buried mirror: latest reflections » politics

Guatemala in danger

xensen — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:00:58 +0000

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 Americas – Mexico’s southern neighbor is in far more serious danger of becoming a failed state. Reeling from gangs, corruption and pervasive poverty, Guatemala now faces well-armed, well-financed drug cartels.

Narco traffickers and organized criminals dominate an estimated 40 percent of the country, from the Mexican border to the Caribbean coast, as well as in the little-populated Mayan jungle and forest preserves of the Peten. Opium poppy fields grow freely. The major threat, though, comes from more than $10 billion in cocaine passing through Guatemala each year, with a tenth of the money laundered in the country and used to bribe officials.

The drug lords and their friends have become the self-ordained local governments and police, either directly or by buying off others. The Sinaloa Cartel, which has run cocaine trafficking in Guatemala for the past several years, is pitted against the Gulf Cartel newcomers. Their “Zetas” (paid assassins) are ratcheting up violence that inevitably hits “civilians.” Last year there were more than 6,200 homicides reported in Guatemala.

Schneider paints a bleek picture. Can this be reversed?

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Guatemala in danger

Hillary Cumbia

xensen — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 08:00:00 +0000

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.

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Hillary Cumbia

Viva Obama

xensen — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:00:05 +0000

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.

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Viva Obama

Por que no te callas?

xensen — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:00:53 +0000

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

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Por que no te callas?

VIP behind bars

xensen — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:00:28 +0000

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 part of the prison and the plots hatched by his personal enemies that are geared towards ensuring that his stay behind bars is nasty, brutal and short.”

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VIP behind bars

Colom wins!

xensen — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:01:51 +0000

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. Post from Buried Mirror, [...]

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Colom wins!

The Maya vote

xensen — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:00:52 +0000

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.

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The Maya vote

The Art of Political Murder

xensen — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:00:11 +0000

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 read) as lacking focus and style; in Publishers Weekly, on the other hand, Trent Olson says that “Goldman manages a clear narrative,” asserting that “his journalism isn’t so much a departure from his fiction as an extension of his concerns with the fraught landscapes where ‘truth’ is as contested as the soil underfoot, yet central to battles waged over it.”

(image links to book page at amazon)

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The Art of Political Murder

Runoff

xensen — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 04:50:45 +0000

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 with 52.6 percent of the vote.

LINK: Que significa el 3% de Rigoberta?

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Runoff

Guatemala election polls

xensen — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:00:48 +0000

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 have mobilized a lot of support.

via bloggings by boz

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Guatemala election polls