How will Montt defend himself in Guatemala?

I have a new post up at Al Jazeera on How will Montt defend himself in Guatemala? I'll leave you with the conclusion.

If the former general believes that the murders, rapes and torture that were carried out under his command were necessary to combat the guerrilla insurgency, he should make that argument to the Guatemalan people.

If he believes that the thousands of civilians who were killed, while tragic, saved the lives of untold millions of Guatemalans who otherwise would have been forced to live under the iron rule of the communists had the military not done its job, he should say so. If that is what he believed, and still believes today, he shouldn't embarrass himself by remaining silent.

No one is going to take his defence seriously if he blames a few rogue officers or if he says that no massacres ever occurred. In the end, the only satisfactory outcome will be a guilty verdict that leads to Efraín Ríos Montt spending the remaining years of his life behind bars. How he gets to there remains up to him.

Corruption back on the rise in Guatemala

I have another post up at Al Jazeera today. This time it's on corruption in Guatemala.

Basically, I'm not entirely convinced that Guatemala is anymore corrupt than it was a few years ago even though its score on the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International showed a sharp decline from 2010 to 2011 meaning its much more corrupt.

I think a lot of the increase has to do with the uncovering of corruption by Paz y Paz and CICIG which I mention at the end of the piece. What I didn't mention is the role of the media. It sure seems as though Guatemala's media is much more focused on uncovering corruption in politics today than they were a few years ago. Perhaps it's because there is more corruption with Colom than other presidents.

It's also possible, however, that the media is more committed to uncovering corrupt acts today and will continue to be so going forward (which is a good thing). It's also possible that they never liked Colom and have been harder on him than they were on Portillo and Berger. I guess we'll have to wait to see whether their committing to uncovering corruption is just related to Colom or will continue into the next Perez administration.

A changing of the guard in El Salvador

I have an op-ed up at Al Jazeera on the recent resignation of Manuel Melgar and the appointment of David Munguia Payes in El Salvador.

Munguia Payes' replacement of Melgar as Minister of Justice and Public Security is causing a bit of controversy in El Salvador - maybe even as much as Melgar's appointment did in the U.S. Embassy back in 2009.

Here's the intro, but you'll have to click through to read the entire article.

Manuel Melgar resigned as the Minister of Justice and Public Security two weeks ago in El Salvador. Initially, there was no public explanation for his voluntary resignation. On Tuesday, President Mauricio Funes appointed retired general David Munguía Payés to replace Melgar. The alleged involvement of the United States in Melgar's resignation, the role of the military in post-war El Salvador, and President Funes' relfationship with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) are three important issues related to Melgar's replacement with Munguía Payés.

I am going to be writing some longer op-ed pieces for Al Jazeera on the politics of Central America every month. I'll let you know about them here, but you'll have to visit their site to read the entire articles.