I feel the need to add a footnote here. I no longer live in Guatemala so I can't continue Guatemala Gulps. Its just not the same writing about a place from the other side of the globe.
I was so overwhelmed in the months before I left that I couldn't find a topic small enough to write on for this blog. I followed a major corruption/murder case involving the assassination in Guatemala of 3 Salvadoran members of the Central American Parliament, followed by the arrest of four members of the National Civil Police for their murder, followed by the assassination of those same four police while being held in custody.... but it was too big. It was, and still is, a book. I hope I write it, but I hope I can write it with hope.
Guatemala is especially in my mind because today it is the second and final vote in the Presidential election. The trouble is, I'm no longer sure it makes much difference who is elected President. The river of corruption seems to run so deep and so wide that these democratic institutions have started to look to me like bobbing paper boats. I hope this is just a passing bout of cynicism and that I'll soon regain my faith in the ability of Guatemala's own people to make themselves a better future. Because they are amazingly resilient people and I don't want to forget that, with the distance that comes from reading news analysis rather than the reality of daily contact.
My experience of writing about Guatemala, where I lived for more than two years, was that the better I got to know the place the harder it was to write about it. Things that seemed clearcut at first, became tangled. The versions of history I read were crumpled around the edges in conversation. People who were cautious at first, started to tell me their real stories and views. Anything I wrote started to look like a photo-kit portrait of a good friend or loved one.
It wasn't my choice to live in Guatemala, but it was an arranged marriage that grew into love.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Friday, May 11, 2007
Travails with my ants
This is not exactly a commentary or snippet of Guatemalan life. But it is about Guatemalan ants, so I guess that qualifies.
Last night in my kitchen I was surprised to see a sunflower seed propelling itself across the floor. When I bent down to look I could see it was being pushed by three tiny ants. They were struggling, but kept it moving in a more-or-less a northwesterly direction, while I watched.
Then a fourth ant arrived. Instead of shouldering the burden it ran around to each of the three ants that were carrying the seed, dodging in an out as they marched. Then it circled around the whole operation. ‘Oh’, I thought, ‘here’s the overseer ant.’
Oddly enough, seconds after the arrival of the overseer ant, the seed started moving forward in a different way. Instead of moving forward with the seed straight, it began to rotate forward. The three worker ants were now walking anti-clockwise, rotating the seed and moving it forward at the same time. It seemed to me it was progressing faster, and still in the same direction with this new circular motion, although I did wonder if all that circling could be so efficient.
Then the whole thing stopped rotating and sped up even more. I couldn’t locate the overseer ant for a moment, then I realized it had taken a share of the load. The four of them, pushing together, quickly disappeared under the kitchen bench.
‘And the moral of the story is?’
‘Ummm…There’s more than one way for a bunch of ants to move a sunflower seed?’
Last night in my kitchen I was surprised to see a sunflower seed propelling itself across the floor. When I bent down to look I could see it was being pushed by three tiny ants. They were struggling, but kept it moving in a more-or-less a northwesterly direction, while I watched.
Then a fourth ant arrived. Instead of shouldering the burden it ran around to each of the three ants that were carrying the seed, dodging in an out as they marched. Then it circled around the whole operation. ‘Oh’, I thought, ‘here’s the overseer ant.’
Oddly enough, seconds after the arrival of the overseer ant, the seed started moving forward in a different way. Instead of moving forward with the seed straight, it began to rotate forward. The three worker ants were now walking anti-clockwise, rotating the seed and moving it forward at the same time. It seemed to me it was progressing faster, and still in the same direction with this new circular motion, although I did wonder if all that circling could be so efficient.
Then the whole thing stopped rotating and sped up even more. I couldn’t locate the overseer ant for a moment, then I realized it had taken a share of the load. The four of them, pushing together, quickly disappeared under the kitchen bench.
‘And the moral of the story is?’
‘Ummm…There’s more than one way for a bunch of ants to move a sunflower seed?’
Sunday, January 28, 2007
The cycle continues
Since coming back to Guatemala after a month away I've been struck by the way the same things seem to keep happening...
Another bank went bust - the Banco Comercio - due to the intervention of the national banking regulator. Like Bancafe last year, this was again because of high-risk offshore investments, and again the investors will be unlikely ever to see their money again.
