Tags for this video have been changed from 'Guatemala, Sinkhole, Ma, y 31st, 2010' to 'Guatemala, Sinkhole, May 31st, 2010' - edited by kulpims

that's fantastic. I climbed Pacaya in Guatemala a few years back & stood near a lava flow; this is on a whole other level. Way cool.

*nature *nsfw (holy shit!)

Tags for this video have been changed from 'shamanic rock n roll, world music, fantastic' to 'shamanic, rock n roll, world music, fantastic, guatemala, spanish, latin, 00s, groovy' - edited by Eklek

*controversy.

From the Time article linked above (the other side of the story is that the president's enemies did it to make him look bad... a bit of a stretch, but you wonder - a conspiracy to stop a leftist? Hmm....).

"Colom has said the Rosenberg video is part of a right-wing conspiracy designed to destabilize the government and ultimately bring him down. In a broadcast interview, he suggested that Rosenberg was coerced into making the video. Colom pointed to a radio journalist, Mario David Garcia, as the key link to the conspiracy. Garcia, a presidential candidate for an ultra-right-wing party in the 1980s, told TIME he helped Rosenberg record the video in his office the week before the murder. "It's outrageous. There was never any coercion," Garcia says. "I even left the office while he was recording the video." Garcia says Rosenberg came to him for help and to appear on Garcia's radio show but changed his mind and decided to record the video. (Read a story about the turmoil in Guatemala in the 1980s.)

Nevertheless, Colom supporters have seized the conspiracy theory to defend the President. "We're here in support of our President and against these lies trying to bring him down," said Anita Lopez, 32, as she rallied in front of the presidential palace on Wednesday. Students of the left-leaning public university and indigenous Mayans joined her. Many said the government bused them to the city from the suburbs.

Steps away, thousands of protesters, including students from right-leaning private universities, marched in front of the presidential palace, carrying signs calling Colom an "assassin" and demanding his resignation. The competing protests are the most visible sign of a politically charged environment that has the potential to cause Colom to resign, Isaacs says. "This country has for so long been paralyzed by the pervasive violence and the potent mix of gangs and narcotraffickers," she says. "Now that paralysis has turned into rage. And if these demonstrations pick up momentum, they could have a snowball effect.""

Tags for this video have been changed from 'mexico, guatamala, archaeology, myth' to 'mexico, guatemala, archaeology, myth' - edited by calvados

Tags for this video have been changed from 'bruce, cockburn, rocket launcher' to 'bruce, cockburn, rocket launcher, guatemala, refugees, killings' - edited by calvados

Your right mauz15, they won't be going to Guatemala, they'll be coming here. Not that our situation will be any better. In fact we just gave $1.4 billion in military hardware to fight the drug cartels. More money down the drain fighting a losing battle. Meanwhile the US drug sales from Mexico generate roughly $24 billion. Time to legalize it.

Arsenault185,

You're in the military, tell me why the Army would put nearly the entire 1st Armored Division adding several thousand soldiers to Fort Bliss. I moved away from El Paso 12 years ago and back then they said they only had 20 years of water left for the region. Seems kinda retarded.

>> ^arsenault185:
I say pull fort Bliss out of there and let it all go to hell. Give it back to Mexico. El Paso is giant shit hole. By far the worst city I have ever lived in. And if you want to be nice about the whole thing and protect it, hell, Fort Bliss now has a SHITLOAD of combat power just chilling out. Plant 'em on our border and shoot anyone who comes to close Done. I'm sorry, but I could give two fucks about Mexico falling into collapse, when my own country has enough of its own problems..


omg thank you for solving such complicated situatuon that easily. Shoot them. why didn't I think of that?

