I found an interesting article about Guatemala in this weeks Economist. Because of our relationship with our pastor and our friends in Washington State, we have more than a passing interest in the country and so I did some additional research. The article that is linked below was written in 1997 and the civil war which had claimed the lives of over 200,000 citizens, had just “ended” in 1996. 40+ years of violence, caused by the less than covert actions of the C.I.A., and for which they were quick to brag.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/story38.html
Back to the article…the murder rate in Guatemala is increasing dramatically as the current government seems unable to erase the violence from society. Maras, youth gangs are growing in number, as is the violence against women. 624 women were murdered last year compared to 213 in the year 2000. There are only 20,000 police for a country of 13 million; with only 3,000 on duty at a time. Unregulated security firms employ about 100,000 people. If you can pay, you can be safe, but you may not want to know how they accomplished it. The adjoining country of El Salvador, with half the population, has twice the number of prosecutors. Imagine; 52 years of violence and what that does to a culture.
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