¡Bienvenid@s a GuatesHappening!

the "barrio" - zona 10, guatemala city

Guate’s happening, you ask? Well, Guate’s happening, obviously! Welcome to KatMatt’s blog, a fun fact-filled and (hopefully) regularly updated space in which we download our brains on all things Guate. Sometimes we’ll post serious wonky musings about poverty and development in Latin America. Other times we’ll post fun things about the places we travel and the food we eat. Sometimes we MIGHT EVEN POST BOTH AT THE SAME TIME.

Anyway, we’re here because I started a job with the Latin America Office of Catholic Relief Services, where I’ll be leading Monitoring & Evaluation efforts on many of the agency’s projects in the region – more on that later. Kat’s already deep into Spanish re-immersion, and for the next month is staying M-F with a host family down the road in Antigua, well beyond earshot of my toxic English. She’s also looking for work in the policy arena (e.g., asylum, immigration, rule of law, juvenile justice), so hit us up if you have any ideas and/or leads!

Speaking of Antigua, it’s quaint as hell, what with its cobblestone streets and charming colonial architecture, flanked by badass volcanoes on all sides. Some shots from this past weekend:

Obligatory calle de volcan shot

Niños riding the chicken bus

Fruits of the cocotero

From the coronas exhibit at hotel santo domingo

longing looks at earthlodge

But back in la ciudad, euphoria still runs high from the recent ouster of Guatemala’s ex-presidente, Otto Perez Molina, the result of his involvement (i.e., leadership) in a particularly egregious example of kleptocratic statecraft. Now known as La Linea, the deal consisted of government officials accepting bribes from Guatemalan companies in exchange for skipping out on payment of customs duties. In a country where the social safety net is full of holes already (think hospitals without syringes, villages without water, bankrupt social security), this is pretty high on the dictatorial d-bag scale. Following weeks of peaceful protest, Molina was swiftly stripped of his immunity by Guatemala’s congress on September 1 (the day we arrived), tendered his resignation the next evening, and went to jail the day after that. He’s still there, awaiting trial. Incredible and unprecedented, in this country and beyond. #CentralAmericanSpring?

prez palace from above - 100k protesters deep

In the meantime, general elections were held a week ago. No candidate won more than 50% of the popular vote, so there’ll be a runoff between the top two candidates on October 25. The choices aren’t great either – a comedian with no political experience, who has been called Guatemala’s Donald Trump, and a former First Lady (nicknamed “The Bulldozer”), who divorced her husband so she could get around a pesky law prohibiting family members of former heads of state from running for office.

GuateMALLa

While the protests and celebrations have been going on downtown, Kat and I have mostly been hanging out in Zone 10, a bougie enclave home to embassies, expats and wealthier Guatemalans (for safety reasons, CRS has a clearly defined "green zone" where its employees can live). Z10 also features several big fancy malls, including Oakland, which is a block away from our temporary housing. In some ways, this is a bit of a shock to the system. It’s surely a tad strange to come to the second-poorest country in the hemisphere (only Haiti is poorer, by most measures) only to find yourself in a mall with a Starbucks, an IMAX cinema (complete with buttkickahs) and authorized Apple dealer. But as it turns out, there is no shortage of millionaires in Guatemala City. The parking lot at the mall is full of Benzes, Beamers and Porches. Some mall-goers (especially the teenage children of the uber-elite and politicians) are apparently tailed by their plain clothes body guards. A friend told me last weekend that some rich dudes who don’t want to battle the city’s heinous traffic simply take their helicopters, whether it’s to the mall, office or the golf course. Indeed, Guate is also one the world’s 10 most unequal countries, which may explain the high levels of violence and other social woes.

But don’t worry about us (hi mom!) – almost all of the violent crime is restricted to areas of the city where gang activity is most prevalent, and along the Mexican border up north. Plus, we blend in real well - here’s Kat enjoying some fresh-squeezed OJ in a bag, as the Antigüeños do.

-