Where's Guatemala you ask?

Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, who chairs the State Affairs Committee and the House Ethics Committee investigating Phil Hart's tax problems, doesn't know where Guatemala is, according to Dustin Hurst of the Idaho Reporter.

 Hurst was reporting on a State Affairs Committee when Chairman Loertscher dropped the bomb shell about 15 minutes ago. In a self-deprecating manner, Loertscher provided a recount of a conversation he had with his hair stylist.

Seems the hair stylist said she was bad at geography and didn't know that Idaho Falls is north of Pocatello. As they continued talking, Loertscher learned that the woman's husband was from Guatemala. Which Loertscher thought was in Europe. Rather than Central America. Seems he can't see Guatemala from his kitchen window in Iona (wherever Iona is). (The Spokesman-Review)

Maybe he was just joking. I imagine that he was thinking of Central Europe and not Central America.

"Granito"

"Granito," was presented at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Pamela Yates's first film about Guatemala was her award winning film When the Mountains Tremble (1982). In Granito, Yates documents how her first film and related outtakes are being used as evidence in the international war crimes case against Efrain Rios Montt in Spain. 

In GRANITO our characters sift for clues buried in archives of mind and place and historical memory, seeking to uncover a narrative that could unlock the past and settle matters of life and death in the present. Each of the five main characters whose destinies collide in GRANITO are connected by the Guatemala of 1982, then engulfed in a war where a genocidal “scorched earth” campaign by the military exterminated nearly 200,000 Maya people. Now, as if a watchful Maya god were weaving back together threads of a story unraveled by the passage of time, forgotten by most, our characters become integral to the overarching narrative of wrongs done and justice sought that they have pieced together, each adding their granito, their tiny grain of sand, to the epic tale.

Skylight Pictures provides both two- and ten-minute trailers.


Granito trailer from Skylight Pictures on Vimeo.



GRANITO 10min from Skylight Pictures on Vimeo.


See also the National Security Archives's Guatemala Project with details on Plan Sofia and the genocide case in Spain.

Here's a review of the film by Stephen Farber.

Poll Numbers in El Salvador

Where's Paul when you need him? RIP

New poll numbers are out (LPG Jan. 14-16). The FMLN continues to lead ARENA by 10% points in congressional elections (30.3% vs. 20%) and 6% in elections for mayor (29.2% vs. 23.%). It's tough to tell how good these numbers are for the FMLN. First, municipal and congressional elections do not happen for another year. Second, there's another 50% of the population that intend to vote for a third party or they simply haven't made up their mind.

The survey also has a bit of a geographic breakdown. ARENA leads at the local level in the Western part of the country with 26%. The FMLN comes in at 22%. In the east, the FMLN leads 22% to 17%. In the central area, the FMLN leads 32% to 22%. Finally, the FMLN leads in the Metropolitan zone with 36% to ARENA's 28%.

Funes remained popular but his approval ratings continue to decline. Fifty-seven percent approve of his performance while 16% disapprove. Support is down from LPG's November survey that had him at 71%. (I wonder if Funes will get a bump from Obama's visit?)

Forty-seven percent see insecurity as the country's principal challenge while 40% name the economy.
In other news, President Funes has changed his mind and no longer appears to be interested in purchasing Brazilian Super Tucano jets. He needs some cash for investments in education and public health.

Voices from El Salvador has an action alert for help in protecting mining activists in Cabanas. Voices also has an update on the recently concluded one week strike of workers from the judiciary and the delay in the country's new transparency law.