Yesterday Andres told me the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation came to his class at the University of San Carlos - Guatemala's only public university. They asked anyone with relatives who may be from the capital/disappeared/possibly dumped in the La Verbena cemetery if they would participate in a free DNA test.

As I have written about before, the FAFG (Guate Forensic Anthro Found.) is the privately funded entity that has been doing exhumations for the last 15 years uncovering mass graves and massacred villages resulting from Guatemala's 36 year civil war, or la violencia. FAFG is apparently largely funded by Scandinavian governments and other humanitarian-oriented governments and organizations. Of course, the Guatemalan government ain't funding this type of work!

The FAFG is amazing and I was lucky to visit on my Rights Action delegation. Aside from exhumations in rural villages, the FAFG has just begun to exhume a "well" in a Guatemala City cemetery called La Verbena. Prompted by the widely known fact that for many years people labeled "XX" were buried or dumped in this cemetery, plus the "smell" that apparently has been wafting from this "well," the FAFG is now doing an official exhumation of the site. I posted a video some time ago about this and I will post it again...HERE.

So the FAFG has come all the way up to Xela to find any possible links or relatives to the countless "disappeared" people who are in La Verbena. According to Andres, the FAFG people who came described the site saying there are many, many bodies but mostly all on top of each other, which makes the exhumation process more difficult - harder to identify individuals I guess. The exhumation of La Verbena is the first in the capital city and sure to create much stir because people know what is there. This process will finally give people "proof" their loved ones were systematically hunted down during la violencia and disappeared, like in the villages.

In the news today, the BBC reports the human rights violations in San Miguel where the GoldCorp mine is destroying the community. It seems like many of the wrongs are being exposed with the recent study by the University of Michigan physicians, the constant denouncement of the mine by human rights groups, work of the locals despite the fear of repression, and a whole mess of work people have been doing that I've never heard of. Unfortunately, San Miguel is pretty hurt and is serving as an example of what could happen in other communities. Their plight sparked a huge movement across the neighboring department of Huehuetenango, where Concepcion Huista is, to hold community votes - out in the open and widely documented - against the mine, or a mine, or anything about mining! NO! Concepcion held theirs and voted against mining. Although no actual mining has happen in Concepcion, there are concessions to mine ALL over Huehue... Their initiative will hopefully save them from the misery that has taken over San Miguel over in San Marcos.

Another interesting story about a community radio station used by the guerillas during the war and folks still trying to take to the radio waves in order to diffuse information, especially in Mayan languages. Check it out! What gets me is this, I have climbed Tajumulco two times now and never even knew for a second the historical role the volcano has played in Guatemala, except being the tallest point in Central America. The woman I met with her case down here in Guate, Jennifer Harbury, wrote a book about the guerilla fighters of Guatemala called Bridge of Courage; she spent 30 days with them in the mountains....On Tajumulco. Before it was a tourist climb! And there was a radio station that apparently the military could never get rid of "La Voz Popular" that told of the repression and violence broadcasted as far as the signal went. All this on Tajumulco. Next time I climb it, oh and there will be a next time!, I will take a moment to imagine her stories and somehow try to imagine the fighting and bombing that also took place.

The radio article says there are about 200 pirate radio stations in Guatemala, and boy can I vouch for that! My Land Crusier has a simple radio - no tape - and so I have a radio adapter for my iPod, but I can NEVER get a free, unused radio signal. Every single spot on the radio dial has some kind of evangelical broadcast, marimba breakdown, random Mayan language, or Los Tigres Del Norte.