-
-
Country Fast Facts: Guatemala
The Mayan civilization flourished in Guatemala and surrounding regions during the first millennium A.D.
After almost three centuries as a Spanish colony, Guatemala won its independence in 1821.
During the second half of the 20th century, it experienced a variety of military and civilian governments, as well as a 36-year guerrilla war.
In 1996, the government signed a peace agreement formally ending the conflict, which had left more than 100,000 people dead and had created, by some estimates, some 1 million refugees. Tell us why this is interesting The Mayan civilization flourished in Guatemala and surrounding regions during the first millennium A.D. ... more -
7 tons of cocaine found in semi-submersible
"For the second time in less than a week, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday that it had fished out of the sea a semi-submersible vessel packed full of cocaine.
"Seven tons of cocaine with a street value of $196 million were confiscated when Coast Guard crewmembers boarded the stateless vessel Wednesday about 400 miles south of the Mexico-Guatemala border, the service said in a statement.
"A Navy maritime patrol aircraft had alerted the nearby Coast Guard Cutter Midgett to the 60-foot-long vessel.
"'The Coast Guard boarding team located 295 bales of cocaine, valued at more than $196 million, in a huge forward compartment,' the Coast Guard stated, adding that the vessel then 'became unstable and began to sink during the transfer of the bales of cocaine ... The condition of the vessel made it unsafe to tow and Midgett's crew sank the vessel as a hazard to navigation.'
"The bust followed a nighttime boarding and seizure of another semi-submersible by the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy off Costa Rica on Saturday.
"Costa Rican Security Minister Janina del Vecchio said in a statement Tuesday that the 70-foot vessel was intercepted by the U.S. Navy in international waters near Costa Rica.
"Del Vecchio said the vessel was transporting an estimated 6.6 U.S. tons of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $187 million.
"In a dramatic nighttime operation, the U.S. officials arrested four Colombian smugglers in international waters before they could sink the vessel.
"'The boat was partially submerged but you can't call it amateurish. The drug traffickers are not amateurs,' Jose Pastor, a spokesman for Costa Rica's public security ministry told Reuters."
[Click link to read more] "For the second time in less than a week, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday that it had fished out of the sea a semi-submersible v... more -
Millions Seized In International Drug Bust
Police in four nations have held about 200 people over alleged trans-Atlantic drug-trafficking involving a major Mexican drugs cartel.
US and Italian police seized 175, some of them picked up in Italy's Reggio Calabria region, where the N'drangheta mafia run the cocaine trade.
Other suspects were arrested in Mexico and Guatemala.
US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the arrests came after a 15-month investigation into the Gulf cartel. The cartel is already believed to have links to organised crime in Italy.
It is suspected of importing and distributing tonnes of drugs from Latin America into the US.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency said three alleged cartel leaders had been indicted.
Italian police say the coordinated investigation, Operation Solare, has proved to be one of its biggest operations against the mafia in recent years, and one of their most successful.
The N'drangheta is notoriously secretive and ruthless, characteristics which have protected its drug-trafficking hegemony until now.
The US and Italian charges cover various crimes, including trafficking of cocaine and marijuana, kidnap charges, attempted murder, conspiracy to use a firearm in a violent crime and conspiracy to kill and kidnap in a foreign country.
The suspects detained in the US were arrested in a dozen states, including 43 people picked up in Atlanta, Georgia.
More than 16,000kg (35,000lb) of cocaine, 450kg of methamphetamine, 9kg of heroin, 23,300kg of marijuana, 176 vehicles and 167 weapons have been seized.
Approximately $60.1m (£33m) in US currency was also taken. Police in four nations have held about 200 people over alleged trans-Atlantic drug-trafficking involving a major Mexican drugs cartel.... more -
Bolivia added to drug blacklist
In annual findings on the global illegal drug trade, Bush for the first time says Bolivia had "failed demonstrably" to meet its obligations to battle narcotics under international accords and US laws governing overseas aid.
Bush's comments came in a memorandum for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, dated Monday but released at the White House on Tuesday, identifying 20 major drug transit or drug producing countries.
Bush put Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela on the list.
The US president noted that appearing on the list does not necessarily mean governments are not trying to stem the flow of illegal drugs or are not cooperating with Washington.
Instead, it can be "the combination of geographic, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs to transit or be produced despite the concerned government's most assiduous enforcement measures," he says. In annual findings on the global illegal drug trade, Bush for the first time says Bolivia had "failed demonstrably" to meet ... more -
Il caffè rende schiavi
Dal 1980 al 2002 il prezzo del caffè crudo è diminuito del 70%. Nei primi anni '90, il valore commerciale globale del caffè era di circa 30 miliardi di dollari, di cui 12 miliardi rimanevano ai paesi d'origine. Tra il 2000 e il 2001 era arrivato a 65 miliardi, di cui solo 5,5 miliardi restavano ai paesi produttori: 25 milioni di piccole aziende familiari che devono vivere con una media di 220 dollari all'anno.
