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.

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:

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.

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'.

As the polls in Nicaragua are being counted for the presidential elections, it seems like Daniel Ortega (FSLN) is out in front. We'll be tracking this story as more reports come out. (The Guardian, BBC, Reuters, Channel 4).

Wikipedia is covering the Nicaraguan elections with up-to-the-minute information on the results. It also pulls together an impressive amount of background information.

It is well worth checking out the comments on the BBC website to get a sense of reaction to Ortega's election win.

It's interesting to reread Andrew Anthony's piece 'How I woke up and smelt the coffee' that was in the review section of The Observer in the light of Ortega's win. Below is the intro to the article:

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: