Counting Down

I am sitting in my living room counting down til I leave later! Watching the Today show. I am so excited not so excited about the weather! But I think Matt is making me pancakes before we go to the airport. Surprisingly I slept really well last night. Well this is my last post til tomorrow hopefully! I know its not that scintillating! Keep yourselves busy by reading up on Mayan History or Guatemala's political history!

Peace and Love!

People we are meeting with

I looked over our itinerary and am so excited about the organizations and people we are meeting with! They include parents of women who have been kidnapped and ultimately murdered. We are meeting with labor organizers and meeting with women who put their lives on the line every day in order to bring attention to the femicide that is occurring in Guatemala.

I feel honored to have this opportunity to travel abroad and be inspired by these women and organizations that recognize the injustices and oppression that are taking place. I look forward to coming back home and being able to engage in meaningful conversations and enlighten people with what I have learned. You know there are letters to our nations leaders in my future!

I love you all and thank you so much for making this trip possible. Thank you for your support and love and listening to me when I need it most!

Reading Material

I am leaving for Guatemala in a few days and so have been cramming. This means I have been reading Guatemalan history. I had heard that the CIA and United States were involved in supplying and providing weapons to Guatemalan militants. I however did not realize how extensive the US participation was/is. I have become slightly anxious about my trip. I know that my father-in-law and husband are also concerned.

A friend of mine is currently spending a year in Thailand doing community organizing work around eco-issues involving mines, landfills etc. She spent 3 days in the hospital because of a really high fever and flu symptoms. She reported that although the country is currently having a shortage of Tamiflu she was given some. Why? She thinks that it is simply because she is American and thus "privileged". This got me thinking about privilege. In school I remember thinking about oppression and oppressors a lot. I was introspective enough to realize my "good fortune" this meant that as a Latina women, I was lucky enough and grateful to be where I was. Luck? or Privilege? What is the difference? Help me out here............

I know that I am privileged as an American woman. How many foreign countries "allow" their women to choose their husbands (much less one that does not have the same skin color or Heritage), let their women live with the opposite sex if unmarried, and ultimately pursue a higher education much less a Master's Degree?

Although I am not typically a Hillary lover this article did make me somewhat happy and hopeful.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=hillarys_challenge

According to information I have read the current Guatemalan administration might be interested in making some changes.

IFebruary 2009

Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs

Mayan ruins of Tikal, Guatemala, August 20, 2005. [© AP Images]

PROFILE

OFFICIAL NAME:
Republic of Guatemala

Geography
Area: 108,890 sq. km. (42,042 sq. mi.); about the size of Tennessee.
Cities: Capital--Guatemala City (metro area pop. 2.5 million). Other major cities--Quetzaltenango, Escuintla.
Terrain: Mountainous, with fertile coastal plain.
Climate: Temperate in highlands; tropical on coasts.

People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Guatemalan(s).
Population (2009 est.): 14.02 million.
Annual population growth rate (2009 est.): 2.4%.
Ethnic groups: Mestizo (mixed Spanish-Indian), indigenous.
Religions: Roman Catholic, Protestant, traditional Mayan.
Languages: Spanish, 24 indigenous languages (principally Kiche, Kaqchikel, Q'eqchi, and Mam).
Education: Years compulsory--6. Attendance--41%. Literacy--70.6%.
Health: Infant mortality rate (2005)--32/1,000. Life expectancy (2005)--69 yrs.
Work force salaried breakdown: Services--42%; industry and commerce--37%; agriculture--14%; construction, mining, utilities, transportation, and communications--7%. Fifty percent of the population engages in some form of agriculture, often at the subsistence level outside the monetized economy.

Government
Type: Constitutional democratic republic.
Constitution: May 1985; amended November 1993.
Independence: September 15, 1821.
Branches: Executive--president (4-year term; 1 term limit). Legislative--unicameral 158-member Congress (4-year term). Judicial--13-member Supreme Court of Justice (5-year term).
Subdivisions: 22 departments (appointed governors); 331 municipalities with elected mayors and city councils.
Major political parties: National Union for Hope (UNE), Grand National Alliance (GANA), Patriot Party (PP), Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), National Advancement Party (PAN), Unionists (Unionistas), Encounter for Guatemala (EG).
Suffrage: Universal for adults 18 and over who are not serving on active duty with the armed forces or police. A variety of procedural obstacles have historically reduced participation by poor, rural, and indigenous people, but implementation in 2007 of voting reform legislation nearly doubled the number of polling places, resulting in higher participation in rural areas, including among indigenous people.

PEOPLE
More than half of Guatemalans are descendants of indigenous Mayan peoples. Westernized Mayans and mestizos (mixed European and indigenous ancestry) are known as Ladinos. Most of Guatemala's population is rural, though urbanization is accelerating. The predominant religion is Roman Catholicism, into which many indigenous Guatemalans have incorporated traditional forms of worship. Protestantism and traditional Mayan religions are practiced by an estimated 40% and 1% of the population, respectively. Though the official language is Spanish, it is not universally understood among the indigenous population. The peace accords signed in December 1996 provide for the translation of some official documents and voting materials into several indigenous languages.

HISTORY
The Mayan civilization flourished throughout much of Guatemala and the surrounding region long before the Spanish arrived, but it was already in decline when the Mayans were defeated by Pedro de Alvarado in 1523-24. The first colonial capital, Ciudad Vieja, was ruined by floods and an earthquake in 1542. Survivors founded Antigua, the second capital, in 1543. Antigua was destroyed by two earthquakes in 1773. The remnants of its Spanish colonial architecture have been preserved as a national monument. The third capital, Guatemala City, was founded in 1776.

Guatemala gained independence from Spain on September 15, 1821; it briefly became part of the Mexican Empire, and then for a period belonged to a federation called the United Provinces of Central America. From the mid-19th century until the mid-1980s, the country passed through a series of dictatorships, insurgencies (particularly beginning in the 1960s), coups, and stretches of military rule with only occasional periods of representative government.

1944 to 1986
In 1944, Gen. Jorge Ubico's dictatorship was overthrown by the "October Revolutionaries," a group of dissident military officers, students, and liberal professionals. A civilian President, Juan Jose Arevalo, was elected in 1945 and held the presidency until 1951. Social reforms initiated by Arevalo were continued by his successor, Col. Jacobo Arbenz. Arbenz permitted the communist Guatemalan Labor Party to gain legal status in 1952. The army refused to defend the Arbenz government when a U.S.-backed group led by Col. Carlos Castillo Armas invaded the country from Honduras in 1954 and quickly took over the government. Gen. Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes took power in 1958 following the murder of Colonel Castillo Armas.

In response to the increasingly autocratic rule of Ydigoras Fuentes, a group of junior military officers revolted in 1960. When they failed, several went into hiding and established close ties with Cuba. This group became the nucleus of the forces that were in armed insurrection against the government for the next 36 years. Four principal left-wing guerrilla groups--the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), the Revolutionary Organization of Armed People (ORPA), the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), and the Guatemalan Labor Party (PGT)--conducted economic sabotage and targeted government installations and members of government security forces in armed attacks. These organizations combined to form the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) in 1982.

Shortly after President Julio Cesar Mendez Montenegro took office in 1966, the army launched a major counterinsurgency campaign that largely broke up the guerrilla movement in the countryside. The guerrillas then concentrated their attacks in Guatemala City, where they assassinated many leading figures, including U.S. Ambassador John Gordon Mein in 1968. Between 1966 and 1982, there was a series of military or military-dominated governments.

On March 23, 1982, army troops commanded by junior officers staged a coup to prevent the assumption of power by Gen. Angel Anibal Guevara, the hand-picked candidate of outgoing President and Gen. Romeo Lucas Garcia. They denounced Guevara's electoral victory as fraudulent. The coup leaders asked retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt to negotiate the departure of Lucas and Guevara.

Rios Montt was at this time a lay pastor in the evangelical protestant "Church of the Word." He formed a three-member military junta that annulled the 1965 constitution, dissolved Congress, suspended political parties, and canceled the electoral law. After a few months, Rios Montt dismissed his junta colleagues and assumed the de facto title of "President of the Republic."

