grumble grumble

Today was not such a good day, I had to eat some comfort macatella and peanut butter to cheer myself up.
I worked on my article this morning and translated it completely into spanish, I was actually quite proud about how not that much trouble I had doing so. I had a meeting at 2 at Entremundos with the intern-editor to copyedit this month's magazine which is being printed and published tomorrow. So I get there and Michael prints out a copy for us to review it, and to both my pleasure and dismay I see the theme is CAFTA. As I read the articles looking for mistakes and small flaws in the layout, I grew conscious that my article echoed a lot of what those articles said, and that just wasn't going to be ok. It took me more than a few minutes to come to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to publish what I'd spent all week writing; that I might've been counterproductive; that I had 20 days to come up with something, write it well and translate it. Just as I was comforting myself with the fact that at least I was going to be able to dance it all out later at my private salsa class, my teacher called to cancel for today. So I talked with the editor and I'll figure it out eventually, she'll specify what the other writers are writing about and give me feedback on the article I already wrote.
But there are worse things in life and in the world, and this is actually a good learning experience - namely it taught me not to get too attached, to be flexible, to be always on the lookout for new ideas and topics, and to be ready for anything.

Jennifer Harbury case: article about justice still unserved in Guate

I got this report from Colleen, my instructor from my 2 other Dragons trips. We were supposed to meet Jennifer Harbury in October but it didn't work out. I read one of her books, "Bridge of Courage", which is an amazing collection of candid testimonies made by guerrilla members on Volcan Tajumulco, where Jennifer spent 30 days in the early 90s living with the guerrilla. Her case is one of thousands of cases in which people were disappeared kidnapped by the government, who has yet to take responsibility and action to serve justice. Most of the abductors and masterminds of the torture and killings that went on are still free, some are in congress, and one is even a likely front running presidential candidate.  Jennifer's case is compelling as an individual one but it is also a symbol, and her win would be a victory for thousands who don't have the money and power to fight the government the way she has been for the past 17 years but have gone through the same sufferings.

