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Archive for the ‘Guatemala’ Category

What’s Ahead for Latin America in 2011 : Elections

5 Jan 2011

The last year on VivirLatino was really dominated by the immigration debate in the United States. While I will continue to cover the issue of immigration, especially with the likelihood of anti-immigrant / anti-Latino measures being pushed by the Republican led House of Representatives, it would be naive of me to function as if U.S. policy towards Latin America has nothing to do with how Latinos are treated inside the U.S. It would be equally naive to act as if we as Latinos in the United States have no ties to our countries of ancestry and as if policy inside of those countries don’t matter to us, our families, and our communities.

So one of my new year’s resolutions for the site (among many) is to make more of an effort to cover what is happening in Latin America and attempt to make the connections between that and comunities here inside the United States.

There are several elections in Latin America slated to take place this year. The countries with presidential elections this year include Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, and Argentina.
Read more…

U.S Researchers Experimented on CIA Prisoners, Mental Hospital Patients, Soldiers, Sex Workers and Children in Guatemala in the 1940′s.

8:05 am By Maegan La Mala · Guatemala|Health|history · Comments Off

6 Oct 2010

Latina Americans being used as medical guinea pigs for U.S. medical advancement isn’t the stuff of nightmares or science fiction. Look up for example how the birth control pill that many women claim as part of their liberation came to be.
Last week, the U.S. apologized for knowingly, purposely, and without consent infecting anywhere between 700 to over 1,00 Guatemalan prisoners of the CIA, mental patients, soldiers, sex workers and children in the 1940′s with sexually transmitted illnesses like syphilis and gonorrhea in order to test the effectiveness of antibiotics The experiments came to light five years ago, stumbled upon by a professor researching the Tuskegee syphilis study, where African -Americans were withheld treatment so that scientists could observe the progression of the illness, but were only just made public.

Police in LA Kill Guatemalan Day Laborer, Community Demands Answers

12:37 pm By Maegan La Mala · Guatemala|Los Angeles|Violence · 11 Comments

8 Sep 2010

Last Sunday, Manuel Jamines was shot and killed by police in Los Angeles. The why depends on who you ask. According to police, Jamines, aged 37, was drunk and was waving a knife around. Police claim that they ordered Jamines to drop the knife in English and in Spanish and when he didn’t, they shot and killed him. Others say that there was no knife and those that say there was say that directives were given by police only in English. The police claim a knife was recovered at the scene.

Edited to add (2:22 pm EST) that some reports that I am now reading say that Jamines may not have spoken Spanish that well either because he was an indigenous Guatemalan. This draws parallels to what happened with Cirila Baltazar Cruz

For two nights in the row the Latino community has taken to the streets, calling the killing an example of excessive use of police force. During those protests, riot police have fired foam projectiles and arrested over 20 people, mostly for failure to disperse and unlawful assembly.
Read more…

Massive Sinkhole in Guatemala City

11:37 am By la Macha · Guatemala · 2 Comments

1 Jun 2010

When I first saw the pictures, I thought they were photoshopped. Poorly at that. But then I started reading around, and no, this is real. It really happened.

via the Christian Science Monitor

The storm hit on Saturday, just two days after the the Pacaya volcano, about 20 miles south of Guatemala City, erupted, causing the international airport to shut down.

Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom had declared a 15-day calamity, before Tropical Storm Agatha dumped three feet of water in the western part of the country. Officials have said that the ash from the volcano, which again covered the airport Monday, could aggravate flooding as it blocks the nation’s drainage systems.

The Guatemalan government posted photos of the flooding tragedy, including one of a sinkhole apparently the size of an entire street block, that opened in the northern section of Guatemala City. A three-story building was swallowed by the hold. Authorities are investigating the cause. A sinkhole in the same area killed three people in 2007.

I was immediately tempted to make jokes, this seems so unreal that it is comical–but then I read that this sinkhole comes with tragedy. At least 150 people have died already because of the mammoth scale of the storms (that also helped cause this sinkhole).

I hope that all the late night comediennes and bloggers remember that before they start up with the jokes.

