A journey through the recent and turbulent history of Guatemala through the eyes of the persecuted, narrated by Diego Luna. Stemming from a personal interest stirred by the multiple echoes in Mexico and the rest of the continent, our narrator wonders: What is the purpose of the past? How did Guatemala become, to the amazement of the world and for a few years, a paragon of justice in Latin America? And why did it stop from one moment to the next?
This is the story of a country that, despite the prevalent corruption, managed to get its president to resign, and later prosecuted him and other military and political figures, as well as business owners and drug traffickers –once considered untouchable–, thanks to the collaboration between the Public Prosecutor’s office and the anti-corruption, anti-mafia taskforce provided by the UN: the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).
Today, the struggle for justice has reached a premature end. The political, military, and business elites have pressured the government to expel the CICIG, for accusing them of corruption. Those who helped build a new framework for justice are now being exposed and persecuted.
We journey from the present to the past to prove that history is cyclical, that it repeats itself without fail. We probe into the past through the voices of former CICIG members and collaborators, as well as former commissioners, magistrates, politicians, activists, business owners, and members of civil society –many of them persecuted and intimidated–, in order to understand the strategies employed by the powerful elites who have managed to retain control: corruption, murder, genocide, and promises of impunity.
The narrative, permeated by a series of emotions that go from hopefulness to concern, as well as joy and sadness, also takes a peek into Guatemala’s immediate future in order to reflect about what will happen to the sense of hope awakened by such a great experiment in justice.
AFP, Agencia Atlas, Gentevé Canal 29, Casa Blanca Media, EFE, Gobierno de Guatemala, Plaza Pública, Prensa Libre, Radio Nacional TGW, R.T., SkyLight, Telesur, The Voice of America, de su portal voanoticias.com; TN23/TVCHAPIN, Univision Noticias y Willy Barrios.
Helena Hofbauer, Arturo Aguilar, Ricardo González, Ximena Andión, Rossana Ramírez Dagio, Kyzza Terrazas, Enrique Naveda, Kate Doyle, Anayansi Díaz-Cortés, Pamela Yates, Juliana Saa, Jayro Bustamante, Gustavo Matheu, Rodrigo Guardiola, Tania Ornelas Domínguez, Gabriel Ascencio, Carlos Esteban García, Lucia Arcila, Ezequiel Pinedo León, José Zamora, Tai La Bella Damsky, Totopo, Israel Espinosa, Sergio Silva, Byron Vásquez and to all the people who supported us to make this podcast.
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