friendsoflatinamerica

ARTE MAYA CALENDARS ON SALE!

    SUPPLIES ARE   LIMITED!
    
    To celebrate the   arrival of 2007, NISGUA has dropped our prices on single and bulk orders of the   popular Arte Maya Calendar.  If you haven’t yet seen it, preview images at http://www.nisgua.org/support/gift_shop/maya_calendars.asp .     Your order supports the continuing struggle for justice in   Guatemala.
    
    Calendars are now   available for $14, which INCLUDES   priority shipping, instead of the standard calendar price of $18.   If   you purchase ten or more calendars, our discounted SALE   bulk price is $8/calendar (rather than the   normal $10/calendar bulk rate). Orders of 50 calendars or more will be charged a   discounted shipping fee of $10. Shipping rates vary for multiple orders, so   please contact us for a quote.
    
    Order by calling   NISGUA at 202-518-7638, emailing calendar [at] nisgua.org, or mailing a calendar   order form (available at the above link) to 1830 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009.
   

Military-Police Operation in Ixcan returnee community

August 22, 2006

Below is a communiqué from the Ixcán regarding an alarming joint
police-military operation that took place in Ixtahuacán Chiquito, a returnee
community that NISGUA accompanied until 2001.

According to newspaper articles and reports from the region, 7-8 military
helicopters and 2-3 airplanes landed in the community center around 11am
yesterday. The reported purpose of the operation was to search for a cache
of arms belonging to narco-traffickers.

Apparently the soldiers, their faces painted black, surrounded the
community’s elementary school and did not let the children leave. They
entered and searched houses, pointing their weapons at community residents.
During the operation, which lasted until 3pm in the afternoon, they
excavated a hill in the community, a sacred Mayan site where ceremonies are
held. No weapons were found in the operation.

No judge in the area had issued an order for this action, and the community
was not presented with a search warrant or other justification of the
soldiers’ actions.

This, understandably, terrorized residents of this returned refugee
community where many are survivors of massacres committed during the war.
Helicopters and planes circulated the region for hours, causing panic in
many neighboring communities such as Fronterizo 10 de Mayo, Los Ángeles and
Cuarto Pueblo. It has been reported that families from Ixtahuacán Chiquito
and several of the mentioned communities fled into the mountains and Mexico
just as they did in the 1980s. There are three youth currently reported
missing from the community.

It has also been reported in the Guatemalan media that there were U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents involved in the operations. NISGUA
has requested clarification from the U.S. government, but has not yet been
able to confirm or discount these reports.

NISGUA staff in Guatemala are in constant contact with the region. A
commission from the Ixcán is expected to meet with government officials in
the capital soon. We will continue to send you updates on the situation as
we receive more information.

Guatemala Human Rights Commission- USA
GHRC-USA
3321 12th St, NE
Washington, DC 20017
202-529-6599
202-526-4611 fax
ghrc-usa@ghrc-usa.org
www.ghrc-usa.org

Violence against women unchecked in Guatemala

On February 8, the bodies of two young women were found on the outskirts of
Guatemala City.  They had been stoned to death.  Their skulls were
destroyed.

Hugo Chavez: A Walk in the Footsteps of Arbenz, Allende

Dr. Rosa Maria Pegueros; Common Dreams; August 29, 2005

For more than forty years, Cuban leader Fidel Castro has been the target of countless United States- and CIA-sponsored assassination attempts. I shudder to think what might have happened if Cuba had been endowed with large reserves of oil. Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez may learn the consequences of such a blessing very soon.

CENTRAL AMERICA'S UNEASY DISARMAMENT

Tim Rogers; NACLA, July/August issue

In less than two decades since the bloody, U.S.-sponsored wars ended in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, Central America has undergone an extreme makeover of reality-TV proportions. The old images of men dressed in green fatigues and dark sunglasses, red-and-black revolutionary flags, tanks in the streets and scruffy guerrillas toting AK-47s in the jungles have since been replaced by the sunnier, tourist-friendly sights of white-sand beaches, colorful toucans, pluming volcanoes and inviting cultures.

With the various peace accords came a new wave of relative stability, cooperation and democratization, and the war-torn countries—desperate for foreign capital—joined forces to promote tourism and regional free-trade pacts with the United States and Europe.

Yet, just beneath the simulacrum of peace and integration remains a dark mistrust among the countries that share this umbilical strip of land connecting North and South America.