Rights Action - February 26, 2011 Guatemala Impunity Watch Bamaca Case to Take Guatemalan Presidential candidate, Organized Crime Kingpins and CIA Assets to War Crimes Trial "The fact that one person implicated in her husband's torture and killing is Otto Perez Molina, a likely front running Guatemalan presidential candidate, is generating a tremendous backlash that puts Jennifer at greater risk than ever." BELOW:  An article by Annie Bird explaining the importance of the "Bamaca case" in Guatemala, which could play a key role in the current crossroads in Guatemalan history. Bamaca case website: http://www.casobamaca.org/ Earlier this week, Jennifer Harbury presented the Bamaca Case to the press, unveiling that her husband's torturers include a CIA asset, an organized crime kingpin and Otto Perez Molina, a Presidential hopeful; a case that could help wrest control of Guatemala from the grips of organized crime networks and war criminals. Stay alert to respond when the need arise.  Making calls, raising funds and all other support will be key. * Please re-publish this information, citing author and source * Come with RA on "Democracy Monitoring" delegation to Guatemala - "Pre Elections Delegation", July 3-9, 2011, and "General Elections Delegation", September 6-13, 2011 * To get on/ off RA's listserv: www.rightsaction.org * What to do: see below FOR MORE INFORMATION, ENGLISH & ESPANOL: Annie Bird, 202-783-1123, annie@rightsaction.org * * * * * * * A PRESIDENTIAL 'FRONT-RUNNER', WAR CRIMINALS, ORGANIZED CRIME KINGPINS AND CIA ASSETS ACCUSED IN BAMACA TORTURE By Annie Bird, annie@rightsaction.org Earlier this week Jennifer Harbury presented the Bamaca Case to the press, unveiling that her husband's torturers include a CIA asset, an organized crime kingpin and Otto Perez Molina, a Presidential hopeful; a case that could help wrest control of Guatemala from the grips of organized crime networks and war criminals ------------------ Earlier this week, Texas immigration attorney Jennifer Harbury released a statement presenting information gathered over her almost twenty-year struggle, first seeking to save her husband's life, then to know the truth about his illegal detention, torture and death, and most recently with the possibility of achieving some measure of justice in Guatemalan penal courts. Over the past year, the legal case in Guatemala has made significant advances toward prosecution, but as Guatemala enters an electoral year, the fact that one person implicated in her husband's torture and killing is a likely front running presidential candidate, Otto Perez Molina, is generating a tremendous backlash that puts Jennifer at greater risk than ever. Her struggle is made ever more current by the growing, gruesome violence in Guatemala, with signatures chillingly similar to the 1980's tortures and killings, and by the reappearance of political killings by death squads linked to police and military in neighboring Honduras. The Department of Guatemala has a murder rate of 90 per 100,000.  The investigations of the UN sponsored Investigative Commission Against Impunity, CICIG, are revealing the 'parallel structures' that protect organized crime today.  Meanwhile, emblematic cases against impunity for the crimes by the military in the 1980s make faltering advances but hit blockade after legal blockade.  It is becoming increasingly clear that the same mechanisms of impunity that protect organized crime today protect the military from prosecution. EVERARDO's CAPTURE AND TORTURE The story of the capture of Efrain Bamaca, and then his extended and brutal torture and eventual presumed death, was pieced together by Jennifer over the past two decades through declassified CIA, Department of Defense and State Department documents, court testimony by military officers and escaped captives, and other sources. Jennifer's husband was known to her, and for most of his life, as "Everardo," a commander in the Guatemala National Revolutionary Unit, URNG, but was born Efrain Bamaca.  He grew up in a family of "mozos colonos," farmworkers who for generations are born, work and die on plantations in extreme poverty.  He fought 17 years in the ORPA of the URNG, eventually becoming commander of the Luis Ixmata Front. Jennifer, a Texas immigration attorney, met him while doing research in Mexico where URNG commanders were spending time leading up to the peace negotiations. Everardo was captured on March 12, 1992 by the Quetzal Joint Task Force, FTQ, of the Guatemalan army, and taken to the Santa Ana Berlín military base in San Marcos, Guatemala.  In April 1992 he was taken by helicopter to Guatemala City to the headquarters of "El Comando" death squad in "La Isla", Zone 6, by the Ambulatory Military Police. He was later taken to Quetzaltenango, and then in July 1992 to the 18th Military Base in San Marcos.  In the most likely version of his death, he was killed and dismembered, then buried in a sugar cane field in Escuintla sometime after May 1993, possibly as late as mid 1994. TORTURED BY A CIA ASSET Eyewitnesses and declassified documents describe torture during his detention.  In the Santa Ana military base, an eyewitness testified to seeing Major Sosa Orellana, Major Soto Bilbao, Major Gómez Guillermo, and various G-2 'specialists' torturing him over a month with beatings, physical and psychological abuse and constant interrogations during the first month of his capture. He was then sent to Guatemala City, but again in July 1992 he was seen by a witness who recognized him, chained to a bed, wrapped in bandages, being tortured by a CIA asset, Col Julio Roberto Alpirez, and Major Soto Bilbao, in coordination with Sosa Orellana.  CIA documents note he was kept for a time in a full body cast. After initiating legal denouncements, negotiating with generals, and undertaking a 32 day hunger strike in Guatemala in October 1994, all asking that her husband be presented to courts and his torture stopped, Jennifer went on to undertake a hunger strike in Washington in 1995, which helped spur questions from the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee.  Though the CIA initially withheld the information it had from the Senate, a State Department employee later provided CIA memos to the Senate showing that a CIA asset, Col. Julio Alpirez, had tortured Everardo and had also killed hotel owner Michael Devine, a US citizen.  The documents also implicated Alpirez and another officer, Lt. Col. Carlos Ochoa, in cocaine trafficking.  Ochoa had been arrested in 1991 and the Constitutional Court ordered his extradition to the United States, but nine days later the Chief Justice was killed and the remaining judges altered the ruling. CIA CLEANS HOUSE, BUT THEN TURNS TO "CONTRACTORS" This scandal coincided with the completion of an internal CIA review of the role the CIA played in drug trafficking related to the CIA backed Contra supply operation.  The Washington Post reported that approximately 1000 CIA assets and operatives were dropped from the CIA payroll between 1995 and 1997 for participation in egregious human rights violations and criminal activities, as well as for 'low performance'. At the same time a series of internal directives were issues to place limitations on the activities of those placed on CIA payrolls. This was the largest housecleaning in CIA history.  But the ensuing 15 years has seen a tremendous growth in the use of private intelligence contracting firms. Blackwater was founded in McLean, Virginia, the home of the CIA, in 1997.  The CIA asset directly implicated in Everardo's torture, Guatemalan Colonel Julio Alpirez, lived in McLean from approximately 1997 until approximately 2008. As a former Blackwater employee and CIA "contractor" in Pakistan is now being held for shooting two men in the back, the history and evolution of the relationship between the CIA and contractors they hire to do illegal activities like torture and assassination is extremely relevant. THE SERRANO MILITARY INTELLIGENCE NETWORK Top ranking military intelligence officers when Everardo was captured were soldiers who had built their earlier careers as regional commanders directly undertaking the genocide of the 1980s.  They form a complex network where military officers use pseudonyms and belong to secretive brotherhoods, with names like "El Cofradia" and "El Sindicato" - networks that are similar to, or perhaps interchangeable with death squads that also bore names, like "los Lobos" (active in the Joint Task Force Quetzal, FTQ, that captured Everardo).  These military-linked groups participate in organized crime, car fencing, gun running, drug trafficking, human trafficking, etc. The head of the Presidential Guard, EMP, (the key intelligence agency) was General Francisco Ortega Menaldo.  The head of National Defense Directorate (EMDN) was General Jorge Roberto Perussina Rivera.  And the head of the infamous Military Intelligence G-2 unit was General Otto Perez Molina, the direct commander of Col. Sosa Orellana, in charge of G-2 within the Quetzal Joint Task Force.  Both Perez Molina and Perussina Rivera were apparently in the Santa Ana Belen military base the day Everardo was captured.  Both Ortega Menaldo and Perez Molina had been reported to be on the CIA payroll. Everardo's 1992 capture took place at a key moment in Guatemala's history.  The peace negotiations were starting and civilian, elected (though in flawed processes) governments were being experimented with for the first time since the CIA backed coup in 1954. THE POWERS BEHIND THE PRESIDENTS: MILITARY INTELLIGENCE  - ORGANIZED CRIME NETWORKS Jorge Serrano Elias was president from 1991 until 1993, when he attempted to pull off a Peruvian Fujimori-style self-coup.  General Roberto Perussina and General Ortega Menaldo were reportedly two of the three military figures behind the coup. General Ortega Menaldo is a head honcho in an infamous organized crime network which embeds organized crime structures within the virtually all agencies of the State, especially the justice system, in order to guarantee impunity.   Ortega Menaldo was close to former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004), now on trial for corruption, though he served as president, details from the trial make it seem as though Portillo, who apparently only received of funds stolen, was the fall guy for Ortega Menaldo. A key backer of the Serrano self-coup, Perussina was named Minister of Defense in the transition government.  Though retired from the military he forms part of the current government of Alvaro Colom, running Guatemala's La Aurora airport, and is reported to be Ortega Menaldo's right hand man.  Many Ortega Menaldo associates were named to positions in the Colom government, apparently via Carlos Quintanilla, the Secretary of Admistrative and Security Matters (SAAS).  Quintanilla was fired by Colom in 2008 and charged with spying on the President, but absolved. Many suspect Quintanilla's involvement in the death of the Minister of Governance in a plane crash shortly before Quintanilla was fired. JENNIFER's SUPPORTERS ATTACKED IN THE UNITED STATES In 1995 Ortega Menaldo was working in Washington as personnel director of the Inter American Defense College of the OAS, and later as Guatemala's representative to the Inter American Development Bank.    