El Periodico managed to create a big scandal out of nothing when it made veiled accusations that the UN Development Program was involved in corrupt government contracting. In fact they produced no evidence of this, other than the fact that UNDP does indeed manage some large internationally funded projects, and that the funds for these are of course channelled through the organization. As someone commented, it was as if the journalist re-used the copy from last year's scandal involving the International Organization for Migration, and changed the names. Its a pity they put so much energy into beating up non-existent issues when there is so much actual corruption in every area of public life. But it is easier to target foreign organizations. Apart from anything else, they don't make death threats when they get bad press.
The Constitutional Court suspended the operation of a new tax clause intended to fund old-age pensions for people without other retirement funds. The government has said they are looking into how they can now find the funds to start the scheme.
This is the year of Guatemalas' Presidential and Congressional elections, so in reality very little is going to get done between now and November. Already senior public administrators have been resigning en masse so that they can run for election. They are being replaced with caretakers until the end of the year, who will then be replaced by appointees of the new government from January 2008. As with some other Latin Amercian countries, it appears there's no such thing as a professional civil service. All is politics, so each time there's a new President there's virtually a clean sweep, losing organizational history and requiring the reinvention of the wheel every four years (or really 3 + 1).
If the last election year in 2003 is anything to go by, there is also likely to be an increase in street protests and general violence, culminating in the week prior to the November elections. Many private schools will schedule a week's closure at that time (government system schools will already be on vacation), both for reasons of security and logisitics - ie you can't get the buses through when the streets are blocked.
At this stage few Presidential candidates have emerged, but a couple have been on the stage for some time. One of them is Otto Perez Molino, a conservative of the Patriotic Party (Partido Patriota). He is running on a a platform of 'urge mano dura', ie push for the hard-handed approach to criminal violence. It is easy to see his appeal, as personal security is the major issue for middle class and wealthy Guatemalans, as well as for many poor Guatemalans trying to live and make a living in areas run by organized criminal gangs - the 'maras' or 'pandillas'. Plausible estimates put the number of private security personnel at 100,000 compared with 20,000 police in Guatemala, in a population of 12 million. It is natural that this is important to people. After all, what is the use of civil liberties and other human rights if there is a real daily threat to your right to life? But the problem is that the hard handed approach doesn't seem to have worked anywhere in the world (with the possible exception of NYNY under Guiliani?). First of all it takes huge amounts of resources - a large well-trained and 'clean' police force, an efficient and non-corrupt system of criminal justice, and a very capacious and secure prison system, as well as human rights protections for those who suffer abuse of process (though some may think this is an optional extra). I'm afraid it is pretty clear Guatemala is lacking in all of these fundamentals. Besides, cracking down on organized crime is only going to work if it goes right to the top and as long as it doesn't do that, and as long as there are hoardes of unemployed, poor young men with nothing better to do than join the gangs, the source of the problem is not going to go away.
So what would my Presidential campaign be? "OK folks, its time to pay some taxes! And what will we do with them? We'll educate all your kids - provide universal access to primary, secondary, technical and university education - support your old folks, build hospitals and community health centres all around the country, train and resource your police force, create an extensive, efficient and incorruptible judiciary, wrest control of the prison system from the criminal gangs, cut back on military spending, regulate fireams, introduce a proper system of land ownership and land use regulation in the regions (and a spot of redistribution while we're at it), enforce minimum standards for employment conditions and wages, establish mechanisms to appeal against race, gender and other discriminatioon... ummm anything else?'
I'm starting to sound familiar to myself....
Would anyone vote for me I wonder? Evo Morales perhaps? No, wait, he's in Bolivia...
Mariposa Pesada
Another bank went bust - the Banco Comercio - due to the intervention of the national banking regulator. Like Bancafe last year, this was again because of high-risk offshore investments, and again the investors will be unlikely ever to see their money again.
El Periodico managed to create a big scandal out of nothing when it made veiled accusations that the UN Development Program was involved in corrupt government contracting. In fact they produced no evidence of this, other than the fact that UNDP does indeed manage some large internationally funded projects, and that the funds for these are of course channelled through the organization. As someone commented, it was as if the journalist re-used the copy from last year's scandal involving the International Organization for Migration, and changed the names. Its a pity they put so much energy into beating up non-existent issues when there is so much actual corruption in every area of public life. But it is easier to target foreign organizations. Apart from anything else, they don't make death threats when they get bad press.
The Constitutional Court suspended the operation of a new tax clause intended to fund old-age pensions for people without other retirement funds. The government has said they are looking into how they can now find the funds to start the scheme.
