THE BLACK AND WHITE PROBLEM

THE DRUG PROBLEMS IN GUATEMALA

compiled by Dee Finney

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12-31-03 - DREAM - I was manager of an apartment building. I not only rented apartments, we hired people to help us around the property to keep it clean, paint, do outside chores, - all the things needed to keep a nice place looking nice. I got called to the office over a wage dispute. One of our employees had been padding her time card, in other words putting on more hours than she worked. Anyone who has ever worked an hourly job knows you can't do that. Normally, the employment office, or human relations office takes care of those things, and large companies have strict rules about those things and the rules are followed strictly, no matter who the person is who breaks them. But in our case, I was the one who made the decisions, and when you were confronted with an issue, especially when the person was black, they would always say you were a racist and use that as an excuse, because I was white. I was always being accused of being prejudiced.  It never mattered that they were doing something wrong against the rules. While I was doing this, I saw a group of women on the side of the office, weaving baskets of bent sticks. When I got done check the time card and having to talk to the person that a remedy had to be reached and they would be notified, I left the place by going through a low tunnel which had a metal door on each end. I was not the only person who walked through this tunnel, obviously - there was an old woman standing on the outside of the opposite door, telling whoever came through the tunnel to go back the way they had come. Inside the tunnel, it was pure white, and it looked like it was made of pillars of salt. Printed on the pillar, it had a sign, 'DO NOT USE STREAMS OF WATER TO CLEAN THIS SURFACE."  That made a lot of sense. So the old woman made me go back the way I had come, and before I even go tout of the tunnel, someone else was trying to go through it. When I got back to my office, my husband came in to visit. He was an 8 foot tall, thin black man. I don't want to use specific names here, but he looked like a particular famous black basketball player. We greeted each other cordially, not romantically, because we were in a public office with other people. I said I was glad to see him. He came back with, "I'm usually glad to see you, but sometimes I see you at a distance, and you are screaming at someone, "You are killing me!" I didn't remember saying that to anyone, so I denied it and he sat there at the end of a long legal table, and said to me, "Do you know the difference between a honky and a nigger?" He looked really angry at me and  I said to him," If you don't like white people, why are you with me?" Just then, a friend of his came in, another tall black man. He was an older man, very distinguishes, and dressed like an attorney. He decided to change the subject, from a personal one to a more general one and he held up a newspaper and asked me if I knew of the problems in Guatemala and the drugs that were  being sent out of there." I said, "All I know is, if the would stop growing drugs and growing food to eat instead, they would be a lot better off." The man sat down in a chair at the side of the legal table, and began reading paragraphs from the article, but I couldn't hear him very well, because it was a long table and at the same time, another tall black man came in the room, and heard what I said about the drug problem in Guatemala. He said, "Do you know the difference between a honky and a nigger?" I had just heard my husband say the same thing, which sounded to me like a prejudiced attack, and I said to him, "What is it with you guys? Every time an issue comes up, those are the first words that come bubbling up out of your mouths!" Now I was feeling really angry. The lawyer stood up and came over to me with the newspaper and laid it on the table in front of me. I saw a list of 7 major problems in the country and large map of Guatemala in full color, showing all the jungles the people lived in. I apologized to the lawyer, that I couldn't hear him well at a distance, but now I could see the problem right in front of me. After I left the office, I went outside to see what was going on. Outside, there was a black woman standing there watering the lawn with a large green hose. Right after I saw her standing there, I saw a black woman and a white woman who worked in my office, walking down the street. It was too far for me to yell to them and tell them I needed to talk to them, so I asked the black woman with the water hose if she knew how to make the water spray further by putting her thumb into the water stream. She said, "No!" so I took the water hose from her and stuck my thumb don into the water stream and sprayed it at the black woman and the white woman to et their attention.

I have written about Guatemala before, mostly about the Mayans, but here is a rather scary problem revealed by a radio station I wrote about: Electronic weapons may even be space-based, on satellite platforms. This reporter has personally met with an Assistant Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon who confirmed the existence of such secret space-based weapons as early as 1977. An alternative electronic warfare delivery system may involve newly constructed relays for the HAARP installation in Alaska. The potential tactical electronic warfare applications of HAARP are under investigation. Serious public interest researchers maintain that HAARP's electromagnetic energy may cause effects such as earthquakes, such as occurred on July 7 in Hartsville. Electromagnetic weapons have been used in tectonic warfare, intentionally causing earthquakes. Electromagnetic pulse energy accompanies most earthquakes. Research shows that ultra low frequencies emitted by the HAARP installation may affect the human limbic system, and be used for mood management and mind control. The close resemblance of the Hartsville attack to other U.S. Air Force electronic warfare led to speculation that radio station WJKM may have been chosen as a test target for a clandestine electronic warfare unit located within the power facility, or to which the power facility serves as electronic relay point. The likelihood that the electronic attack was accidental, rather than an intentional military test, is low, given that the targets were media outlets. One purpose of such test could be to evaluate the physical impact of electronic warfare on U.S. domestic radio installations, a well as the impact of intimidating the local community, as well as the U.S. media reporting of such attacks. The U.S. military has a long history of secretly testing weapons on its unsuspecting civilian population, a practice that is illegal. Randall, Dan Fluehe, Clyde Lewis, and this reporter, Alfred Webre, all noted that the electronic attacks targeted two media offices directly - a radio station and a newspaper - both protected entities under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Another clue to the motive behind the disinformation attacks may lie in eyewitness accounts of military troops in black uniforms, wearing light blue patches, and military vehicles bearing license plates with the letters "UN" on them. This scenario would be consistent with a disinformation mission, in which United States government troops would be disguised with mock United Nations insignia in order to spread propaganda rumours regarding the actual source of this state terror. In fact, it would appear that U.S. paramilitary troops are carrying out military attacks on the U.S. civilian population. This modus operandi has been characteristic of Central Intelligence Agency sponsored warfare in developing countries, notably Guatemala. FROM: http://www.greatdreams.com/1090wjkm.htm

