From gangs to coffee rust: Push factors for Central American migrants

David Agren has From gangs to coffee rust: Push factors for Central American migrants for Catholic News Service in which I am quoted. David does a good jobs looking at both the push and pull factors that are leading hundreds of thousands of Hondurans, Salvadorans and Guatemalans to flee their homes. One push factor that I hadn't thought of coffee rust.

Honduras has struggled since a 2009 coup, which ushered in instability and allowed drug cartels to subsequently take advantage of the increasing instability and impunity to use the country as a transit point.

Gangs also grew in power, while a disease known as coffee rust wiped out the most recent coffee crop, throwing hundreds of thousands of poor Hondurans out of work. But no one reason explains the exodus of children, said Juan Sheenan, country director for Catholic Relief Services, the charitable arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"It's been a combination of a number of push factors, and the new ingredient is this coffee rust," Sheenan said.

In the 1960s and 1970s, economic crisis in the countryside forced thousands of jobless and landless campesinos to flee to the urban areas of the region. The arrival of large numbers of rural campesinos overwhelmed city services and helped contribute to calls for reform and revolution. Today, you still see rural Central Americans moving to the cities to escape the grinding poverty of the countryside but you also see them heading directly for neighboring countries and the United States. 

You can read David's article here.

The Guatemalan guerrillas committed the Batzul massacre too?

“When the Mountains Tremble” (1983) is one of the most powerful films on the Guatemalan civil war. It won numerous awards and helped propel Rigoberta Menchu to international audiences. Unfortunately, while the film gets much right, one of the most important stories from the film appears to have been just plain wrong.

A dramatic scene from the 1983 documentary will be corrected to show that the Batzul massacre highlighted in the film was committed not by the military, but by leftist rebels disguised as soldiers.

“We intend to make a correction that will clarify what happened,” Yates said in a statement last month. “It stands as a reminder of the terrible human costs of the violence in 1982-83.”

She said she will also amend a 2011 follow-up documentary, “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator.”

The seventeen men were killed by the Guerrilla Army of the Poor because they had been collaborating with the military. One of the surprising things that I learned was that the 1999 Commission for Historical Clarification had determined that the Batzul massacre had been committed by the EGP yet it took over another decade and David Stoll's investigation to get the matter corrected.

David Stoll, an anthropology professor at Middlebury College who has worked extensively in Guatemala, said that Yates’ original depiction of the Batzul massacre could be attributed to the “fog of war.”

Stoll questioned, though, why it took Yates so long to check the facts and why the footage from Batzul was reused in “Granito” even after the rebels’ responsibility had surfaced.

“People like Pam were not nearly as skeptical of the guerrillas as they should have been,” Stoll said.

Pamela Yates seems to have taken the high road when the contradictory information was brought to her attention a few year's ago (see this Facebook post) but not her followers who seem to owe David and the victims of the guerrilla massacre an apology. They really don't like David because it appears his research makes them uncomfortable and does not conform to their black and white worldview. Pamela has now agreed to change the original film and Granito follow-up to somehow reflect the new details of the guerrilla massacre.

It's unfortunate that the correction took so long and that of all the massacres committed during the conflict, overwhelmingly by the military, they had to get this one so wrong. It will but the news should not take away from the fact that the military and its allies committed the vast majority of human rights violations, including massacres, between 1960-1996. In many ways, the news is similar to Stoll's investigation of Menchu. Her story was mostly correct but a number of irregularities has undermined the book's authenticity (at least for some).

Information about the Batzul massacre comes shortly after a former ORPA commander was convicted and sentenced to 90 years in prison on the charges of homicide and crimes against humanity.

Former Guatemalan guerrilla sentenced to 90 years for massacre

Former ORPA commander Fermin Felipe Solano Barillas was sentenced to 90 years in prison after having been found guilty on the charges of homicide and crimes against humanity involving the massacre 22 civilians in the village of El Aguacate, Chimaltenango in 1988.

"This (sentence) is aimed at setting a legal precedent, to prevent these acts from ever being repeated," the court said in its ruling.

Solano Barillas was the first guerrilla convicted of any crimes committed during the armed conflict while a handful of military, police, and PAC officials have been convicted and sentenced. Efrain Rios Montt's trial is expected to start up once again in January but I, like many I presume, have my doubts.

Perhaps the Guatemalan right will now stop complaining that (former AG) Claudia Paz y Paz and the justice system have only gone after individuals aligned with the state and not the guerrillas.

Violent deaths are down nearly 10% so far this year according to INACIF statistics.

A minor was arrested after throwing a grenade at a water purification truck in Zona 18 of Guatemala City. One woman was killed. The seventeen year old is a member of the 18th Street Gang and the motive is believed to have been extortion. Should give added business to the armored clothing industry.

The Guatemalan government is interfering in the academic autonomy and institutionality of FLACSO. It also canceled the temporary residence of two volunteers with Peace Brigades International (here and here).

Happy Holidays!