Guerrilla forces and their leftist allies denounced Rios Montt. Rios Montt sought to defeat the guerrillas with military actions and economic reforms; in his words, "rifles and beans." The government began to form local civilian defense patrols (PACs). Participation was in theory voluntary, but in reality, many Guatemalans, especially in the heavily indigenous northwest, had no choice but to join either the PACs or the guerrillas. Rios Montt's conscript army and PACs recaptured essentially all guerrilla territory--guerrilla activity lessened and was largely limited to hit-and-run operations. However, Rios Montt won this partial victory at an enormous cost in civilian deaths, in what was probably the most violent period of the 36-year internal conflict, resulting in about 200,000 deaths of mostly unarmed indigenous civilians.

On August 8, 1983, Rios Montt was deposed by his own Minister of Defense, Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores, who succeeded him as de facto President of Guatemala. Rios Montt survived to found a political party (the Guatemalan Republic Front) and to be elected President of Congress in 1995 and 2000. Awareness in the United States of the conflict in Guatemala, and its ethnic dimension, increased with the 1983 publication of the book I, Rigoberta Menchu, An Indian Woman in Guatemala.

General Mejia allowed a managed return to democracy in Guatemala, starting with a July 1, 1984 election for a Constituent Assembly to draft a democratic constitution. On May 30, 1985, after 9 months of debate, the Constituent Assembly finished drafting a new constitution, which took effect immediately. Vinicio Cerezo, a civilian politician and the presidential candidate of the Christian Democracy Party, won the first election held under the new constitution with almost 70% of the vote, and took office on January 14, 1986.

1986 to 2007
Upon its inauguration in January 1986, President Cerezo's civilian government announced that its top priorities would be to end the political violence and establish the rule of law. Reforms included new laws of habeas corpus and amparo (court-ordered protection), the creation of a legislative human rights committee, and the establishment in 1987 of the Office of Human Rights Ombudsman. Cerezo survived coup attempts in 1988 and 1989, and the final 2 years of Cerezo's government were also marked by a failing economy, strikes, protest marches, and allegations of widespread corruption.

Presidential and congressional elections were held on November 11, 1990. After a runoff ballot, Jorge Serrano was inaugurated on January 14, 1991, thus completing the first transition from one democratically elected civilian government to another.

The Serrano administration's record was mixed. It had some success in consolidating civilian control over the army, replacing a number of senior officers and persuading the military to participate in peace talks with the URNG. Serrano took the politically unpopular step of recognizing the sovereignty of Belize. The Serrano government reversed the economic slide it inherited, reducing inflation and boosting real growth.

On May 25, 1993, Serrano illegally dissolved Congress and the Supreme Court and tried to restrict civil freedoms, allegedly to fight corruption. The "autogolpe" (or self-initiated coup) failed due to unified, strong protests by most elements of Guatemalan society, international pressure, and the army's enforcement of the decisions of the Court of Constitutionality, which ruled against the attempted takeover. Serrano fled the country.

On June 5, 1993, the Congress, pursuant to the 1985 constitution, elected the Human Rights Ombudsman, Ramiro De Leon Carpio, to complete Serrano's presidential term. De Leon, not a member of any political party and lacking a political base but with strong popular support, launched an ambitious anticorruption campaign to "purify" Congress and the Supreme Court, demanding the resignations of all members of the two bodies.

Despite considerable congressional resistance, presidential and popular pressure led to a November 1993 agreement brokered by the Catholic Church between the administration and Congress. This package of constitutional reforms was approved by popular referendum on January 30, 1994. In August 1994, a new Congress was elected to complete the unexpired term.

Under De Leon, the peace process, now brokered by the United Nations, took on new life. The government and the URNG signed agreements on human rights (March 1994), resettlement of displaced persons (June 1994), historical clarification (June 1994), and indigenous rights (March 1995). They also made significant progress on a socioeconomic and agrarian agreement. National elections for president, the Congress, and municipal offices were held in November 1995. With almost 20 parties competing in the first round, the presidential election came down to a January 7, 1996 runoff in which National Advancement Party (PAN) candidate Alvaro Arzu defeated Alfonso Portillo of the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) by just over 2% of the vote. Under the Arzu administration, peace negotiations were concluded, and the government signed peace accords ending the 36-year internal conflict in December 1996. The human rights situation also improved during Arzu's tenure, and steps were taken to reduce the influence of the military in national affairs.