In July 1995 Colonel Jose Luis Fernandez Ligorria, a close associate of Ortega Menaldo, began attending the College, though he was reported to already be present in Washington when the Guatemalan government, through military representative's in Washington, signed a lobbying contract with Robert Thompson to do damage control surrounding the Bamaca case in April 1995.  Throughout 1995 people close to Jennifer in the US were subject to threats, culminating in the January 1996 bombing of her lawyer's car. Fernandez Ligorria, was implicated by investigative journalists. Recently Guatemalan press reports have implicated Fernandez Ligorria as a key leader of the Zeta narco-paramilitary group. PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL IMPLICATED IN EVERARDO KILLING, AND MANY MORE CRIMES Otto Perez Molina was a front running presidential candidate in the 2007 elections, won by current president Alvaro Colom, and though he has not yet announced his candidacy, Perez Molina is expected to run in this year's presidential elections. Though many of Perez Molina's closest associates over the years have been deeply implicated in organized crime activities, Perez Molina bills himself as the anti-crime candidate. The web of military intelligence, organized crime and politicians is an extremely complex network.  It is riddled with rivalries, and its tentacles seem to reach everywhere. The prevalent analysis has been that there are two principal military allied secret organizations that protect, politically and militarily, the interests of organized crime. The "Cofradia," associated with Francisco Ortega Menaldo and Alfredo Molina, held the behind-the-scenes power in the Portillo government and apparently has influence in the Colom administration, and is rivaled by the "Sindicato" that some associate with Otto Perez Molina.  However alliances are ephemeral and by nature hard to detect, and in reality all have collaborated at different times for common goals. Perez Molina's 2007 presidential campaign took place amidst constant accusations of participation in violence and criminal activities.  Some investigations implicate him in the April 1998 killing of Bishop Juan Gerardi, even placing him at the park in Zona 1, Guatemala City, on the night of Gerardi's murder. There is no doubt that he oversaw hundreds of massacres in the 1980s, as he commanded the military base in Quiche during the worst years of State terrorism and genocide, and various sources name him as having personally conducted torture. PARALLEL STRUCTURES CONTROL THE JUSTICE SYSTEM AND ENFORCE IMPUNITY The CICIG was created in 2007 to combat the infiltration of the State by organized crime networks, like that headed by Francisco Ortega Menaldo. CICIG, under the leadership of Spanish prosecuting attorney Carlos Castresana, excelled at its job, uncovering scandal after scandal. Castresana's last battle, before his return to Spain, was ensuring that a "clean" Attorney General was named, and provides a revealing illustration of how organized crime networks have maintained impunity. In June 2010, after an organized crime operative was appointed as the Attorney General, the new AG, Conrado Reyes, set about destroying cases that had advanced under the protected space afforded by the creation of CICIG. Castresana resigned in protest, revealing evidence uncovered in distinct investigations, such as the murder/ suicide of attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg, which demonstrated that Reyes was in effect working for organized crime. Though Castresana's evidence contained too many elements to begin to describe here, an interesting point in Castresana's presentation revealed the close collaboration of a Supreme Court magistrate, Hilario Pineda Sanchez, in protecting those responsible for Rosenberg's killing.  Pineda Sanchez continues to serve in the Supreme Court. Key cases against Guatemalan military officers and soldiers implicated in genocide, torture, and other crimes committed during the 1980s have not been able to advance because of legal hoops and obstacles set up precisely to construct impunity, and facilitated by corrupt justice official like Judge Pineda Sanchez.  For example, the abusive use of injunctions as a way of stymieing judicial processes was commented on by the Inter American Court of Human Rights. The case against those responsible for Everardo's killing and torture has hit another roadblock as the Constitutional Court granted a preliminary injunction levied by Col. Julio Alpirez, sending the case back yet again to the lower courts and blocking Jennifer from introducing her evidence. The Dos Erres case, that charges Kaibiles with carrying out a massacre in 1982, hit a similar wall recently, as has the Rio Negro massacres case and all others seeking to end impunity, some of which now have spent almost two decades in the courts. This is not the normal frustration victim's families often experience with the limitations and guarantees of due process.  This is a criminal conspiracy that subverts the justice system.  It is what allows criminals not only to undertake political killings, but also to engage in drug trafficking, and many other types of organized crime. This Constitutional Court's term is up in April, so human rights advocates are gearing up for a fight similar to the year long struggle to get a clean Attorney General. Stay tuned, Guatemala is at a crossroads.  The new Constitutional Court and the general elections this year will determine whether the structures of impunity cement into place the organized crime State or present an opportunity in the struggle for a society built on justice. * * * BACKGROUND - THE SEARCH FOR EVERARDO In January of 1992, the Luis Ixmata Front (Front) of the Guatemala National Revolutionary Unit, URNG, which operated the Voz Popular radio came out of the Tajamulco Volcano, under the command of Comandante Everardo, aka Efrain Bamaca.  The Front began making its way south along Guatemala's South Coast. The army responded by forming the Quetzal Task Force (FTQ) that operated out of the military base at Santa Ana Belen, made up of soldiers from the region, and included many members of "El Comando," a military intelligence (G-2) death squad based out of La Isla in Guatemala City. There were frequent battles.  Then, on March 12, 1992, a patrol of the Front was ambushed by the FTQ beside the Rio Ixcucua and was forced to flee, the last glimpse fellow combatants had of Comandante Everardo he was alive but being closed in on by the army. Coincidentally, a command meeting had been convoked for the afternoon of March 12, 1992 in Santa Ana Belen.  Approximately 80 officials were present that morning, and after hearing about "the death" of someone from the Luis Ixpata Front, the Director de la Estado Mayor de Defensa Nacional Roberto Perussina Rivera arrived at the base at approximately 4pm.    On March 13, the army made a public statement that a body of a guerrilla combatant had been gathered after the confrontation the previous day at the Ixcucua River, and that it was flown to the town of Retahuleu and buried anonymously, "John Doe".    Given the testimony of those under Everardo's command that he had been captured alive, the URNG was concerned that he was still alive and being tortured, so they requested forensic documentation to corroborate the Army's statement via the government Human Right Procurators office (PDH).  The army facilitated an accurate description of Everado, with a detailed description of his face.  In the same letter the Army noted that he had committed suicide to avoid capture, however given the caliber of the weapon he was carrying when captured, the URNG knew that the suicide would have destroyed his face, making such a detailed description impossible.  The URNG requested an exhumation of the grave, which the PDH petitioned and was scheduled to occur in May of 1992, but the General Procurator of the Nation (an office with some of the functions of an Attorney General) interrupted.  The Guatemalan army was experimenting with a program of subjecting prisoners to prolonged torture with the objective of breaking them psychologically not only to extract information, but to enlist them as ongoing collaborators, essentially functioning as part of the death squads.  As part of this process, after prolonged torture followed by signs of collaboration, prisoners were given a growing degree of freedom, to move around inside the military base, to leave the base under supervision, to leave the base without supervision, etc.  Toward the end of 1992, one of these prisoners, originally captured in 1991, was able to escape to Mexico.  He found Jennifer and told her that he had seen Everardo alive and being horribly tortured by Col. Alpirez and Sosa Orellana in a San Marcos military base. Jennifer went to Guatemala, filing legal petitions to the Government of Guatemala and the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights. She asked for the exhumation of the grave that had not been exhumed the previous May. In preparing the exhumation request, Jennifer reviewed the paperwork associated with the "John Doe" burial. The height and characteristics described by a Justice of the Peace that signed the official paperwork claiming to have collected a body from the shore of the Ixcucua River on March 12, 1992 in the company of Sosa Orellana matched Everardo, but the report of the coroner that examined the body before its burial described a very different, much shorter man.  When the grave was finally exhumed in August 1993, forensic scientists found a shorter man, 18 to 20 year old, with a five year margin of error, while Everardo was 35 years old.  This body matched the description of Cristóbal Che Pérez, a young soldier under the command of Sosa Orellana, who G-2 specialists later claimed had been killed by order of Major Sosa Orellana.  Cristobal had been bound by his ankles, severely beaten to the body and head, stabbed, strangled and shot.  The cause of death was determined to be suffocation and contusions to the head and body. It was clear that the body in the grave was not Everardo.  However, the army had provided a very precise description of Everardo.  This led Jennifer to the conclusion that he had been captured alive and was being tortured.  In October 1994 she embarked on a 32 day hunger strike outside the National Palace in Guatemala.  Then, as it became increasingly clear to her that the US government had information that was not being shared with her, she embarked on a hunger strike outside of the White House in Washington, DC in March 1995, which ended upon the release of information to her by the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee, information that confirmed her husband's death. If the trial of those accused in Everardo's torture is allowed to proceed, Jennifer should obtain an exhumation of the likely site of her husband's burial, and finally conclude the search for Everardo