This is the year of Guatemalas' Presidential and Congressional elections, so in reality very little is going to get done between now and November. Already senior public administrators have been resigning en masse so that they can run for election. They are being replaced with caretakers until the end of the year, who will then be replaced by appointees of the new government from January 2008. As with some other Latin Amercian countries, it appears there's no such thing as a professional civil service. All is politics, so each time there's a new President there's virtually a clean sweep, losing organizational history and requiring the reinvention of the wheel every four years (or really 3 + 1).
If the last election year in 2003 is anything to go by, there is also likely to be an increase in street protests and general violence, culminating in the week prior to the November elections. Many private schools will schedule a week's closure at that time (government system schools will already be on vacation), both for reasons of security and logisitics - ie you can't get the buses through when the streets are blocked.
At this stage few Presidential candidates have emerged, but a couple have been on the stage for some time. One of them is Otto Perez Molino, a conservative of the Patriotic Party (Partido Patriota). He is running on a a platform of 'urge mano dura', ie push for the hard-handed approach to criminal violence. It is easy to see his appeal, as personal security is the major issue for middle class and wealthy Guatemalans, as well as for many poor Guatemalans trying to live and make a living in areas run by organized criminal gangs - the 'maras' or 'pandillas'. Plausible estimates put the number of private security personnel at 100,000 compared with 20,000 police in Guatemala, in a population of 12 million. It is natural that this is important to people. After all, what is the use of civil liberties and other human rights if there is a real daily threat to your right to life? But the problem is that the hard handed approach doesn't seem to have worked anywhere in the world (with the possible exception of NYNY under Guiliani?). First of all it takes huge amounts of resources - a large well-trained and 'clean' police force, an efficient and non-corrupt system of criminal justice, and a very capacious and secure prison system, as well as human rights protections for those who suffer abuse of process (though some may think this is an optional extra). I'm afraid it is pretty clear Guatemala is lacking in all of these fundamentals. Besides, cracking down on organized crime is only going to work if it goes right to the top and as long as it doesn't do that, and as long as there are hoardes of unemployed, poor young men with nothing better to do than join the gangs, the source of the problem is not going to go away.
So what would my Presidential campaign be? "OK folks, its time to pay some taxes! And what will we do with them? We'll educate all your kids - provide universal access to primary, secondary, technical and university education - support your old folks, build hospitals and community health centres all around the country, train and resource your police force, create an extensive, efficient and incorruptible judiciary, wrest control of the prison system from the criminal gangs, cut back on military spending, regulate fireams, introduce a proper system of land ownership and land use regulation in the regions (and a spot of redistribution while we're at it), enforce minimum standards for employment conditions and wages, establish mechanisms to appeal against race, gender and other discriminatioon... ummm anything else?'
I'm starting to sound familiar to myself....
Would anyone vote for me I wonder? Evo Morales perhaps? No, wait, he's in Bolivia...
Mariposa Pesada
Monday, November 20, 2006
The Bitterest of Fruit
So George Washington got a caning when he confessed to chopping down the cherry tree? Last Thursday in Guatemala City a boy was shot dead for climbing a guava tree.
He was Luis Antonio Sosa Valdez, aged ten years. His killer was a municipal policeman employed by the local government in Zona 4, a poor and densely populated part of the city.
The news made page six of Saturday’s El Periodico. It wasn’t something that scandalized the nation. The front page was taken up with sporting and political news relating to whether members of Congress can be prosecuted for criminal acts. The second page, ironically, was taken up with the news that four Nobel Peace Prize winners met in Guatemala – Guatemala’s own Rigoberta Menchu Túm, Óscar Arias, current President of Costa Rica, Jody Williams and Betty Williams. It had looked like a good news day.
But it was the page six story that should have been front page news.
The boy and two friends decided to climb the guava tree, presumably to steal some fruit, while waiting for a bus to take them to a school holiday program. The policeman approached the tree and demanded they come down immediately, or he’d shoot. They didn’t come down, and he did shoot Luis Antonio, right in the head. The others fled.
This was not a case of mistaken identity, or even acting in the heat of the moment, and it certainly doesn’t look like a warning shot gone wrong. It looks like the actions of someone trained to follow a drill and shoot to kill – except that this was not a war zone, and aside from the fact that they clearly posed no danger to anyone, the targets were children. Something has gone seriously wrong with the moral framework when a policeman thinks this is an appropriate response to a bunch of kids in a tree.
