La Lucha para la Justicia en Guatemala

 "We have always lived here: we have the right to go on living where we are happy and where we want to die. Only here will we be able to better ourselves, elsewhere we would never be able to feel complete and our pain would be eternal." – Popul Vuh[1]

Samael and the Promised Land

Sitting across from Samael,[2] I could tell the man felt as hot and uncomfortable as myself. We had met only a handful of times, never exchanging much more than the typical greetings. Sporadic comments about the weather interrupted awkward silences as we waited for our rice, beans, tortillas, and chili peppers at an outdoor comedor in Rabinal, Guatemala. Today was Sunday—market day—when hundreds of people come from surrounding villages miles away to buy, sell, and trade goods needed for the week. But Samael did not come to the pueblo to buy fertilizer for the milpa (cornfield) or food for his family. He came to meet a gringo he barely knew.

The proud and confident leader of his small village was not his usual charismatic self. His feet were tapping. His hands rubbed together. His face seemed weathered and tired. Samael's usual appearance of self-confidence had been replaced with one of apprehension. It looked as if he hadn't slept in days. You see, like one in ten Guatemalans, Samael's son left Guatemala for the fabled North—the Promised Land. However, Samael hadn't heard word from Miguel in three weeks.

In my few encounters with Miguel, I learned a lot about him. Miguel had dropped out of school at the age of eleven in order to earn an income to support his family. Due to the lack of land in his village, Miguel knew that his future likely would be elsewhere. He commuted to the pueblo daily, working as a thankless shoeshine boy. Miguel made 25 cents to shine, as he put it, "some rich ladino's shoes."

Miguel found out that there really wasn't upward mobility in the world of shining shoes for a young indigenous man. So at the age of 14, Miguel and a friend traveled to Guatemala City to find permanent work. Miguel figured, "It was one less mouth to feed and I thought I could do more good sending money back to the family." But things didn't quite work out as planned for Miguel in the fast-paced capital. After two years of living in Guate, Miguel still had to buscar chance everyday. During this time he was kicked out of the house of a family friend for not having a fixed income.

Like many youth in Guatemala, Miguel had no place to go. Miguel became a street survivor out of necessity, not want. He found money any way he could and escaped his hardships with whatever he could get his hands on. Peddling, pushing, stealing, using, and begging consumed his life for over two years until, one day, he decided to head back home. As Miguel told me, "I couldn't stand anymore." He still attributes his reoccurring headaches and mental lapses to his life in Guate.

Miguel returned home beat up and sick. It was difficult for Miguel's pride to return with nothing to show, but in Miguel's own words, "It could have been a lot worse." His family had not heard from Miguel in two years and gladly took him in. During this time, Miguel helped Samael in the milpa and his mother, Maria, in the house. However, Miguel was in the same situation as when he had left some four years earlier. The family decided that Miguel's best chances for a decent life were not in Guatemala.

Samael took half of his family's life savings of 2,500 quetzales ($325) and borrowed 25,000 more from a well-off neighbor. As Samael put it, "Waiting a few months for a bank loan with high interest didn't interest me." However, he owed his neighbor around $3,250, needed to pay the Mexican coyote for guidance across Mexico and the U.S.-Mexican border. After a deep breath, Samael said aloud, searching for any reassurance, "Crossing the border should have been easy. A number of youth in the community had already crossed, so we used this network to send Miguel."

While Samael sat desperately awaiting word from his son, cell phone tightly clutched in his left hand, the questions about immigration and life in the United States began. I answered as best I could, emphasizing that there were others in his village who knew more than I. After all, I've lived a privileged life. I came to Guatemala with a $400 airplane ticket and a backpack full of mostly unneeded junk. I never had to cross a desert for days without food and water because I lacked the proper entrance papers. I never had to risk life and limb riding the dangerous border trains because I lacked the money to leave my own country. I never had to experience the discrimination and hardships that many immigrants face, nor a government that labeled me "illegal."

At one point in the question-and-answer session, I felt a pang of selfishness. Whether it was from a perspective of privilege, guilt, or both, it didn't matter. I didn't want to talk about the fabled North anymore. And I let Samael know this. I fired, "How does it feel that so many of your family and comrades emigrate to the North, to the country that is responsible for much of the suffering that has occurred in Guatemala?"         

Samael, a genocide survivor who has experienced more of Guatemala's dark history than any gringo could through a couple of books, rightfully looked at me puzzled. His humble response didn't shock me…

Do you think I don't know what your government has done to my people? You need to understand that we are barely surviving today. Our government does not respond to our needs, the needs of the poor, the campesino, the indigenous Mayan. It acts against our interests. We have real needs today. What else are we to do?

Samael then returned the favor, asking me, "Why don't the people of the United States understand what we have gone through? Why don't they know that we continue to suffer? Why don't they know that my son goes to your country in order to survive, to live a better life?" I had no answer. I only could answer, "saber," or, "who knows."

Few Americans think about the immigrant sacrifice of crossing treacherous deserts, or of being harassed, raped, and shot at by border police. Few understand the difficulties of leaving families and loved ones behind for long periods of time, living in an often hostile environment in the United States. Most Americans can't locate Guatemala on a map; much less inform others about the genocide that occurred in Guatemala. How many Americans know that the material authors for the genocide continue to walk as free men, holding key positions of power? Most importantly, few Americans understand the relationship between the horrible violence of the past with the legacy of impunity and poverty in Guatemala today.

La Violencia en Guatemala

When learning about la violencia (the violence) in Guatemala, it's impossible to ignore the significant role played by the U.S., beginning with the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of the democratically-elected president, Jacobo Arbenz, in 1954. What angered the Eisenhower administration, the CIA, and the vast landowner, the United Fruit Company (UFC),[3] was the 1952 Agrarian Reform[4] passed and initiated by Arbenz. The left-leaning government had decided that 2 percent of the people controlling 70 percent of the arable land was an obstacle to economic development.[5]

For the agricultural campesinos, the Agrarian Reform was essential to elevate the quality of life since it erased the debt peonage and vacancy laws enforced by the state for the benefit of the rich, mostly foreign, landowners. These laws were nothing more than various forms of forced indigenous labor. The Reform stopped this exploitation because it began to give real rights to the workers and it began the process of a more just distribution of land. This threatened the rich importers and exporters who wanted cheap labor, cheap raw materials, and vast tracks of land in order to make huge profits and control the industry.