4-19-95 - VOICE - "We are going to give youa series of events for you to record." "China and North Vietnam will side together against the U.S. for making nuclear weapons." "There will be a war in Guatemala with 7,000 deaths." Then they showed me a handwritten list of 25 events to come, none of which I could read. I asked them to please make it clearer. They said, "You will be afraid of the final warnings, so we have brought a holy woman into the community.

10-15-01 - DREAM - I was working in an office. I had written an article about the World Trade Center. there was a man on the phone in an office across the hall from where I walked who was interviewing me about the article by yelling across the hall. I was standing up at my desk and my boss was sitting at another desk to my right. The guy across the hal yelled to me, "What's your title?" I didn't know what my title was, so I asked my boss, "What's my title?" He was on the phone so he couldn't answer right away. Meanwhile, the guy across the hall yelled to me, "Did you say that this whole thing depends on the mutual dependence of the World Trade Center?" I was astonished. Had I said that? What did I mean? if did say that.? NOTE: My title given in a dream previously was "Director of Casualty" ***** 10-16-01 - VISION - A news web page A male voice sang: "Thanks for Capitol" 10-16-01 - VISION - A web page - 7 events occurred in Afghanistan 6 events happened in Guatemala and those were represented by a white Teddy Bear NOTE: Much has been occuring in Afghanistan - especially since the war - and many earthquakes have occurred there as well

Six Flyby Asteroids Occurring This Week...07/09/01 It has just been disclosed, six NEO's (near earth orbit's) will occur this week. The six asteroid names are as follows... 1) '(398) Admete' 2) '(78) Diana' 3) '(54) Alexandra' 4) '268 Adorea' 5) '702 Alauda' 6) '558 Carmen'. Unfortunately none will be visible with the naked eye. However all will be visible with visual aids. 1) The 47-km asteroid '(398) Admete'; is expected to best be seen over Nicaragua and Guadalupe; but it could pass over adjacent countries instead, at 6:15-17 UT of July 9 UT. Near star constellation Ophiuchius. 2) The 120-km asteroid '(78) Diana'; near star constellation Pisces over Sonora (Hermosillo). The asteroid is expected to be best seen in the S.E. corner of Arizona, and S.W. New Mexico at 11:34 UT July 9 (5:34 am MDT). 3) The 165-km asteroid '(54) Alexandra'; near star constellation Pisces, will best be seen over Guatemala, Yucatan, & N.E. Florida (in brightening twilight) from 9:52-9:56 UT Wed. July 11 (5:55 am EDT in Fla.). 4) The 139-km asteroid '268 Adorea'; near star constellation Spica, will best be seen over Salt Lake City (in too bright twilight) to central Colo., Okla., Texarkana, N. LA & S. AR, S. Miss., S. Ala., and northern Florida. The date is Tues. night, July 10/11, around 3:25 UT of July 11 UT. 5) The 200-km asteroid '702 Alauda'; near star constellation Sagittarius, will be visible from most of North Carolina, northern South Carolina, Kentucky, parts of Va. and Tenn., s. Ind., central Illinois, N.E. Mo., Iowa, N.E. Nebr., the Dakotas, and eastern Montana. The date is Wed., July 11, 11:11 pm EDT (July 12, 3:11 UT). 6) Two hours after the above, the 59-km asteroid '558 Carmen' ; near star constellation beta Capricorn, will be visible from the eastern Carolinas, S. Georgia, Gulf coast area (including New Orleans), to Corpus Christi & Laredo, Texas; and across Mexico north of Monterrey and La Paz, Baja California. The date is July 12, 5:07 UT. There are some in the science community who suggest there is an increase in NEO's. One theory suggest it has to do with the Sun. It is related to the process of charged particles hurling through space. This includes the noticeable Magnetic Shift of Earth and that of the Sun. FROM: http://www.greatdreams.com/lostland/pole2.htm

