Posted on March 15, 2006
Prior to Bush’s current tour of Latin America, when was the last time you thought about Guatemala? Or heard about Guatemala? Or cared about Guatemala?
If you’re like me, you didn’t. I knew nothing of this Tennessee-sized country until seizing the opportunity to travel there with the Lutheran Presbyterian Campus Ministry as an Alternative Spring Break trip, and little did I know just how much I would discover or how it would come to affect my views on Bush’s current tour.
Most of the recent press covering the tour, and primarily the time spent in Guatemala, is focused on policies concerning immigration and negative reactions of the public to his visit. After seeing the anti-Bush graffiti decorating city walls, I can easily believe Bush has received few warm welcomes. The more interesting question is why.
Guatemala is a suffering nation. As a result of a 36-year-long civil war, nearly every family in Guatemala has had a family member killed, exiled or reported missing. Our own tour guide lost his brother. It is reported that 60 percent of the population is illiterate. There is little motivation for education because there is little reason to pursue it. Many of the poorest citizens of the capital, Guatemala City, live their lives more like vultures than humans as they camp beside a gigantic landfill and survive off the waste of the city — a truly haunting sight.
The conflict between indigenous and Spanish citizens divides the country in two, leaving the indigenous peoples discriminated against and oppressed. Women are heavily abused. The police and government are corrupt. Crime and violence are so rampant that even in the short time I was there, our guide’s own son was assaulted.
If you research Guatemala on the U.S. State Department’s Web site, you will read briefly about the war and these issues. It also boasts how the United States is aiding the country, glorifying our “close relations” and emphasizing what Bush told Guatemalans just days ago, “You have a friend in the United States of America. We care about your plight.”
So, why has Bush faced such disdain from the Guatemalan public? Perhaps because Guatemala was utilized as a training ground in 1960 for the United States’ Bay of Pigs invasion. The United States also helped train Guatemalan generals to practice brutal tactics used throughout the civil war and many of these generals are alive and well today. Where are they safely harbored, you may ask. Many can be found within the nation that trained them, the United States.
Also consider that the United States supports a mining company in Guatemala in which U.S. owners enjoy 90 percent of the profits, while we simultaneously try to help the country face extreme poverty. The ecological damage the mines cause is also interesting, as the company uses chemicals and techniques not allowed in the United States. In addition, the United States manufactures and supplies the country with plastic products containing materials proven to cause cancer that are strictly outlawed within our own borders.
Presently, we are robbing a country already poor. We pride ourselves in “caring” and advise the government to educate its people and fix its corruption, while we ourselves are uneducated about the country’s conditions and corrupt in our relations.
I have seen the poverty and the people living in a garbage dump. I have heard the bitter sadness in their prayers for those lost in a senseless war. I have seen their anger against a U.S. government which claims compassion, but practices corruption. I have spoken with children who believe education is useless because they are provided no opportunity beyond it. Yet, our group was met with nothing but kindness and thanks for the little help we provided.
It is a humbling experience to be exposed to a culture like that.
There is little hope for Guatemala, yet one light shines. Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu could be the first indigenous and female president as of this September, bringing a new chapter of Guatemalan history with her. Perhaps we could help promote some positive change in a country so desperately in need. But first, we must change. We must eliminate the ignorance.
Jess Novak is a sophomore communications major.
