Chiquita — the former United Fruit Company — is being ordered to compensate victims of the paramilitaries it financed in Colombia in the late 20th century. Like Monsanto with pesticides, it might begin saving funds to pay more such fines.
Tag: guatemala
Fixated on migration as a big issue of the 2024 presidential elections, the Biden administration is ignoring the state’s piecemeal assault on democracy in Guatemala, a country already struggling with endemic violence, in return for curbs on U.S.-bound migration.
Being gay and indigenous can mean facing double discrimination, including from within the communities they belong to. But LGBTQ+ indigenous people in Guatemala are liberating their sexuality and reclaiming their cultural heritage.
Western countries are shipping refugees to poorer nations in exchange for cash.
Guatemala has become a transit country for migrants seeking to reach the United States, but it is also a hub for those seeking refuge. Hundreds of migrants remain trapped waiting to be considered as refugees. The chances of receiving a positive response are slim, especially for the LGBTQ community.
Shella Jean was part of a new migration path from Haiti to the relatively prosperous nation of Chile. But she has since left behind her “Chilean Dream” on a perilous journey northward toward the U.S.-Mexico Border. This is her story.
Diving, flopping and faking for the referee’s benefit have become an integral part of modern football. But Guatemalan player Wilfredo Ramos Pérez has taken the craft to the next level of the absurd. During a match in the Central American country’s third division, with one player already on the ground, the referee stopped the match […]
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Guatemalan Open Carry
Just a friendly walk by the pier? Perhaps. The machetes, or “coupe-coupe” as we French call them, are a multi-purpose tool, and were ubiquitous through much of our Central American travels. But looking back at this scene was also a chilly reminder that Guatemala was, and still is, one of the most violent countries in […]
LAGUNA LARGA — Four months ago, hundreds of villagers were expelled from their land in the jungles of northern Guatemala. The government claimed they were encroaching on a protected national park, sending over 700 men, women, and children fleeing to the nearby Mexican border. According to the Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre, the refugees continue to […]
MEXICO CITY — As the Trump administration threatens to expel nearly a million undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children, Mexico is seeing a spike in arrivals of children fleeing violence in Central America. Over the past four years, the number of unaccompanied minors from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador seeking asylum in […]
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On This Day – September 15
TEGUCIGALPA — The Central American countries of the “Northern Triangle” (Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala) have long battled gang wars and drug-related crime that have left the region’s cities among the world’s most dangerous. Individual attempts in the past to defuse the crisis, including local gang truces and national crackdowns on drugs, have been largely […]
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Guatemalan Marimba
Some things never change. If you stay at the Posada de Don Rodrigo in Antigua, Guatemala, it looks like you will still be treated to the sound of a traditional marimba band, as I was 27 years ago.
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Pigeon v. Macaw
The majestuous scarlet macaws flying about in Guatemala were a nice change from the birds I’m used to seeing in the streets of European cities.
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Peeling Out The Middleman
There was no wholesaler, no packaging and no shipping between producer (these K’iche” vendors, of Mayan descent) and consumer (me) of bananas on the famous Guatemalan market of Chichicastenango.
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Miraculously Spared
The baroque Merced church is something of a curiosity in Antigua, Guatemala, a city famous for its ruins of colonial churches: It held up admirably well after a series of devastating earthquakes in the 18th and 19th centuries, after which the capital was moved from Antigua to its current location, Guatemala City.
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Worth The Climb
To reach the ancient Mayan city of Tikal and its vertigo-inducing temples and pyramids, we first had to take a small plane — in a very precarious state — before hopping on a bus through the Guatemalan rainforest. But the immensity of the site made us quickly forget the journey, and we had no problem […]
Guatemala’s parliament voted to sack President Otto Pérez Molina Thursday, forcing his resignation and immediate arrest for his suspected participation in an extensive corruption ring. Like an ordinary felon, he will have to “answer to justice,” the daily Publinews wrote on its front page. Publinews Guatemala and other Guatemalan dailies also showed the former president […]
HEARTBREAKING IMAGES SHOW HORROR OF MIGRANT CRISIS Shocking photographs of the body of a Syrian toddler, whose body had washed up on a Turkish beach after his family’s failed attempt to reach Europe, are sparking global outcry. The first of the images shows a Syrian boy identified as Aylan Kurdi, 3, face down on the […]
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Vintage Washing
I’ve already shown you how the Mayans’ colorful traditional clothes were made — now you can see how the local women and girls wash them, on the shores of the beautiful Lake Atitlan.
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Mayan Market
“Chichi,” as it is affectionately called by visitors and Guatemalans alike, has become one of the most-visited destinations in the country. The colorful blouses these K’iche” women were selling at the city’s market contrasted nicely with the dark hair they inherited from their Mayan ancestors.