The Agrarian Reform met with strong reaction, especially when the Arbenz government appropriated uncultivated land owned by the UFC. The company had undervalued its property for years in order to avoid taxes. When the Arbenz government offered to pay the set rate based off the company's stated value of its land through its tax forms (the UFC wanted $16 million while Arbenz offered $525,000), the UFC cried to those it had strong connections—namely the CIA and the Eisenhower administration.[6]

With pressure from the UFC, the CIA and Eisenhower administration began a covert operation to overthrow Arbenz. Propaganda, terror, and psychological warfare were set up by the angry American parties.[7] The CIA trained a small mercenary army in Honduras and conducted bombing raids against strategic targets. The campaign of terror was meant to convince the army and the Guatemalan people that the Arbenz government was ultimately and inevitably headed towards failure.[8] Their plan succeeded when Arbenz stepped down.

The new handpicked military regime celebrated in style by bringing out a CIA-created "blacklist" of over 70,000 names. Torture, imprisonment, fines, exile, and even death met a great many names on the list.[9] The celebration continued further with the outlaw of all unions and campesino organizations. All expropriated land was nullified and returned back to the rich latifundistas. Oftentimes violence was used to kick the poor campesinos off the expropriated land. This coincided with the military regime barring three-fourths the population from voting with the enforcement of literacy laws.

With "democracy restored," the United States government propped up brutal dictator after brutal dictator. Many of those responsible for the worst human rights violations in Guatemala were armed by and trained in the U.S.; many in the infamous School of the Americas (SOA). Many of the D-2 and G-2 intelligence officials,[10] the architects of the worst human rights violations during la violencia, were trained in the SOA. In fact, during Guatemala's worst reign of terror from 1978 to 1986, when la violencia reached it peak, SOA graduates comprised four of eight military officials in the cabinet of the dictator Lucas Garcia, six of nine under the dictator Rios Montt, and five of ten under the dictator Mejia Victores.

All three of these former dictators are currently wanted on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The deceased Garcia and the proselytizing evangelical preacher, Rios Montt, are most infamous for designing the rural scorched-earth campaign that directed the army to burn hundreds of villages and murder tens of thousands of civilians in its path. Montt was also the architect of a pacification program, "Beans and Rifles." This program set up militarized hamlets called "poles of development," giving food to those who submitted to the life of a brutal police state. To those who resisted it was more scorched earth. An estimated 132,000 innocents died under the scorched-earth campaigns of Rios Montt and Lucas Garcia from 1980 to 1983.[11]

According to the United Nations-sponsored Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico[12] (the Truth Commission), during the 36-year civil war, some 626 Mayan villages experienced massacres in Guatemala. "The massacres that eliminated entire Mayan villages... are neither perfidious allegation nor fragments of the imagination, but an authentic chapter in Guatemalan history," concluded the Commission. Some 150,000 refugees fled to Mexico. Over 1,000,000 were internally displaced in the campaign of ethnic cleansing. Over 200,000 died or "disappeared." Countless men, women, and children were tortured and raped, common practices by the army's forces.

The Commission found that 93% of the violence was at the hands of the Guatemalan army and state, while 83% of the victims were indigenous Mayans. The Commission attributed 3% of the violence to the guerrillas, despite the fact that the Reagan administration told a Congressional committee in August of 1982 that guerrillas were the main culprit for the violence in Guatemala.[13] The state-sponsored violence in Guatemala, most importantly, was described by the UN-sponsored Truth Commission as nothing short of genocide—a genocide directed at the Mayan indigenous population in the Guatemalan highlands.

Throughout la violencia, the U.S. government stood behind its military government since it was "fighting communist guerrillas." This was the Reagan administration's version of democracy, played through a violent game of dominoes during an era of frozen war politics. Reagan paid the Guatemalan military's services well by arming the state and by ignoring the great atrocities being committed. When Rios Montt took power after a March 1982 coup, it was largely welcomed by the Reagan administration and the American press. Montt welcomed their support by accelerating the scorched-earth policy directed at the indigenous Mayan civilian population.

In December of 1982, the same month the UN passed a resolution condemning the human rights situation in Guatemala, Reagan met with Montt and stated to reporters that Montt "had been given a bad rap."[14] Reagan further declared:

I know that President Rios Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment. His country is confronting a brutal challenge from guerrillas armed and supported by others outside Guatemala. I have assured the President [Montt] that the United States is committed to support his efforts to restore democracy and to address the root causes of this violent insurgency. I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice. My administration will do all it can to support his progressive efforts.[15]

That same day in Las Dos Erres, Peten soldiers gang-raped young girls and grabbed children by their feet and swung them into walls, smashing their heads. Pregnant women had their stomachs punched and ripped open.[16] The Guatemalan army massacre of over 160 people, including 67 children, under orders from Rios Montt. The U.S. Embassy sent a confidential memo to the Reagan administration of the massacre. It never responded. Neither did the U.S. media.

Recently the tortures and abuses at Abu Gharib and Guantanamo Bay have made headlines in the United States, as have the ethnic cleansings and/or genocides in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur. Despite the fact that the death toll in Guatemala exceeded that of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Argentina, and Chile combined, it barely registered on the media radar. The story of the international arrest warrants of the high commands of the ex-dictators in Guatemala facing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity has gone largely unreported, despite the important role U.S. foreign policy played in the genocide.

Río Negro[20] Nightmare

I am currently in the municipality of Rabinal, which sits in the department of Baja Verapaz. The beautiful Sierra Chuacas mountain range covers much of the municipality, located in the central part of Guatemala, just north of Guatemala City. According to the Truth Commission,[21] the Guatemalan military and paramilitaries assassinated over 4,000 people in Rabinal from 1981 to 1983, around 20% of the population. Some 99.8 percent of the casualties were indigenous Mayan Achí.[22] According to ADIVIMA, a local war survivor's organization, there are more than 80 clandestine cemeteries in the municipality of Rabinal as a result of massacres by the army and army-controlled civil defense patrols (PACs).[23]

It is here, in Rabinal, that I am volunteering my time as an international human-rights accompanier and observer of "the peace." Of the communities I accompany in Rabinal, most experienced horrific massacres under the high commands of Garcia and Montt. These communities have given public testimonies in the national genocide cases. Although the violence of the past has subsided, Guatemala continues to be a dangerous place for those struggling for human rights and justice.[24] Due to this dangerous coyuntura (current socio-politico situation), it is my role to visit and accompany the brave men and women who have given their public testimonies in the national genocide cases. It is the hope that my presence will provide some measure of security to those accompanied, creating space to organize in defense of their rights. Accompaniers essentially work as the eyes and ears for this international solidarity movement, using our connections to educate others and to mobilize our support network to pressure the Guatemalan state.

