Exploring Volunteering

This article appeared in The Guardian (23-07-07) about the case of the murder of Guatemalan trade unionist Pedro Zamora.

Just catching up on articles on Guatemala in the UK press. This article was published at the beginning of the month (02-07-07) in The Guardian. It is a really interesting and moving look at the experience of adoption in the UK of a child of Guatemalan origin – “When Kate Hadley adopted her Guatemalan daughter, they both enjoyed becoming part of a new, mixed-race family – but there were unexpected hazards“:

Amnesty International have just released the following press release about the CICIG which was CICIACS in a previous encarnation;

Organizaciones internacionales felicitamos resolución favorable de la Corte de Constitucionalidad de Guatemala e instamos a la pronta ratificación de iniciativa para combatir la impunidad.

Organizaciones no gubernamentales de Estados Unidos, Europa y Canadá acogemos con esperanza la opinión consultiva favorable a la iniciativa para el establecimiento de la Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala (CICIG) pronunciado el día de ayer por la Corte de Constitucionalidad de Guatemala.
 
La decisión de ayer abre una valiosa oportunidad para que el país, con el respaldo de la comunidad internacional, retome el camino hacia la democracia, la vigencia del Estado de Derecho, y la protección de los derechos humanos, dijeron las organizaciones firmantes.
 
Tanto dentro, como fuera de Guatemala, la existencia y el impacto de los cuerpos ilegales y aparatos clandestinos de seguridad son hechos evidentes. En los últimos años, estos grupos han extendido su presencia atacando e intimidando a operadores de justicia, líderes políticos, y defensores de derechos humanos, entre otros. Las actividades de estos grupos han logrado socavar el sistema judicial y perpetuar un clima de inseguridad, generando terreno fértil para la mayor generalización de la corrupción, la violencia y el crimen organizado.

El principal reto para la democracia en Guatemala continúa siendo la consolidación del Estado de Derecho, el cual no podrá fortalecerse mientras persistan deficiencias en el Sistema de Administración de Justicia y se permita a los cuerpos ilegales y aparatos clandestinos de seguridad actuar impunemente.

La CICIG ofrece un mecanismo concreto, puntual e inmediato para fortalecer las instituciones estatales y asistir al Gobierno de Guatemala en su toma de control de un fenómeno que ha impactado a todos los sectores de la sociedad. Romper con la cultura de impunidad y prevenir ataques contra defensores de los derechos humanos y representantes de la sociedad civil son tareas que ya no pueden esperar más.

El futuro de la CICIG queda ahora en manos del Congreso de la República, que puede dar un importante e histórico paso, al aprobar el acuerdo. La situación actual ha puesto en evidencia que el rescate de la institucionalidad, el efectivo combate de la impunidad, y la consolidación del Estado de Derecho son tareas urgentes e indispensables para la construcción de la democracia en Guatemala y para el efectivo respeto del derecho a la vida, expresaron las organizaciones.

Esperamos que el Congreso actúe prontamente en pos de los más urgentes intereses nacionales, y decida a favor de la oportunidad que brinda la CICIG para afrontar con firmeza el legado de violencia e impunidad de los cuerpos ilegales y aparatos clandestinos de seguridad.

Organizaciones firmantes:

Oficina en Washington para Asuntos Latinoamericanos (WOLA)
Plataforma Holandesa
Diakonia – Suecia
Human Rights First
Iniciativa de Copenhague para Centroamérica y México (CIFCA)
Earth Rights International
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA)
Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC)
Foro de ONG Internacionales (FONGI – coalición de 32 organizaciones de Estados Unidos, Europa y Canadá)
Franciscan Mission Service
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
Our Savior's Lutheran Church
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)

Human trafficking continues to be an issue in Guatemala, the most frequent manifestation of which being the enticing of young girls into enforced prostitution¦

On Friday, 20th of April 2007 Casa Alianza Guatemala in coordination with the National Police, Migration and Public Prosecution Offices raided a brothel disguised as a massage parlour suspected of housing minors for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation in Guatemala City. Two 17-year-old girls were rescued from the premises as a result of this joint raid operation and both were immediately referred to a judge who entrusted them to Casa Alianza for shelter and protection.

The parlour was licensed to operate as a bar and to offer massages but it was evident from the outset that it functioned as a full-scale brothel. The two-storey premises housed roughly thirty girls at any one time and boasted three bedrooms on the upper floor were paid sexual activity apparently took place. The property lacked basic sanitation, there was no running water and bed sheets were stained with blood.  

Those in charge were taken by surprise and several arrests were carried out, including a few individuals who were performing what they claimed to be traditional Mayan rituals on the roof of the building and who tried to flee the scene by jumping to adjacent houses.  

Twenty-five girls were found on site during this raid, including three foreign nationals, namely a Nicaraguan, Mexican and a Honduran girl, who faced immediate deportation, as they were not in possession of valid Guatemalan work permits. The case of the Mexican girl was particularly shocking as she was married to a Guatemalan national and had a nine months-old daughter with this man who married her only in order to obtain Mexican citizenship, according to the girl.

She stated she had been trafficked from Mexico at the age of fifteen at which stage she started working at a brothel in Guatemala City were she met her now husband, the son of the brothel’s owner. Despite being the real victim here, she was deported back to Mexico and guardianship of the baby was granted to her husband, who by all means knew about his wife’s prostitution and benefited from her earnings making it a typical case of pandering.     

The Migration and Prosecution Officers failed to properly execute their duties in this raid – by not ensuring that each girl had a legitimate id card proving that they were adults. Several girls appeared to be minors and in possession of fake identity cards but the agents, instead of extending the presumption of being underage privileges to these particularly young-looking girls and ensuring the validity of the documents presented, decided to take the girl’s id documents at face value in a clear violation of Guatemalan youth protection laws.
 In Guatemala, adult prostitution is not illegal therefore just moments after the agents left the premises, the music was put back on and business resumed as usual.

On Tuesday 24th of April 2007, In another joint raid operation, a seventeen years-old Guatemalan girl was rescued from a different brothel belonging to the same human trafficking network. She came from a small village and was lured into the Capital city and forced into prostitution in order to pay for debts she supposedly contracted vis-à-vis her traffickers.

Casa Alianza together with other leading Guatemalan NGO’s is constantly lobbying legislators for important changes to the Penal Code. Under the current Penal Code, those guilty of pimping and pandering offences get away with their crimes by simply paying an insignificant fine, which is low even for Guatemalan standards.

In the three years the Guatemalan Congress has failed to pass any legislation that benefit and protect Guatemalan youth. One example of which is the Adoption Act, which has not yet been approved, despite more than 10 years of continued civil society denouncing irregular adoptions presenting characteristics of human trafficking.

Casa Alianza is a non-governmental organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of children’s rights in the region.

For more information on the work of Casa Alianza please visit www.casa-alianza.org.uk

We just received the following press release about the new English translation of Oswaldo Salazar's book “Por el lado Oscuro”. Salazar was recently in London to take part in launches of the book that included an event in Canning House and then the Instituto Cervantes. Having read the book – it is certainly a compelling read. And pre-revolutionary Guatemala is certainly an interesting time to look at.

In From the Darkness – the English translation of the prize-winning Por el lado oscuro – Salazar explores the bitterly unhappy circumstances that can make a woman kill, and the unforgiving quality of male justice.

From the Darkness is a captivating story of a murder and the ensuing investigation that became known as “The Gourd Poisoning” in a traditional society unprepared for a crime that lay outside its powers of reasoning. It begins in the spring of 1939 when a man dies in agony at the San Juan de Dios de Amatitlán Hospital outside Guatemala City. His wife and children are accused of poisoning him, shattering the calm of a land kept in fearful order by the cold and tempestuous dictator General Jorge Ubico (1931-44).

Salazar's work touches a raw Latin nerve, giving the reader a unique insight into lost Central American worlds: that of the Guatemalan peasant woman – ignored, abused and constantly judged by her unforgiving male superiors; that of the small, rural Latin American town, where a handful of strongmen oversee all life; and that of the era of military caudillos, dictators whose quest for order and progress shapes all official culture.

The winner of the prestigious 2003 Mario Monteforte Toledo Prize, Por el lado oscuro was translated by Gavin O'Toole and will be published by Aflame Books in March 2007.

The Mexican writer Carlos Montemayor said of this book: “Por el lado oscuro has a magnificent narrative quality, exposition and style as well as a forceful central character, delivering the unexpected features of a species of crime novel within a work of historical reconstruction.”

Oswaldo Salazar was born in Guatemala City in 1959 and has had a distinguished academic career. He took his first degree in philosophy and literature at Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala then studied as a Fulbright Scholar at Boston College in the United States. He currently teaches at Guatemala's Francisco Marroquín University.

Aflame Books is a small, independent UK publisher committed to publishing in English translation works from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

World Politics Watch have just published a two-part series on Gang Culture and Violence in Guatemala: Part One and Part Two. It makes for pretty chilling reading.

The series was written by Billy Briggs, the 2005 recipient of Amnesty International's Nations and Regions Award for his reporting on human rights issues.  His report is accompanied by photos by Angela Catlin.

Billy says on website about Guatemala:

You can see his other articles on Guatemala on his website where he's written for The Sunday Herald, The Guardian and The Big Issue.

To begin this post here's George Bush getting some practice in at being contrite- this could have served him well before his Latin American trip. The Mayan cleansing to be carried out in Iximche has ran and ran, as have the crosses held aloft by students in Guatemala City. Bush as sinner or 'el Diablo', has captured the public's imagination.

On the day that George Bush will touch down in Guatemala- the agenda for that one hour meeting and dinner with Oscar Berger is doubtless rather full- though no surprises if it turns out to be empty on contrition. Foreign Minister, Gert Rosenthal, hinted they might be discussing ethanol production- but if this interview in Siglo XXI is anything to go by- sounds like policy on the fly:

Here's a better idea from the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (Nisgua) just in case both are prepared to bear their soul a little: they could make a joint declaration to advance the legal cases against General Efrain Rios Montt and members of his military high command. They can't say there's a shortage of information on this one.

Nisgua points out:

But hey, the onus doesn't rest solely with Berger to make a move here. What are the odds of a contrite Bush making a Clinton-style apology for US involvement in these crimes? It's worth reminding ourselves today of what Clinton said in 1999:

This report from Robert Parry at the time- tracks the journey that led up to that moment the last time a sitting US President visited Guatemala. The Clinton administration had declassified scores of the secret U.S. documents in the late 1990s- the Peace Accords had not long been signed and the Historical Clarification Commission had just reported. It feels a world away now.

Background

Apologizing of course is not with out controversy, William Blum pointed out that: “the word “sorry” did not cross the president's [Clinton's] lips, nor did the word “apologize”, nor the word “compensation”. For other views on the significance of this moment see:

Then there's this on Bush's track record on apologizing from Robert Parry's report on that V-E Day speech on May 7 2005:

Finally, for family precedents, Dubya's dad is quoted as saying the following in 1988 as Vice President: