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Hector Montenegro took a break from election campaigning in Guatemala last week - to bury his murdered teenage daughter. Her killers had pulled out her fingernails, tied her hands behind her back, slit her throat, then stuffed the corpse into the boot of a taxi with two other victims of similarly brutal attacks.

"I am sure that her killing was politically motivated," said Mr Montenegro, 71, a veteran activist for the poor and elderly. "I am used to the threatening phone calls, the insults, the people calling me a communist. But what sort of animal could do this to a teenage girl?"

Forty candidates or senior party officials have already been murdered during the campaign - a grim tally that does not include supporters or relatives such as Mr Montenegro's daughter. With two weeks to go before the September 9 poll, the death toll makes this the bloodiest election in the country's history, as drug lords, crime gangs and political rivals seek to buy power, settle scores and intimidate enemies.

This is a nation where delivery boys pushing crates of soft drinks across the road require the protection of an armed guard carrying a pump-action shotgun - a scene played out on the journey to Mr Montenegro's home just south of the capital Guatemala City last week. In a nearby market, paramilitary police with just six weeks training have been deployed, as the authorities try to restore a semblance of law and order.

And as the political casualty count grows, so do the presidential prospects of Otto Perez Molina, a silver-haired former military intelligence chief who is promising a security crackdown under the campaign slogan of "The Iron Fist".

Gen Perez Molina, who heads the Patriotic Party, is making up ground on the long-time frontrunner, Alvaro Colom, 56, a centre-Left former businessman who lost two close family members to political assassinations during a civil war that claimed at least 200,000 lives.

By far the most attacks have been suffered by UNE and the smaller party of Rigoberta Menchu, the Nobel Peace laureate and campaigner for the rights of indigenous Mayans, who is running a distant fourth in the presidential polls. Mr Marroquin said his party had been targeted because of its frontrunner status and its refusal to accept drug money.

Indeed, in the murky and dangerous world of Guatemalan politics, Mr Montenegro, a UNE candidate for congress, has his own suspicions about who is to blame for his daughter's murder. "Who has most to gain from the creating insecurity in the country? The candidates who say they will bring security back to the country, of course," he said.

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BTW, his daughter was 15.

Definitely an election Washington and our little Stevie can be proud of. Where's the west's outcry over "free and fair" elections in Guatamala?

[ 26 August 2007: Message edited by: a lonely worker ]

What was most disturbing "as the political casualty count grows, so do the presidential prospects of Otto Perez Molina, a silver-haired former military intelligence chief who is promising a security crackdown under the campaign slogan of "The Iron Fist".

Who supports Molina financially or should I ask where his money was made?

Do you know which private security firm was involved in this little gem from Amnesty?

On 4 December 2006, Dionisio Díaz García, a lawyer with the human rights organization Association for a More Just Society (ASJ), was shot dead as he was driving to the Honduran Supreme Court to prepare for a hearing on a case of unfair dismissal against a private security company.

and there is this..
Guatemalan journalists were shocked by the death of Roberto Martínez, a photographer for Prensa Libre, who was killed in April while covering a riot sparked by a bus-fare increase. Although he carried a camera and was clearly identifiable as a member of the press, Martínez was shot by private security guards who opened fire on the rioters. Two other journalists were injured in the attack.

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Forty candidates or senior party officials have already been murdered during the campaign - a grim tally that does not include supporters or relatives such as Mr Montenegro's daughter. With two weeks to go before the September 9 poll, the death toll makes this the bloodiest election in the country's history, as drug lords, crime gangs and political rivals seek to buy power, settle scores and intimidate enemies.

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But hey, it's an election, and an election is a process, not a conclusion, and the girl's dad had been called a "communist", so what's the problem people?

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Who supports Molina financially or should I ask where his money was made?

Do you know which private security firm was involved in this little gem from Amnesty?

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The silence on his web profile is startling. What little information exists have him as a star graduate of the School of the Americas, being on the CIA's payroll, responsible for the assassination of a judge, political opponents and a variety of other human rights offenses. In other words: Washington's dream candidate.

Here's some links:

Notorious Guatemalan School of the Americas Graduates

Guatemala Outside In

Imagine if this was a left wing candidate's history? Or it was right wing candidates 15 year old daughters being sadistically butchered? The marines would already be on their way.

In an earlier thread I got blasted for saying
there are "progressives" on babble who go on forever about Cuba and Venezuela and forget what's happening only a few hundred kilometres away.