Nel 2003, il prezzo della qualità arabica sul mercato internazionale era di 40 dollari per cento libbre, meno della metà dei costi medi di produzione, circa 90 dollari. Il Commercio equo-solidale nello stesso anno lo pagava più di tre volte tanto, 141 dollari per 100 libbre.
Il caffè è l’alimento per il quale maggiore è il deficit tra energia impiegata per ottenere la bevanda medesima, ed energia assunta dal consumatore.
Per ottenere una tazzina di caffè si deve coltivare la pianta e procedere al raccolto, dopodiché si deve tostare il chicco. Il procedimento è lento ed estremamente dispendioso dal punto di vista energetico, perché lo si deve scaldare parecchio e per parecchio tempo. Poi si passa alla macinazione dei chicchi, per ottenere l’equivalente di una farina. Le normali farine come il frumento vengono però utilizzate al 100% nella preparazione di pietanze, e cioè vengono ingerite completamente dal consumatore. La farina di caffè invece si sfrutta pochissimo: solo una minima parte di sostanze viene asportata dall’acqua calda. Il resto, il cosiddetto fondo di caffè, viene gettato nell’immondizia.
Tuttavia, essendo il costo di un kg di caffè molto basso, tutti possono permetterselo. Peccato sia così basso perché le multinazionali che lo coltivavano hanno sempre utilizzato mano d’opera pagata praticamente zero, in gran parte costituita da bambini schiavi.
[LEGGI IL RESTO E SCARICA L'EBOOK 'Josè']
http://www.byoblu.com/0dde942d-177c-4f55-a504-d1cf11fad... Dal 1980 al 2002 il prezzo del caffè crudo è diminuito del 70%. Nei primi anni '90, il valore commerciale globale del caffè era d... more -
Unease over Guatemalan gold rush
With gold prices skyrocketing, the Mayans of Guatemala find themselves caught up in a new rush for the precious metal.
Mario Tema sits across from me, a Mayan with a mission.
We are in the town of Sipacapa in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, washing down a breakfast of tamale and beans with a cup of freshly brewed coffee.
As he tells me of the town's fight against a huge open pit gold mine, that famous picture of Che Guevara gazes at us from the wall. Here in Sipacapa, Mario Tema is an anti-mining icon.
Last year he travelled to Vancouver, where the mine's Canadian owner, Goldcorp, has its headquarters. He went to speak out against the mine at the company's annual shareholders meeting.
"After I spoke at the meeting," he says, "a shareholder approached me and he told me 'I don't care about your cause, all I care about is the money in my pocket."
Mr Tema tells me the story with a shake of his head. Do shareholders not know that his country was wracked by decades of civil war that saw more than 200,000 people killed, one million displaced, and that most of the victims were Mayan?
Do they not understand that the war was about land, how it was used, how it was exploited?
Do they not know about the massacres of entire Mayan villages by paramilitaries and right-wing death squads?
Jobs and development
What shareholders do know is that Goldcorp is delivering in a style they could probably only have dreamed about.
When the Guatemalan project was first costed, it was based on gold selling at $350 (£190) an ounce.
Gold is now selling for nearly triple that amount.
That means huge dividends for shareholders and a massive windfall for the company.
In the first quarter of this year alone, Goldcorp's worldwide profits were $229m (£120m).
Tim Miller, a senior executive in the company's Guatemala City office, says the company has brought many benefits to the region.
Foremost among them are jobs, he says. "We are paying on the order of $10-12m just in salaries for people in the local community and Guatemala in general."
He also cites improvements in health facilities and education, including a project that is paying the wages of two teachers.
As far as he is concerned, people like Mario Tema are being stirred up by what he calls "advocacy" NGOs, some of them from outside the country.
But the Catholic Church in Guatemala has also spoken out strongly against the mine. And the Bishop of San Marcos, in whose diocese the mine is located, has led protest marches.
~~~follow link to read about the spunky lady in the photo who shorted out electricity to one mine because they used her property without her permission~~~ With gold prices skyrocketing, the Mayans of Guatemala find themselves caught up in a new rush for the precious metal. ... more -
Babies stolen 'to order'
New evidence has shown that babies are being stolen to order in the Latin American country of Guatemala.
Though many Guatemalan children are adopted legally, BBC correspondent Matthew Price has found one mother who now has proof that her baby was kidnapped. New evidence has shown that babies are being stolen to order in the Latin American country of Guatemala. ... more -
US Tourist hacked to death in Guatemala
Robbers armed with machetes hacked a U.S. tourist to death and seriously wounded his wife in an attack aboard the couple's sailboat in northeastern Guatemala, the woman told The Associated Press on Sunday.
