity of the Maya Achi.

The New Hope Foundation (FNE) was established by Jesus Tecu Osorio in 1998 with funds from the Reebok prize for Human Rights which he won in 1996. Jesus, from the small village of Rio Negro witnessed the cold blooded massacre of his family as a child. His extraordinary life and work has led to those guilty of the massacre being brought to trial more than 20 years later, almost the only case of its kind in Guatemala.
 
The FNE created a scholarship program which has supported an increasing number of students, starting with 35 on an annual basis in 1998 to the point this year where it has helped over 150. In 2003, the New Hope Foundation realized their objective of establishing their own secondary school called Instituto Mixto Técnico Bilingüe, Nueva Esperanza, Rio Negro in memory of the massacre that took place in the 1980's.

The FNE programme is specifically orientated towards students of Maya Achi origin from small rural villages around Rabinal that were destroyed by the violence in the 1980’s and whose families live in poverty, a total of 31 communities. The instituto (secondary school) uses a popular bilingual methodology with orientation in human rights; it offers a unique, innovative and alternative type of education linked to the Maya Achi culture. Students do not pay for their education, but win scholarship places based on their ability and need. The educational programme is designed to give the additional support that students from rural villages need, to be able to keep up with their studies despite the difficulties of studying in their second language (Spanish) and deficiencies in their rural primary education. Importantly, the FNE promotes the creation of students who are active in their communities, retain their cultural values and work for social transformation.
 
Education is a luxury that the majority of people from the rural villages surrounding Rabinal can’t enjoy, less than half the children of primary school age currently finish their 6 years of primary education and of those only 53% continue to secondary level. Apart from the FNE, there are two types of school in Rabinal, those financed by the government and expensive private institutes. Both only offer a monolingual education in Spanish.  

The FNE has the following objectives:

    * promote education at the level of secondary, higher and further education
    * facilitate the human, social and occupational training through scholarships
    * promote consciousness, dignity, respect for human rights and cultural differences
    * contribute to the construction of justice, historical truth and participatory democracy

The alternative methodology used by the New Hope Foundation is being developed specifically to serve the needs of the rural impoverished and socially marginalized students from the Maya Achi communities that surround the town of Rabinal. This curriculum particularly promotes analytical abilities and experiential learning. The methodology consists of focusing on four learning areas: science; society; technology; and, language and communication.  

Students work through a series of workbooks which integrate the four learning areas, each module meeting particular teaching goals for each area. Each module also includes an investigative project in which students must apply what was learned in each module to their community. Thus students achieve a high level of academic knowledge, but particularly develop analytical skills that are applied to the social reality in which they live. This creates students who have a greater active commitment to transforming their communities. After three years, the students graduate with two titles, one a general culture certificate and the other as a promoter of rural wellbeing. The idea is to prepare young people, with a strong sense of their own cultural identity to return to work in and for their own rural communities and not emigrate to the main urban centres or the USA.

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Gullermo Chen Morales, Director General of the New Hope Foundation (FNE), will be visiting Spain, Germany and the UK in November-December 2006 to share the experiences of the FNE and the issues faced by young people in Rabinal.

You can see more photos on the work of Fundación Nueva Esperanza here.

So it looks like Guatemala will have to wait a bit longer before it gets a first crack at sitting on the UN's Security Council. The deadlock between US-backed Guatemala and Venezuela has been broken with both sides saying they have agreed to endorse Panama as an alternative.

Here is how the BBC, Reuters and the Financial Times have reported the agreement in this long running deadlock.

In other news Mexico have agreed to the extradition of former President Alfonso Portillo. Mr Portillo is wanted over the disappearance of $15.7m (£9m) earmarked for the defence ministry which was then transferred into foreign bank accounts.

And finally, according to The Mirror, Ross Kemp has apparently travelled to Guatemala (amongst other countries) for a documentary on gangs.


Ground breaking journalism? A mind blowing insight into the issue of young people and criminal justice? I don't think we'll be holding our breath.

Just spotted this (02-11-06) from Petrolatina (formerly Taghmen) a British based oil extraction outift that has been looking to exploit oil reserves in Guatemala: