The seeds that were sown during the brutal 36-year civil war in Guatemala have sprouted and in fact have pre-maturely started dropping ripe fruits soaked in blood and tears. After claiming over 200,000 lives, the saga has now reached a never-ending climax with government-backed self-appointed anti-crime squads holding the reigns.
The screams echoing out of countless murders committed by these freelance crime-fighting groups, like People’s Social Cleansing Group, in the name of justice are easily suppressed by the acknowledgement of the police that the emergence of these gangs has shown a marked drop in crime rate across the country. What a pity?
Incessant violence and poverty has forced Guatemalans to flee and take refuge in the United States in great numbers. Rest don’t have any choice but to bear the heat of former combatants, frustrated police officers and ex-guerrillas with a strong backup of their own communities. The killers often go scot-free, ultimately luring others to join giving healthy breeding grounds to extremists.
The brutal killings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver in Guatemala this week, allegedly by a drug-trafficking gang along with four police officers, including the head of Guatemala’s organized crime investigation unit, reflects the game the powerful parties are playing in the country with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger feeding his whims on all this as a silent spectator.
Though Rigoberta Menchu, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and Mayan, has joined the race for the Guatemala’s presidential election, only time will tell how far she’s able to restore ‘hope’, however, ‘peace’ still remains a distant dream.
Via: Washington Post