In a December 1999 presidential runoff, Alfonso Portillo (FRG) won 68% of the vote to 32% for Oscar Berger (PAN). Portillo's impressive electoral triumph, with two-thirds of the vote in the second round, gave him a claim to a mandate from the people to carry out his reform program. In February 2004, Portillo fled to Mexico to escape corruption charges.

Oscar Berger of the Grand National Alliance (GANA) party won the November 9, 2003 presidential election, receiving 54.1% of the vote. His opponent, Alvarado Colom Caballeros of the National Unity for Hope (UNE) party, received 45.9% of the vote.

Álvaro Colom of the National Unity for Hope (UNE) party won the November 4, 2007 presidential election against retired General Otto Perez Molina with 52.8% of the vote versus 47.2%.

GOVERNMENT
Guatemala's 1985 constitution provides for a separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. The 1993 constitutional reforms included an increase in the number of Supreme Court justices from 9 to 13. The reforms reduced the terms of office for president, vice president, and congressional representatives from 5 years to 4 years, and for Supreme Court justices from 6 years to 5 years; they increased the terms of mayors and city councils from 2-1/2 years to 4 years.

The president and vice president are directly elected through universal suffrage and limited to one term. A vice president can run for president after 4 years out of office. Supreme Court justices are elected by the Congress from a list submitted by the bar association, law school deans, a university rector, and appellate judges. The Supreme Court and local courts handle civil and criminal cases. There also is a separate Constitutional Court.

Guatemala has 22 administrative subdivisions (departments) administered by governors appointed by the president. Guatemala City and 331 other municipalities are governed by popularly elected mayors or councils.

Principal Government Officials
President--Álvaro COLOM Caballeros
Vice President--Rafael ESPADA
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Haroldo RODAS
Minister of Government--Francisco JIMENEZ
Minister of Defense--Marco Tulio GARCIA Franco
Ambassador to the U.S.--Francisco VILLAGRAN de Leon
Ambassador to the UN--Gert ROSENTHAL
Ambassador to the OAS--Jorge SKINNER-KLEE

POLITICAL CONDITIONS
Congressional, municipal, and first-round presidential elections took place on September 9, 2007. The final round of presidential elections took place on November 4, 2007. Inauguration for the new president and the new Congress took place on January 14, 2008.

Common and violent crime, aggravated by a legacy of violence and vigilante justice, presents a serious challenge. Impunity remained a major problem, primarily because democratic institutions, including those responsible for the administration of justice, have developed only a limited capacity to cope with this legacy. Guatemala's judiciary is independent; however, it suffers from inefficiency, corruption, and intimidation.

In early December 2006, the government and the UN agreed to the creation of the joint International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). On August 1, 2007, the Guatemalan Congress approved the agreement, and on January 11, 2008, Guatemala and the United Nations inaugurated the work of CICIG. An earlier Guatemala-UN agreement was ruled unconstitutional in 2004 before it was acted upon by the Guatemalan Congress. The UN Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) ceased its 10-year project of monitoring peace accord implementation and human rights problems in November 2004 with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan declaring Guatemala had made "enormous progress in managing the country's problems through dialogue and institutions".

http://www.state.gov/s/cpr/rls/fco/

Are you a feminist?

I was trying to explain discrimination to a seven year old yesterday....his response was to look at me quizzically and bound off to the playground.

This got me thinking about feminism. I am a feminist. I am not however a "radical" feminist. Yes, there is a difference. I don't appreciate the sideways looks I get when I am doing my volunteer work with Planned Parenthood or start a conversation about being a feminist or saying that I appreciate that my husband is a feminist. ( albeit not a self-proclaimed feminist-he says to me-"I don't like that label".)

I looked up several definitions and came up with one that makes me feel good about the word feminism/feminist- advocating for and understanding that all people deserve equal rights including women.