VISION - 5-17-2001 I saw a book cover. The title was 'The Pablo Of Godhood" The book was black like sky with stars and at the bottom, behind the title of the book was the yellow sandy earth with a man riding on a donkey such as we see paintings of Jesus Christ entering Jerusalem. When I looked on the internet, there are many wonderful preachers named Pablo, but the one I'm presenting below certainly fits the criteria for the book title. Chiapas' Long Struggle for Equality 'You can't talk about the Gospel without addressing people's miserable poverty' by Camille Colatosti "I want there to be democracy, no more inequality -- I am looking for a life worth living, liberation, just like God says." -- José Perez (EZLN militiaman, captured at Oxchuc, Jan. 4, 1994) On January 1, 1994, 3,000 members of the mostly indigenous Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) captured the city of San Cristobal, Mexico, the capital of Chiapas, one of the country's poorest states. On the border with Guatemala, 50 to 90 percent of the people here speak a Mayan language, making it "Mexico's Indian heartland," according to Harvard's John Womack, Jr., author of Rebellion in Chiapas (The New Press, 1999). While 14,000 Mexican troops forced a Zapatista retreat from Cristobal on January 2 and by January 12 a ceasefire had been declared, many say that peace has never been reached and that the Zapatista rebellion has shaped the region. According to Womack, the cause of the rebellion is "an age-old problem," with the wealthy using all the power available to it "to squeeze every bit of labor and every bit of money it can out of the poor people who are the great majority there and who also happen to be of Mayan descent." A long history of poverty Chiapas covers almost 29,000 square miles and has a population of over 3.2 million. Of all of Mexico's states, it is the most agricultural, with coffee and cattle as its major crops. A poor state, the average per capita annual income is $2,000-$3,000, compared to $5,000 nationally and $30,000 in some northern states. Fifty-four percent of the people in Chiapas are malnourished. The infrastructure of Chiapas is also severely lacking. While 55 percent of Mexico's electricity is generated from Chiapas, only about 20 percent of homes in Chiapas have electricity. Chiapas also has the worst education in the country -- 72 out of 100 children do not finish the first grade. More than half of the schools offer only a third-grade education. Half of the schools have only one teacher for all the courses offered. In 1989, there were 16,058 classrooms in Mexico, and only 96 were in indigenous zones. The poverty of Chiapas has roots that go back to the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The conquest led to the mass enslavement of Indians, even though slavery was technically illegal. By the 19th century, great haciendas of sugar and sisal -- a cactus-like plant whose fibers are used to make rope, rugs and other goods -- employed thousands of pauperized workers, most of whom remained bound to wealthy planters by unpayable debts. Rebellion in Chiapas also has a long history. In 1545, the first Catholic bishop of Chiapas, Bartolome de las Casas, protested the exploitation of the native population. In 1712, indigenous people tried to overthrow the hacienda system. From 1810-21, Mexicans fought to win their independence from Spain. Then, 100 years later, Mexicans fought again, waging the Mexican Revolution, which overthrew a dictatorship and promised liberal reforms that would eliminate poverty and provide education, health care and land for all, but, according to Womack, these promises went largely unrealized. Inequality and poverty remained, especially among indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, an article of the Mexican Constitution (adopted in 1917, after the revolution) did change the shape of Chiapas. Article 27 recognized villages as corporate bodies entitled to tenure in agricultural lands and guaranteed grants of federal or expropriated private lands -- ejidos -- to villages that needed them. This article inspired many to move into the jungles of Chiapas to form villages. Groups of landless neighbors would find grantable land, occupy it, secure the perimeter, and declare a community. They would fight to protect the land and petition for official recognition. Once recognized, they would petition for an ejido. By 1960, the jungle was transformed with new remote villages which largely functioned with political autonomy. They ruled themselves through town meetings and village assemblies. However, they failed to achieve economic independence. Without a real plan, most newly formed villages grew coffee or raised cattle, and so remained subject to the large export markets. Continued poverty and inequality contributed to widespread popular unrest. January 1, 1994: NAFTA and Zapatistas Tensions and repression increased in 1994 in response to two crises, crises from which Chiapas -- and perhaps Mexico as a whole -- has not recovered. The U.S., Mexican and Canadian governments initiated the first crisis. It came in the form of economic policy -- the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This agreement, which took effect January 1, 1994, removed all agricultural tariffs. This effectively lowered the price of Mexican crops and lowered both payments to Mexico's poorest producers and wages to the country's poorest workers. The value of corn, for instance, fell dramatically. Even worse for Mexican farmers, U.S. corn can be sold in Mexico at 60 percent of the cost of the Mexican crop. NAFTA also paved the way for abuse of the environment. Logging corporations, such as Boise Cascade, now have unregulated access to exploit the forests. But most controversial of all was Mexico's repeal of Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution, the article making communal lands -- ejidos -- available to villagers and protecting communal land holdings from privatization. The second crisis of 1994 was, say many, precipitated by NAFTA. That was the rebellion on January 1 by the Zapatistas. When 3,000 armed members of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) descended on Chiapas' capital of San Cristobal, they declared war on the Mexican army. Their aims, clearly stated in their declaration, were to overthrow the Mexican government. A key reason for this action, they explained, was to implement land reform. The leaders were largely indigenous and fought for a better life in Chiapas. For this reason, their cause was seen with general sympathy throughout the country. The fact that the Zapatistas were extreme underdogs may also have led many to view them with sympathy. The invasion came as a surprise to the Mexican government, but within 24 hours, 14,000 Mexican troops forced a Zapatista retreat. By January 12, a ceasefire was declared and peace talks began. The peace negotiations centered on what has come to be called "the Indian question," not the attempted government overthrow. While the EZLN may have wanted to take over Mexico, they soon realized that this goal was unrealistic. In 1996, about one-and-one-half-years after negotiations began, an agreement was reached -- the San Andres Accords -- which committed the government to giving Indian communities more autonomy. But the Mexican congress never ratified the agreement. Military occupation -- and faith-based resistance Instead, the government has waged low-intensity warfare in Chiapas. The bulk of the army -- a total