Perhaps there is an explanation, if not a reason. First of all, the municipal police are locally employed, little more than armed private security guards, and are notoriously under-trained and under-resourced. Even with the best-trained and resourced police forces, fatal accidents and mistakes happen when they are armed. But when you have armed but untrained police you are left only with the moral framework of those individuals as to how they conduct their duties properly. And if they happen to think it is appropriate to threaten children with a gun, whatever the children are doing, and then to carry out that threat, then what is there to stop them until it is too late?
As it happens, the policeman in question, Héctor Calel Bin, was a former Sergeant Major in the Guatemalan military. I don’t know the man’s age or personal background, but he may be one of the many ex-military who now work as municipal police and private security guards, since the military was downsized after the peace accords in the mid 1990s. In the two decades before the Peace Accords, and especially the late 1970s and 1980s, the Guatemalan military and paramilitaries massacred thousands of indigenous and poor ladino Guatemalans in the countryside – now known internationally as the Guatemalan Genocide. So perhaps this man’s training did little to engender any respect for the right to life?
The boy’s mother, when pleading for the capture of the guard, said, “There’s no justice in him being able to kill Luis Antonio. He wasn’t a street kid. He had a grandmother, and me. He was a boy, not just someone that could be killed like a dog.” It appears that even she, in her grief and desire to explain that her son was part of a loving family, thinks there are different degrees of worthiness when it comes to a child’s life.
There is a famous book, Bitter Fruit, about the US invasion of a democratic Guatemala in 1954. Those events spelled the end of a fledgling democracy and heralded in 40 years of military dictatorship and civil war, culminating in la violencia in the 1970s and 1980s.
Unfortunately it seems that the bitter fruit has fallen, re-seeded, and fallen again…
Mariposa Pesada
He was Luis Antonio Sosa Valdez, aged ten years. His killer was a municipal policeman employed by the local government in Zona 4, a poor and densely populated part of the city.
The news made page six of Saturday’s El Periodico. It wasn’t something that scandalized the nation. The front page was taken up with sporting and political news relating to whether members of Congress can be prosecuted for criminal acts. The second page, ironically, was taken up with the news that four Nobel Peace Prize winners met in Guatemala – Guatemala’s own Rigoberta Menchu Túm, Óscar Arias, current President of Costa Rica, Jody Williams and Betty Williams. It had looked like a good news day.
But it was the page six story that should have been front page news.
The boy and two friends decided to climb the guava tree, presumably to steal some fruit, while waiting for a bus to take them to a school holiday program. The policeman approached the tree and demanded they come down immediately, or he’d shoot. They didn’t come down, and he did shoot Luis Antonio, right in the head. The others fled.
This was not a case of mistaken identity, or even acting in the heat of the moment, and it certainly doesn’t look like a warning shot gone wrong. It looks like the actions of someone trained to follow a drill and shoot to kill – except that this was not a war zone, and aside from the fact that they clearly posed no danger to anyone, the targets were children. Something has gone seriously wrong with the moral framework when a policeman thinks this is an appropriate response to a bunch of kids in a tree.
Perhaps there is an explanation, if not a reason. First of all, the municipal police are locally employed, little more than armed private security guards, and are notoriously under-trained and under-resourced. Even with the best-trained and resourced police forces, fatal accidents and mistakes happen when they are armed. But when you have armed but untrained police you are left only with the moral framework of those individuals as to how they conduct their duties properly. And if they happen to think it is appropriate to threaten children with a gun, whatever the children are doing, and then to carry out that threat, then what is there to stop them until it is too late?
As it happens, the policeman in question, Héctor Calel Bin, was a former Sergeant Major in the Guatemalan military. I don’t know the man’s age or personal background, but he may be one of the many ex-military who now work as municipal police and private security guards, since the military was downsized after the peace accords in the mid 1990s. In the two decades before the Peace Accords, and especially the late 1970s and 1980s, the Guatemalan military and paramilitaries massacred thousands of indigenous and poor ladino Guatemalans in the countryside – now known internationally as the Guatemalan Genocide. So perhaps this man’s training did little to engender any respect for the right to life?
The boy’s mother, when pleading for the capture of the guard, said, “There’s no justice in him being able to kill Luis Antonio. He wasn’t a street kid. He had a grandmother, and me. He was a boy, not just someone that could be killed like a dog.” It appears that even she, in her grief and desire to explain that her son was part of a loving family, thinks there are different degrees of worthiness when it comes to a child’s life.
