Here's a collection of the clips from John Pilger's latest documentary, 'War on Democracy' that reference Guatemala. You can read Pilger's own description of the genesis of the documentary on his website.

I got the impression that the film bit off just a little bit more than it could chew. Can you really compact the last 50 years of history of US-Latin American relations into an hour and a half? Guatemala is referenced pretty fleetingly. The 1954 CIA-led coup is a favourite of every documentary maker because it's such a stark, well documented, incontrovertible example of the US Government's disregard for democratic principles in it's foreign policy.

It's great to see US-Latin American relations getting some exposure on mainstream British television (even if it was shown at 11pm on ITV). If I have a criticism of the documentary, it's that the path it treads is pretty well trodden- Guatemala 1954, Castro and Cuba, Chile under Pinochet, Venezuela under Chavez and Bolivia in it's transition from Goni to Morales.  It would have been a great opportunity to look at the diversity within Latin America as well as the similarities. Who knows about the story of Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica, etc.?

Personally though, it would be great if a documentary filmmaker (preferably Guatemalan) were to produce a film following the thread from the 1954 coup through to the issues facing Guatemala today.

You can read a discussion about the film on Comment is Free. There's a handful of dates remaining for cinema's showing the film. A low resolution of the documentary has been posted on Google Video.