Straight out of 24....

I don't know how many of you have heard of what's happening in Guatemala at the moment, but as a friend commented to me the other day, it's seems like it's been ripped out of the script of an episode of 24. Basically, a video was given to the press last week in Guatemala recorded by a lawyer who claims in the video that if anything happens to him the blame should be placed on the president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, Colom's wife, Sandra, and his private secretary. A week after the video was made the lawyer, Rodrigo Rosenberg, was shot down in the street while riding his bicycle a week and a half ago and the video was released to the press. Mr. Rosenberg claims in the video that he was in danger of being killed because of his connection to a businessman who was murdered, along with his daughter, in March. Rosenberg was this businessman's lawyer and he suggests that this businessman was murdered because he refused an offer by President Colom to play a part in certain acts of corruption. President Colom, of course, flatly denies any involvement and claims that this is another attempt to destabilize his government.

It's interesting to read the international news coverage of this. Here's part of what CNN posted about the issue on their website:

(This comes from an article entitled "Guatemalan leader should step aside during inquiry, foe says" by Arthur Brice, published May 14, 2009...click here for the whole article)

"It's the time-honored tradition in Guatemala that if someone gets in your way, there's likely to be a violent outcome," said Donald J. Planty, the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala from 1996 to 1999. Colom took to the airwaves Monday night to vehemently deny that he, his wife or the aide had any connection to the slayings. He promised a full investigation and said he would accept international help, asking the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to become involved. A Guatemalan newspaper reported Thursday that an FBI agent had arrived in the country in connection with the investigation. But Rosenberg supporters say they don't believe the Guatemalan government can carry out an impartial and thorough investigation and want Colom out. [Otto] Perez [leader of the strongest opposition party] said Vice President Jose Rafael Espada could take over until the investigation is complete. "We are only asking that the state be strengthened," Perez said. "If he doesn't do this, we believe the situation will get worse." Colom said in an interview Tuesday night with CNN en Español that he has no intention of resigning or otherwise giving up power. He blamed the deaths on unnamed people who want to bring down his government. "It is evident that [Rosenberg's video statement] was written by someone who has been in on this plan to destabilize the government and for reasons that I don't know, because I don't know why Mr. Rosenberg mentions us in that video," Colom said. For Perez and other critics, that's not good enough. "The president has not wanted to confront this and has given evasive answers," Perez said. "Until the president confronts this, indignation will increase." Some analysts say Colom needs to get the nation under control immediately. "It's a very worrisome situation," said Planty, the former U.S. ambassador. "The country is in very serious trouble." There were rumors two to three weeks ago that the military might stage a coup, Planty said. "The security situation is out of control," he added. Heather Berkman, a Latin America analyst with the Eurasia Group consulting firm, calls it "a major political scandal." Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington policy institute, agrees with that assessment. "It's very damning for the president. Very damning," he said. Fernando Carrera Castro, a fiscal analyst and executive director of the Instituto Centroamericano de Estudios Fiscales, said the upheaval could further tear apart a poverty-ridden nation trying to heal from a deadly civil war. The three recently slain Guatemalans -- Rosenberg, businessman Khalil Musa and his daughter -- came from the upper economic class. As a result, Carrera said, many wealthy Guatemalans are being "radicalized" against the government. Likewise, he said, many poor and disenfranchised Guatemalans also are becoming radicalized and are rallying behind Colom and the government. "I fear that this crisis will lead to violence and destabilization of the government," Carrera said from Guatemala City. "We all want justice. That is clear." Juan Tornoe, a Guatemalan who has lived in the United States for seven years, rejects what he says are efforts to forge a class divide. "The powers that be are trying to make it a social issue -- the wealthy against the poor," he said. "This is not a social issue. This is Guatemalans are fed up." Tornoe has personal connections with some of the key actors in the crisis. Rosenberg was his wife's law professor at La Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Tornoe said. And he said he went to high school with Gustavo Alejos, the presidential aide Rosenberg mentioned in the video. In his conversations with friends in Guatemala, Tornoe said, he sensed "a sense of desperation, of hopelessness." He believes people are fed up. "They're saying, 'OK. Let's do something. Let's not let this happen again and again and again,' " he said. Carrera, the fiscal analyst, holds out hope. The investigation, he said, will be handled by an independent attorney general who does not report to the president. And the probe will be conducted under the watchful eye of a U.N.-Guatemalan commission set up to investigate corruption and political violence. "That gives me more confidence," he said. But Perez and others note that the attorney general, Jose Amilcar Velasquez Zarate, met privately with Colom on Tuesday morning, the day after the scandal broke. The meeting was not disclosed until reporters uncovered it and questioned Velasquez on his way out. Colom's critics accuse the president of already meddling in the investigation. Colom and Velasquez said the meeting had been planned days ahead of time. "There is no interference in the investigation," Velasquez told reporters afterward. Guatemala has "a culture of corruption," said Planty, the former U.S. envoy. A just investigation is necessary, he said. "Until they fix it, they will limp along -- and that's the good scenario," he said. "They are in serious danger of becoming a failed state, if they're not already. There is complete impunity. Nobody is punished for anything." Rosenberg said the same thing in the video, bemoaning the "narcos, assassins and thieves" who have taken over the country. "Those thieves are sinking all of Guatemala," he said. "They kill people like dogs." The lawyer's niece, Mariela Rosenberg, said her uncle learned to accept his fate. "He had many threats," she told CNN en Español, "and when he saw it was inevitable, he taped a video." Radio journalist Mario David Garcia told CNN en Español that Rosenberg was supposed to detail his allegations Monday afternoon on Garcia's program, "Hablando Claro" (Speaking Clearly). Instead, his funeral was held that day.