There is a famous book, Bitter Fruit, about the US invasion of a democratic Guatemala in 1954. Those events spelled the end of a fledgling democracy and heralded in 40 years of military dictatorship and civil war, culminating in la violencia in the 1970s and 1980s.
Unfortunately it seems that the bitter fruit has fallen, re-seeded, and fallen again…
Mariposa Pesada
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
But where's our bank gone?
When we moved to Guatemala and needed to open local bank accounts to receive salary payments and pay bills and rent, we opted for one of the big four banks of the country, Bancafe. We were a little shocked, therefore, to read in last Friday’s paper that the operations of Bancafe had been suspended by Guatemala’s banking regulatory authority. Our response was, ‘But surely this sort of thing doesn’t happen any more?'
Afterwards everyone told us they knew the bank was in trouble. I wonder why they didn’t tell us? Though of course we weren’t the only ones caught on the hop – we’re in there with some very large international organizations and major projects as well as around a million ordinary account holders.
I’m not sure whether I believe in premonitions, but it so happens that we withdrew the last of this month’s cash from our main account at the very time the banking regulators were deliberating. But we do wonder what is going to happen with the as-yet-unredeemed rent cheque we sent to the landlord last week.
The media reports tell us that Bancafe will not re-open, but assure us that all local accounts (dollars and quetzals) will be moved to other Guatemalan banks and that our money will be safe. They might be able to tell us where to go to find our accounts by this coming Thursday. I’ve heard of bouncing cheques, but never hand-passing accounts from one bank to the next!
Apparently the whole problem has been caused by the international arm of the bank, based in Barbados, which has a massive debt problem - something in the nature of a black hole. The reasons given by the banking authority seem sound and cautious, intended to preserve depositors’ money, as they should do. But it all seems very sudden, and something does not seem to add up. Apparently the bank was given two months to get its affairs in order, but this decision was made before the time expired. And, going by the stunned and sickened look on the face of the bank’s founder Eduardo Gonzalez in press photos, he had no idea the axe was about to fall.
The interesting thing is that Gonzalez is a candidate in the primaries within the centre-right political party Gana, for next year’s Presidential campaign. Whatever his decision about whether he will continue, his candidature has effectively been killed in the water by this untimely event. I don’t pretend to understand the machinations of Guatemala’s subterranean politics, but the coincidental timing is remarkable. I would have to say, yo tengo mis sospechas (I have my suspicions ).
We’ve never brought into Guatemala more money than we needed for each month’s living expenses. Somehow it seemed the sensible approach, although I think the backs of our minds were more occupied with the vulnerability of the quetzal and the cost of international exchange and transfer than the unlikely event that one of the four largest banks in the country would be shut down. But now we’re looking for a way not to have local bank accounts at all.
The funny is that, most of the time, it is actually possible to withdraw quetzals from foreign accounts, but it is a bit of a circus trying to do it on a regular basis. I recently thought I’d found a bank whose machines I could use not only to get quetzals per se, but to get more than Q1,000 in one hit (=100 euros). It did work one day. The next week I tried again and the machine insisted that any and every amount I entered exceeded my daily withdrawal limit. Another time the same machine told me my card wasn’t recognised. Then the next time it coughed up, so I figured it was just a network glitch after all. But when I tried the same bank at a different branch on a different day, I again ran into the zero withdrawal limit, until it occurred to me to experiment a bit. In the end I did get the money by calling it a credit card account, even though it isn’t, and even though the other machine in the other branch of the same bank wouldn’t give me a cent unless I promised it was a savings account. It seems to be a new form of computerised gaming, which I’ve decided to call Ruleta Guatemalteca.
So if you hear any reports around Guatemala of bank cash dispensers with large frontal dents and cracked glass … it’ll probably be one of those 1.1 million Bancafe desperado clients (and I have the right to remain silent).
Mariposa Pesada
Afterwards everyone told us they knew the bank was in trouble. I wonder why they didn’t tell us? Though of course we weren’t the only ones caught on the hop – we’re in there with some very large international organizations and major projects as well as around a million ordinary account holders.
I’m not sure whether I believe in premonitions, but it so happens that we withdrew the last of this month’s cash from our main account at the very time the banking regulators were deliberating. But we do wonder what is going to happen with the as-yet-unredeemed rent cheque we sent to the landlord last week.