One community I visit within Rabinal is Pacux, a town transplanted during la violencia. Most of the 150 plus families are originally from Rio Negro, an agricultural and fishing community settled along the banks of the Chixoy River in the municipality of Rabinal. The community of Rio Negro did not choose to live in Pacux. They were forced to relocate due to the rural scorched earth campaigns of Garcia and Montt.

In the mid-1970s that the National Institute of Electricity (INDE) and the Guatemalan government planned the displacement of a number of communities to make way for the Chixoy hydroelectric dam (which in turn created a manmade reservoir). This mega-project was financed by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. INDE and the Guatemalan state decided Rio Negro would be the first community displaced by the flood waters. The people were never a part of the decision-making process. INDE instead offered the residents compensation, dividing the community. Some organized against the dam since the region was a central part of their religious and cultural practices. Others were too scared due to the coyuntura.[25]

March 4, 1980 ended in a massacre of civilians and the lynching of a policeman working as a security agent for the dam. According to witnesses, the agent was lynched after he opened fire on a crowd of civilians, massacring seven residents. The Guatemalan army used this incident as a pretext to increase its presence and aggression in Rio Negro. Community leaders were continually detained and tortured by the army and the infamous Guatemalan military intelligence, the G-2. Two opposition leaders to the dam were tortured and robbed of their documents, which included the reparation promises made by INDE and the residents' land titles. Their bodies were found a week later. According to witnesses, they were headed to a meeting with INDE.

Most Rio Negro residents tried to escape the violence, but where could they go? Most minded their business, hoping the nightmare would just go away. Others fled. A few joined the civil-defense patrols (PAC) set up by the Guatemalan army, hoping to display their loyalty to the army and thus earn some sort of protection from the violence. However, there were no safe options. When the nearby community of Xococ was attacked by guerrillas, ending in the death of five members of the Xococ PAC and the burning of its central market, the residents of Rio Negro were blamed. [26]

On February 13, 1982, 54 men from Rio Negro traveled by foot to Xococ in order to collect their identification cards that were previously seized under orders of the Guatemalan military. The men had been accused of being guerrillas by the Guatemalan army and Xococ PAC. The 54 men were accompanied by 19 women and children. Before reaching Xococ, they were intercepted by the Xococ PAC. At least 71 people were brutally murdered this day. Many of the women and children were raped and most of the group was tortured before being slaughtered. Many had their feet, noses, cheeks, and ears cut off before bleeding to death.[27] After hearing of the news from a survivor, the remaining men of Rio Negro fled to the mountains,[28] leaving only women and children behind. The vengeance, however, did not stop.

Exactly one month later, the Guatemalan army and the Xococ PAC entered Rio Negro fully armed. They pillaged and torched the homes, destroyed the land, and stole or slaughtered the animals. The military and paramilitary forces rounded up all of the women and children and accused them of collaborating with the guerrillas. Together they proceeded to rape, torture, and murder everyone. Some 177 human beings, including 107 children, were massacred on the 13^th of March, 1982, in Rio Negro. The few survivors, mostly young boys, were forced into slavery.[29] In The Massacres of Río Negro, survivor Jesús Tecú described being enslaved by a leader of the Xococ PAC, a man who ripped his youngest brother out of his arms and swung him by his feet, smashing his brains against rocks in front of his eyes because his wife was "not used to caring for [such] a small child."

The survivors of Rio Negro and the surrounding villages had witnessed many of their loved ones die in the mountains from hunger and disease while hiding from the army and patrollers. When the Guatemalan government offered an amnesty to all civilians, many people reluctantly accepted despite not knowing the true intentions of the military. Some Rio Negro residents who turned themselves in were tortured and killed for being former guerrilla collaborators. The rest were forced to live in Pacux under strict military control.  As Jesús Tecú stated in The Rio Negro Massacres: "The Amnesty Decree was used to trick the survivors and to take them to the Military Bases in Guatemala, saving the soldiers the trouble of looking for them in the mountains."[30]

Yelling in their Ear

Many residents of Pacux are at the forefront of the human rights struggle in Guatemala.  Some have risked their lives by giving their public testimonies in the national genocide cases. Others are members of the AJR and CALDH, both of whom have lead the charge in the national genocide cases. Many survivors of la violencia work with a variety of organizations centered on human, women, and indigenous rights.

ADIVIMA is one community organization responsible for, among other things, the exhumation of clandestine cemeteries which are scattered throughout Rabinal. It was also partly responsible for the sentencing of three ex-PAC members of Xococ. This was the first and only time in Guatemalan history that those responsible for one of the hundreds of massacres committed during the 1980s were sentenced in a Guatemalan court of law. Another trial against other members of the Xococ PAC was recently postponed by a judge, bringing the legal process to a halt. However, the accused still remain in jail thanks to the courage of the witnesses, some of whom braved threats to testify.

Some residents are involved in other local community matters, including the recuperation of historical memory. ECAP is an organization that has worked with the genocide survivor population, who has suffered severe psychological damage. ECAP meets with the survivors and accompanies the victims through especially strenuous times, such as during exhumations, testimonies, and the recovery of past abuses.

A number of local residents helped develop and construct the Rabinal Achí Community Museum. The museum continues to keep alive the historical memory of the violence inflicted on the people of the Rabinal region. It also sponsors community projects and events, and provides various services, such as a library, computer lab, meeting space, and an important exhibit specifically dedicated to the Mayan Achí culture and the historical memory of the genocide that occurred to the people.

Some residents are organizing for such things as reparations and compensation from the financiers of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam—specifically the World Bank, the International Development Bank, INDE, and the Guatemalan state. Since the early 1980s Rio Negro representatives have asked INDE to fulfill their promises to the community. The Organizing Committee of Communities Affected by the Chixoy Dam (COCAHICH) formed in 2002 to campaign for the people affected by the creation of the dam. It has demanded adequate compensation for the loss of livelihoods, land, homes, and culture which the indigenous people suffered from the displacement (the dam forcibly displaced and caused the loss of livelihood of thousands of people and lead to the massacres of over 376 people of ethnic Mayan Achí descent[31]). The State response was to arrest and charge nine members of COCAHICH for alleged crimes against the security of the state, committed during a peaceful demonstration at the dam in 2004.

Violent Neglect

To an outsider, Pacux seems like the trailer park of its sister city, Rabinal. Crumbling roads and inadequate and poorly constructed housing are two of the most noticeable problems in Pacux. The community was promised cement houses by INDE with high-quality fiberglass roofs. The residents received 150 houses of low quality. The INDE houses were built of rotting wood, practically on top of one another. According to residents, the structural improvements have been financed out of their own pockets, not the pockets of the Guatemalan state or INDE, as promised. The population continues to grow, complicating matters further. There is no land or materials to construct new houses for new families. It is not uncommon to witness four families living in a single-room house that measures some 35 squared meters.