Why must everyone think there is something wrong with the word feminism? Does anyone have a valid explanation for me? And if you do- please share it here for me on the comment section because I want to understand.

Do you think that everyone that is a feminist is a RADICAL? be honest with yourself. What is the first thing you think of when you hear that word? Say it.....feminist.....it does not taste that bad does it?

Let me know what you think.

International Commission against impunity in Guatemala

In December 2006, the United Nations and the Guatemalan government signed an agreement to establish an independent International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The purpose of CICIG is to investigate and promote the prosecution of illegal security organizations. These powerful clandestine groups are allegedly responsible for frequent attacks against human rights defenders, as well as involved in corruption, organized crime, drug trafficking and political violence.

Yesterday, the Guatemalan Congress ratified the extension of the mandate of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, CICIG, for two more years.

This groups mandate is to help to investigate the activities of illegal armed groups in Guatemala and to propose necessary legislation to be able to effectively prosecute cases. The Director of CICIG, Carlos Castrasena was pleased with the ratification and said that the Guatemalan Government needs to pass laws that make these crimes punishable. However there has been recent attacks against CICIG's credibility. This is thought to be because CICIG has successfully started prosecution in several crimes.

It seems that the more successful CICIG is in prosecuting these crimes the more scrutiny they will face by their detractors.

Guatemala Human Rights Commission Information

GHRC Mission

Founded in 1982, the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA (GHRC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, humanitarian organization that monitors, documents, and reports on the human rights situation in Guatemala, advocates for survivors of human rights abuses in Guatemala, and works toward positive, systemic change.

What is happening in Guatemala?

Since 2000, over 3,000 Guatemalan women have been murdered, many of them first abducted and subjected to brutal sexual violence, mutilation, and torture. These gender-based, barbaric crimes have been characterized as “femicides.” Amnesty International places most of the victims between the ages of 16-36 and identifies them as students, housewives and professionals, domestic employees, unskilled workers, members or former members of street youth gangs, and sex workers. In many cases the victims are kidnapped, subjected to severe beatings, rape, sexual mutilation, or perverse torture, then killed and subsequently deposited in relatively public areas.

Year	Number of Women Killed
2001	317
2002	317
2003	383
2004	497
2005	517
2006	603
2007	590
2008	722
Total:	3496

Why is it happening?

The atrocities committed against women now in Guatemala stem from the violence committed during the 36-year civil war that officially ended in 1996. During the internal armed conflict, paramilitary groups and government soldiers committed widespread human rights violations against women, including using routine rape as a counterrevolutionary tactic. Certain Guatemalan social and cultural norms that endorse the inferiority and domination of women continue this pattern of violence.

Today, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and rape are commonplace in Guatemalan society. A study conducted by la Comisión Nacional para la Prevención de la Violencia Intrafamiliar (CONAPREVI) found that many Guatemalans view abuse as something natural and believe that it is caused by alcoholism, drug addiction, and unemployment. In addition, El Organismo Judicial documented approximately 39,000 cases of intrafamily violence (physical, psychological, and sexual) between January and September 2008.

Furthermore, many young girls are commercially and sexually trafficked against their will. As mentioned earlier, girls who voluntarily or involuntarily become involved in gangs or with gang members often become victims of gang-related violence and vengeance. Some women, not necessarily gang members, have been murdered as a form of revenge or to instill terror or intimidate the local population. Due to incompetent authorities and a weak, underfunded justice system, crimes in Guatemala rarely go punished. Widespread impunity protects criminals and leaves the door open for more violence to occur since perpetrators know they will never face any legal consequences of their actions.

Information Taken from: http://www.ghrc-usa.org/Programs/ForWomensRighttoLive/FAQs.htm#What

This is the information that I think really interested me in going to Guatemala. No, I don't think I can stop this BUT I do think that together we can start having conversations about how to ameliorate these issues.

I read a report the other day about a murder in Guatemala City where a woman was killed because she had red nail polish on and this automatically categorized her as a "sex worker". Basic rights are being violated in Guatemala and I know that there are so many issues here in the US however I also think that we should not be oblivious to the injustices that go on in other countries. Think about how lucky we are.