The media reports tell us that Bancafe will not re-open, but assure us that all local accounts (dollars and quetzals) will be moved to other Guatemalan banks and that our money will be safe. They might be able to tell us where to go to find our accounts by this coming Thursday. I’ve heard of bouncing cheques, but never hand-passing accounts from one bank to the next!
Apparently the whole problem has been caused by the international arm of the bank, based in Barbados, which has a massive debt problem - something in the nature of a black hole. The reasons given by the banking authority seem sound and cautious, intended to preserve depositors’ money, as they should do. But it all seems very sudden, and something does not seem to add up. Apparently the bank was given two months to get its affairs in order, but this decision was made before the time expired. And, going by the stunned and sickened look on the face of the bank’s founder Eduardo Gonzalez in press photos, he had no idea the axe was about to fall.
The interesting thing is that Gonzalez is a candidate in the primaries within the centre-right political party Gana, for next year’s Presidential campaign. Whatever his decision about whether he will continue, his candidature has effectively been killed in the water by this untimely event. I don’t pretend to understand the machinations of Guatemala’s subterranean politics, but the coincidental timing is remarkable. I would have to say, yo tengo mis sospechas (I have my suspicions ).
We’ve never brought into Guatemala more money than we needed for each month’s living expenses. Somehow it seemed the sensible approach, although I think the backs of our minds were more occupied with the vulnerability of the quetzal and the cost of international exchange and transfer than the unlikely event that one of the four largest banks in the country would be shut down. But now we’re looking for a way not to have local bank accounts at all.
The funny is that, most of the time, it is actually possible to withdraw quetzals from foreign accounts, but it is a bit of a circus trying to do it on a regular basis. I recently thought I’d found a bank whose machines I could use not only to get quetzals per se, but to get more than Q1,000 in one hit (=100 euros). It did work one day. The next week I tried again and the machine insisted that any and every amount I entered exceeded my daily withdrawal limit. Another time the same machine told me my card wasn’t recognised. Then the next time it coughed up, so I figured it was just a network glitch after all. But when I tried the same bank at a different branch on a different day, I again ran into the zero withdrawal limit, until it occurred to me to experiment a bit. In the end I did get the money by calling it a credit card account, even though it isn’t, and even though the other machine in the other branch of the same bank wouldn’t give me a cent unless I promised it was a savings account. It seems to be a new form of computerised gaming, which I’ve decided to call Ruleta Guatemalteca.
So if you hear any reports around Guatemala of bank cash dispensers with large frontal dents and cracked glass … it’ll probably be one of those 1.1 million Bancafe desperado clients (and I have the right to remain silent).
Mariposa Pesada
Friday, October 13, 2006
The Full Montt
This week the Guatemalan Constitutional Court, with new membership as of mid year, actually overruled itself.
The Court has now held that it was wrong to allow former President Efrain Rios Montt to run for the country’s presidency in 2003. As a person who came to power in 1982 by means of a military coup he should have been banned from running, as the Constitution is very specific about that. Somehow, the Constitutional Court in 2003 found reason to state that he was eligible. And he ran, and had the full status of an upstanding presidential candidate, even though he had demonstrated his disdain for democratic process (along with breaching the most basic human rights of the thousands of indigenous and poor ladino Guatemalans who were persecuted, tortured and died in the genocide under his regime in the early 1980s).
So, he didn’t win anyway - what’s the big deal? The deal is that (a) he can’t run again next year (though he probably wasn’t going to, as he’s getting a bit long in the tooth) and (b) the case is no longer a precedent that would allow others in a similar position to run for the Presidency.
Most importantly, it’s a win for an independent judiciary and for constitutionalism. After all, a democracy is built from its own history.
Go the CC!!
Mariposa Pesada
The Court has now held that it was wrong to allow former President Efrain Rios Montt to run for the country’s presidency in 2003. As a person who came to power in 1982 by means of a military coup he should have been banned from running, as the Constitution is very specific about that. Somehow, the Constitutional Court in 2003 found reason to state that he was eligible. And he ran, and had the full status of an upstanding presidential candidate, even though he had demonstrated his disdain for democratic process (along with breaching the most basic human rights of the thousands of indigenous and poor ladino Guatemalans who were persecuted, tortured and died in the genocide under his regime in the early 1980s).