In a telephone interview from her hospital bed, Nancy Dryden, 67, said her husband, Daniel Perry Dryden, 66, was killed by four men who boarded their boat late Saturday while it was anchored in Lake Izabal.
"They poked us and stabbed us with the machetes, and they were asking for money, specifically dollars," said Dryden, who was listed in stable condition at a hospital in the lakeside town of Morales.
The thieves were apparently unhappy with the take. "We had a few quetzales (Guatemala's currency), but we had no dollars with us on the boat," Dryden recounted.
Dryden said the four assailants boarded the vessel late Saturday; she believes they may have reached the boat by swimming from shore.
The long machetes the men brandished "seemed liked curved swords," Dryden said.
After assaulting the couple, the men demanded Dryden hand over the keys to the vessel, which has an auxiliary motor. When she didn't - she was unable to tell whether they wanted the keys to the boat, or a small dinghy the couple used to get to shore - the men left, also apparently by swimming.
Dryden struggled over to the boat's radio and sent out a distress call. "I said we need help ... I said my husband was not moving," Dryden recalled.
Dryden said she expects her children to arrive tomorrow and plans to be transferred to the United States for medical care.
Assistant Police Commissioner Luis Say said the attack is being investigated.
The lake is located near the Caribbean coast and is popular among tourists for its jungle scenery and wildlife. Robbers armed with machetes hacked a U.S. tourist to death and seriously wounded his wife in an attack aboard the couple's sailbo... 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 -
Stolen "Adoption" Baby Reuinited with Mother
A Guatemalan woman whose daughter was taken from her and handed over for adoption has spoken of the challenges at being reunited with her child.
Ana Escobar said spending more than a year apart had badly affected both mother and baby.
DNA tests in Guatemala have proved that Esther Sulamita is Ms Escobar's child, the first proven case of baby theft for adoption in Guatemala.
The pair are now back together and adoptions remain banned in Guatemala. A Guatemalan woman whose daughter was taken from her and handed over for adoption has spoken of the challenges at being reunited with ... more -
Adopted Guatemala baby stolen
Ana Escobar was held at gunpoint in her shop while her baby was stolen
DNA tests in Guatemala have proven for the first time that a child put up for adoption through the state system was stolen from her mother, officials say.
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.
Baby thefts have long been suspected and Guatemala froze adoptions in May.
Guatemala is second only to China as the source of babies adopted by US parents and the adoption process is worth tens of millions of dollars a year.
Last year, more than 4,700 Guatemalan children were adopted by Americans.
Dozens of Guatemalan mothers have reported stolen babies.
'Miracle'
Ana Escobar said armed men had locked her in a storage closet at the family's shoe shop north of Guatemala City and abducted six-month-old Esther in March last year.
Ms Escobar spoke to the BBC last November, saying the authorities had closed the case but that she would not give up the search.
"I'm 100% sure that we will find my daughter," she said at the time.
Ms Escobar took part in protests with other mothers, including wheeling empty prams in front of government buildings to call for justice.
Ms Escobar searched hospitals and orphanages and while at the National Adoption Council's offices in May saw a toddler she was convinced was Esther.
Jaime Tecu, director of a team of experts reviewing all pending Guatemalan adoptions, said: "She was so sure that the child was hers that we agreed to search the house where the baby was kept."
A Guatemalan judge allowed Ms Escobar to care for Esther while the new DNA tests were performed.
Ms Escobar told Associated Press news agency on Wednesday: "I can't explain how excited and happy I am. It's a miracle."
Mr Tecu said: "This is the first time that we've been able to show, with irrefutable evidence, that a stolen child was put up for adoption."
He said officials would investigate the lawyers who handled the adoption, the doctor who signed earlier, falsified DNA tests and anyone else associated with the process.
"This was run by a mafia, and we are going after them," he said.
BBC Americas correspondent Warren Bull says hundreds of children were being bought or stolen to order each year because Guatemala's adoption system had been so quick and trouble-free for would-be parents.
The Guatemalan congress tightened laws on adoption in December to try to prevent abuse of the system.
In May the authorities suspended the adoption of some 2,300 children by foreigners and are reviewing each case to check if the babies were genuinely being offered for adoption by their birth mothers. Ana Escobar was held at gunpoint in her shop while her baby was stolen ... more -
DNA proof that adopted Guatemalan baby was stolen
DNA tests in Guatemala have proven for the first time that a child put up for adoption through the state system was stolen from her mother, officials say.
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.
Baby thefts have long been suspected and Guatemala froze adoptions in May.
Guatemala is second only to China as the source of babies adopted by US parents and the adoption process is worth tens of millions of dollars a year.