week 1: terminado

Things are starting to become routine after this first week of work. My week:

Wednesday: I worked on my article more in the morning, I have this really nice spot on the roof of my house with a great view of Xela. In the afternoon I went to a community called Llanos de la Cruz with the women's office. I went with my "boss" Eunice, who is this incredibly sweet panda-looking lady. She's been working at the office for 2 years and is the head of the social work program, undertaking workshops and intern supervision. She likes working with young women especially because she feels that she can actually help prevent things like pregnancies from happening and help better women's situation by changing the mentality of resignation and acceptance in the face of machismo, and help them take the reigns of their own destinies by teaching them family planning, sexual health, and self-esteem. Anyways, we went to this pueblo because the Oficina is sponsoring an electricity course for the community. It's going to be 40h spread out over 10 weeks. The class was supposed to start at 2 but thanks to trusty Guatemalan time, it started around 3:30. Llanos de la Cruz has a very big group of organized women and we met at the leader's home, which is very visibly built and furnished on dollars sent by her late husband who died in the US three years ago. The community is very divided between what is called the colonia, the new settlers, and the community that's been there a long time. People from Guate have built houses and are renting them and my understanding is that that land used to be the original inhabitant's. Coincidentally, 65% of the rentiers are not indigenous but 90% of the original population are indigenous, so discrimination and racism are also factors deepening the division within Llanos de la Cruz. Some indigenous ladies from the women's group came over and talked about the division problem, how the colonia ladies are trying to create their own group within the group, how they feel discriminated against etc. It was interesting to be there but I couldn't catch everything they were saying, I ended up going home early. That night was Allie's birthday so we went salsa dancing at La Parranda, a salsa club. 