So, he didn’t win anyway - what’s the big deal? The deal is that (a) he can’t run again next year (though he probably wasn’t going to, as he’s getting a bit long in the tooth) and (b) the case is no longer a precedent that would allow others in a similar position to run for the Presidency.
Most importantly, it’s a win for an independent judiciary and for constitutionalism. After all, a democracy is built from its own history.
Go the CC!!
Mariposa Pesada
Guatemala on the UN Security Council?
It is possible this is news only in Guatemala, but the government of this country is still making a bid for the Latin American region’s seat on the UN Security Council (a non-permanent seat with no veto power). I suspect the balanced speech of President Berger at the UN last month was a little overshadowed by that of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, the other contender for this Security Council seat, who, in a triumph of international diplomacy, said he could still smell the odour of the Devil George Bush at the podium.
What follows is my translation of an amusingly forthright interview on this subject in today’s edition of one of Guatemala’s daily newspapers, ‘El Periodico’.[1] I apologize for any errors – it’s not an expert translation. The interviewee is Antonjo Pallaré Buonafina, ex-Guatemalan ambassador to the UN and, prior to that, to France.
What purpose is served by Guatemala becoming a member of the UN Security Council?
None at all. It will just create problems this government cannot confront. There is a book by the Spanish ambassador who was a member of the Security Council when the US attacked Iraq, in which he says that he has never held a position so useless, so dangerous and so subject to pressure, as that one.
What does Guatemala have to do to obtain the Security Council position?
Hugo Chavez would need to die. He’d have to commit hari kiri. Don’t think that just because he’s mad he’s also unpopular. Guatemala will stay in the voting but in the end it will withdraw. Guatemala’s ambassador to the UN, Jorge Skinner Klée, is known in the Ministry of External Relations as the most scheming person there. He wants to stay at the UN for eternity, and if he becomes a member of the Security Council he will be immoveable.
What action would Guatemala need to take to merit a position on the Security Council?
A change of government and ambassador and a move to act with the dignity of a state. No one believes anyone who is not honourable. There is no point in denying it has been responsible for false rumours in the past. Guatemala is unable to participate unless it changes its policy and enters the arena with honourable people. The Arabs are not going to forget Guatemala’s past actions.
Q. Would the fact that it sent forces to Lebanon help Guatemala’s candidature?
A. The whole world knows that we have a long history of enmity with Israel, and they respect that, and no one is going to believe that we have become friends overnight. It’s something that forms over time, through actions. No one’s interests are served by sending our boys over there where they might kill and be killed. The sentiment is laudable, but Guatemala should not go where it is not wanted.
And I have nothing more to add....
Mariposa Pesada
[1] By Claudia Acuna de Seijas, p. 3.
What follows is my translation of an amusingly forthright interview on this subject in today’s edition of one of Guatemala’s daily newspapers, ‘El Periodico’.[1] I apologize for any errors – it’s not an expert translation. The interviewee is Antonjo Pallaré Buonafina, ex-Guatemalan ambassador to the UN and, prior to that, to France.
What purpose is served by Guatemala becoming a member of the UN Security Council?
None at all. It will just create problems this government cannot confront. There is a book by the Spanish ambassador who was a member of the Security Council when the US attacked Iraq, in which he says that he has never held a position so useless, so dangerous and so subject to pressure, as that one.
What does Guatemala have to do to obtain the Security Council position?
Hugo Chavez would need to die. He’d have to commit hari kiri. Don’t think that just because he’s mad he’s also unpopular. Guatemala will stay in the voting but in the end it will withdraw. Guatemala’s ambassador to the UN, Jorge Skinner Klée, is known in the Ministry of External Relations as the most scheming person there. He wants to stay at the UN for eternity, and if he becomes a member of the Security Council he will be immoveable.
What action would Guatemala need to take to merit a position on the Security Council?
A change of government and ambassador and a move to act with the dignity of a state. No one believes anyone who is not honourable. There is no point in denying it has been responsible for false rumours in the past. Guatemala is unable to participate unless it changes its policy and enters the arena with honourable people. The Arabs are not going to forget Guatemala’s past actions.
Q. Would the fact that it sent forces to Lebanon help Guatemala’s candidature?
A. The whole world knows that we have a long history of enmity with Israel, and they respect that, and no one is going to believe that we have become friends overnight. It’s something that forms over time, through actions. No one’s interests are served by sending our boys over there where they might kill and be killed. The sentiment is laudable, but Guatemala should not go where it is not wanted.
