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Child labor in Central America
Fifteen year old Sonia speaks about the sweatshop conditions she endured working at the Legumex/Tierra Fria frozen foods plant in Guatemala. The plant exports food to distribution giants Sysco and U.S. Foods Service. A 4:56 min National Labor Committee production 2008. Fifteen year old Sonia speaks about the sweatshop conditions she endured working at the Legumex/Tierra Fria frozen foods plant in Guat... more
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AIDS Priest in Belize
In Belize, where HIV infection rates are among the highest in all of Latin America, a young Catholic Priest is addressing the problem head on. In Belize, where HIV infection rates are among the highest in all of Latin America, a young Catholic Priest is addressing the problem ... more
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Graffiti Art: California's Latest Export
San Francisco artist Josue Rojas helped townspeople paint a mural at the site of one of the most gruesome massacres in the recent history of Honduras. Now he wonders if California can export more than its gang culture to Central America; perhaps it can export its artistic culture too.
A mural is in progress. Outbursts of laughter and the rattle of spray cans resound against a wall. The sun reaches its highest point, beaming on the young artists below. Once again, we're painting –– the usual suspects: Estria, a group of kids and me.
I know this scene well, except in a very different context. Instead of being created at the exterior of a public school or rec center in Northern California, this mural is being created at the site of a massacre –– in a remote rind of San Pedro's Chamelecón –– at the very spot where three years earlier nearly 30 people lost their lives; infamous in Honduras and the rest of Central America as a place of death.
On the night of Dec. 23, 2004, in the place where we stood, 28 innocent men, women and children were gunned down as they rode the bus 35 home from Christmas shopping. The killing was attributed to "Maras" or gang members. A note was left behind at the site, in which responsibility was taken by local gangs though all the evidence (ballistic and otherwise) points towards paramilitary action.
This event was the catalyst; soon after, nothing in policy or public perception toward youth would be the same. Partly due to this event, in Central America public opinion has been irreconcilably swayed against anything remotely resembling gangs –– and consequently, the baby thrown out with the bathwater is any brand of misunderstood youth culture.
So you can see why I'm both happy and weirded-out by the sight of it –– graffiti as art in the place where one of the most gruesome massacres in recent Latin American history happened.
Sadly, whether in the public sector, clandestinely, or in jails, executions and extrajudicial killings are not uncommon. In Central America people are dying –– delinquents right alongside innocent young people. Estimates have placed the daily death toll in countries like El Salvador as high as it was during that country's long civil war.
In the Bay Area, we're familiar with violence and rising death counts. But not on this level. Not with this intensity or frequency.
As I see the kids' faces light up as they rattle the spray cans (many for the first time), my mind swims in irony as I remember a line in a book by Kurt Vonnegut I read: There is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead.
Oakland, California, March 2008
In a warehouse on the border of Oakland and San Leandro used as a headquarters for businesses started by graffiti artists, Estria Miyashiro, master muralist and entrepreneur, takes a moment to give me some words. He stands in the corner of the warehouse in front of Oakland graffiti writer Vogue's aersosol rendition of Mike "Dream" Francisco (a local slain graffiti legend) as we speak. San Francisco artist Josue Rojas helped townspeople paint a mural at the site of one of the most gruesome massacres in the recent hist... more -
Killer trash avalanche
At least three people have died and at least 10 others are missing after a mountain of rubbish near the Guatemalan capital collapsed on them, emergency workers have said. The rubbish pile, which contained broken glass, tyres and human remains, disintegrated on Friday while people were foraging at the dump, the emergency services said.
Hundreds of police and bystanders are searching for those missing after the incident near Guatemala City, Jose Victor Chavez, one of the rescue workers, said.
Dozens of people search the rubbish tip every day to take jewellery from bodies dumped there when their relatives cannot afford to pay for the upkeep of their graves, Chavez said. At least six children searching for valuables in the dump are among the missing, he said.
A police spokesman put the death toll at four and said 14 people had disappeared. Scores of poor people forage for scrap metal and other recyclables despite dangers of landslides during seasonal rainfall.
"Yesterday it rained all afternoon and into the night, saturating the land and causing the landslide," Gerson Contreras, a police spokesman, said. "Because of the rains and what happened before, the authorities have been trying to stop people from going there, but their need is so great they just kept coming," Contreras said.
Last month, eight people were killed in a similar collapse at Guatemala City's main rubbish dump, located to the south of the capital. At least three people have died and at least 10 others are missing after a mountain of rubbish near the Guatemalan capital collapsed o... more -
Archeologists open secret cave under Mexican pyramid
Archeologists are opening a cave sealed for more than 30 years deep beneath a Mexican pyramid to look for clues about the mysterious collapse of one of ancient civilization's largest cities.