Thursday: There was no community to go to in the afternoon so I went to the office in the morning, and we worked on coming up with slogans for the Dia de la Mujer, or women's day, on march 8th - the office is organizing a sort of parade through the Xela streets. This year, we are focusing on labor rights because women are seriously discriminated against in the workplace, be it field or office. Eunice told us that in the campo, men are payed 75Q while women and children are payed 30Q. In farms, women are objects, or property, and sexually abused by the supervisor as blackmail for their salary. Postponing pay or not paying at all, exploitation, sexual, physical, verbal, and psychological abuses are common issues women have to face in the workplace here. Again I worked on my article in the afternoon and took a salsa class with the other foreigner who lives in my house, Stefan.

Friday: I worked on the article and started to create a photo bank for Entremundos, walked up the hill to a mirador of Xela with Stefan and at night had a tipico dinner with the school. We made pepian, a typical Guatemalan dish with chicken and rice and a delicious sauce. We went to the discoteca after for more salsa dancing - my week has been quite full of salsa dancing.

Saturday: I met up with the group after lunch and we checked in about our internships and what we need to do for our expedition. That night we went to a soccer game with some teachers and students from the spanish school. Xela was playing against Peten, the northernmost department of Guatemala. Now I don't really watch soccer and am a terrible soccer player myself, but I could tell Guatemalan soccer is not of the highest caliber. It was an interesting cultural experience, especially because Xela has stronger support than any other team within the nation. There were brass bands constantly playing anthems and support songs, alot of people singing and insulting the other team, fireworks, air balloons, more fire, flags, painted faces, olas...people would climb up over the fence with Xela flags and wave them around. Xela won 1 to 0 after many vain attempts to score, creating an alegre ambiance for the rest of the night. Many food stands were outside the stadiums and we had to weave our way through slowly to get anywhere. There was a concert stage behind the stadium where a salsa band called Sangre Latina was playing, it was pretty awesome. Sport really makes you forget about everything as everyone unites under the support for their home team, leaving aside problems and preoccupations outside the stadium - I guess that's the beauty behind all the shouted insults, smoking and beer-drinking going on.  

Sunday was chill, and tomorrow I start again! I'm meeting with Entremundos at 2 to do the final english and spanish copyedits for this month's publication, and I have a private salsa class at 6:30...

So that's what my week has been like. I know next week will be completely different because we're preparing for the Dia de la Mujer activities in the office and we're doing distribution and working on next month's publication at Entremundos, but I like how I'm not exactly sure what's going on and everyday is a new experience. 

websites

Here are the websites of the organizations I'm working for, I meant to post this before.

ommxela.blogspot.com

entremundos.org

primer dia

Today was my first day of work! It was rather productive. I woke up early to get started on my article and began by researching what Project HAARP is. Project HAARP stands for the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program. The government has already spent $250 million tax-funded construction and operating costs.The research facility main activity is probing the ionosphere by sending it continuous or pulsing radio waves to get insight on basic natural processes and phenomena in the ionosphere. The research can also show how the ionosphere affects radio signals, mitigating the negative effects to improve communication and navigation systems, and use radio waves to send foreign-sent killer electrons out of orbit to protect national technology and electronic system. Extremely Low Frequency Waves could be developed to enhance submarine technology and observe underground activity in targets such as North Korea and Iran. Conspiracy theorists have blamed the HAARP for creating all kinds of natural disasters such as floods, droughts, hurricanes, even the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and of affecting human health and behavior. A Russian report has accused it of potentially having devastating effects capable of altering the magnetic field of the Earth, causing the magnetic poles to change and thus affecting the weather and the earth, and able to destroy aircrafts or satellites passing through its waves. Although HAARP is a science research program, it's funded by the Pentagon and the military, causing people to doubt its supposedly benign purpose and make all kinds of hypotheses about the true purpose of the facility. A scary thought is that scientists don’t know the potential consequences of this probing of the ionosphere in the long run, and although they are experimenting in a small section just above Alaska, so one could say in their airspace, this could have adverse effects over the ionosphere in other parts of the world if not the rest of the ionosphere.
After that research I basically started writing my article using only the knowledge I've accumulated throughout my trips to Guatemala - readings, articles, testimonies, history lessons etc. Then I googled the theme of my article and found a dozen of really interesting articles and papers about it that will help me gain a broader view and get some facts straight.
In the afternoon I went with the Oficina de Mujeres de la Municipalidad, OMM, to a small community outside of Xela called Xecharacoj. One of the interns, Leslie, gave a workshop on how to organize a "junta directiva", or board of directors, and reviewed the roles of each person to facilitate the formation of a junta directiva for this group of 33 or so women who then voted on 8 different candidates to fulfill 8 different leader positions. It was a really interesting experience, and I really got a sense of how much I take for granted. Leslie did a "dinamica", or game, to break the ice: they played hot potato and 5 women went up and did the chicken dance and they split up into groups and Leslie gave them an optical illusion in which they had to decide as a group which was the longer line. Every woman had to stand up and say their name, and some of them presented themselves and added a little something about how they felt. One lady thanked us for being here to teach them what they don't know and to help them be less afraid by creating a sort of safe haven where everyone is able to speak their mind and heart, participate, and value themselves. Some other ladies barely got off their chair, mumbled their name, and sat right back down in embarrassment. I knew before hand that indigenous women are very shy and afraid to speak up because of historical repression and omnipresent machismo, but seeing some ladies struggle with having to simply say their names in front of women they know was pretty intense. Having to explain what an organization is and how a junta directiva functions is also something I thought was pretty obvious, but apparently it isn't. OMM is really helping these women take charge of their lives and value themselves, I'm very happy to have the opportunity to observe what they do and how they affect women's lives directly. Although I was the only gringa and by far the tallest person in the room, I felt welcome and viewed not just as a white person volunteering for 2 months and a half but as a woman, and even if our realities are worlds apart, we're in the same boat and all support and understand each other in some special way.

mucho trabajo!

I had my first meetings monday to figure out what it is I'll be doing for the next 9 to 10 weeks. I met at 8 at the oficina de mujeres de la municipalidad, with Tita and Eunice to establish what I'll be doing. I will be working mainly with Eunice, who is in charge of the social work program at the women's office, and 2 interns from the universidad de san carlos. I'll be working 3 times a week there, Tuesday through Thursday, from 2 to 6 pm. I'll be working in the field, in the communities. OMM works with 11 communities and basically gives workshops, trainings, lessons about things like women's rights, hygiene, reproductive health, family planning, community organizing...For the first 2 weeks I'll be observing the work OMM does in 3 communities. Then they will give me more responsibilities little by little, until I can ultimately teach a workshop or take on a role to really contribute to the organization. When I asked what workshops I'll be teaching, the answer was pretty vague and up in the air, and that seems to be the way of things here. They said, you'll see as you go what people need and what they want and how/what you can contribute. They seem very glad to have me there and are a very welcoming bunch of ladies. 

In the afternoon I had a meeting with Valeria, the editor in chief of the Entremundos magazine. The magazine focuses on development and human rights in Guatemala and the international community. Their may-june issue, which is what I'll be working on, focuses on the theme of project HAARP, a science research project the US government is funding in Alaska through the Pentagon, apparently sending radio waves to the ionosphere to study its behavior, the sun's effects, mitigate its effects over low-orbit satellites, and develop low frequency waves that can be used in submarines and to discover underground activity. But it might affect the magnetism of the Earth and could potentially cause terrible natural disasters, and Entremundos has chosen this theme as a jumping off point to discuss the effects of US policy onto small countries like Guate. So I'll be writing an 1 100 words article (and translating it into spanish) about that theme. I'm pretty excited. I'm also going to be helping with copy editing, which I've never done before, translating, and creating a photo bank. They need pictures to put in the magazine to complement the articles because they have none right now, they look for images and paintings on internet to include the visual aspect of the magazine. I'll also be writing smaller blurb sort of things about NGOs Entremundos works with to promote and highlight them. I'm going to start with the organizations Kate and Allie are working for. In addition to all of that, I'm going to do the cover art and help with distribution of the february-march issue. I'm also going to get to just observe the layout and printing processes. 

I'm very excited about all these opportunities and I hope I will live up to the expectations of the organizations I'm working for. I have a very full plate, and that's exactly the way I want it! 

pictures from finca la florida

 The porch of the Casa Grande

 Sunset and Clothespin

 boy cat. the girl cat ate 2 of her babies. creepy.

 farm!

 farm!

 working...

 view from adelaide's apartment balcony

 stalker picture 1

 stalker picture 2

the beautiful church, view from adelaide's roof

pictures from the lake

 San Marcos

 La Cambalacha

 Sunrise

 On the boat to San Pedro

 Our road-side florida highway looking hotel in San Pedro

 San Pedro and The Nose

 Sunset in Panajachel

 Las Chicas

last day before it all begins!

Getting back to Xela and a hot shower felt really great, we cooked an amazing dinner with an incredible peanut sauce and had couch surfers over for dinner from Iowa and Nebraska. On Sunday we slept in and packed to get ready to go meet our families. We brought Kate over to Pachaj, where she's doing her internship at Armando's Chico Mendes Reforestation project. I've been to and volunteered in the project each time I've come to Guate, and I have been very inspired by Armando and what he is doing for his country and for the environment. Here is a good article I found on Facebook about what Armando is fighting for:

Through the fog of the Guatemalan highlands, one sees a small nursery among an ocean of hectares of corn fields. This harbor of greenery results from the hard work of Armando López, founder of the Project Chico Mendes. This project was born in 1998 when this quiche activist from Quetzaltenango decided to undertake an ambitious reforestation plan of the Guatemalan forests.

Since his beginnings, Armando refused any governmental help to preserve the independence and effectiveness of his actions of reforestation of a fragile ecological zone. “We do not want money; we only want pride and justice for the Maya people”. The indigenous population largely suffered from the long civil war that has torn apart this small state of Central America from 1960 to 1996. However, with the assistance of volunteers who contributed to propel his non-profit o rganization, Armando succeeded in establishing a solid project in the small community of Pachaj, 6 km out of Quetzaltenango. On top of that, a Spanish, quiche and mam (Maya dialects) school was created for the volunteers so that they can improve their linguistic skills while being lodged in modest families of the community. 

Ambitious objectives

In spite of the inevitable discord with the several governmental agencies carrying an endemic tradition of corruption, Armando hopes to plant 100,000 trees in the next three years to fight the erosion issue in the rivers which carry the water so much seeked by the foreign investors and to compensate the too many trees cut to open agrictultural land (mainly corn). Since it does not have huge natural resources profitable on the worldwide market, Guatemalan reserves of “white gold”(pristine eau de source) which could be contaminated by the mining companies.

“We are thirsty for justice”, repeats Armando, referring to the governmental attempts to privatize the access to drinking water. The founder of the project Chico Mendes opposes, following the example of most natives of the country, a tax on water and public service utilities(bill 4039) such as the use of the roads which would impoverish moreover the Maya population already victim of socio-economic discrimination towards the ladinos (interbreeding Spanish/native). Armando already organized demonstrations in the past to fight this bill.

A stimulating and ecological project

Armando López has a dream. He wants to build a self-sufficient project, independent of lo cal or foreign subsidies - he refused the assistance of Peace Corps as they wanted to impose their development model described as paternalist, insisting on selling his seedlings or on investing in decorative plants - and to keep his seedbed free from chemicals or other substances being able to contaminate the invaluable water resources of the commune. The bottom line is that it is possible to work without pesticides or fertilizers. Armando proved this statement for a decade using natural techniques like the use of warm water to decontaminate the sown trees or the production of his own organic fertilizer with nitrogen extracted from leaves mixed with compost. Armando carries out himself, sometimes with volunteers, the harvest of seeds of pines, cypresses, laurels and other native species directly in the forest. Ultimately, he grows these seeds within a seedbed while waiting for the next planting session to refill the Guatemalan high summits. 

The success of a community alternative as Chico Mendes proves that citizen will overcome the lack of reaction from the official authorities on the national environmental pollution. However, having decided to rely on generosity of private donators, Armando must constantly seek money. He must fix his greenhouse, buy more fertile ground and, perhaps one day, buy a pick-up truck to help his two employees who prepare the ground for reforestation and deal with the new planted hectares. 

Armando remains optimistic for the future of his local project. Chico Mendes makes it possible to set up strong bases for citizen projects after a three-decade civil war which has devastated a country already struggling with poverty. Thanks to such initiatives, the indigenous communities can have a voice to organize against governmental attacks on their ancestral grounds. However, Armando preaches non-violence and dialogue with the government. He has even been forced to cancel exhibitions in the past years to avoid unrest which often comes along with Guatemalan demonstrations. Quoting famous brazilian activist Chico Mendes, Armando wraps up the encounter saying “no to the war, no to arms, but yes to intelligence”.

So Armando came to get us in Xela and pulled up with a brand new pickup - a donation. We got to his house and what used to be the uneven dirt-stone-grass courtyard had turned into a flat cement patio with white cement walls surrounding it, embellished with spotlight-illuminated trees in small alcoves. The kitchen was being completely remodeled and they now have a flushing toilet. 

People like to "talk shit", excuse my diction, around here, and some have expressed doubts about Armando's honesty and handling of donations. The first thing I thought of when I walked through the door onto the patio was How? Where did he suddenly get enough resources to build this structure? Fue una locura! he said - it was a whim! I know Armando is an honest man with a social conscience and an unparalleled passion to take care of the environment and fight for the justice and rights of the indigenous people. His family and him deserve to be happy and get what they want - other people have it easy and don't do anything for a higher purpose or to help the world, why should Armando live in poverty? Does his poverty give more credibility to what he is doing, does it make him a more "noble" man? We were all pretty shaken up by this drastic change in Armando's home and all kinds of questions popped into our heads, questions we didn't ever want to even think of. Adelaide asked, why so much cement? He is an environmentalist after all, cement is one of the worst things for the environment. Why a flushing toilet? That wastes so much more water, the same water he is fighting to save. She said, I liked the other toilet better, where are the dirt floors and black walls I loved so much? 

Dragons decided to stop going to certain communities in Guatemala, like Todos Santos, because they had reached a certain level of comfort, with flushing toilets and showers, and that's just not the Dragons way. It's not an "authentic" experience. But the thing is, it is. People are getting money from the States, Guatemala is going through development. And so peoples' houses change. I have the luxury to choose to be uncomfortable, to come down here and take cold showers for 3 months. I wonder if people here think about that, if they wonder why in the world would we leave our homes and families where we have all the material stuff we can possibly want to go live with people whose dreams are to have a flushing toilet one day. 

The pride and excitement on Armando's face when he showed us the brand new toilet was blinding. This means progress for him, that he made it in a way. It's ironic because Indigenous Guatemalans are very proud of the way they live, of their closeness to the earth, the family, and their spirituality - but at the same time they want to be more westernized. I guess we see things completely differently. One of my favorite things about my family in Pachaj was how we ate all around the fire stove, in different seats every time and sometimes without silverware. I loved how the fire brought the family together, there were no microwaves to reheat your food whenever you want and go back to your room with it. But to them it just meant poverty. I went back to see Estela, my host mom in Pachaj, I was so happy to see her I got teary. We caught up on things and I told her what I'd been doing for the past 5 months since I last saw her. Her and Ingrid, my host sister, kept saying how much they wanted to come back with me to mi pais. Traeme en tu bolsa Leah! Aqui somos pobre. And all I can do is fight back tears, smile, shake my head, and say I hope one day it'll be possible.