Charges Against Twitter User in Guatemala Dropped

7:35 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Guatemala|Twitter · Comments Off

9 Jul 2009

Nearly two months age we wrote about the “tweet heard ’round Guatemala” and how that tweet landed Jeanfer, also known as Jean Anleu, in jail facing charges of inciting financial panic. Well it looks like he’s a free man and that all charges have been dropped.

Via / Boing Boing

Guatemala : Accusing a President of Murder and Arresting Twitter Users

7:09 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Guatemala|Internet|Twitter · 4 Comments

15 May 2009

The situation in Guatemala is getting heavier by the moment with reports of arrests of street vendors and at least one twitter user A little background. Attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg was killed and a video released posthumously points the finger at President Alvaro Colom.

The video’s release has led to widespread protest, calling for President Colom to step down and face justice. The twittersphere in the Central American country also responded. Twitter user “Jeanfer” was arrested for suggesting in a tweet that people who had money deposited in Banrural should remove those funds, and by doing so, break the control that “corrupt people” have over the state-controlled financial institution. The murdered attorney, who was shot to death this past weekend, represented a finance expert, Khalil Musa, who was said to have refused to participate in corrupt transactions involving Banrural.

Sabado Morning Cafe Con Links

21 Mar 2009

The Bustelo machine is running and this is what Mala is reading:

Raven’s Eye is live: Women and trans folk of color ISSUES have been done to death, we want OUR LIVES.

Seriously, where is the Change? Another Workplace ICE Raid

From the City of Brotherly Love :Where is the love for free speech and for Mumia?

Tech and Human Rights Justice in Guatemala

Is Cuba Keeping It’s Citizens Prisoners?

Ay that wacky Hugo Chavez is at it again.

And El Salvador’s new President wants to help with U.S. immigration.

Now go outside! It’s a nice Spring day.

Landslide in Guatemala Lead to Workers Deaths

2:15 pm By la Macha · Guatemala · Comments Off

6 Jan 2009

Reuters is reporting on the deadly consequences of landslides in Guatemala occurring off season. Landslides in Guatemala are common, but they usually occur between June and November.

The victims were laborers returning home from coffee farms in a nearby department. They had apparently ignored warnings not to use the road, which was closed in December after a smaller rockfall killed two people.

“I was watching when it started. I thought it was an earthquake but the rocks just fell and fell and fell,” said laborer Leandro Salam, 26, who was working in a nearby cornfield at the time and ran over to help dig out bodies.

The mayor of San Cristobal Verapaz, Leopoldo Ical, told Reuters around 80 farmworkers had been traveling in two trucks when they reached the closed road near the hamlet of Los Chorros and continued on foot.

“The trucks stopped and the workers got out and continued on foot. They are the dead and disappeared,” Ical said.

I live in a region where tornadoes are common, but usually in early spring. There was a horrible wind storm the other night that woke the whole family up and left me terrified that we were in the middle of a tornado. I think we need to ask ourselves why all these normal weather events keep happening off season. Is there really nothing called Global Warming?

May the workers rest in peace.

Stolen Vidas : Some Guatemalan Babies in the U.S. Were Stolen From Their Mamis

6:12 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Controversia|Guatemala|Women · Comments Off

24 Jul 2008

About a year ago, we wrote about some of the problems and attempts at solutions surrounding adoptions of Guatemalan children. Even after the passing a new law that imposed stricter standards on international adoptions, at least one baby, destined for the arms of a U.S family was been proven to have been stolen from her birth mother.
From the BBC:

Ana Escobar reported her daughter Esther Sulamita stolen last year and during her search saw the baby with a US woman who was adopting her.
The baby had a false birth certificate but DNA tests proved the parentage and Esther is now back with Ms Escobar.

Via / Citizen Orange and BBC News

Anti-Immigrant Groups in Denver Protest Actions of Guatemalan Consul

9:56 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Guatemala|Immigration · Comments Off

18 Feb 2008

They say third time is a charm, but this wasn’t the case for the Denver-based consul of Guatemala, that renewed passports and embassy identifications for its citizens living and working in Utah, Colorado and Nevada. Anti-immigration groups protested the event because the Guatemalan nationals didn’t have to prove their status in the U.S. (why would they- this was for Guatemalan documents!). Protest groups said if the Guatemalans were legal immigrants, they wouldn’t need secondary forms of identification.

Via / Local News 8

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