Author Archives

• What difference does a union make?

  By kevodell on September 4, 2021 • ( 0 )

  In the Guatemalan banana industry the short answer is working about 12 hours a week less for over double the pay, and for women workers about one fifth the likelihood of being exposed to sexual harassment at work. Banana Link… Read More ›

• Guatemala’s Government Is Defying Biden’s Anti-Corruption Efforts

  By kevodell on September 3, 2021 • ( 0 )

  Jeff Abbott writes a column in The Progressive, The Other Americans, and this is from his latest piece. The Guatemalan government, helmed by President Alejandro Giammattei, continues to impede the country’s institutions meant to combat official corruption. While these attempts… Read More ›

• International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances

  By kevodell on August 31, 2021 • ( 0 )

  August 30th is the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. We remember the estimated 45,000 people who were disappeared, according to the United Nations–sponsored Truth Clarification Commission (CEH), during the internal armed conflict (1960-1996) that took place in… Read More ›

• Biden Faces a Trade-Off: Stop Corruption, or Migration?

  By kevodell on August 26, 2021 • ( 0 )

  President Biden promised to attack corruption in Central America head on, but that goal has taken a back seat to cooperating on stopping migrants from the region. Natalie Kitroeff writes in the New York Times about the challenges facing anti-corruption… Read More ›

• Accompaniment updates from PBI Guatemala

  By kevodell on August 26, 2021 • ( 0 )

  PBI Canada recently posted a couple of pieces from PBI Guatemala highlighting the vital accompaniment work that they do. PBI Guatemala accompanied the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (el Comité Campesino del Altiplano – CCDA) at a Mayan ceremony for… Read More ›

• Assault on Guatemala’s Justice System Intensifies With Expulsion of Anti-Corruption Prosecutor

  By kevodell on August 22, 2021 • ( 0 )

  Julia Aikman Cifuentes and Adriana Beltrán write, in WOLA, about the recent sacking of Juan Francisco Sandoval, the wave of protests in response, and the criminalisation of members of the judiciary. They also talk of the massive corruption of the… Read More ›

• A hunger crisis forces Guatemalans to choose: migration or death

  By kevodell on August 21, 2021 • ( 0 )

  Nina Strochlic writes in National Geographic about the challenges facing the poor in Guatemala during a time of crisis. Child hunger and malnutrition is a scourge, and is an indictment of the lack of government responsibility in a country of… Read More ›

• #ParoPlurinacional: National Strike in Guatemala

  By kevodell on August 19, 2021 • ( 0 )

  Andrea Ixchíu Hernández, a Maya K’iche’ woman, journalist, land protector, and human rights activist, recently spoke to Gio B’atz’, on the Red Nation podcast, about the demands of Indigenous communities such as calls for a plurinational government, among other topics…. Read More ›

• A Blend of Family and Politics in Guatemala’s Cocaine Trade

  By kevodell on August 17, 2021 • ( 0 )

  Alex Papadovassilakis writes in InSight Crime about the nexus of family, politics and criminal activity that occurs in some of Guatemala’s more isolated regions. This, against a backdrop of the criminalisation of human rights defenders and the facilitation of top-level… Read More ›

• Survivors of Guatemalan mudslide face death or emigration

  By kevodell on August 12, 2021 • ( 0 )

  Alberto Arce and Rodrigo Abd present a moving piece of photoreportage on AP, telling of the ongoing struggles of the population of Quejá, in Alto Verapaz, after hurricane Eta struck in November last year. The day before he left for… Read More ›