Doña Sabina in her one-room village home. Without family who can support her, Sabina has very few possessions. At noon each day, she walks barefoot down sharp cobblestones to receive a meal at an elderly nutrition center run by Mayan… Read More ›
Poverty
New report on the right to food and human rights defenders in Guatemala
A coalition six of international organisations have published a new report on the Right to Adequate Food (RtAR) and the situation of human rights defenders in Guatemala. The report, published in October, followed a third international mission to Guatemala, carried… Read More ›
Lynchings and the Politics of Inequality
On May 20th, 2015, a sixteen-year-old girl was captured, beaten and, while bystanders watched passively, burned alive. She died. The brutality of the crime assured that, even from a remote corner of the world, international news outlets would run the… Read More ›
What’s at Stake in the Border Debate
The vital TomDispatch has a piece by Aviva Chomsky, titled ‘America’s Continuing Border Crisis’ discussing the recent ‘news’ of migrants coming from Central America to the United States. It was only news because the media decided that it was (isn’t… Read More ›
Child migrants head north fleeing violence, and believing they will be allowed to stay
“On the last day of school, Gladys Chinoy memorized her mother’s phone number in New York City and boarded a bus to Guatemala’s northern border. With nothing but the clothes on her back, the 14-year-old took a truck-tire raft across… Read More ›
Guatemalan State Can No Longer Afford to Neglect Food Security
This is an important article about the problems of hunger and malnutrition that affect people in Guatemala, especially its children and the state’s wilful inactivity in this regard. Joseph Ringoen is a Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs…. Read More ›
“The Scandal of Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean”
“In Guatemala’s case, the insidious effects of inequality are clear. There can be no suggestion that the continued and increasing suffering of Guatemala’s poor – most particularly its indigenous population – is due to a lack of resources or institutional… Read More ›
Living on the edge of the abyss
“Independent from the Occupy Movement in North-America and Europe, a movement of slum dwellers in Guatemala is occupying the street in front of Congress. They are protesting against the living conditions in the slums and a disfunctional housing policy. To… Read More ›
The children of Guatemala are starving
Natasha Pizzey-Siegert Paulina Noj sits with three of her eight children. The children of Guatemala are starving By Natasha Pizzey-Siegert Half of Guatemala’s children are malnourished. Years of poverty, violence and underdevelopment are taking a toll on Guatemala’s most… Read More ›
“The Mine” – Guatemala City
“In Guatemala City, a place called "The Mine" can deliver both a means of survival and a grisly death. Every day, dozens of residents salvage a living by scouring the massive dump for scrap metal. Facing the threat of mudslides,… Read More ›