The soaring Teotihuacan stone pyramids, now a major tourist site about an hour outside Mexico City, were discovered by the ancient Aztecs around 1500 AD, not long before the arrival of Spanish explorers to Mexico.
But little is known about the civilization that built the immense city, with its ceremonial architecture and geometric temples, and then torched and abandoned it around 700 AD.
Archeologists are now revisiting a cave system that is buried 20 feet beneath the towering Pyramid of the Sun and extends into a tunnel stretching for some 295 feet (90 meters) with a height of 8 feet. Archeologists are opening a cave sealed for more than 30 years deep beneath a Mexican pyramid to look for clues about the mysterious c... more -
Guatemalan cabinet ministers killed in helicopter crash
" A helicopter carrying two Guatemalan cabinet ministers crashed Friday in the northern part of the country, killing all four people aboard, a presidential spokesman said.
The pilot and copilot also died in the crash.
Interior Minister Vinicio Gomez and Vice Interior Minister Edgar Hernandez Umana were aboard the helicopter, which departed Guatemala City for a business meeting in the northern city of Peten at 8 a.m., said Fernando Barillas, spokesman for President Alvaro Colom." " A helicopter carrying two Guatemalan cabinet ministers crashed Friday in the northern part of the country, killing all four peo... more -
Cockfight in Nicaragua
I would like to warn viewers that this pod contains disturbing images
Before jumping and condeming what is obviously a passion to many people around the world i felt the need to experience it first hand before forming an opinion. Hence I have come to the conclusion that although the intention is genuinely not for the chicken die and the owners do actually have some affection for their prize-fighters (e.g. When one man was giving his chicken CPR), it was still too much for me to handle.Having been to a Bullfight and admired not the killing but the matadors bravery and enjoyed the experience I found myself unable to enjoy the spectacle since the chickens are forced to fight with no alternative and the result is always a frightened animal in danger, as opposed to a Bullfight where there is the prospect of human risk. I would like to warn viewers that this pod contains disturbing images ... more -
Copan Ruinas
These are the best bits of Copan Ruinas, Honduras with cheesy music
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Poking Lava on Volcano Pacaya in Guatemala
This is movie i made when i went up Pacaya, it was great fun and i got to cook marshmellows in the lava
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Chávez decree tightens hold on intelligence
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez has used his decree powers to carry out a major overhaul of this country’s intelligence agencies, provoking a fierce backlash here from human rights groups and legal scholars who say the measures will force citizens to inform on one another to avoid prison terms.
Under the new intelligence law, which took effect last week, Venezuela’s two main intelligence services, the DISIP secret police and the DIM military intelligence agency, will be replaced with new agencies, the General Intelligence Office and General Counterintelligence Office, under the control of Mr. Chávez.
The new law requires people in the country to comply with requests to assist the agencies, secret police or community activist groups loyal to Mr. Chávez. Refusal can result in prison terms of two to four years for most people and four to six years for government employees.
“We are before a set of measures that are a threat to all of us,” said Blanca Rosa Mármol de León, a justice on Venezuela’s top court, in a rare public judicial dissent. “I have an obligation to say this, as a citizen and a judge. This is a step toward the creation of a society of informers.”
The sweeping intelligence changes reflect an effort by Mr. Chávez to assert greater control over public institutions in the face of political challenges following a stinging defeat in December of a package of constitutional changes that would have expanded his powers.
Mr. Chávez, who has insisted the defeat will not dampen his ambitions to transform Venezuela into a Socialist state, said the new law was intended to guarantee “national security” and shield against “imperialist attacks.”
He lashed out at its critics as being agents of the “empire,” meaning the United States....
On Sunday, Mr. Chávez referred to critics of the intelligence law as de facto supporters of the Bush administration and of the Patriot Act, the American antiterrorism law that enhances the ability of security agencies to monitor personal telephone and e-mail communications.
Mr. Chávez’s new intelligence law has similar flourishes. For instance, it authorizes his new intelligence agencies to use “any special or technically designed method” to intercept and obtain information.
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“This is purely Cuban-style policy,” Juan José Molina, a legislator with Podemos, a leftist party that broke from Mr. Chávez’s coalition last year, said of the new intelligence law. “Our rulers want to impose old models upon us.”...
The drafting and passage of the law behind closed doors, without exposing it to the public debate it would have had if Mr. Chávez had submitted it to the Assembly, also contributed to the public uproar and suspicion.
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“Even within the Bolivarian movement, this would officialize Soviet- and Cuban-style purges, accusing dissidents of being spies, traitors or agents of the imperialist enemy,” El Nacional, a normally staid opposition newspaper, said in an editorial that ended, “This is revolting.”...
