Coming out of the Ixil Triangle on Saturday — after visiting a school where a massacre of Mayan farmers occurred in the eighties and meeting with a cofradia during the Santos Reyes fiesta in Chajul — we learned on Radio Sonora that the mayor of the important regional town of Cotzal had been murdered — shot dead in broad daylight in the center of town. The army was moving in to block the roads south, in hopes of capturing the culprit. We were almost completely alone on the road to Quiche, a twisting mountain lane of incredible beauty that we luckily traversed without incident; here, a stop at an army checkpoint when nerves are tense can go either way, said Ricardo. The government has attempted to negotiate with a ‘new’ guerrilla group active in northern Guatemala, but little is known about its leadership or objectives. It’s also an election year, I said, and already a bloody one. Once in Chichi it was time for a cold Gallo.
UPDATE: The next day it was reported by Sonora Radio that the mayor had, in fact, not been killed. Another male citizen had but the mayor was wanted for extortion and had tried to escape Cotzal by car. Thus, the police and army had moved in to block the roads out of Ixil. The reporting error was gross, but “they only had one man up there covering the events.”
In Pana today the fun continued, when I learned that my offer to help local nighttime patrol groups better interface with the foreign community here was being taken at face value, and I was now in the unlikely position of sponsoring a meeting tomorrow night where the armed and masked groups could present their mission statement to a coterie of foreign residents. We’ll be serving jaimaica iced tea, just like Starbucks. But ours is homemade. I’m sure the group will be impressed with our lawn furniture and sole bathroom. “Let’s see, who should we seat next to Eduardo with the machete?”
UPDATE: The meeting was a hit with nearly everybody. We had about 15 people in our terrarium-size yard, sitting around our kitchen table and couch on the lawn. Jeanie overdid it as usual, with turkey sandwiches, veggie platter, and iced jaimaica tea. The volley of discussion was tough for Chris to manage in two languages but the night patrol leaders felt meetings of this informal sort were more efficient and downright fun than working with the municipal “security commission” where things take forever and support for their efforts doesn’t materialize. Everyone stayed civil though some of the foreigners have reasonable gripes and serious concerns about unidentified masked men stopping cars at night and harassing partiers. Jeanie and I felt that a couple of large signs placed at the entrance to Jucanya, the residential area in question, blaring the message that “This is a drug and gun-free zone and you will be asked for identification,” would turn back locals and tourists alike who are entering the neighborhood to buy some fly or weed from the well-known dealer houses. The dealers would have to relocate, and would do so likely without a fight. Anyhow, this is the plan Chris and Ricardo will pursue with the patrols, helping to find the needed wood and painter to create the signs and getting them tacitly approved by the authorities. It seems like the best first step for a group of desperate residents wanting their neighborhood made safe again in the absence of police assistance. Wouldn’t families in a crime-infested barrio in the States do the same?