I say you better start to 'give a fuck' about Mexico's situation, because if there is a collapse, where do you think many of those people will go to? Guatemala on the south border, or the U.S? or what, are the affected Mexican families also included in your 'shoot anyone' splendid solution too? furthermore, what do you think the war is about? hmm i dont know, like a drug war? oh yeah who buys most of it? the U.S. hmm now what are some of the ways those drugs plus the U.S made weapons the cartels buy get from one side of the border to another? could it be that U.S border patrol officers can be bribed? *gasp*

The U.S shares responsibility in this situation, therefore, it is one of its many problems even if it is not entirely its own one. So you have to give a fuck.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99401743

^imstellar

Am not against gun control but to claim an armed populace is a deterrent against government oppression is a really ridiculous idea, even more so when you factored in the genocides of Armenia, Soviet Union, China, Guatemala and Cambodia.

Why not mention the reverse situation where there was high gun saturation then to show what happened when there was an armed populace? Somalia, Rwanda, Afghanistan and so on?

Such pro-gun arguments always seem to come from the US where this issue has been blown out of proportion because of the NRA and the Republican Party because it applies to a certain political demographic.

This doesn't address the high occurrence of gun related crime in the US in general when compared to states that have varying levels of gun control laws but don't have such high crime rates such as Canada, Japan, Finland, Switzerland and other EU states.

^unclejimbo,

directly comparing murder rates country-to-country is not a valid comparison because of a convolution of variables and you should know that. the figures i quoted were not simple murders, if one included those, the numbers would be even higher. genocide is only possible under a differential of force. that occurs when one group disarms another group. i think you should read up on gun myths further before you jump to the conclusions held by "popular knowledge". if this is a subject you are interested in, (at least interested enough to read about while you are at work) i can point you to a lot of enlightening information.

"In 1911, Turkey established gun control. Subsequently, from 1915 to 1917, 1.5-million
Armenians, deprived of the means to defend themselves, were rounded up and killed.
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. Then, from 1929 to 1953, approximately 20-
millon dissidents were rounded up and killed.
In 1935, China established gun control. Subsequently, between 1948 and 1952, over 20-million
dissidents were rounded up and killed.
In 1956, Cambodia enshrined gun control. In just two years (1975-1977) over one million
"educated" people were rounded up and killed.
In 1964, Guatemala locked in gun control. From 1964 to 1981, over 100,000 Mayan Indians
were rounded up and killed as a result of their inability to defend themselves.
In 1970, Uganda got gun control. Over the next nine years over 300,000 Christians were rounded
up and killed."

It is not enough to say that gun control resulted in these deaths, this requires additional analysis which is found in that book. Gun confiscation rarely results in the direct, immediate death of its owner, rather it establishes a force differential which makes oppression, genocide, and murder possible.

You may not realize it, but one of the few things stopping someone from rounding you up and killing you is the fact that there are 150 million guns in this country. It does not mean that in the absence of guns genocide always occurs, but there has never been an instance of genocide where the victims had a means to defend themselves. If you take away the guns, and somewhere down the road something intense happens which causes a philosophical shift, you are ripe for genocide. Just look at WW2, the Japanese were rounded up into internment camps. How many Japanese lives do you think were spared because the US government did not have the physical power to kill them as a result of an armed populace? How about for arabs after 9-11?

It is extremely dangerous to trust your life with complete strangers, and that is what you do when give up your right to defend yourself.

"all guns will be confiscated and..."

its funny(?) until it comes true. list of countries/states that have confiscated firearms:

1938 Germany
1996 Australia
2001 Canada
1991 New York
1999 California
2005 Louisiana
1997 Great Britain
1935 China
1964 Guatemala
1956 Cambodia
1970 Uganda
1929 USSR
1911 Turkey
Bermuda
Cuba
Greece
Ireland
Jamaica
Soviet Georgia
Kenya
South Africa

Countries in North America = 23:

Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Clipperton Island, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Navassa Island, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States, U.S. Virgin Islands


Leave Sarah Palin alone! She's my hero.

An illegal immigrant from Guatemala? Thank you, open borders! We ought to celebrate diversity and mail his head back to their Presidente.

Banana's a powerful fruit, man... enough to fuel an unprovoked coup d'état staged by the United States' CIA in Guatemala.

NO! Begone with you, wicked witch of the politic-sift worlds!

In reply to this comment by nomino:
Please watch this: http://www.videosift.com/video/Economic-Hitmen-Assassinations-in-Ecuador-Panama-Guatemala