It really is like something out of a movie. I talked to a few of my friend in Guatemala, and they are both horrified and at the same time not surprised. Politics there truly is, as the former ambassador states at the beginning of the article, violent. One friend said to me that he hoped that something would come of the investigation quickly, otherwise nothing would happen. After a few weeks the country's attention will be focused on something else and this episode will be forgotten. No justice, no truth, no nothing. And that, I think, is the most frightening part. That something like this, whether or not the president is as involved as Rosenberg claims in the video, can be swept under the rug and forgotten so quickly.

Photos

I've updated my photos on Flickr. Unfortunately I reached my limit for the month before I could upload everything, so I'll have to finish in June. But there are a bunch of new photos in the Guatemala 2009 album and I started an album for Semana Santa. Click here if you'd like to take a look.

Delayed...

Woops, sorry faithful readers! Took longer than I thought to get back to the good ol' blog. It's amazing how easily distracted I am. Or perhaps I can blame it on the difficulties of reacquainting myself with being in the States.

What to discuss today? For a quick overview, I got back to the States last Saturday and hung out in Chicago until Monday afternoon. I spent Sunday with a good friend from collage who was in Chi-town for a medical conference. We took an architectural river-boat tour of Chicago, which I highly recommend. I learned all sorts of cool stuff about the city. For example, at one point Chicago had the largest post office in the country. The building is so big that is engulfs part of a highway (the highway passes through the center of the building. But the whole place is abandoned now, completely empty, and while someone recently bought it no one (or at least the tour guide) knows what will be done with it. Also, we learned that there is this cool looking building just off the Chicago river that cools massive amounts of water and sends it to the building too old to have air conditioning as a more environmentally friendly way to cool the skyscrapers. We were instructed in how to tell the difference between art deco, modern, and post-modern buildings and the reasons behind these difference, which was pretty interesting. It's incredible who much city zoning ordinances can change architectural aesthetics. Recessed towers, for example, became the norm after the city planners decided to require them so the new buildings would not entirely block the sun from the downtown streets. Another example is the new river walk that the current mayor is intending to run along both banks of the Chicago river. Up until about thirty years ago the river was considered unattractive and was extremely polluted...there was nothing living in the water and it smelled terrible. It was so polluted that they reversed the flow of the river because the neighboring towns were complaining that it was polluting Lake Michigan. But after the beginnings of a clean-up project inspired/required by the clean water act in the 70's the river became a more desirable area of the city and the ugly industrial warehouses lining the banks were replaced or remodeled for living areas. Many of the apartment buildings lining the river were once warehouses. One in particular is pretty interesting...it was the ice storage house for the city in the 1920s and 1930s. They would cut ice from Lake Michigan in the winter and store it in this warehouse; the walls are three feet thick to keep the ice frozen during the summer. The tour guide said it took months to defrost the building before the could cut through the walls to make windows for the apartments!

I stayed in Chicago until Monday so I could turn in my application for a Brazilian tourist visa. Just in case any of you Americans who are reading this blog want to go to Brazil, they require US citizens to apply (and pay) for a tourist visa. They call it a reciprocal fee, since the US requires Brazilians to get a tourist visa to come to the States. Good for them, I say. Although the $130 for the visa will be missed. I spent the rest of the week unpacking, pining for Guatemala, and coding newspaper articles. I really miss being there, but it's good that I have a ton of work to get done before heading off to Brazil. I really do think that life is more interesting when you're continually distracted. Well, maybe not distracted, but at least busy. Which is what I am at the moment. I'm heading down to Nashville this week to see Jenn, and then one more week or so until I leave for Brazil. So stay tuned, dear readers. This blog will not end just because the first leg of my field research is done! Plus I have more to say about Guatemala and have a return trip planned for October (if all goes well). And in between then and now there's all sorts of exciting things in store. So, until later....