A man carries banners during an anti-mining protest in Guatemala City,
June 14, 2006. Protesters from San Marcos, near the Glamis Gold mining
project, protested against the effects of the mines on the villagers.
REUTERS/Daniel LeClair
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Friday, June 16
UK Press Review: Guatemala's Whales
by
Patrick
on Fri 16 Jun 2006 10:48 PM BST
In recent days Guatemala has been drawn into the machinations of international relations. Guatemala's putative membership of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), according to various members of the UK press (The Guardian, The Independent, BBC), has been at the asking of Japan in its quest to overcome the current anti-whaling consensus at the IWC. Reuters reported though that Guatemala was not going to attend the meeting of the IWC:
"Guatemala, for example, is a new member expected to side with Japan,
but it dropped plans to attend due to a sudden outburst of public
opposition to the government's intention to back whaling, said
Greenpeace International spokesman Mike Townsley." What this episode has done, is shine the light back on how wealthier countries use their development budgets to buy influence pretty much as a matter of course. Japan gave £11,728,532 to Guatemala in 2005. The week before Roger Burbach was commenting in The Guardian on how:"The Bush administration is backing the candidacy of Guatemala in its
campaign to stop President Hugo Chávez from winning a seat for
Venezuela [on the UN Security Council]. Five of the 10 rotating seats on the security council are
opening up in October, and one of them traditionally goes to a Latin
American nation." Is it unrealistic to ask where is the discussion of Guatemala's own national interest? Some will say this game of power and influence is just the harsh machiavellean reality of international relations. Others that it demonstrates how little big nations ever bother to concern themselves with smaller states foreign policies. No-one will dismiss the Guatemalan whaling lobby again though that's for sure.
Formal Opening of Community Institute in Rabinal
by
Patrick
on Fri 16 Jun 2006 09:00 PM BST
We just received the following great news from Guillermo Chen Morales, Director General, of Fundación Nueva Esperanza, Río Negro in Guatemala.
Dear friends, The following pictures are from an article that appeared recently in Nuestro Diario:We would like to share with you the success of the Foundation Nueva Esperanza and our secondary school which are: an opening of our new classrooms, our new scince lab and the library. This achievement is for all young indigenous people of Rabinal. Best wishes.    The opening of the institute (our equivalent of sixth form college) represents an incredible achievement for the community of Rio Negro in Rabinal. For more information about many of the issues faced by Rio Negro check out Advocacy.net. |
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