of almost 80,000 troops -- has gradually moved into the state, three times the level of occupation at the beginning of the conflict. Chiapas contains a combined total of 300 barracks, camps and checkpoints. "In Chiapas, there are 20 to 25 military vehicles that pass through different roads where I live and control all the means of transportation," says Manuel Hernandez Aguilar, an indigenous Mayan from a grassroots faith community called El Pueblo Creyente (People of Faith). "When we go out, they ask us for ID and treat us as if we are foreigners in our land -- but we are the ones who are the original people of this land." Aguilar presents an example of the kind of leader and the kind of movement that had been building in modern Chiapas since the 1960s. El Pueblo Creyente is an organization of Catholic lay people who gather to share common experiences, and to oppose repression of local indigenous Mayan communities. "My principal work," explains Aguilar, "is to wake our people up to what's happening. We want people to reflect on what the Gospel means to them. This is not just a spiritual evangelism, though. We also deal with human needs -- and how Jesus worked hard to meet the needs of the poor and change their situation. "We carry out our work so that people aren't left behind and forgotten. We want our church to be alive, not dead. Our church announces the good that happens and denounces the bad. "Our work has much to do with poverty, because there is a lot of poverty. You can't talk about the Gospel without addressing people's miserable poverty." Aguilar also works with a group of organizations that are independent from the church, ARIC (the Rural Association of Collective Interests). As he explains, "These are independent and democratic, and put into action the reflections that we do in our faith groups. ARIC is looking for an end to this poverty. But this work is not looked upon well by government authorities." Aguilar continues, "Because we carry out this work, our diocese is persecuted. Our Bishop Samuel Ruiz was threatened with death and there was an attempt on the lives of many leaders for the work we do with the living Gospel." Since 1995, government authorities backed by the ruling PRI party have closed 35 churches and chapels in Chiapas. In 1998, Mexico deported Thomas Hansen of Pastors for Peace and Miguel Chanteau, a French Catholic priest. Chanteau, who worked in Chiapas for 30 years and was a close associate of Ruiz, had criticized the Mexican government for its violence toward indigenous people. Paramilitary violence: the Acteal massacre In addition to the army, Chiapas is plagued with numerous paramilitary troops, organized by both the cattle barons and the army. The paramilitary has been reportedly responsible for numerous human rights abuses, from searching homes without warrants, to stealing livestock and food, to erecting arbitrary roadblocks, to rapes and murders. A year ago, Asna Jahanjir, a United Nations official assigned to monitor the status of human rights in Chiapas, reported that "extra-judicial executions are widespread and ongoing. Entire communities are forced to flee to makeshift refugee camps." One of the worst incidents to take place since the 1994 rebellion is the Acteal massacre, in which 45 civilians were killed on December 12, 1997. Kerry Appel, director of the Human Bean Company, a fair-trade coffee company based in Denver, was in Acteal at the time of the massacre and witnessed the killings. He has been traveling to Mexico for 30 years, buying coffee directly from producers in Chiapas and then selling it in the U.S. Because he eliminates the middleman, or "coyote," he pays producers about $1.50 a pound for their coffee instead of the usual 40 cents. Acteal is a Tzotzil Indian village where the coffee for the Human Bean Company is grown. "Women and children fled down the steep mountain path toward the valley, as armed men shot them from behind," Appel recounts. "Some who reached the underbrush by the river below were discovered by the assassins when the babies' cries gave them away. ... The assassins cut open the stomach of a young pregnant woman, tore her unborn baby out and cut it up. A baby less than one year old survived because her mother covered her with her own body and received all the bullets. One baby was shot in the head at close range. "The massacre went on for almost five hours ... while dozens of armed civil guards stood on the road above and did nothing. "In the end, 45 of Human Bean's coffee producers had been massacred and as many as 5,000 were refugees in the Tzotzil community of Pohlo." Later, Appel learned that there was no coffee available for him to buy. "The same Mexican-government-backed paramilitary groups that had committed the massacre ... then stole the coffee of the dead and the refugees to sell it," he says. The coffee processing plant in Acteal -- where Human Bean coffee is processed -- was then occupied by the Mexican army, an action that would have been unthinkable when the Mexican constitutions' autonomy-promoting Article 27 had been in effect. Dominated by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the government had become aggressively intolerant of the independent villages of Chiapas, villages that had been independent, in some cases, since their founding. Election defeats for the PRI The decision of the PRI to crack down on those who seek autonomy may have ultimately led to its defeat in the latest round of national elections. In last July's presidential elections, opposition candidate Vicente Fox defeated the PRI favorite--the first time in 71 years that the PRI lost its hold on the presidency. Likewise, the PRI lost the governorship of Chiapas to opposition candidate Pablo Salazar, an independent representing an alliance of parties including Fox's National Action Party (PAN) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution, which supports the Zapatistas. Salazar helped negotiate the 1996 peace accords. Fox says he is willing to respect the San Andres Accords. During his campaign, he also said that he could resolve the Chiapas conflict in "15 minutes." He promised to withdraw the army to its pre-1994 positions. But very quickly Fox seemed to be having second thoughts. In October 2000, he suggested that "an army pullout might not happen prior to an accord," and would happen only when "law and order" have been established. As Womack puts it, "I don't think elections solve very much, but they do something. The fact that the PRI lost the election in Chiapas doesn't mean that all the bad guys are gone and only good guys will run things, but the wealthy have lost some of the official leverage that they used to have. They haven't lost property by any means -- but things have changed." Still, he continues, "the people in Mexico need to continue what they have been doing for many years: figuring out what really are the obstacles to their own popular organizations and trying to organize around those obstacles, to undermine them. They need to put together formal organizations in the economy as producers, consumers, credit cooperatives -- develop their own material base and use that base to develop formal political organizations that can provide them protection. This can happen only from local places and spread from each local place. It can't be dictated from above. It has to come from popular organizing -- and that is the work of a lifetime." Camille Colatosti is The Witness' staff writer. FROM: http://www.greatdreams.com/pablo.htm

