July 13, 2001
By Julio Godoy-Anelu
GUATEMALA CITY-- With any luck, the average American may recognize Guatemala as a Central American country, about a two-hour flight south of Miami. Some may even know that the nation signed a peace treaty in 1996 which ended a 36-year brutal civil war that killed over 100,000 civilians, mainly Mayan Indians.
Perhaps, some have heard of our country and its 12 million people because of the notorious murders that occurred here: A Catholic bishop was murdered two years ago; in May, an American missionary, Barbara Ann Ford, was slain in broad daylight.
Despite the treaty, peace has not come to Guatemala. There were high expectations here a year and a half ago with the election of President Alfonso Portillo. True, he was a member of a far-right military party, but we thought he might be able to move the country forward.
In fact, he has exceeded most voters1 expectations, but not in a positive way. He has proved to be merely a decoy for a group of civilians and military hardliners -- a group of corrupt advisors who operate in much the same way that Vladimiro Montesino functioned in Peru.
Members of the president1s party and their associates have been involved in in drug trafficking, smuggling, car theft, trafficking of immigrants and embezzlement. Their ties to the government have allowed them to covered up their crimes by manipulating judges and district attorneys and contaminating evidence in crime scenes.
Narcotics seizures in the country are down, although 200 tons of cocaine is estimated to transit through the country to Mexico and eventually, the United State. The only winners are the international drug traffickers. Already drug dealers control vast land holdings in the northern part of the country, where they store drugs and have makeshift landing strips.
Although many here refuse to acknowledge it, Guatemala is in the process of becoming another Colombia, slowly being taken over by powerful drug cartels. The peace process that ended the civil war now seems far away. Social inequalities remain; the poor are getting poorer. Instead of fiscal reforms, the government has tried to impose a sales tax on the already overturned population.
When he came to power, Portillo had the support of most Guatemalan voters. Today, that support is gone. He has returned the country to the same dark forces that were running it before the peace treaties.
Julio Godoy-Anelu is a columnist for the Guatemalan daily
El Periodico. (Copyright 2001, Global Beat Syndicate, 418 Lafayette
Street, Suite 554, New York, NY 10003 http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate).