Worldfocus Radio: Guatemala — behind the famine
I produced this radio show for Worldfocus.org.
Last month, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom declared a “state of calamity” as Guatemala experiences the worst drought in 70 years. Approximately half of the population lives below the poverty line and 50 percent of children are suffering from chronic malnutrition. But these are only the surface casualties of a vulnerable nation ravaged by 36 years of civil war, genocide and now, the encroaching drug war spilling over from the northern border with Mexico.
Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Savidge hosts Anita Isaacs, Carlisle Johnson and Sam Lowenberg. Some highlights of the conversation include:
* Guatemala in 2009 looks a lot like Guatemala of the 1960s and 1970s
* Malnutrition is connected to poverty, which is connected to the ownership of land
* There is almost no basic infrastructure in rural areas, including access to clean water and sanitation
* The U.S. CIA-orchestrated coup in 1954 gave rise to 36 years of genocidal armed conflict
* Lawlessness on the streets, drug trafficking and rural violence have contributed to the deaths of 6,000 people in 2008
* Indigenous systems of justice punish by means of lynching and public humiliation
* The sitting vice president has called Guatemala a “failed state”
* There has been no justice for war crimes and the civil war hangs over everyday life in Guatemala
* Is Guatemala a feudal society that never stopped being a banana republic?
* Guatemala has the highest per-capita income in all of Central America at $4,000/person, but income distribution is woefully underreported
* As the capital of Central America with it’s entangled history with the U.S., Guatemala does matter
Theme design by Borja Fernandez.