“In a country as vulnerable to natural disasters as Guatemala, a “state of public calamity” is frequently declared – to the joy of contractors, which find a good opportunity to line their pockets.

Tourists visiting this mountainous Central American country for its natural, archaeological, and ethnic attractions are inevitably surprised to come across a brand-new mountain road destroyed every few kilometres by rockslides and mudslides, and rebuilt in short order.

The destruction is the result of landslides caused by heavy rains on the unstable, bare hillsides. The underlying cause, deforestation, is not addressed. Instead, the road is destroyed and rebuilt, over and over again.”

Danilo Valladares writes in

Categories: Justice, Natural Disaster