Bird´s eye view

Leslie Vogel, the Prebyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-worker who works in Guatemala with the progressive theological program known by the acronym CEDEPCA, gave the visit team a bird´s eye view of Guatemala political history and then focused on recent protests and reform.  Leslie highlighted some key events:
-Spanish conquest of Guatemala
-Guatemalan independence from Spain
-weakening of the government alliance with the Catholic Church and the incorporation of U.S. Presbyterian missionaries into Guatemala
- the 10-year success and then 1954 U.S.-sponsored coup that toppled the social reform Arbenz government
-the 25-year civil war that pitted Guatemalan elites and the military against guerillas and - in the end - the indigenous population

Leslie then concentrated on the past 15 months of Guatemalan politics, with a United Nations-sponsored effort to root out corruption in the Guatemala government and then a swelling anti-corruption movement - complete with a (nationwide?) general strike last summer, the impeachment of the president, and a complex national election.  With the culture of silence apparently diminished, things are far from perfect but activism and organizing continue - including small protests that continue every Saturday (and which team members witnessed in front of the Presidential Palace a couple of hours earlier).

Leslie wrapped up by saying that the indigenous people in the part of the country the team will visit have a reputation for being docile), but that the recent presidential candidate that at least some of Crescent Hill´s partners supported apparently slid in the polls because of possible links between his businesses and drug trafficking. Leslie also highlighted immigration to the United States (with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that kept the U.S. government from opening up more immigration, daily flights into Guatemala City of Guatemalans being deported back from the United States and Mexico, and the importance of remissions from the United States to Guatemalan famlies in Guatemala and the Guatemalan economy) and femicide (the widespread and largely unpoliced torture and killing of hundreds and thousands of Guatemalan women) as key issues.  And she also closed by sharing a prayer and reading suggestions ("Bitter Fruit," "The Brothers," and "Silence on the Mountain) with the team and huddling especially with the younger people about the team about more information/resources.

-Perry Chang