Recent Videos on Central America

AFP has a brief three-minute clip on the military siege of Alta Verapaz in Guatemala here.

The BBC 2 is presenting Toughest Place to be a Paramedic is on BBC 2 at 9pm tonight.

A WELSH paramedic has swapped her normal beat for one of the toughest in the world – dealing with gang shootings in Guatemala.

Angie Dymott spent two gruelling weeks swapping the streets of Cardiff to work with bomberos, who carry out paramedic and fire fighting duties in Guatemala City.

Here's the preview:



The Des Moines Register also has a story on Luis Argueta's documentary "Abused: The Postville Raid." The story talks a little bit about Mark Bennett, a federal judge who participated in court hearings and afterwards called the 2008 legal proceedings "a travesty." Here's the trailer for the film:




Finally, in El Salvador, Contrapunto has also started ContraPuntoTV. Check out 79 años de historia for some coverage of the 1932 matanza and the 1982 Calabozo massacre.

Poverty in Guatemala

The Guatemala Times recently summarized 2010 poverty data from the country.

Poverty in Guatemala increased from 51% to 54.1% -55%, according to the latest data published by the Central American Business Intelligence, CABI. CABI informed that poverty, infant and maternal mortality have increased in Guatemala due to the global economic crisis between 2009 and 2010. This has severely affected local efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In their study, CABI reported that the fall in economic growth in Guatemala caused the poverty level to rise from 51 percent to 54.1 percent and in some cases to 55 percent. Among the causes that increased poverty, the agency cited the loss of formal jobs, reduction in real wages (inflation) and bankruptcy of small businesses.

The agency stressed that the annual cost to address maternal and child mortality in Guatemala is not high, it takes only 0.25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). If the investment in health is reduced it will adversely affect progress recorded in the field. The decrease of remittances of 9.3% in 2009 (Bank of Guatemala) had a very negative impact in the fight against poverty in Guatemala, in addition, despite the boost from programs like Social Cohesion, which distributes 300 Quetzals, (approximately US $ 38.4 depending on the exchange rate) per family, poverty has risen since 2007.

While the decline in remittances was one of the causes for the recent increase in poverty figures, there is some grounds for optimism given that Guatemala recorded a 15.1% increase in January 2011 remittances compared to January 2010.

The Bank of Guatemala revealed yesterday that January 2011 showed revenues of $ 283.3 million. Although this amount is higher than January 2010, when revenues where at U.S. $ 246.1 million, it has not yet reached the levels of 2009, revenues of US $ 290.2 million, or U.S. $ 314.6 million of January 2008.

While not as strong as 2009, it is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near the MDG's 2015 goal of 31.4% and really only returns the country to its 2006 poverty level.

Support for Democracy in El Salvador

Tim linked to a report from El Faro that showed that 45.6% of Salvadorans would support a military coup if the economic and security situations in the country are not resolved. The poll was conducted between November 8 and 13 with 1,200 people and has a margin of error of +/- 2.8%.

That's not great news, of course. The good people at LAPOP carried out surveys in 2008 and 2010 that ask basically the same question. You can find the details in Political Culture of Democracy in El Salvador, 2010. 

According to their research, Salvadoran support for a military coup declined from 43.1% in 2008 to 40.9% in 2010. In that case, while it's a pretty high number of Salvadorans who would support a coup, it's down from recent years.

In another series of questions, Salvadorans were asked “Democracy may have problems, but it is better than any other form of government. To what extent do you agree or disagree with these statements?”Support has bounced around a bit over the last six years from 68.8% in 2004 to 61.3% in 2006, back up to 68.4% in 2008, and finally settling at 64.1% in 2010.

On the one hand, citizen support for democracy is pretty low, especially compared to other countries in the region, and support for a military coup is still alarmingly high. On the other hand, the survey results do show that support for democracy is higher today than it has been in the recent past.

LAPOP's 2010 data was collected in February 2010, eight months before the new survey reported in El Faro. You can't directly compare the two surveys so I don't want to draw any strong conclusions about trends in support for democracy  between February (LAPOP) and November (EL Faro). We're just going to have to wait a bit until we get additional survey data.

Clinton Meets with Guatemala Foreign Minister

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently met with her Guatemala counterpart, Haroldo Rodas, in Washington, D.C. The video really just has your basic diplomatic pleasantries.


