Drogas

Wow! My head is spinning! I met my first informant today, a single mother with three small kids, living on her own without electricity, without an income, trying to get her kids to be able to study. I'm sure you'll hear more about her and other mothers later.

I've also been seing some old and some new friends those days and my head is a chaos of names and places and things to remember. But today I just felt I have to inform you about the worst thing happening in Guatemala right now. El narcotrafico, the huge deal with drugs getting smuggled over the boarders here.

A Guatemalan woman recently got arrested in Paris for smuggling drugs. She's a mother of two young kids and her mother here in Guatemala is desperate to get her back home frome Europe. The woman is probably treated much better in the prison in France though...

I stay in Cobán now, and I aim to visit Tactic a lot, a village situated about forty minutes south from Cobán. Both those places are on the way north through the country, on the only real road through this part. That means it's also located "en el camino de las drogas", in the way where a lot of drugtrafic now passes. The smugglers in Mexico has discovered Guatemala as a good place to land their small planes in secret, and to transport their gods across borders that are more or less unguarded. Guatemala, and especially Alta Verapaz where I stay, has become the new port for the Mexican bands to reach out to the United States and the world with their drugs. Out to the world where you are. Out to the world where the money is.

Both in Tactic and Cobán people now tell stories about neighbours being shot, about not feeling secure in the streets even during the day, about feeling insecure even in their own homes. A friend in Tactic, who usually teches spanish to tourists, tells me that she's out of work now since there are not to many tourists daring to stay here anymore. Another friend of mine told me about a man who got shot, probably because of drugs. But he didn't die but ended up in hospital instead. So the once who tried to kill him in the streets went to the hospital instead, asking for the family of the man. Of course they were all there. And so the band shot the whole family and then also the man they were aiming for in the first place. And the nurses could just watch and pray for their lifes to be saved.

According to the Swedish embassy Guatemala has become more and more insecure just during the latest six months beacuse of the rising amount of drugs going through the country. More Mexicans and foreigners show up, but also a lot of locals get involved, some volontary, some forced to leave their land to the dealers. Worst case senario is that Guatemala will be completely controlled by the Mexican druggmaffia within two years.

It might be hard, living in another reality, to understand how the drugtrade can easily destroy both people, families and a whole country. But all of you reading this are smart and educated people. You've got money. You've got knowledge. You've got power. So please, don't ever support the dirty industry of drugs!

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