buried mirror: latest reflections

In an opinion piece in the Global Post, Mark Schneider argues that the Guatemalan state is in danger of collapsing. This is how he begins: While U.S. attention has rightly been focused on Mexico’s drug wars – with high-profile trips by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before this weekend’s Summit of the [...]

The Clinton campaign has its own music video aimed at Texas Latino voters. The have logged in with the cumbia Hillary Hillary Clinton. I don’t think it’s as catchy as Obama’s mariachi Viva Obama.

Whatever your take on the U.S. elections, you’ve got to admire this video, another example of the smartness of the Obama campaign team.

This song is going viral in many parts of the Spanish-speaking world.

A new film from Guatemalan director Elías Jiménez Trachtenberg, VIP La Otra Casa, has just been released. According to Inner Diablog,” A government official called Juan Ramos is jailed for suspected corruption: an unusual enough premise in Guate. Apparently the rest of the film is about his struggle to get himself transfered to the VIP [...]

Alvaro Colom, in something of an upset, apparently has defeated Otto Pérez Molina in the race for president of Guatemala. Colom had lost his one-time lead and was trailing in most polls. Colom took most departments, although Perez appears to have won Guatemala City, thanks to his anti-crime message. Turn-out was low.

The NYT has a nice slide show of images related to the Maya vote in Guatemala’s elections, and why Rigoberto Menchu didn’t do better (she was sixth out of 14 candidates, with 3 percent of the vote). Rudy at La Antigua Daily Photo is inviting comments on the slide show.

Ilan Stavans reviews Francisco Goldman’s The Art of Political Murder in the Los Angeles Times. The book is a look at the 1998 murder of bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, vicar-general of Guatemala City. Goldman’s book apparently imlpicates current presidential candidate Otto Pérez Molina in the murder. Stavans criticizes the book (which I have not yet [...]

To no one’s surprise, no presidential candidate in the Guatemala elections received a majority of the vote. Early reports show Colon at 36 percent and Perez at 29 percent. Menchu received less than 3 percent. The second-round election will take place in November. According to Prensa Libre, Perez would win a runoff election against Colom [...]

Polls are currently showing a close race with Colom holding a tenuous lead. Vox Latina: Colom 32, Perez 32 Ultima Hora: Colom 35, Perez 27 Borge: Colom 31, Perez 28 Perez Molina was the head of military intelligence during Guatemala’s horrible civil war. Colom is a businessman and economist. Rigoberto Menchu does not appear to [...]

This image is from the websites of the municipalities of San Luis, Poptun, and Dolores in the Peten. Despite killings and intimation, Rigoberto Menchu continues her campaign for the presidency. Poptun has a population of about 30,000 people. It is the base for Guatemala’s counter-insurgency jungle warfare special operations military elite, the Kaibiles. The name [...]

Clara Luz López, a candidate for the Casillas City Council in the Encounter for Guatemala party of Rigoberta Menchú, was shot and killed Monday on her way home from a day of campaigning. “This is a clear message for our candidates and for us,” Menchu said. This election has been the bloodiest since the end [...]

This charmingly saggy balcony sits across from the Balam Na in Filipe Carrillo Puerto. This is quite near the spring that gave birth to the Talking Cross and was the fount of one of the longest-lasting revolutions ever. The eye of Hurricane Dean passed about 60 miles south of here, but the bulk of the [...]

Jorge Ubico y Castañeda ruled as dictator of Guatemala from 1931 to 1944, the year documented in this great historical footage (with “Sail to the Moon” by Radiohead as a soundtrack). Ubico was one of the models for the president in Miguel Angel Asturias’s classic novel El Señor Presidente (The President). Asturias’s book stands as [...]

This year’s presidential elections are the deadliest since the 1980s. Frontrunner Alvaro Colom has called his chief opponent, Otto Perez Molina, an idiot. Perez Molina has called Colom a thief. Meanwhile, “the electorate is tremendously skeptical.” And people keep dying. Francisco Goldman is releasing a book that implicates general Perez Molina in the murder of [...]