Guatemala Never Again

Available for the first time in English, this document presents the testimonies of the victims of Guatemala's 36 year long war. When Bishop Juan Gerardi, responsible for the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHAG), released this study of human rights abuses in his country on April 24, 1998, he was murdered two days later. The ODHAG has since accused members of the Armed Forces of being responsible for the crime. This is the report of the Recovery of Historic Memory Project of Catholic Church. The 6500 personal testimonies which are the basis of the report were collected by 600 specially trained volunteers, and accounted for over 55,000 victims of the estimated 150,000 dead and disappeared during the conflict. Two thirds of the testimonies were collected in different Mayan languages. Twenty five per cent of the victims were children. Three quarters of all victims were indigenous. 422 massacres are documented. Responsiblity of 79.3 per cent of violence was identified as falling to the Army while the guerrillas account for 9.3 per cent of the violence recounted.

This study exposes the support that administrations in Washington have given right-wing dictatorships that committed terrorism especially during the cold war and war on terrorism. It rejects the narrow definition of terrorism insisted on by Washington that exempts terrorism committed by governments (state terrorism) from the definition, and for political reasons restricts the term solely to the private terrorism committed by private individuals or non-governmental organizations. Every one of the six truth commission reports used in the studyone each for El Salvador, Chile, Argentina, and South Africa and two with remarkably similar conclusions for Guatemala-- found that the governments were responsible for the great preponderance of terrorism and other acts of repression that occurred in their respective countries, much more so than the guerrillas. [publisher web site].

Theologians and scholars of religion draw on rich resources to address the complex issues raised by political reconciliation in the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia, South Africa, Northern Ireland and elsewhere. The questions addressed include: Can truth set a person, or a society, free? How is political forgiveness possible? Are political, personal, and spiritual reconciliation essentially related? Explorations in Reconciliation brings Catholic, Protestant, Mennonite, Jewish and Islamic perspectives together within a single volume to present some of the most relevant theological work today.

This ethnohistory examines how the Guatemalan gangs that emerged from the country's strong populist movement in the 1980s had become perpetrators of nihilist violence by the early 2000s.

This complete guide to Guatemala includes special sections on family travel, Mayan history and culture, and detailed itineraries. Guatemala delivers what adventurous travelers dream of: exotic birds and wildlife, world-class caving, whitewater rafting, zip-lining through the jungle, fascinating Mayan ruins, vibrant cities, and riotous indigenous festivals and markets. Like Guatemala itself, this guide combines the best in adventure, nature, and culture to create indelible travel memories. Author Conner Gorry is a solo woman traveler, and that translates into insightful text that keeps an eye on travel safety issues. Detailed itineraries offer invaluable, road-tested advice, while comprehensive history and information on Mayan culture imbue your trip with context and meaning. Gorry covers the top tourist destinations with the knowledge only experience can bring; she also emphasizes sustainable travel options that support local communities and minimize environmental impact. Including sections on health, language, and traveling with children—everything you need to have a fun, adventurous, safe, and authentic travel experience is right here. More than 100 photographs and detailed maps round out the information, providing everything you need to make the most of your visit.

In the aftermath of armed conflict, how do new generations of young people learn about peace, justice, and democracy? Michelle J. Bellino describes how, following Guatemala’s civil war, adolescents at four schools in urban and rural communities learn about their country’s history of authoritarianism and develop civic identities within a fragile postwar democracy. Through rich ethnographic accounts, Youth in Postwar Guatemala, traces youth experiences in schools, homes, and communities, to examine how knowledge and attitudes toward historical injustice traverse public and private spaces, as well as generations. Bellino documents the ways that young people critically examine injustice while shaping an evolving sense of themselves as civic actors. In a country still marked by the legacies of war and division, young people navigate between the perilous work of critiquing the flawed democracy they inherited, and safely waiting for the one they were promised...

This book examines the archival aesthetic of mourning and memory developed by Latin American artists and photographers between 1997-2016. Particular attention is paid to how photographs of the assassinated or disappeared political dissident of the 1970s and 1980s, as found in family albums and in official archives, were not only re-imagined as conduits for private mourning, but also became allegories of social trauma and the struggle against socio-political amnesia. Memorials, art installations, photo-essays, street projections, and documentary films are all considered as media for the reframing of these archival images from the era of the Cold War dictatorships in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, and Uruguay. While the turn of the millennium was supposedly marked by “the end of history” and, with the advent of digital technologies, by “the end of photography,” these works served to interrupt and hence, belie the dominant narrative on both counts. Indeed, the book's overarching contention is that the viewer’s affective identification with distant suffering when engaging these artworks is equally interrupted: instead, the viewer is invited to apprehend memorial images as emblems of national and international histories of ideological struggle.

"Father Ignacio Ellacuria, SJ, president of the University of Central America, leading Latin American philosopher, and liberation theologian, was assassinated with five Jesuit companions and two women on November 16, 1989. Love That Produces Hope brings together leading authorities on key aspects of Ellacuria's thought. The book introduces readers to the groundbreaking life and thought of Ignacio Ellacuria. His biography and writings embody late twentieth-century transformations and tensions that reshaped the life of the Catholic church among the crucified peoples of Central America. Love That Produces Hope evaluates the significance of Ellacuria's work, particularly his impact on theology, philosophy, and education. Ellacuria found hope in his faith that God's grace sustains the tenacious struggle of millions of men, women, and children to nurture those they love in the face of poverty and an uncertain future."--Publisher's website.