Guatamalan President Laments Setbacks

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:58:42 -0600

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:05:30 -0600

Guatemalan President Ivaro Colom has recently declared that his country is in a "state of calamity" due to a lack of food resources for hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans. Attributing the situation to the severe drought and the exacerbating effects of el Nino, a weather phenomenon that has extended the normal dry spell and further reduced agricultural production. As a result, Colom called upon the international community for emergency aid to alleviate the disaster now in full effect. However, contrary to the claims of the Guatemalan government, this emergency is not entirely the product of unalterable weather patterns. The tenebrous political, social, and economic history of the nation, combined with poor leadership and a gross lack of accountability has directly led to the crisis. The current situation is one of several disturbing events that have taken place in Guatemala in recent months, some of them under the leadership of its first left-leaning president in 53 years. Facing charges ranging from corruption to murder, it is well that Colom should be personally dispirited, as hopes for progress are fading fast.

Coloma's at times feckless rule is not necessarily the only root problem dragging the country down, although his administration has done little to alleviate any of them. His presidency began in an already profoundly aching country. The history of Guatemala is a tragic one, dominated by the legacy of a 36-year civil war that left 200,000 people dead and approximately 40,000 missing and unaccounted for. The country came out of the war severely divided, not only between the wealthy and the poor, but also between the indigenous Mayan communities and the ladinos (those of mixed European and indigenous ancestry). Correctly seen as one of the most corrupt and violent countries in Latin America, Guatemala is also one of the poorest. Approximately half of its 13 million people live on $1 a day.

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