In Rio Negro there was an abundance of fertile land due to the river. Pacux has no such luxury. The residents have access to little local land. What land they do have is often rocky terrain. This coincides with a scarcity of water. Hence, more work is needed to cultivate the crops, meaning less time for paid work or side projects such as growing vegetables and making clothing for money. Child labor is often essential for the survival of families. On a stroll through the Rabinal market, it is common to witness young boys from Pacux working as newspaper vendors or shoeshine boys. Due to the lack of fertile land and job opportunities, families do not have opportunities and resources to improve upon their daily lives, translating into a lack of basic necessities. This was never the case in Rio Negro.

Water and electricity are serious problems in Pacux as well. With months of water scarcity, families are forced to cook and bathe with the water from a small river nearby. It is polluted with garbage from local residents and the community health center. INDE promises of free and consistent potable water to the residents have not been fulfilled. Residents pay every month for water that does not come consistently. The electrical situation is no better. INDE reneged on its promise of free electricity two years ago. Now electricity costs money that many do not have. Maintenance support is not included in the services. When a transformer breaks, residents go without power, often for long periods of time.

With cramped living conditions, little to no access to nearby terrain, and scarce possibilities for employment, the youth have few options within the community. Youth alienation and disappointment is commonplace. Many migrate to other towns in search of work and a sense of belonging. Guatemala City is a popular destination. Some adapt well to life in the big city. Others return with a more hardened outlook, possessing newly found street-survival skills. A great many turn to the bottle, drugs, or gangs to escape. A few even emigrate to the United States, leaving behind their young wives and newborns for years, or forever.

Due to the tough living conditions, inner-community violence affects everyone. Gangs have found their footing. Robberies and even murders are not unheard of, with around twelve murders in the last few months within the region. Many residents tell me that they are afraid to walk the streets at night in Pacux. The recent surge in violence has affected families that accompaniers know personally. The local government and police refuse to help, stating that they are already stretched too thin.

The Right to Smile

The power structure responsible for the genocide was never dismantled after the 1996 Peace Accords. Genocide survivors and their families are attempting to chip away at the impunity that exists for the worst human rights abusers by seeking justice through legal means. They do this at great risk to their lives because the Guatemalan state does not provide a secure environment for those struggling for human rights. The government has done nothing to push the national genocide cases forward after seven years. The government doesn't have the political will to cooperate with the Spanish warrants and extradition orders. Since the Guatemalan state will do absolutely nothing, it is the job of the international community to pressure the United States and Guatemalan governments to push the genocide cases forward, where it is no risk to their own lives.

As I sip sweet coffee with Pablo on the steps of his cramped wooden house in Pacux, it's not difficult to see the injustice around me. The metal roof makes the intense rays of the sun blisteringly hot. Pablo's neighbors are frying tortillas, and the smoke piles into his house which sits literally a foot away. Some smoke escapes due to the holes in the rotting walls, going directly into our eyes. I glance to the side of the house and notice newly crammed cement blocks where the foundation should have been. I keep thinking about the stories the people have told me about life in Rio Negro. Although I have never been to Rio Negro, I can honestly say Pacux is no Rio Negro.

In the middle of our conversation about the Guatemalan professional soccer league, I think in amazement of the wonderful people from this small village continuing to work and live their daily lives. The daily grind continues…and yet many still have the energy and spirit to fight for justice, knowing all to well that it may not produce concrete results within their lifetime. I remember the conversation I had with Samael and how many Guatemalans have given up hope for a better life, leading to mass migrations to other places, especially the United States. I remember something Samael told me: "Tell your own people what is going on here. Tell them our stories. Tell them how we suffered. And tell them we need justice to move forward with our lives."

I snap back into reality as my conversation with Pablo returns to the topic of Rio Negro. Pablo witnessed the death of his family, and survived in the mountains as a small child for two and half years, living off of whatever nature provided. In 1984 Pablo was transplanted in Pacux with the government amnesty. "Estamos bien jodidos aquí. The government does not respond. We never received compensation for everything that was lost—my family, our land, our houses, our animals, our lives, everything." But he continues, "Only when the men responsible for the massacres are convicted… Only when my family receives compensation for what was lost, for what we suffered... Only then will I be able to sleep well and smile. This is why I continue the struggle."

Thaddeus Al Nakba is an international human rights accompanier for the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA). He can be contacted at alnakba@gmail.com. To learn more about their struggle or to become involved in the genocide cases, visit the web site of NISGUA at http://www.nisgua.org. Send any music his way by contacting him through e-mail.

Elections! Elections! Elections!

Hello to everybody back in the states and around the world. This is my second Friends & Family letter after four months of volunteering as an international human rights accompanier in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. My focus for this letter is the first round of elections that just took place in Guatemala last September 9^th, when Guatemalans voted for 158 congressional representatives, 332 local municipal candidates, and the first round of the presidency.

During the run-up to the election, Guatemalans were bombarded with all sorts of political propaganda. It has been impossible to escape as political parties have painted their party symbol on every rock along every windy, mountain road. Political placards hang on ropes above streets in the entrances of villages and throughout towns. Telephone posts are covered from top to bottom with political signs with the candidates' non-photogenic faces and party slogans. Whether it's the raised fist of the Patriot Party (PP), the two hands forming a dove of the National Unity of Hope (UNE), or the raised thumb and first two fingers of the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), symbols are everywhere, partly due to the high illiteracy rate of the Guatemalan population. .

In Guatemala, voters often tend to vote for political parties rather than individual candidates, which can often be quite confusing since political parties are created on an almost daily basis in Guatemala. Unlike the United States, where corruption may temporarily hurt one of the two major political parties, it never destroys the party. The Republican Party continued after Nixon and the Democratic Party continued after Clinton. In Guatemala older parties are often dissolved due to corruption and a lack of interest by the public. Party leaders often jump ship to other parties or simply create new ones, repeating the cycle once again. Thus there is little difference within the vast majority of parties. Of the 20 registered political parties in Guatemala, only three could be considered a progressive option as the others are controlled by military men, war criminals, monopolists, and mobsters. Progressive parties often cannot compete due to the scarcity of finances and the inability to resonate with the people.

Apathy and Fear

The election cycle in Guatemalan was anything but peaceful or clean. More than 50 registered political assassinations with few to no arrests resulted from the political campaign. Violence in Guatemala always spikes during the election season, as parties use their thugs and mafia ties to disrupt other parties with competing interests. War criminals often use the election season as a time to take advantage of this increase in violence in order to target human rights workers. Guatemala can be a very hairy place during the election season.