“This is the most scandalous effort to intimidate the population in the 10 years this government has been in power,” said Rocío San Miguel, a prominent legal scholar who heads a nongovernmental organization that monitors Venezuelan security and defense issues.
Ms. San Miguel said information her group had collected could be deemed illegal under the new law. The group has data from military sources showing that Mr. Chávez’s efforts to create a force of one million reservists had fallen far short.
“Under the new law, this information could be considered a threat to national security and I could be sent immediately to jail,” she said. “Effectively this is a way to instill fear in NGOs and news organizations and parts of society that remain outside the government’s reach.” CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez has used his decree powers to carry out a major overhaul of this country’s intelligence age... more -
Fatal crash at Honduran airport
A Miami-bound passenger plane landing in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa has overshot a runway, leaving at least five people dead, officials say. A Miami-bound passenger plane landing in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa has overshot a runway, leaving at least five people dead, of... more
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Mexican drug hit men dump four heads in ice chests
Suspected drug hit men dumped four human heads in ice chests in northern Mexico on Friday in a gruesome killing of rivals, a state attorney general's office said.
"They were four men, beheaded by groups linked to drug trafficking. We believe the victims were drug gang members themselves," a spokeswoman said.
The heads were placed in four ice chests on Friday morning on a highway on the edge of the mining city of Durango and were found by police patrolling in the area.
Durango state is close to the Pacific state of Sinaloa, home to major traffickers including Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman.
Gangland killings have surged again in Mexico in recent weeks and organized crime murders across the country total 1,378 this year, Mexico's attorney general said on Friday, up 47 percent from this time last year.
Drug violence killed more than 2,500 people in 2007 as rival gangs fought over smuggling routes to the United States. Suspected drug hit men dumped four human heads in ice chests in northern Mexico on Friday in a gruesome killing of rivals, a state att... more -
9 killed in Honduras prison riot
Nine prisoners were killed with machetes and knives yesterday (Saturday) during a riot in an overcrowded prison in northern Honduras (Central America). "Nine prisoners, eight from gangs, died after a fight... in the San Pedro Sula penitentiary," said Security Ministry spokesman Hector Mejia. TV images showed blood-stained corridors in the jail in Honduras' second city following the riot, which was believed to have been provoked by a prisoner who shot a fellow inmate.
Police later took control of the jail in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' manufacturing centre and its most violent city. The jail holds some 3,000 inmates but was built to hold far fewer. Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are overrun with violent youth street gangs, known as "maras" that trace their origins back to Salvadoran immigrants on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s. Nine prisoners were killed with machetes and knives yesterday (Saturday) during a riot in an overcrowded prison in northern Honduras (... more -
Zipolite
This is a relatively untouched beach on the Oaxaca coast that was great fun to spend to time on and relax as this pod should show
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Copper Canyon
This is some of the views from Copper Canyon in Mexico.
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Team Hobohands
These are some of the crazy people you meet travelling. There idea is awesome, if i were fitter, had more money and time , i would join them but if you want to track there progress e-mail them at coughlinenator@gmail.com or cdhs2@hotmail.com to find out about there progress These are some of the crazy people you meet travelling. There idea is awesome, if i were fitter, had more money and time , i would joi... more
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Guate Mania!
Guatemala is an amazing country, the people, culture, food etc. It's the gem of Central America, even if tourists get robbed there all the time. We had a great time, until we got attacked by locos with machetes. But even then, Guatemala didn't lose it's charm. Guatemala is an amazing country, the people, culture, food etc. It's the gem of Central America, even if tourists get robbed the... more
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Experts Baffled By New Species
Scientists exploring a remote region of Costa Rica, which was deserted by human beings hundreds of years ago, have discovered 11 new species of animals and plants. Salamanders with 'ballistic tongues' were among the bizarre creatures that were recorded. Scientists exploring a remote region of Costa Rica, which was deserted by human beings hundreds of years ago, have discovered 11 new s... more
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Wikipedia on Miskito
"The Miskito are indigenous people in Central America. Their territory expands from Cape Camarón, Honduras, to Rio Grande, Nicaragua along the Miskito Coast. There is a native Miskito language, but large groups speak Miskito creole English, Spanish, and other languages. The creole English came about through frequent contact with the British. Many are Christians." - They live on the cost where Hurricane Felix hit. "The Miskito are indigenous people in Central America. Their territory expands from Cape Camarón, Honduras, to Rio Grande, Nicara... more
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Amputee Shelter
Mariana van Zeller visits an amputee shelter in southern Mexico where she speaks with victims who have lost limbs on a train trying to get to the United States. Mariana van Zeller visits an amputee shelter in southern Mexico where she speaks with victims who have lost limbs on a train trying to... more
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Central America
Contributors (73)
Central America