However, in the write-up of the meeting, Rodas reiterated the Guatemalan government's request that the US extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) benefits to its citizens living here in the US. In recent years, TPS has been extended to citizens of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Haiti. Several months have passed since Guatemala petitioned for TPS, providing all the necessary documentation to justify its request.

As time goes on, it becomes harder to see the US extending TPS to Guatemala. They requested it in June and nothing. There was no earthquake (Haiti and El Salvador). There was no single storm like Hurricane Mitch (Nicaragua and Honduras). Unfortunately, I think that this makes it difficult for decisionmakers to quite get a handle on the effects of several smaller disasters - tropical storms and volcanic eruptions.

Where's Guatemala you ask?

Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, who chairs the State Affairs Committee and the House Ethics Committee investigating Phil Hart's tax problems, doesn't know where Guatemala is, according to Dustin Hurst of the Idaho Reporter.

 Hurst was reporting on a State Affairs Committee when Chairman Loertscher dropped the bomb shell about 15 minutes ago. In a self-deprecating manner, Loertscher provided a recount of a conversation he had with his hair stylist.

Seems the hair stylist said she was bad at geography and didn't know that Idaho Falls is north of Pocatello. As they continued talking, Loertscher learned that the woman's husband was from Guatemala. Which Loertscher thought was in Europe. Rather than Central America. Seems he can't see Guatemala from his kitchen window in Iona (wherever Iona is). (The Spokesman-Review)

Maybe he was just joking. I imagine that he was thinking of Central Europe and not Central America.

"Granito"

"Granito," was presented at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Pamela Yates's first film about Guatemala was her award winning film When the Mountains Tremble (1982). In Granito, Yates documents how her first film and related outtakes are being used as evidence in the international war crimes case against Efrain Rios Montt in Spain. 

In GRANITO our characters sift for clues buried in archives of mind and place and historical memory, seeking to uncover a narrative that could unlock the past and settle matters of life and death in the present. Each of the five main characters whose destinies collide in GRANITO are connected by the Guatemala of 1982, then engulfed in a war where a genocidal “scorched earth” campaign by the military exterminated nearly 200,000 Maya people. Now, as if a watchful Maya god were weaving back together threads of a story unraveled by the passage of time, forgotten by most, our characters become integral to the overarching narrative of wrongs done and justice sought that they have pieced together, each adding their granito, their tiny grain of sand, to the epic tale.

Skylight Pictures provides both two- and ten-minute trailers.


Granito trailer from Skylight Pictures on Vimeo.



GRANITO 10min from Skylight Pictures on Vimeo.


See also the National Security Archives's Guatemala Project with details on Plan Sofia and the genocide case in Spain.

Here's a review of the film by Stephen Farber.

Poll Numbers in El Salvador

Where's Paul when you need him? RIP

New poll numbers are out (LPG Jan. 14-16). The FMLN continues to lead ARENA by 10% points in congressional elections (30.3% vs. 20%) and 6% in elections for mayor (29.2% vs. 23.%). It's tough to tell how good these numbers are for the FMLN. First, municipal and congressional elections do not happen for another year. Second, there's another 50% of the population that intend to vote for a third party or they simply haven't made up their mind.

The survey also has a bit of a geographic breakdown. ARENA leads at the local level in the Western part of the country with 26%. The FMLN comes in at 22%. In the east, the FMLN leads 22% to 17%. In the central area, the FMLN leads 32% to 22%. Finally, the FMLN leads in the Metropolitan zone with 36% to ARENA's 28%.

Funes remained popular but his approval ratings continue to decline. Fifty-seven percent approve of his performance while 16% disapprove. Support is down from LPG's November survey that had him at 71%. (I wonder if Funes will get a bump from Obama's visit?)

Forty-seven percent see insecurity as the country's principal challenge while 40% name the economy.
In other news, President Funes has changed his mind and no longer appears to be interested in purchasing Brazilian Super Tucano jets. He needs some cash for investments in education and public health.

Voices from El Salvador has an action alert for help in protecting mining activists in Cabanas. Voices also has an update on the recently concluded one week strike of workers from the judiciary and the delay in the country's new transparency law.