On Election Day alone, conflicts and fraud occurred in dozens of municipalities. Ballot burnings, burnings of municipal offices, street brawls, occupations and pillaging of voting stations, vote buying, and physical threats directed towards voters occurred on September 9th. Citizens fed up with corruption and violence often voted for the lesser of evils or the candidate least likely to use violence or force in order to implement policy and intimidate rivals.

Over a luke-warm cup of water with a touch of lemon, Antonio of Xesiguan tells me, "We have two choices for president…a narcotrafficker controlled by the rich or a military man controlled by the rich." I half-jokingly asked who he would vote for. His response was not unlike the vast majority of genocide witnesses I visit in the Rabinal municipality. "I decided the narco was the better option. We've suffered enough at the hands of military men in this country. I don't want to return to those years again. I couldn't bear it."

With military strongman Otto Perez Molina of the Patriot Party (PP) and Álvaro Colom of the centrist National Unity of Hope (UNE), the people's interests will likely be ignored on a national level. "It's the same old garbage," stated Maria of Chichupac, "It [voting] won't make a difference. They're crooks. They all lie. That's why I am staying at home." When I ask if her neighbors and friends will vote, Maria says that she doubts it. "They're [politicians} all snakes," she tells me with a serious look on her face. "I hate snakes." Around 40% of all registered Guatemalan voters took Maria's advice and stayed home.

Apathy was high throughout Guatemala, including within the Rabinal municipality. When the New Dawn High School organized a political forum and debate for the 10 mayoral candidates of Rabinal, they expected 400 people to attend. Only 6 candidates and 40 people showed up just days before the election, despite the fact that, according to local polls, half the people still had not made up their minds. When I asked the local newspaper reporter why he thought few people showed up at the forum, he looked at me puzzlingly. "How long have you been in Guatemala?" I told him that it was my second visit. The reporter quickly responded, "You've never been through an election. People have a lot of options for the exact same thing. And the few different options happen to be hidden underneath dead, rotting fish."

Madness in the Baja Verapaz

Sunday, August 26th started just like any market day in Cabulco, Baja Verapaz. Hundreds of people from surrounding villages of Cabulco and Rabinal hiked to the market square in order to buy, sell, and trade goods needed for the week. However, unlike most Sundays, there was a tension in the air due to the actions of the mayor, Irving Rolando Rivera Gómez, a man running for re-election with the newly formed Patriot Party (PP). The mayor had decided to level the central park with bulldozers in order to remodel the central plaza. It was supposed to be his gift to the people; his cherry on his re-election pie.

However, a number of citizens from surrounding villages were upset. They found the re-election tactic insulting since their interests had been ignored the previous four years. According to the protestors, dozens of campaign promises of the previous election cycle had never been carried out. Hundreds of indigenous campesino workers showed up to stop the destruction of the park. They had not been informed of the development project, which included the levelling of a local indigenous rights headquarters. The intended slick tactic of political propaganda backfired when the crowd of hundreds demanded the mayor's resignation and keys to the municipal office. The mayor and his entourage responded with insults and threats, essentially telling the crowd that they had no voice or say in the matter.

According to an eyewitness, the mayor's brother even told the crowd that when General Otto Pérez Molina gains power, "he'll proceed to kill everyone in the crowd." This was quite the threat considering that many indigenous Mayan people have this fear since Molina was a commander of the Nebaj military base in the Ixil region when some of the worst massacres were committed. He was deployed by former dictator Rios Montt, a man currently wanted on genocide charges. The former School of Americas graduate and G-2 military intelligence officer has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, including the assassination of Bishop Juan José Gerardi. His party's motto is "mano dura," or hard hand, a euphemism for social cleansing and extrajudicial killing by the Guatemalan army during the worst of the violence.

The standoff between the mayor and the protestors continued until the next day. When the bulldozers returned, the protestors moved their location to the mayor's house, once again demanding his resignation and keys. The mayor's bodyguards responded by firing into the crowd, injuring five and killing two people, including an indigenous leader and a young boy. The mayor fled with a police escort, carrying coffee sacks full of money. The people burned down his house. Somehow, the mayor was re-elected a little over a week later. Cabulco sits a good 40-minute drive west of Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, the department with the highest support for the right-wing military party, the Patriot Party.

The People of Rabinal Defy the FRG

August and September have been difficult months for me as an accompanier, not because I have had a difficult transition to life in Rabinal. I have developed good relationships with many of the genocide witnesses and their families. I love eating 20 fat tortillas, 2 pounds of black beans, and 10 cups of coffee on a daily basis. I enjoy walking 5 to 20 kilometers daily in order to visit the genocide survivors who have given their public testimonies in the genocide cases against the high commands of Rios Montt and Lucas Garcia. The fact that the indigenous Achí Mayan people invite me into their homes and tell me their testimonials of losing loved ones is a humbling experience. The hardship and sadness that these amazing people have gone is something I truly cannot imagine. It is incredible that despite the suffering, the people of Rabinal, Verapaz continue the struggle for justice.

My difficulty has been having to watch the humble, poor, hard-working, rural, largely illiterate, indigenous campesino workers—genocide victims—hit with an onslaught of political propaganda, trickery, lies, false promises, intimidating tactics, manipulation, bribes, and even threats by self-serving politicians and their shameful campaigns. I have witnessed some of the most deplorable acts by smooth politicians, willing to make almost any lie in order to gain the sympathy and votes of the people. However, the brave people I visit in the various communities of Rabinal, the same people who continue to struggle for justice despite all the violence and suffering they have been through, are anything but naïve.  

"The FRG had a meeting with the people of Chichupac," laughed Cynthia, "but instead of the 50 people expected, only 15 showed. And they were friends with the party's representative who happens to live in Chichupac." According to witnesses, the FRG gave gifts, including shirts, soccer balls, mugs, fertilizer, and t-shirts to all that showed up as long as they registered with the party. Many followed the orders. After all, many indigenous Guatemalans still face chronic poverty and endemic discrimination, limiting the full enjoyment of civil and political rights, including the right to vote. This makes many vulnerable to vote buying tactics, intimidation, threats, and violence. This is especially the case among populations still recovering from the legacy of the internal armed conflict.

Cynthia played it well. She knew how to turn a highly manipulative political maneuver to her advantage. Cynthia left the meeting with the FRG mayor only to return later with three of her children in order to receive more free stuff. When she was asked to register, she asked when the mayor was going to fix the road and fulfil the other promises made during the election cycle four years ago. The mayor refused to offer a response. Cynthia is a part of Chichupac's local governing committee. The committee made two surprise visits with the mayor right before the elections, demanding results. The mayor reluctantly promised to fulfil his promises of four years ago after this year's election cycle. The people knew it was a lie so they organized against the mayor.

