Even the Graffiti Protests

In a country saturated with thirty six years of violence, even the graffiti protests. It yells back at the people, what about the three thousand woman that have been murdered in the last few years, completely separate from the war? Forget just warfare, this is messy, grey. Death squads and paramilitary groups killed and tortured 200,000 people, the majority being a-political. Killed in the most brutal violent way - sledge hammers to the head, fetuses cut out of swollen bellies, burning people alive.

Surprise, Surprise. The United States funded the military which committed 97% of these massacres and killings, to fight communism. Congress realized they were committing human rights abuses in a third Central American country, and cut funding, but Reagan wanted to continue. He called Montt, a man of ¨great personal integrity,” a day before another peasant massacre. Funding started up again shortly after. Rigoberta Menchu, presidential candidate and Indigenous rights defender, explains, ¨these people were not communist, they were hungry.¨ How could illiterate peasants even know who Karl Marx was?

This is the country I was introduced to. The civil war is over, but violence is tangible. Fifteen people are killed a day.

I am writing this from my comfort zone, Managua, but I can’t let go. There is a very real chance I could work in Guatemala City, they are killing street children to ¨clean it up.¨ This is also being done in Brazil, countries in Africa, and Russia. I could combine my eventual legal skills with my passion for human rights in the global south.

Someone asked me if I do this as a way to serve others. That is a nice effect. But, to be honest, I do this out of self preservation. I learned early on that I would get bored with the Volvo and three kids.