Ken, I assume this is sarcasm. This attack is brutal, this is a grave wrong. Those defending the electoral process would agree. But those who defend the electoral process are in no way excusing these sort of atrocities. To defend the electoral process in places like Guatemala is to hope and work in solidarity with those willing to put themselves on the line for an ideal. To work for a day when an election doesn't mean people will be murdered or tortured. People who have to go through things we must be thankful we don't. That may sound trite but it is true.

lonelyworker, Guatemala was the 'forgotten' country even during the eighties when there was a lot more focus on Latin America.

[ 27 August 2007: Message edited by: mayakovsky ]

I wonder if that very large undecided vote (38% in this poll) consists mainly of people who intend to vote left, but who are afraid to say so for fear of being murdered.

And it is Guatemala that the US wanted on the Security Council! Three Yankee cheers for another genocidal colonial settler state!

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The poll placed Álvaro Colom of the centre-left National Union of Hope (UNE) in first place with 22 percent of voter intentions, followed by retired general Otto Pérez Molina of the rightwing Patriotic Party (PP) with 17.5 percent, and in third place Alejandro Giammattei of the governing centre-right Great National Alliance (GANA) with 7.67 percent.

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And I'm pretty sure the Iron Fist bull-shit plays well with his chief constituency, Ladino men, what with how macho they all want to be. Portillo got elected by mainly patriotic jerks who liked the fact that he shot some mexicans years before. What a warped dominate culture. A rightwing Christian Taliban with shaggy moustaches.

This article left me with a little more hope:

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On Tuesday, Menchú condemned the electoral violence that has claimed the lives of at least 39 activists and candidates from various parties. She announced that the latest victim, murdered on Monday, was Clara Luz López Marroquín, an Encounter for Guatemala candidate for town councillor in the municipality of Casillas, in the south of the country.

Some analysts draw parallels between Menchú’s candidacy and Bolivia’s indigenous President Evo Morales and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

But Lux, who was minister of culture and sports during the administration of Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004), told IPS that "ours is an eminently national platform, which has nothing to do with Morales or Chávez, although it’s true that we watch their politics in order to learn from them."

Despite the fact that over a decade has passed since Guatemala’s 1960-1996 civil war (in which 200,000 people were killed) came to an end, the country is still wracked by violence, with killings of women and human rights activists and gang violence.

Menchú’s father, a leader of the rural Campesino Unity Committee, died when the police burned the Spanish embassy in 1981, when it was occupied by activists. In recent years, Menchú has worked to bring to justice those accused of crimes against indigenous peoples during the armed conflict.

Menchú and Luis Montenegro played down the poll results, and said they expected to win at least "15 or 20 seats" in Congress.

According to Pop, "Rigoberta has already won," because she managed to create Winaq, which has been "a ghost in the collective imagination of Guatemalans." Although it is not yet formally a political party, it is spreading through the country, weaving networks of participation for indigenous people.

"Rigoberta Menchú will be around for a long time yet," the presidential candidate told journalists at the close of the news briefing.

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(fixed format)

[ 28 August 2007: Message edited by: anchovy breather ]

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A rightwing Christian Taliban with shaggy moustaches.

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As a member of the Shaggy Moustache community, I protest this remark. Most right-wing Guatemalan Christians actually have pencil-line moustachios, Pinochet-or-Franco style.

Ever been abused by corrupted cops?

Ever lived with the poor indians who just need justice?

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Originally posted by imontoya:
What you guy really know about Guatemala?
Ever lived there?
Ever been with a gun in your face facing death?

Ever been abused by corrupted cops?

Ever lived with the poor indians who just need justice?

Stop talking about things you dont know or understand, it's easy to talk behing a keyboard, and critisize with assumptions.

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I'm not sure who you're saying this to, but let me apologize if in some way I've offended you.
I know that life in Guatemala, especially for the indigenous majority, is basically hell. And my country, the U.S., is responsible for inflicting that hell as a result of our intervention against democracy in 1954.

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soy básicamente infierno.

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(on edit)

Well, checked it myself, and she's getting 3%. Probably a lot of her potential voters are still to terrified of getting taken away and tortured to vote.

Well, at least Rios Montt didn't make the runoff.

[ 10 September 2007: Message edited by: Ken Burch ]

como quien? que conclusiones específicamente?