In Xesiguan, the people were tired of waiting for the mayor's four-year promises of fixing the community road and providing electricity to everyone in the community. The people decided to organize after an August meeting in which, stated Paula, the mayor "continued to make the same promises that he had made years before. We weren't going to let him take advantage of us anymore." The local committee met with dozens of political organizations, working out an agreement with the left-leaning Ecuentro por Guatemala and presidential aspirant Rigoberta Menchú's foundation. Each family paid $15 per head in order to receive the needed infrastructure for electricity. Despite the fact that the political party lost and that their electrician went to Mexico, a local representative promises the residents that it will fulfil its obligations. "At least this time one of our people, one who has suffered with us, is making these promises," stated Gloria. "I still have confidence that things will be carried out."

The genocide witnesses in Panacal and Pichec out rightly refused to meet the mayor when his political team visited the two villages before the elections. "We knew [the mayor] didn't fulfil his promises of constructing the road or giving us fertilizer for our crops," proudly claimed Isabela. "When he showed up again, we stayed home." A good thing too. An FRG representative threatened the small group of ladies who wanted written promises and free fertilizer before registering with the FRG. According to Isabela, one of her neighbors attended the meeting of 12 ladies and the mayor's re-election team. This was an embarrassingly low turnout. When the mayor left furious due to the lack of participation, his assistant threatened the ladies, saying that it was illegal to vote for anyone else. Of course this was a bald-face lie. The assistant stormed away with the mayoral bodyguard and 12 registered signatures, further threatening the ladies that he had their fingerprints and would know if they voted for another candidate. Since most of the ladies suffered through Guatemala's genocide, partly due to the hands of the FRG, many believed this scare tactic.

In Plan de Sanchez and Pacux, the FRG mayor didn't even bother showing up during the campaign cycle due to a dismal approval rating. He knew it was a lost cause. In Plan de Sanchez and Pacux dozens of promises were never fulfilled by the mayor. Thus many of the residents worked for rival candidates. The FRG mayor also didn't help his cause when he skipped a political forums sponsored by the human rights organization ADIVIMA, in which over 250 indigenous Mayan genocide victims travelled for miles to attend. The other candidates took turns criticizing the mayor.

Optimism in Rabinal

Many of the genocide survivals who accompaniers visit in the Rabinal municipality seem to be optimistic with the election results. In Rabinal, Julio Solano (UNE) was voted in as mayor in a tight three-way race. Solano has a lot of respect in the outlying villages in Rabinal due to his work with a development organization, the Centro de Integración Familiar (CIF). According to genocide survivals, Julio Solano helped the people throughout the violence and its aftermath. CIF constructed houses, a school, and a coffee cooperative building in Chichupac and Xesiguan after the violence. Throughout my visits I keep hearing "Don Julio is one of us. He suffered just like we did." There's a lot of faith and hope in this man. We'll see if he fulfils his promises to the people in the outlying villages.

The FRG took a lot of hits during the election cycle in 2007. Their congressional seats were halved while their mayoral seats plummeted from 122 in 2003 to 18 in 2007. The FRG Congressman, Juan Santa Cruz, a man with connections to military intelligence and Guatemala's high commands during the violence, lost in a tight congressional race. He may have lost the race due to the fact that his bodyguard attempted to murder a taxi driver, but the bullet went through his arm and killed an innocent bystander, who just happened to work for the FRG mayor in Rabinal. " things.?

The bad news is that once again Rios Montt won congressional seats. The people have an uphill battle since Montt expects to have immunity, despite the fact that diplomatic immunity does not apply to crimes of the past.

Anistosio, a community leader in Chichupac, had the happiest story on Election Day. Anistosio arrived in Rabinal in the early morning to eat a large breakfast of eggs, beans, sausage in the political headquarters of the Party of National Advancement (PAN). He later strolled over to the headquarters of the Patriot Party and had coffee and bread. Later he walked over to the UNE headquarters for a free lunch of chicken soup and tortillas. Afterwards he voted and headed back up to his village, skipping out on the free booze offered by UNE. "I ate really well yesterday," said Anistosio with a large grin. "So I am happy. I am even happier that Don Julio [Solano] won. It was a good day."

For those who still have not written letters pressuring the Guatemalan Attorney General to push the genocide cases forward, or other actions involving the needed protection of Guatemalan human rights defenders, please do so at NISGUA's web site at http://www.nisgua.org/get_involved/action_alerts/current.asp.

On September 7^th 2007, Guatemala's Constitutional Court held a public hearing concerning the declassification of military documents. Lawyers for defendant Efrain Rios Montt contend that the documents are State secrets and pose a threat to national security while the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) and its lawyers at the Center for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH) argued that the release of these historical documents does not pose a threat to national security and therefore that their secrecy is no longer legally protected. They also referenced a ruling by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights that the State of Guatemala cannot be allowed to utilize reasons of national security to prevent or hinder investigations of human rights abuses.    

Previous rulings by other national courts have called for declassification of these and other wartime military documents. The Constitutional Court ruling will be binding and no further appeals can be made regarding declassification. Both sides anxiously await a ruling, but there is no clear timeframe for when the Constitutional Court will issue the ruling.

The Attorney General and the presiding judge in the Guatemalan national genocide case had scheduled a meeting for October 1^st to review the military documents Plan Sofia, Plan Firmeza, Plan Victoria, and Operation Ixil. However, it appears that Rios Montt's legal team has issued an injunction to prevent these documents from being reviewed until after the Constitutional Court issues its ruling. As of this time, the meeting has been suspended.

La Violencia y La Lucha por Justicia

 "We have always lived here: we have the right to go on living where we are happy and where we want to die. Only here will we be able to better ourselves, elsewhere we would never be able to feel complete and our pain would be eternal." – Popul Vuh

This is my first Friends & Family Letter since my arrival in Guatemala. I apologize for the delay. Please educate your comrades and contact your representatives to fight the impunity!

Genocide in Guatemala

As I learned more about "la violencia" (the violence) of Guatemala during the late 1970s and early 1980s, I realized that the U.S. played a significant role. While entire villages were being massacred, the U.S. government continued to arm the Guatemalan dictatorships and train the leaders of the armies in the infamous "School of Americas." As many readers may already know, the state-sponsored violence in Guatemala was described by a UN-sponsored truth commission as nothing short of "genocide." Many of those responsible for the worst human rights violations were trained in the U.S. and armed by the U.S.

