Guatemala

February 12, 2014
Peace in Colombia is in a precarious position—says the literature on post-conflict countries. A 2003 report states that on average, 44% of countries emerging from civil war return to conflict within the first five years.
July 28, 2013
In its treatments of Guatemalan and Honduran violence and instability, NPR's This American Life edited out essential lines of inquiry and concealed the countries' relevance for U.S. listeners: It is as if Washington’s continuous support of the Central American countries' brutal security forces had never happened.
July 25, 2013

On July 22, Ontario Superior Court Justice Carole Brown ruled in a landmark decision that lawsuits against the Canadian mining company Hudbay Minerals regarding shootings, murder, and rapes at its former mine in El Estor, Guatemala can proceed to trial in Canada.

June 17, 2013
Jo-Marie Burt

On May 10, 2013, before a packed courtroom, a Guatemalan court declared that it had found former de-facto president General José Efraín Ríos Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Just 10 days after this historic ruling, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court vacated the verdict against Ríos Montt and ordered a partial retrial of the legal proceedings from April 19 forward.

April 23, 2013
Gabriel Schivone

You may not know it from reading or listening to the major U.S. media, but the rest of the world has been steeped in news coverage of a former Guatemalan head of state recently on trial in a national court (though proceedings are currently on hold) for genocide and crimes against humanity. The accused, General Efraín Ríos Montt, was one of the most vicious mass killers the United States—or Israel—ever produced.

March 28, 2013

In the most recent Canadian budget, it was announced that the Canadian International Development Agency was being “modernized.” Going forward, CIDA will no longer function as a separate governmental agency, but instead it will be folded into the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

February 21, 2013
While it is too early to tell whether or not Jean Claude Duvalier will appear in court today to face charges for embezzlement and corruption, it is important, whatever the outcome, to highlight that Guatemala’s arduous 14-year struggle to prosecute former military dictator Efrain Rios Montt for crimes against humanity provides an important template for Haiti moving forward.
April 17, 2012
Annie Bird

Communities that suffered through the civil wars of the 1980s and 1990s are once again faced with violence as they defend their land against international interests. This article was published in the Spring 2012 issue of the NACLA Report on the Americas, "Central America: Legacies of War."

April 4, 2012
Allen Hines

William Brownfield, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), toured Central America last week to quell the growing opposition to U.S. drug war policies that have failed to reduce demand for drugs in the United States or disrupt supply routes from producer countries.

March 30, 2012
John L. Hammond

Even to many who paid attention to the rest of Latin America, Central America was terra incognita into the 1970s. I distinctly remember one night in the late 1970s when I pulled out the atlas and located the Central American countries in the very small area that they occupied on the continental map. This was the beginning of my intense engagement with Central America, and there was much more to learn.

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