And I have nothing more to add....
Mariposa Pesada
[1] By Claudia Acuna de Seijas, p. 3.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Guavas - les gustan?
August is the lull in the wet season. We’ve had a week or more of warm sunny days and only a little rain; enough to keep things brilliant green and to see tall yellow lilies, red gladioli, pale-gold and pink roses, and huge green umbrella leaves bursting from their garden beds. The sickly sweet smell of guava fruit has occupied the front yard again, where we have the most prolific tree since Eden. The smell will stay with us for months, wafting in through the bathroom window, and once again we hear the soft thud of heavy fruit falling to its lawn bed at night.
Some of our neighbours and other passers-by ask if they can have the fruit to make guava relish, a local specialty, and we are happy to oblige. But I’m afraid it’s all wasted on us. The cloying perfume is too much. Last year a neighbour gave us a jar of relish in return for a bucket of guavas, but still we couldn’t stomach it, so the delighted gardener got to take it home. Yesterday I brought just one ripe fruit into the house and it wasn’t long before my partner was asking, “Why does it smell like cat pee in here?” I explained that it was just guava pheromones.
During last year's fruiting a delightful old indigenous couple, who come round regularly to sell typical fabrics and clothing, asked if they could have some of our guavas. We collected them together and they left with two supermarket bags full, faces beaming. They couldn't carry any more, as they already had a big bundle of fabrics each, the man with the larger one which he carries on his back, and which must weigh almost as much as him. They are both tiny, wiry people, and even the man barely comes up to my shoulder. A short while after they left our house I walked down the street to collect my son from the bus stop. The old couple had stopped in a doorway only two houses down, and were sitting there gorging themselves on the guavas! They looked a little bashful as I walked past, but then we all laughed and I went on my way.
I’ve also just discovered that my Columbian friend loves them (“Guayabas! Me encanta!”), and I’m now convinced that guava compatibility is an inherited gene present only in peoples from the Latin American tropics. I’m picking up the good ones each morning and keeping them for her, but I have to keep the bowl of guavas outside. To me they’re worse than the smelliest French cheese.
The only members of our family who eat our guavas are the dogs. Last season our big dog was in the habit of going to the front yard each night before bed, sniffing around until he found a guava that was just right, then taking it inside to eat for his bedtime snack. He seems to like them very ripe. Our small dog likes to munch on them too. She is also a great ball fetcher and has just invented the new game of guava fetch. Each time I throw a bad guava into the compost heap, she brings it back for me.
Mariposa Pesada
23 August 2006
Some of our neighbours and other passers-by ask if they can have the fruit to make guava relish, a local specialty, and we are happy to oblige. But I’m afraid it’s all wasted on us. The cloying perfume is too much. Last year a neighbour gave us a jar of relish in return for a bucket of guavas, but still we couldn’t stomach it, so the delighted gardener got to take it home. Yesterday I brought just one ripe fruit into the house and it wasn’t long before my partner was asking, “Why does it smell like cat pee in here?” I explained that it was just guava pheromones.
During last year's fruiting a delightful old indigenous couple, who come round regularly to sell typical fabrics and clothing, asked if they could have some of our guavas. We collected them together and they left with two supermarket bags full, faces beaming. They couldn't carry any more, as they already had a big bundle of fabrics each, the man with the larger one which he carries on his back, and which must weigh almost as much as him. They are both tiny, wiry people, and even the man barely comes up to my shoulder. A short while after they left our house I walked down the street to collect my son from the bus stop. The old couple had stopped in a doorway only two houses down, and were sitting there gorging themselves on the guavas! They looked a little bashful as I walked past, but then we all laughed and I went on my way.
I’ve also just discovered that my Columbian friend loves them (“Guayabas! Me encanta!”), and I’m now convinced that guava compatibility is an inherited gene present only in peoples from the Latin American tropics. I’m picking up the good ones each morning and keeping them for her, but I have to keep the bowl of guavas outside. To me they’re worse than the smelliest French cheese.
The only members of our family who eat our guavas are the dogs. Last season our big dog was in the habit of going to the front yard each night before bed, sniffing around until he found a guava that was just right, then taking it inside to eat for his bedtime snack. He seems to like them very ripe. Our small dog likes to munch on them too. She is also a great ball fetcher and has just invented the new game of guava fetch. Each time I throw a bad guava into the compost heap, she brings it back for me.
Mariposa Pesada
23 August 2006
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