"La violencia" was most widespread under the dictatorships of Benedicto Lucas Garcia and Efraín Ríos Montt during the early 1980s. According to the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico (the Commission for Historical Clarification), during the 35-year civil war, some 626 towns witnessed massacres. Some 150,000 refugees fled to Mexico. Hundreds of thousands were internally displaced. Over 200,000 died or "disappeared." The Commission found that 93% of the violence was at the hands of the Guatemalan army and state while 83% of the victims were indigenous Mayans. The genocide suffered by the Mayan people in Guatemala was an atrocious policy that cannot and should never be forgotten. The witnesses I visit did not imagine the violence and deaths inflicted on themselves and their loved ones—violence inflicted on defenseless human beings simply for existing, for being indigenous Mayan.

I am currently in the municipality of Rabinal which sits in the department of Baja Verapaz. The beautiful Sierra Chuacas mountain range covers much of the municipality, located in the central part of Guatemala, a little north of Guatemala City. It is here that I am volunteering my time as a human-rights accompanier and observer of "the peace." Of the communities I visit in Rabinal, most experienced atrocious massacres under the high commands of Ríos Montt and Benedicto Lucas García. This was the counterinsurgency program, with the supposed goal of destroying the support structures of the guerrilla movement. The people of Guatemala continue to struggle against a wall of impunity, demanding justice for actions of the past and present. Many of the people want reconciliation and reparations. But first they demand justice.

The Story of Río Negro and Pacux

Pacux is actually a transplanted town—transplanted during "la violencia." Most of the 150 families are originally from Río Negro, although many are from other small communities such as Aguas Frías. The people did not choose to live in Pacux. They were forced by their government.

It was in the late 1970s that the National Institute of Electricity (INDE) and the Guatemalan government planned the displacement of a number of communities for the Chixoy Hydroelectic Dam, financed by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Río Negro was decided to be the first community to be displaced by the flood waters. The government and INDE decided not to communicate with the people during the decision-making process. With democracy averted, INDE offered Río Negro numerous promises, including titles to their houses, cultivable land, electricity, potable water, and "adequate" compensation. The community was divided. Some organized against the dam. Others were too scared.

An incident on March 4, 1980 ended in the lynching of a member of the Military Mobile Police (he worked as a security agent for the Chixoy dam), and the massacre of seven residents of Río Negro. The agent was lynched after he opened fire on a crowd of civilians, killing the seven residents. Afterwards, the Guatemalan army increased its presence and its aggressive tactics in Río Negro. Two members of the Improvement Committee were tortured, assassinated, and robbed of their documents that included the reparation promises made by INDE and the land titles of the residents. They were headed to a meeting with INDE. Residents, including community leaders organizing against he dam, were continually detained and tortured under the pretext of searching for the missing guns of the policeman and a soldier who had been released without harm.

In order to escape the violence in Río Negro, many residents fled. Others joined the "voluntary" civil-defense patrols (PAC) set up by the Guatemalan army (of course, "voluntary" meant that if one did not join, he would be assassinated or "disappeared.") The residents hoped that by joining the PAC they would display their loyalty to the army and thus earn some sort of protection. However, this was not to be. When the nearby community of Xococ was attacked by unknown persons, ending in the death of three Xococ PAC members and the burning of the central market, the Xococ PAC decided to blame Río Negro. Vengeance was fresh on its mind.

On the 13^th of February, 1982, 54 men from Río Negro traveled to Xococ in order to collect their identification cards that were previously seized. They were accompanied by 26 women and children. The men had previously been accused of being guerrillas and of having supported the attack of Xococ. The group never made it to Xococ. They were intercepted by the Xococ PAC and massacred. At least 73 people were brutally murdered this day. Many of the women and children were raped and most of the group was tortured before being butchered. After hearing of the news, the remaining men of Río Negro fled to the mountains or to other towns and cities, living only women and children behind. Many of these survivors were forced to live in the mountains around the Chixoy River for over two years. It was not uncommon for children and the elderly to die of hunger and illness.

The massacres and violence did not end there. Exactly one month after the original large-scale massacre, the Xococ PAC and the Guatemalan army entered Río Negro. They rounded up all of the women and children and accused them of aiding and abetting the guerrillas. The Guatemalan soldiers and the Xococ PAC pillaged and torched the homes and destroyed the land. They proceeded to rape, torture, and murder nearly everyone. Some 177 human beings were massacred on 13 March 1982 in Río Negro, the majority children. Some 107 children were murdered that day. The few survivors, mostly young boys, were forced into slavery; this according to survivor Jesús Tecú in his book, The Massacres of Río Negro. Tecú was enslaved by a man of the Xococ PAC, a man who ripped his youngest brother out of his arms and smashed his head against rocks in front of his eyes because his wife did not want another small child.

When the Guatemalan government offered an amnesty in 1984, the people were forced to live in Pacux under strict military control. Many who resettled in Pacux regretted their decision due to the conditions of living under a police state and the dry, rocky conditions of the land. Those who left were often assassinated. According to the Commission for Historical Clarification, the Guatemalan military and paramilitaries assassinated over 4,000 people in Rabinal from 1981 to 1983. Some 99.8 percent were the indigenous Mayan Achí people.

The names of the 300 people massacred, as well as the 107 children and 70 women massacred on the 13^th of March, 1982, are remembered in the Pacux community hall and a monument in the Rabinal cemetery.

Organizing for Justice in Pacux

These days the people of Pacux are struggling for justice in a variety of ways. Some have given public testimonies in the national genocide cases against the high commands of Benedicto Lucas Garcia and Efraín Rios Montt. Some community members are on the witness committee, the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR). Some continue to do work for the Centro para Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos (CALDH), an organization that has led the charge in the national genocide cases.

Other residents work with ADIVIMA, which demanded the exhumation of the clandestine cemetery that contained the remains of those massacred on 13 March 1982. During January of 1994 the bodies were exhumed and placed in the local cemetery. ADIVIMA was also partly responsible for the sentencing of three ex-PAC members of Xococ. This was the first time in Guatemalan history that those responsible for the violence were sentenced in a Guatemalan court of law. ADIVIMA continues the fight to try and prosecute others in the brutal massacres, leading to stays in prison while waiting for trial for six more low-level paramilitary soldiers.

Some residents are involved in local community matters, organizing for such things as reparations and compensation from the financiers of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam—specifically the World Bank, the International Development Bank, and the Guatemalan state. From 1984 to 1994, Pacux representatives asked INDE to comply with their promises that were verified in the stolen documents in 1980. The promises included compensation for vehicles, community infrastructure (church, school, health clinic), three manzanas of fertile land for each family, free potable water, free electricity, financial compensation for the loss of crops, the construction of cement block houses and fiberglass sheet roofs. What the community received was 150 houses of low quality. The houses were built in 1978, made of rotting wood and sheet metal roofs, and only contribute to the high rate of illness in the community.  All improvements on the houses have been financed from the pockets of the residents, not by INDE or the state.

