Guatemala Confronts its Past, Future

Following U.S. Senate confirmation of new ambassador to Guatemala Arnold Chacon, IPJ Executive Director Milburn Line writes in an op-ed for the Miami Herald that this represents a "historic opportunity to evolve our support towards a better partnership with our neighbors to the south."

On Tuesday the Senate approved a new U.S. ambassador for Guatemala. Arnold Chacon, a career diplomat, will have plenty to keep him busy in a country that has become a major conduit for the drug trade following a 36-year civil war in which security forces committed genocide against indigenous Mayan populations.

In June Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Guatemala City as part of an Organization of American States Summit on security — or rather, the incredible insecurity that now prevails all the way down the isthmus. Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have three of the highest murder rates in the world — more than double those of Colombia and Mexico. (Full Story)