LA JOYA — Juan Castro is trying to keep it together as he tells me this story, but the tears well up in his eyes. “There was this 11-year-old girl from Guatemala who had been raped. I had to ask her how, where, by whom, why and every single detail that could help build her […]
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Fire And Ice
Most of these locals were selling firewood on the famous market of Chichicastenango. Since it was already pretty hot on this Spring day, we were more interested in what another of the K’iche” vendors, of Mayan descent, was offering: deliciosos helados de crema, ie. “delicious ice cream,” as is written on the cart.
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Meaningful Lake
Sure, Italy’s Lake Como is beautiful. And Hungary’s Lake Balaton is impressive too. But nothing compares to Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan and its three volcanoes. Its name comes from the Mayan language this fisherman’s ancestors spoke, and means “the place where the rainbow gets its color.” As if that weren’t poetic enough, locals call the lake […]
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Bored At The Border
I remember the border between Mexico and Guatemala as being very, very quiet. This was a bit surprising considering how close it is to Tapachula, a bustling Mexican city where the state of Chiapas’ Ruta del Café (“Coffee Route”) begins.
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Winding Back Time
Lake Atitlan, in the Guatemalan highlands, is surrounded by villages in which Mayan culture is still prevalent, and traditional dress is still worn. This old woman, winding yarn on her doorstep, is wearing a hat made with a long band of embroidered textile rolled tighlty aound her head. The weavers in the villages nearby produce […]
Peace is a process, never a single event. Negotiations for peace are always far more complicated than the public understands, and the results are not always miraculous. Even so, the majority of modern conflicts — 80%, according to the School for the Culture of Peace in Barcelona — eventually end after negotiations. The school’s reports […]
-OpEd- GUATEMALA CITY – In Guatemala, we know about the damage done by gangs and drug traffickers. We see them paraded across the national and international media as the embodiement of “evil,” with their steely glares and tattooed arms. But too often, simply blaming the gangs and drug trade ignores the complex set of elements […]
TAPACHULA – “I’ve come here to earn money, and then I’ll go back home…” Josefina Perez talks as she cuts coffee trees with a machete on the 617-acre Irlanda farm perched on the Tacana volcano in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Like this 40-year-old seasonal worker, more than 100,000 Guatemalans cross the border each year […]
-Editorial- SANTIAGO – The soldiers killed and beheaded an old woman, recounted one of the witnesses in the trial of Efrain Rios Montt, retired army general and ex-President of Guatemala. Then the soldiers used her had as a soccer ball in an impromptu game. That might have been the most shocking testimony in the genocide […]
CHICHICASTENANGO – “What happened to the Mayans? Why did they disappear?” asks a tourist, while the minivan enters the winding streets of Chichicastenango, in Guatemala. The guide, Haroldo, smiles, just as every guide should when asked that question, and answers: “Disappear? Look around you, these are the Mayans, they are here.” This is the first […]
AMANDALA (Belize), PRENSA LIBRE, UNIVISION (Guatemala), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch GUATEMALA CITY– Computer software millionaire John McAfee was arrested in Guatemala late Wednesday, after fleeing his home last month in Belize following the murder of his neighbor. The BBC reports that McAfee, who made his fortune developing anti-virus software, has been charged with entering Guatemala illegally, […]
LA HORA (Guatemala), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch SAN MARCOS – The death toll rose Thursday to at least 48 after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Some 20 others have been reported missing, says BBC News. Forty deaths have been confirmed in the San Marcos province and another eight in Quetzaltenango, […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch Predicting earthquakes, floods, droughts and other assorted disasters is hardly an exact science. Still, as the just published 2012 WorldRiskReport notes, just how badly natural catastrophes hit comes down to how well prepared is the country’s government to respond. In a risk index that includes 173 countries, experts of the Bonn-based […]
Analysis: Two elections decided Sunday in Central America produced winners – Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Otto Pérez in Guatemala – who couldn’t be more different. But the victories both show how troubled the isthmus’ democratic institutions really are.
Exclusive: Otto Pérez Molina, the winner of this week’s first-round presidential election in Guatemala, tells Le Monde that he “has nothing to hide and nothing to regret” from his days as the army’s intelligence head during the country’s long civil war.
In recent years, authorities in Guatemala have tried to crack down on illegal child adoptions by foreigners. Corruption, however, is preventing the impoverished Central American country from eradicating the blight of child trafficking.
Latin America lost one of its most beloved folk musicians this past weekend, when unidentified gunmen in Guatemala shot and killed Facundo Cabral of Argentina. Overun by gangs and mafia groups, Guatemala has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.