Leaders of Pacux organized for reparations against the Guatemalan state with the Coordination of the Affected Communities for the Chixoy Dam, which formed in 2002 and occupied the dam in 2004. The people demanded that the original agreements be met and that the state look into the payment of reparations for the suffering of the survivors and their former loved ones. The people demanded that the state admit the direct cause in the displacement of the people through the massacres in Río Negro. INDE and the state refused to admit the connection. The leaders of Pacux were tricked into a meeting with INDE, thrown in jail, and charged with the high crime of intent to harm the security of the state—essentially terrorism. The leaders were eventually released, but the charges stay on their records. Any other offense and the leaders would likely see 75 years in jail. The message by the state was loud and clear. The interests of the people would be trumped once again.

Modern Conditions in Pacux

Meanwhile, the residents of Pacux continue to live their lives. Some in the community describe it as, essentially, the trailer park of its sister city, Rabinal.  Inadequate and poorly constructed housing is one of the main problems in Pacux. The population continues to grow, but there is no land or materials to construct new houses for new families, which was definitely not the case in Río Negro and Aguas Frías. Thus it is not uncommon to witness five families living in a single-room house that measures some 35 to 40 meters squared. Unlike Río Negro and Aguas Frías, where homes were built and improved with wood and local materials, this is really not an option in Pacux. There is a lack of land, much less fertile land, while work opportunities in Pacux are practically nonexistent.

While in Río Negro there was an abundance of fertile land due to the river, nowadays there is a much smaller productivity. More work is needed to cultivate their crops, mostly corn and beans, due to the poor quality of the land and scarcity of water. Some residents were given more fertile land near Coban through the organization FONAPAZ and the World Bank in 1999. However, due to a number of disagreements within the community, only 62 of the 150 families currently have property titles. This is a source of much tension within the community.  Residents also need to take time out of their busy lives to travel to Coban.

With the lack of fertile land and job opportunities, the people do not have the opportunities and resources to not only improve their daily lives. It also means that many cannot provide for the basic necessities of their families. The people are unable to use their own resources or find the finances needed to improve their living conditions, which was not a problem in Río Negro and Aguas Frías. Thus the people of Pacux continue living in cramped housing, with rotting walls, cement blocks for support, cracked fiberglass roofs, and sinking and cracking floors. And few have the luxury of earning an income. Thus women and children must find work in order to help support the family. Child labor is an essential for the survival of families.

Water continues to be another serious problem in Pacux. Seldom comes potable water. There continues to be months of scarcity during the dry season and many families are forced to use water from a small river. Garbage from residents and the health center pollute this river.  INDE promised back in 1989 to construct a gravity-fed water system for the residents of Pacux. The project was never constructed. For a time the residents were connected, off and on, to the municipal water system. This was unpredictable, and has not been the case since 2003. The water was costly for many families. But this should have never been the case since INDE promised free potable water to the residents. A couple years INDE claimed they fulfilled their promise when they brought in a large tank of water for the residents. The water didn't last a month and their system was inefficient. Thus the residents have had to reconstruct the service, which has had mixed results.

Electricity is another problem in Pacux, despite promises by INDE of free electricity for the displaced residents. The residents did not have to pay for electricity until 2003. Electricity was sporadic, but it was free. When INDE became privatized and electricity distribution company, DEORSA, placed meters in the homes, electricity was threatened to be cut off to the residents of Pacux.  INDE nor DEORSA provide any sort of maintenance support and have done nothing when a transformer breaks. Thus oftentimes residents go months and months without electricity. Sometimes years.  

The life of living with abundant and fertile lands, the days of sufficient materials to build and re-build homes, the ability to raise animals for consumption, fishing for food, cultivating vegetables, making and selling woven mats and clothing, and the extra time for selling goods to make money are all things of the past. The present is much starker.

Youth have few hopes for empowerment and betterment. Thus many leave for other towns in search of work and a sense of belonging. Many end up in the capital, Guatemala City. Many return with a more hardened outlook while possessing newly found street-survival skills. Due to the lack of hope for a better future, inner-community violence is widespread and affects everyone. Gangs have found their footing in the small town. Robberies and even murders are not unheard of, as two murders recently occurred within a week of one another; one by bullets, the other by rocks and fists. Many residents tell me that they are afraid to walk the streets at night. The violence has directly affected three families that accompaniers know personally.  The local government refuses to help, stating that they are already stretched thin.

A witness's story

As I sit with Pablo on the steps of his small wooden house, he returns to the topic of the massacres in Río Negro and the pessimistic outlook of a better future. Pablo witnessed the death of his family, survived in the mountains as a small child for two and half years, and was transplanted in Pacux with the government amnesty of 1984. "We are really screwed here. The government does not respond. We never received compensation for everything that was lost. My family. Our land, houses, animals, our lives." But he continues. "Only when the military men responsible for the massacres are convicted. Only when my family receives what is owed to us. Only then will I be able to sleep well and smile."

The Guatemalan people are demanding justice before reconciliation or compensation. To learn more or to become involved in the genocide cases, visit the web site of NISGUA at http://www.nisgua.org.

Please write me an e-mail at alnakba@gmail.com or a letter to Tad Hinnenkamp / 423 Park Ave. /Albert Lea, MN 56007. I want to send a special thanks to all my friends, family, and supporters. A special shout out to Darcy & John for their great support, and my sponsoring community UUCA-PAG based out of Arlington, Virginia. Please send me any comments, criticism, questions, and suggestions. For those interested in becoming a human rights accompanier, there is an informational sheet attached.

Thaddeus (Tad) Hinnenkamp of NISGUA

So I suck at blogging. I will be writing something about what I am doing in Guate really soon, I promise. Oh yeah, my e-mail address of tad@rawmindz.com doesn´t seem to work anymore. So use my alnakba@gmail.com. I just got out of 3 5-hour workshops (observing, not really participating), so I am a bit tired. Hope all is well with everyone. I write something concrete and more in depth in a week or so. I promise.

Dear all,

I want to thank everyone for such words of encouragement and support for what I am about to embark upon. You guys are amazing. Thanks also for those who contributed in various ways (including one very big selfless contribution'(you know who you are). I am going to take language classes for two weeks and then I will begin my job. I will write to folks individually when I have the time. I need to head off now. Thank you for everything. I miss you all.