Paradoxes

Even after all of the reading we have done about the militarization of Guatemala, the numerous decades of state repression, it is still shocking to witness the outstanding paradoxes that exsist between life and death in Guatemalan society despite all of the change that occurs over the years. This section of the reading opens with artifacts from the newspapers delivered by the suavemente, gold-tooth gleaming, charismatic, Joselino whose daily "!Buenos dias!" are a farcry from the headings on the papers: "Teacher Gunned Down in Front of 40 School Children" "Journalist Was Disfigured""Bodies of Other Persons Found Butchered"...the list goes on. It is these paradoxes that are made unbelieveable because of the ingredients that constitute them; one part is joy and one part is terror. As the timeline continues, I understand why this reading is labeled Change for with the years there is an obvious movement of the people to attempt to upend the norms of death and destruction that have settled in their lives. The titles change from the ones previously states to "The Violence Has to End" and "The Kidnappings Must Cease". The media, representing the people, is finally reaching a breaking point fter the twenty-seven thousand killings under Garcia, the ten-thousand under Rios Montt, and even more thousands under Victores (64). How does this change occur? According to Lovell, presidential elections and aid from neighboring countries like the United States. Thus the July 1 vote "...turns out to be Guatemala's first major electoral event since the abortive presidential campaign f march 7, 1982." According to Lovell, the United States owes an integral part in the changing of these norms because the people in Guatemala are struggle for the same cause Americans struggled for two centuries ago. America is clearly a much more developed country and as a global leader should assume part of the responsiblity and aid in this transaction. However, it is impossible for the process of democratization in Guatemala to mirror other Latin American countries (70) because of economic aid and the repayment of the national debt. Obvious as daylight, Lovell travels to the country and discovers that the army still has total control of Guatemala--even with the mask of a civilian president. By 1990 the newspaper titles are still reading "Guatemala: 6.4 Million Impovershed People" and in 1999 most families are still torn apart from all of those who fled to other countries such as Genaro's. While "Guatemala is rich in resources, natural and human...Guatemala has been made a poor and backward country because of the allotment of its resources, especially its land resources, is deformed by crippling structures of inequalty" (172) and even though change is slowly occuring to reform and upend the norms of the past four decades, the paradox between life and death, joy and terror, is undeniable and it will take many more years to level.