WTO Struggles for Compromise By NAOMI KOPPEL .c The Associated Press SEATTLE (Dec. 3, 99) - Trade ministers narrowed their differences on farm policy but still had to resolve bitter fights over labor rights and a host of other issues before launching a new round of talks to reduce global trade barriers. Wrapping up four days of negotiations marred by violent street protests, the 135-nation World Trade Organization hoped to reach the finish line today with a deal on the specific agenda for what should be covered by the new talks. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, who is chairing the sessions, said trade ministers would work through the night Thursday with the goal of having a finished deal by the end of today, when the sessions are scheduled to wrap up. She said the various groups were making ``quite significant progress.'' But other WTO officials cautioned there were still a large number of issues to be resolved, with all countries waiting until the 11th hour before giving in on long-held negotiating positions. ``Never underestimate the potential for a breakdown,'' WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told reporters late Thursday. ``This could still fall apart. It is at a very delicate stage.'' President Clinton has infuriated developing nations, who account for more than 100 of the 135 members of the WTO, by saying rules protecting workers should be included in future trade deals - and that sanctions should be imposed on violators. Developing nations, whose economies have expanded thanks to cheap labor, say richer countries are only pressing the issue to protect themselves from inexpensive imports. Some Asian nations have hinted they won't agree to a new round of trade talks if it includes any mention of labor rights, which they believe should be handled separately from WTO rules governing global commerce. ``If Clinton pursues the labor issue, it may make us wonder what's the point?'' said Asmat Kamaludin, secretary-general of Malaysia's ministry of international trade and industry. ``We cannot agree to the inclusion of labor in the WTO.'' The talks that began Tuesday have been overshadowed by violence in the streets, with almost 600 people arrested since demonstrators who view the WTO as a global menace successfully disrupted the meeting. Seattle police in riot gear are patrolling streets in a downtown area that is under curfew in an official state of emergency. Businesses say they have lost $7 million in sales, and another $2 million in damage has been tallied, as the massive trade event that was intended to showcase Seattle was spoiled by the rioting. Arriving Thursday evening in Philadelphia, Clinton said he was pleased that the United States had hosted the trade talks in Seattle, despite the disruptions. ``It was a good thing for our country to be part of the debate over the future,'' he said. While some countries said the WTO might end up failing to launch even a scaled-down negotiating round, U.S. negotiators continued to express optimism that a way would be found to paper over huge differences that exist between countries. Late Thursday, the working group on agriculture completed its work with a one-page draft declaration. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said he believed negotiations in this area represented ``significant progress'' for the administration, which is counting on big cuts in farm barriers to please American farmers and help sell a final deal in Congress. The text calls for members to move ``in the direction of progressive elimination of export subsidies,'' a statement aimed at reconciling the European Union, which has a large subsidy program, with countries led by the Cairns Group of agricultural nations, and the United States, which called for complete elimination of subsidies. Many Third World countries said Clinton's remarks on labor rights here this week confirmed their worst fears that the U.S. administration, bowing to pressures from American labor unions, would ultimately demand trade sanctions for their alleged labor violations. They say that would make them even poorer. ``Our people don't get as much as someone in New York, but living standards are completely different,'' said Jose Guillermo Castillo, the economics minister of Guatemala. Embattled Seattle Mayor Paul Schell, at a news conference Thursday, offered apologies to innocent citizens who had been hit with tear gas or rubber bullets. Schell said the city was walking a fine line between enforcing its no protest zone and allowing normal business activities to continue. AP-NY-12-03-99 0721EDT FROM: http://www.greatdreams.com/prep.htm

