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.
graves of their loved ones and flying kites over the cemetery. According to my guidebook, the kites are meant to represent the spirits of the dead. Two towns, Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepéquez, hold kite festivals on November 1st. The kites are made out of tissue paper, wood (looked like bamboo) and scotch tape, and the larger kites can reach up to 50 ft in diameter. Townspeople fly the kites smaller than twenty feet across in the afternoon (which unfortunately we missed due to some transportation arraignments). It really was an incredible sight. The bigger kites each had a theme. This year, at least in Sumpango, the themes seemed to revolve around the environment, violence against women, and indigenous heritage. The first photo is a view of the kites from across the soccer field, the second a little boy on top of a crypt in the cemetery, getting ready to fly his kite. The kites were really impressive. At first we thought they would try to fly the larger kites, but after a few conversations with some locals
(who more or less laughed at us when we mentioned flying the big kites) we realized that the really giant kites were just for show. I particularly liked a kite that took a famous Dalí painting and reworked in with an image of an indigenous woman. Oh, and in case you were wondering, in Guatemala, kites are called barriletes (the word for kite in Spanish changes depending on where you are). It really is impressive, isn't it, what you can do with some tissue paper and scotch tape?