Last year, more than 4,700 Guatemalan children were adopted by Americans.
Dozens of Guatemalan mothers have reported stolen babies.
Ana Escobar said armed men had locked her in a storage closet at the family's shoe shop north of Guatemala City and abducted six-month-old Esther in March last year.
Ms Escobar searched hospitals and orphanages and while at the National Adoption Council's offices in May saw a toddler she was convinced was Esther.
Jaime Tecu, director of a team of experts reviewing all pending Guatemalan adoptions, said: "She was so sure that the child was hers that we agreed to search the house where the baby was kept."
Ms Escobar told Associated Press news agency on Wednesday: "I can't explain how excited and happy I am. It's a miracle."
Mr Tecu said: "This is the first time that we've been able to show, with irrefutable evidence, that a stolen child was put up for adoption."
He said officials would investigate the lawyers who handled the adoption, the doctor who signed earlier, falsified DNA tests and anyone else associated with the process.
"This was run by a mafia, and we are going after them," he said.
In May the authorities suspended the adoption of some 2,300 children by foreigners and are reviewing each case to check if the babies were genuinely being offered for adoption by their birth mothers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is this shocking evidence that some people will do anything for a baby, or anything for money? Will all of Guatemala's adopted babies now have to be tested to see if they were stolen instead of legally given up for adoption? If you were a child who had been stolen from your birth parents but had grown up in a new family what would you do? DNA tests in Guatemala have proven for the first time that a child put up for adoption through the state system was stolen from her mo... more -
Sweet 16 turned bitter...
From Mary Scott Speigner
CNN's American Morning
ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Allie Mulvihill may seem like your typical American teenager, but she has something weighing on her mind that most 15-year-olds do not: deportation.
1 of 2 Allie may be forced to leave the country because U.S. immigration officials are questioning the legitimacy of the Guatemala native's adoption by her parents, Lori and Scott Mulvihill, in 1994.
When the Mulvihills brought their then 2-year-old daughter to their home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, they believed she would be granted citizenship.
But U.S. immigration officials questioned whether the woman who gave Allie up for adoption in Guatemala was really her biological mother. Allie's birth certificate was issued 10 months after she was born, which raised suspicions in U.S. officials' minds that she was made available for adoption due to a baby trafficking scheme.
The Mulvihills, however, say it is not uncommon for birth certificates to be issued for children months after they are born in Guatemala, especially for children born to poor families, because families must pay for the certificates.
The Mulvihills also say U.S. embassy officials in Guatemala interviewed the woman claiming to be her biological mother at the time of the adoption and did not raise any concerns. The embassy officials, however, did not conduct a blood test of the woman that would have definitely proven the woman had given birth to Allie.
The Guatemalan government also never challenged the adoption, the Mulvihills said.
But U.S. immigration officials still aren't satisfied, and the dispute over her adoption has become a roadblock on Allie's path to citizenship. Neither Allie nor her parents have a way to track down her biological mother and the adoption agency used by the Mulvihills to adopt their daughter has gone out of business.
The fact that she cannot get her immigration status resolved means the fear of deportation continues to loom.
More on CNN.com
CNN's Zain Verjee and Melissa Morgenweck contributed to this report.
© 2008 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
So... why should they deport her if there's no way to tell if she's adopted through trafficking?
A change in the process should be made for situations like these... From Mary Scott Speigner CNN's American Morning ... more -
Overseas Adoption Nightmare.
A couple adopted a child from guatamala when she was two years old. They did everything legal and went through all the proper steps. However, immigration officials are suspicious and will not grant their daughter citizenship. She could even be deported even though her life here is the only life she's ever known. It shows the complexities involved and red tape involved in our immigration procedures. How many more stories like this are out there? A couple adopted a child from guatamala when she was two years old. They did everything legal and went through all the proper steps. H... 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 -
Guatemala's Secret Files
Clark Boyd of BBC's The World investigates how a partnership between human rights investigators and a Silicon Valley company may shed light on a dark period in Guatemala's history. Clark Boyd of BBC's The World investigates how a partnership between human rights investigators and a Silicon Valley company may ... more
-
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
-
Álvaro Colom the new president of Guatemala
Another president from the left took charge today in Latino America
-
Truth and Reconciliation
Haverford College student Ian Ramsey North visits Guatemala to look at how the country and people are coming to grips with Guatemala's brutal past when hundreds of thousands of people were massacred during the civil war. Haverford College student Ian Ramsey North visits Guatemala to look at how the country and people are coming to grips with Guatemala&#... more
-
Did I Steal My Daughter? The Tribulations of Global Adoption
The answers are never easy when you enter the labyrinth of global adoption.
-
related topics
Guatemala
Contributors (73)
Guatemala