In June 1998 a huge volcano, Pacaya, erupted near Guatemala City.

1961, unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by U.S.-backed Cuban exiles. On Apr. 17, 1961, about 1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) with the aim of ousting the Communist regime of Fidel CASTRO. They had been trained in Guatemala by the CIA, supplied with U.S. arms. Most were captured or killed by the Cuban army. The U.S. government was severely criticized for the attack at home and abroad. In December 1962, Cuba traded 1,113 captured rebels for $53 million in food and medicine raised by private donations in the U.S. FROM: www.greatdreams.com/guarding.htm

Drug Intelligence Brief GUATEMALA COUNTRY BRIEF March 2000 http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/intel/20004/20004.html

From the September 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL. 48, No. 9). Mexico's 'Southern Plan': The Facts Crackdown Underway on Migration from Central America Velia Jaramillo, Proceso (liberal newsmagazine), Mexico City, Mexico, June 26, 2001. “Plan Sur” (Southern Plan), announced by the Mexican government [on June 19], may already be underway. Over a period of 15 days, starting on June 4, the southern border of Mexico was the stage for a large-scale police action that resulted in more than 6,000 deportations of illegal aliens to Guatemala from Mexico and 3,000 Central Americans located in Guatemala back to the borders of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and neighboring countries. This is a part of a regional program backed by U.S. authorities in which the governments of Mexico, the Central American nations, and the countries of the Caribbean Basin are taking part. Its first phase ran from June 4 to June 20, as confirmed by the director of Guatemalan immigration, Luis Mendizábal. According to this Guatemalan official, the reinforcement of anti-immigration actions on the border between Guatemala and Mexico is the initial stage of the Southern Plan in Mexico. Because of these measures, the flow of undocumented migrants illegally returning to Mexico from the Guatemalan border was reduced by 30 percent. The prelude to the Mexican government’s Southern Plan, also known as “orderly and secure repatriation,” had its counterpart in Guatemala called “Venceremos 2001” (We Shall Overcome 2001). This operation mobilized more than 200 police agents over the past few weeks. They checked hotels, parks, bars, brothels, and public areas in search of illegal aliens living in border cities, mainly Tecún Umán, on the border across from Hidalgo in Chiapas state. More than 1,200 foreigners who reside there as a floating population, awaiting the chance to cross over into Mexico on their way to the United States, were detained and sent back to their countries. In this program, the participation of the Mexican army was confined to cordoning off certain areas, according to information provided by Mendizábal. The director of the Centro de Apoyo al Migrante (Immigrant Support Center) of the Social Pastoral Initiative of Guatemala, Mauro Verzeletti, reported that according to statements by immigrants who managed to evade the checkpoints, the Mexican army is already taking part in identity checks. Between June 4 and June 17, Mexico deported 6,000 illegal aliens, of whom 50 percent were Guatemalan, 28 percent Honduran, and 22 percent Salvadoran, according to Mendizábal. Simultaneous operations throughout the entire border with Mexico, conducted by the Guatemalan Department of Immigration with the support of the Civilian National Police, concluded in the same period with the detention and deportation of 3,666 people from Guatemala. More than 1,600 Hondurans, 1,500 Salvadorans, 100 Nicaraguans, and 400 from other countries, including Pakistan, India, Ecuador, Peru, and Iran, were transported from the border to hostels in Guatemala City and deported that same day to the border of the country from which they entered, according to the Guatemalan official. Starting on June 4 as a part of this plan for massive deportations, more than 18 buses carrying deportees were moving out on a daily basis. Until Venceremos, the immigrants expelled by Mexico were transported to the border with Guatemala, and hundreds of them remained in that area. “Now, the government of the United States has supported the expenses connected with the transportation of these people from Guatemala back to their own countries,” the immigration official pointed out. He reported that the inspections were extended to Honduras and El Salvador, where about 1,000 illegal aliens were detected. The countries involved in the anti-immigration program shared information on trafficking and illegal immigration rings, Mendizábal emphasized. He explained that Venceremos and its counterparts in the region concluded this past Wednesday, “but an evaluation will be done, and if it is positive, we will consider continuing this project for the whole year. I think that the results have been favorable, but we have to review the type of economic support we are going to get in order to continue it.” He reported that in border areas like Tecún Umán, those deported [from Mexico] used to live as a marginalized population, sleeping in parks and on sidewalks, and in some cases, joining criminal groups or prostitution rings, thus creating insecurity and fear among local residents. Now that the deportees have been moved out, he assured us, crime has begun to decrease. As to whether the plan is in effect, Guatemalan authorities offered differing versions. While the director for immigration maintained that this plan has already started, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Edgar Arana, assured us that Venceremos 2001 is a program distinct from the Southern Plan, concerning which, he asserted, the Guatemalan government has not received initial notification. Arana reiterated that he had no official knowledge of the Southern Plan and did not expect any notification, since “this involves internal decisions of the Mexican government.” As for the report that military personnel might be involved in the immigration identity checks, “We do not see this as a threat,” he stated. Alejandro González Navarro, the attaché for immigration at the Mexican Embassy in Guatemala City, told Proceso that the recently concluded program of deportations is not part of the Southern Plan, but rather a temporary operation. He defined it as a “pilot test” and specified that what marked the difference this year was the fact that precise information on the nationalities of those deported was handed over to the Guatemalan authorities, which facilitated the deportation from Guatemala of citizens of other countries in Central America and elsewhere in the world. What is certain is that the anti-immigration operation was conducted discreetly and that the massive deportations from Mexico, as well as the dispatch of dozens of buses transporting the deportees out of Guatemala, went almost unnoticed. Ricardo Gatica, the spokesman for Guatemala’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, explained that the details of the Southern Plan were made known on May 11 during the visit to Guatemala of a delegation of Mexican officials headed by the assistant secretary for population and immigration affairs, Javier Moctezuma, and the Guatemalan minister of the interior, Byron Barrientos. At this meeting, the officials announced that they would implement joint policies aimed at stemming the flow of illegal immigration coming from Central America and heading for the United States. According to the data provided by Moctezuma, each year 100,000 Guatemalans try to cross the border between Mexico and the United States; fewer than 1 percent succeed. In the year 2000, he reported, 50 died in the attempt. When asked by Proceso, González Navarro clarified that in 2000, Mexico had expelled from its southern border 152,967 illegal aliens. Most of them, more than 70,848, were Guatemalans, 40,892 were Hondurans, 33,960 came from El Salvador, 3,340 from Ecuador, and 1,836 from Nicaragua. The remaining aliens were citizens of other countries, mainly China and India. The immigration from Asian countries, which involves more organized immigrant trafficking rings, has appeared in the last 10 years, the Mexican official explained. He estimated that in general terms the number of deportations is increasing by 30 percent each year. During his visit to Guatemala as Mexico’s president-elect on Sept. 11, 2000, Vicente Fox offered to set up mechanisms to stop abuses by Mexican authorities against Central American immigrants. But as the director of the Immigrant Support Center, Mauro Verzeletti, pointed out, militarizing the anti-immigration effort in Mexico may result in a major increase in violations of the human rights of immigrants. “We see inconsistency between [Fox’s] words and actual practice; if they keep on involving the army in the immigrant identity checks, there will be no improvement,” Verzeletti said. He said that he had received testimony from some undocumented immigrants indicating that Mexican military personnel are already present in the anti-immigration operations along the southern border. He reported that according to information received by the House for Immigrants, abuses against undocumented Central American immigrants are on the increase. “With such strict measures in place, the immigrants seek out the most dangerous roads, placing their lives in jeopardy,” he said. “They cross over in more remote areas in the north, near Petén, where there are a lot of mountains and jungle, and many immigrants lose their lives along this route, because they cannot find water or means to survive.” Verzeletti explained that the Immigrant Support Center in Guatemala City alone takes care of an average of 500 people a month who were deported or abandoned by the coyotes (immigrant traffickers) and do not have the resources to return to their country of origin. “The abuses they most often report are swindles, followed by rapes, assaults, robberies, and poor conditions in the detention centers, where they may be kept without food, water, or an appropriate place to sleep.” FROM:  http://www.worldpress.org/0901feature22.htm

