This video was made by Blake Narendra in August. Gracias, Blake!

The Partido Patriota flag that was draped on the school walls

Last year I told you how the local candidate for the fascist Partido Patriota put on a mother’s day party at a Catholic church near La Escuela de la Montaña. This is an election year in Guatemala’s pseudo-democracy so he held a mother’s day party at a local primary school. Notice the party logo – a white fist. The White Hand – Mano Blanco in Spanish – was the name of ultra right wing death squads, that carried out, murder, torture and disappearances of trade unionists, human rights activists etc. Often they would paint a white hand on the victim’s door. The PP leader, and presidential candidate is Otto Pérez Molina, a retired general and former head of the G-2, the Guatemalan Gestapo. He is held responsible for torture, disappearances, the murder of a soldier in order to fake the corpse of a guerilla leader, and acts of genocide during the civil war, in the department of Quiche. He is good friends with the U.S. ambassador…

Party political propaganda for the Patriot Party. Genocidal general Otto Pérez Molina is shown on the left.

Golden dawn

On the 8th and 9th April we walked up the highest volcano in Central America, Tajumulco, an incredible 14,000 feet! We camped near the summit, which was freezing (literally – the next morning there was frost on the ground!), and at 4.30am went up to the top, to see the sunrise. We had to carry a lot of weight up to where we camped – 9 litres of water between us, lots of layers, food for us both for 4 mealtimes,and a tent, so getting up was pretty exhausting, especially for us (we never do much exercise here and are relatively unfit!) We went up with two guides and a group of students from PLQ and the Mountain School. One of the guides was an ex-guerrilla, who talked about how the volcano was a guerrilla base during the war – Ju translated – and what it meant for him to be going up there, the memories it brought back and how it was a special place for him. Also he talked about the current situation in the area – there is a gold mine in the area which is causing lots of pollution to people’s water supply, using up a lot of water and causing conflict. It was really amazing – we have been wanting to go for ages but originally planned to get fit first, because it takes stamina to get up and the air is quite thin on top which makes breathing (and getting up to the peak) more difficult! Luckily we live at altitude (around 1,400m high, higher than Ben Nevis!), I think that helps!

El Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular exige la inmediata e incondicional liberación de la compañera Miriam Miranda, dirigente destacada del pueblo garífuna, coordinadora de la organización OFRANEH y miembra de la Coordinación Nacional del FNRP.

Miriam fue apresada por elementos de la policía, después de que reprimieron una manifestación pacífica que el pueblo garífuna realizaba en la carretera que lleva de Tela a Ceiba.

Al momento de emitir este comunicado, el pueblo garífuna y otros integrantes de la Resistencia Popular se encuentran frente a las instalaciones de la policía de Tela, exigiendo la liberación de Miriam y protestando por la nueva acción ilegal del régimen. Los compañeros y compañeras están siendo amenazados por los antimotines que se aprestan a lanzar bombas lacrimógenas una vez más.

Well done everyone who took part in the making of this programme.

You can watch excerpts right now, here-