finca la florida

Thursday morning we got up late, bought mangos, made oatmeal, packed, got a taxi and took a bus to Colomba, 2h outside Xela. I was in charge of transportation and had been speaking with Esteban, the head of the ecotourism project of La Florida, for directions. In the bus to Colomba, we met a man who lived in San Marcos (not the lake, but the department), where there is a huge mine exploited by a Canadian company called Goldcorp that has caused hundreds of health, environmental, water, land, and human rights issues within the communities near the mine. He told us Guatemala has a lot of gold and minerals but doesn't have the resources, the equipment, to exploit their riches, so foreign companies come and do it, giving 1 to 2 % of their profit to the Guatemalan government while devastating communities. We also met a Peace Corps volunteer who was in her 10th month of service working in health for a community school project in San Miguel. We asked her about her experience working and volunteering with a cultural divide: she said some people want you there and are excited about your project and your presence, but others hate you, hate what you represent, don't think you're helping, and just want you to go back from whence you came. She advised for us to be prepared for such attitude from some people and to just learn to deal with it and limit our interactions with those persons. She also said most things move slowly and it's especially frustrating when women ask their husband's permission for anything, so she's learned a lot of patience. I wonder what cultural barriers I'll have to overcome and what obstacles are going to dot the way during my internship.
We got to Colomba and switched buses to El Paraiso, which means paradise. And indeed when we got there, it felt like a paradisiac place, with a perfect climate, wonderful smells, lush green and tropical birds. Esteban's son Gilmer came to walk us to the finca, a 45 minute walk from the bus stop. He was very friendly and talkative, and told us about the farm, what they grow and how they function. Here is their site, it's very informative and interesting, their story is incredible: fincalaflorida.org. I strongly encourage you to read their history, project, and general information. I had visited a finca with a my first Dragons trip in Guatemala, Finca Ixobel, but this finca was an entirely different world.
We got to the Casa Grande, the old farm house, which is the hospedaje, the inn, and met Rosaura, our host, and the Esteban's wife. The house has many dilapidated rooms. It smells like camp, that old wood renfermé scent that sparks your excitement and never fails to make me smile. Random huge doors lead into former kitchens or cafeterias that are now filled with wood for building and other types of storage. Wooden planks make up floor, ceilings, and stairs, and are creaky and rickety, half eaten or hanging loose. Bats have settled in one of the upstairs rooms. We slept on the upper level, our rooms giving onto a deck with a cute balustrade and a gorgeous view, overlooking the tree tops far into the horizon. The house reminded me of an old southern plantation house, with thin wood columns supporting it, white and green peeling paint, and straw mattresses completing the feel. We were the only visitors there. 
What I liked most about our stay was that we got to eat our meals with different families from the community. For our first day, we had lunch and dinner at Dona Dominga's. She told us some of her story while cooking. She is originally from Huehuetenango and was orphaned at age 15, along with her 3 younger siblings, the youngest one was 2 years old. Her parents died 1 year apart, in 1990, in the heat of the war. Although she didn't say, the closeness of her parents' deaths, the date at which they died, and the fact that she's from Huehue makes me think that they died fighting or helping the guerrilla, but one can only guess. She and her siblings went to work on a farm near Colomba where they had relatives, and Dominga and her sister got married. Her sister now lives in the capital and seems to be relatively successful, the older brother now lives in the country probably in a farm somewhere or even in La Florida, and the youngest brother they haven't heard from in years, since he was 15. They don't know if he's alive or dead and the last they heard from him was that he wanted to move to Honduras because he wanted to get away from Guatemala, where he felt he had no connection because he has no parents. She pointed out that 5 years ago, phones didn't exist here so they couldn't keep in touch. In La Florida they barely have electricity too - they get more or less depending on how much it rained that day, but light bulbs are very weak and most people use candles. We cooked with her at dinner and had the best tipico ever. We spoke to 2 of her 6 daughters too: one is 15 and the other 19 but they are in the same grade (8th). They work in the fields and in their own beehive and go to school every monday, a 45 minute walk one way. The community just built an elementary school and their vision is to build a secondary school too, because many kids end up working instead of going to school because of the impracticality of the location. They thanked us profusely for being there, saying it meant alot to them to share with people from outside and to have visitors. 
During the day, we met with Anastasio Diaz, the man in charge of the apiario, the beehive project. He brought us there, explained bee activity and showed us the bees in action, and showed us the honey making process, from bee to bottle. He also explained to us how the finca works. A junta directiva, or board of directors, appoints commissions of people to direct different divisions of the community (like health, education, women, etc) and give people trainings and workshops to do certain jobs, from working in the coffee fields to the beehive to being health promoters. People don't choose their job but if they don't like it they can ask to change. Everyone gets paid 30 quetzales per day, men and women alike as gender equality is a priority value at La Florida. The 40 or so poor landless families joined together to occupy and claim La Florida because it was state owned and on sale after its mismanagement by its owners led it to be withheld by Bancafe, the national bank. Before, these families worked in different fincas around Colomba and Quetzaltenango, had no land of their own, and earned 10 quetzales a day, or a 1.2 dollars more or less. Today they earn a little less than 4 dollars a day and they still live in dire condition - they barely have any electricity and their shelters are made of rusty tin sheets and wood - but as they say, at least they have land. Whenever the finca sells their product in Xela, the money goes to the community fund in their office and the profit goes to financing and maintaining their projects.  The eco tourism project is pretty recent and has brought alot of benefits to the farm and the families, providing them with volunteers and money, and to the women, who value themselves more now and have gained in confidence. 
Anastasio was such a sweet little old man who was so proud to show us his work and enthusiastic about our interest. When we got back to the casa grande, a man was working with bamboo on the porch. He was making wind chimes and showed us the tables and chairs he had made. He learne from a worshop given by an NGO and now he teaches others. He showed us that if you burn bamboo, the green color turns into a beige brown, draining the water and making it a lot stronger. 
On Friday morning we had breakfast at Emiliana's and took a long walk with her to the coffee plants, the macadamia and banana trees, while she showed us medicinal plants along the way. Everything smelled so amazing, the contrast between the air in Xela and the finca was astounding. Emiliana was carrying her 6 month old baby on her back the whole time. We had lunch and dinner at Mariatelga's, she's a madre soltera, or single mom, of 6 kids, and is a health promoter within the community. It was such a unique opportunity to spend time with these people, they were so sweet, open, talkative, and genuinely happy to share their lives with us, an attitude toward foreigners that is generally not so easy to find in campesino Guatemala. It was really nice to visit this farm before settling into the urban life, and I'm always wowed by how much I learn from Guatemala every time I am here.