Guatemala Nixed From Drug Ally List WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2003 Attorneys display a load of cocaine at the anti-drug police office in Guatemala City, Thursday, Jan 30, 2003. "Police stole twice the quantity of drugs they officially seized." Paul Simon State Department's top counternarcotics official (AP) President Bush dropped Guatemala from the list of allies in counternarcotics efforts Friday, concluding it had "failed demonstrably" during 2002 to meet international drug control standards. Guatemala and 22 other countries were graded on their counternarcotics performances last year. It was the first time that Guatemala had received a failing grade, unlike Myanmar and Haiti, which also were singled out for poor performances, as they were a year ago. Pervasive corruption was a principal reason for Guatemala's poor rating. "Police stole twice the quantity of drugs they officially seized," said Paul Simon, the State Department's top counternarcotics official. Under law, Bush can impose economic sanctions against countries that do not measure up on counterdrug policy. Bush waived sanctions on national security grounds for both Guatemala and Haiti. "These two countries will receive assistance, notwithstanding their counternarcotics performance," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. Simon said an aid cut for Guatemala would only lead to a further deterioration of drug-fighting institutions. He said aid to Haiti will be continued primarily on humanitarian grounds. Sanctions were continued against Myanmar, also known as Burma. This was symbolic because that country has not received U.S. foreign aid for years. Simon said Myanmar took some useful steps but added that large-scale poppy cultivation and opium production continued, as did trafficking in methamphetamine. He said Haiti remains a major transshipment point for drugs, primarily cocaine, moving from South America to the U.S. market. He described Haiti's counterdrug commitment as very weak. In a memo to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Bush also decried an increase in illegal synthetic drugs entering the United States, especially Ecstasy from Europe. He said the Netherlands is a major clandestine production center for Ecstasy. The president said Canada has become a primary source of pseudoephedrine and is an increasing source of high-potency marijuana. He expressed hope that Canada will do more to combat the trade, particularly in the regulation of precursor chemicals. The countries whose 2002 counternarcotics performances were evaluated were Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Myanmar, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam. Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C., chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, welcomed Bush's decision on Guatemala. Ballenger said Bush recognized Guatemala's failure to cooperate fully with U.S. counternarcotics efforts. "Regrettably, the Guatemalan government deserves to be decertified," he said. In Guatemala City, Foreign Minister Edgar Gutierrez criticized Bush's decision. It could create "a bad atmosphere for business, investments and the development of the financial and banking system," Gutierrez said. Simon made clear the administration's dissatisfaction with Guatemala in testimony last fall. "Widespread corruption, high turnover of law enforcement personnel and a lack of resources have plagued counternarcotics efforts in Guatemala during the last three years," Simon testified. He said that since President Alfonso Portillo took office in January 2000, "there have been four ministers of government, four directors of the national civilian police, and nine different directors of the government's anti-narcotics unit. "This constant upheaval makes long-range planning for operations and investigations nearly impossible and working relationships very difficult," he said. © MMIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. FROM:  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/31/world/main538825.shtml

Posted on Sun, Mar. 09, 2003 Guatemala emerges as a key drug route By NANCY SAN MARTIN Miami Herald GUATEMALA CITY - In the three years since President Alfonso Portillo assumed office, Guatemala has emerged as one of the principal corridors in the hemisphere for U.S.-destined drugs - a new battleground in the war on drugs where the traffickers are winning. Where once there was little organized criminal activity, intelligence sources say, Guatemala now has five key "mafias" that have joined forces with Colombian and Mexican cartels to move drugs - primarily cocaine - by land, air and sea. "Guatemala is one of the largest cocaine transit countries in the world," Paul Simons, acting assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said this week. "Perhaps as much as 200 tons of cocaine passes through Guatemala every year en route to the U.S. market." That makes up as much as half the estimated amount of drugs that crosses through the Central American region and accounts for about 40 percent of all direct entries to the United States. "This large scale could not go unhindered were it not for just collusion, but also involvement in drug trafficking," said a State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Already under scrutiny because of the Bush administration's recent assessment that Guatemala is not an adequate partner in the antidrug effort, the country was slammed again in the State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. The report was released last Saturday. The report, based on activity in 2002, paints a dark picture of Guatemala's record under Portillo's leadership. Among other things, it shows that drug seizures dropped by about half, compared to the previous year. It also notes that many of the seizures occurred after scathing testimony before Congress by U.S. officials in Washington. Simons testified last fall that the drugs pass through Guatemala "with almost complete impunity." Rogelio Guevara, chief of operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, told Congress: "After nearly 36 years of violent guerrilla and civil war, Guatemala has only recently attempted to move from military to judicial rule. Criminals with political connections function within the various departments of the government, including the courts and national police." The Guatemalan security forces have been rocked by a series of high-profile scandals. Among them: In January 2002, drug agents took over the village of Chocon as part of a violent drug raid that ended with the deaths of two people. Sixteen agents were arrested and are now on trial on charges of illegal search and seizures and extrajudicial execution. While the case is based on human rights abuses, authorities allege the raid was really a shakedown in an attempt to steal drugs moving through the village. The agents face a maximum of 50 years in jail if convicted. In July, officials discovered that about 1,600 kilos of cocaine were missing from a storage room at a narcotics unit headquarters in the capital. Eighteen drug agents were arrested in that case and are awaiting trial. They face up to 15 years in prison. Meanwhile, a series of corruption scandals led to the disbanding of the nation's antidrug task force. About three-quarters of the narcotics unit was fired and a new force was created. Officials say the cases represent only one component of a troubled system. Under the Portillo administration, there have been four ministers of government, seven directors of the National Civilian Police and 11 directors of the anti-narcotics unit. Alleged inaction by the government led to the Bush administration's recent decertification of Guatemala, marking the first time the nation has been branded as having "failed demonstrably" in the fight against illegal drugs. U.S. officials say the antinarcotics relationship was working well until Portillo took office in January 2000. As evidence, they point to a stark drop in seizures: In 1998, Guatemalan authorities seized 9.2 metric tons of cocaine; in 1999, they seized 10.1 metric tons. In the three years since Portillo assumed power, authorities have seized an average of two metric tons each year. Fernando Mendizabal, the recently appointed special prosecutor for narcotics, concedes that a problem exists. "When we are talking about drug trafficking, we are talking about highly organized crime. It's run like a corporation," Mendizabal said. "It's difficult to make advances against drug trafficking because they have so much more resources than we do. "They've managed to infiltrate all the security forces," he said. "There is a lot of cooperation and that has made it very difficult for us to do our jobs." Mendizabal said Guatemala is in need of more resources and effective laws to go after the kingpins: "We've been successful at getting the people who move the drugs, but not the bosses." Since decertification a month ago, high-level representatives from both governments have met at least three times. Officials described the gatherings as positive though the anticipated results remain precarious. The primary line of defense against drug trafficking falls on the new narcotics unit, known by the acronym SAIA. Agents on the 400-plus force are trained at the U.S.-funded Regional Counter-Narcotics Training Center in Babarena. The center provides training in all aspects of law enforcement related to narco-trafficking, including courses on investigations, small unit tactics, information analysis and human rights. Felino Argueta Barrios, director of the center, said the scandals and the decertification were a psychological blow to the program. He now tells graduating recruits they have two responsibilities: "Seizing drugs and recovering the prestige of the force." Even as the U.S. government appropriates millions of dollars each year to fund counter-narcotics efforts in Guatemala, officials are skeptical about success. "Although various high-level officials have pledged to engage the counter-drug effort, they have been unable to affect or control the deep-seated and well-entrenched culture of corruption that exists," the DEA's Guevara told Congress. Strategically located between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, Guatemala is not only a transshipment point for narcotics but a key storage area as well. The five key mafias identified in Guatemala are spread across the country and drug trafficking is most prevalent in Zacapa, Izabal, Peten, Costa Sur and Sayaxche, intelligence officials said. Irked by U.S. criticism of Guatemala's antidrug efforts, the president recently challenged the United States to take over security at the ports. "Let them take over security; let's see if drugs don't keep entering with them," Portillo told local media. Guatemalan officials say that while they lament the decertification status, the label has raised awareness and forced the government to act. Authorities hope to implement a four-year plan in 2004 that calls for tougher drug-trafficking laws, a witness protection program, funds to pay informants and other tools to combat the increasing drug trade. "We know there are many problems, but there is a will to defeat this," Mendizabal said. "I think that if we continue to work as we are, then we will have good results. But we need economic and political support." FROM: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/world/5340981.htm

GUATEMALA DECERTIFIED

THE MAYAN CONNECTION TO THE MEDICINE WHEEL ... And yes, I have to admit, not everyone of today’s scientists has been going to the jungles of Guatemala in their search for the truth, and especially not ... http://www.greatdreams.com/wheels/maywhl.htm HURRICANE ISIDORE ... Very heavy rains continue to fall on the Yucatan Peninsula and other portions of Mexico as well as northern Guatemala and Belize. ... http://www.greatdreams.com/isadore.htm