Archive for Violence
Que dios nos ayude
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been following this American writer who lives in Mexico for some time and find his stuff immensely entertaining. Fred’s bio includes the following paragraph:
I went to high school in King George County, Virginia, while living on Dahlgren Naval Weapons Laboratory (my father was always a weapons-development sort of mathematician, although civilian by this time), where I was the kid other kids weren’t supposed to play with. My time was spent canoeing, shooting, drinking unwise but memorable amounts of beer with the local country boys, attempting to be a French rake with only indifferent success, and driving in a manner that, if you are a country boy, I don’t have to describe, and if you aren’t, you wouldn’t believe anyway. I remember trying to explain to my father why his station wagon was upside down at three in the morning after flipping it at seventy on a hairpin turn that would have intimidated an Alpine goat.
It gets even better. Apparently great minds think alike, because he’s written on both IQ and Darwin lately, like two Guatemalan-based blogs you are already familiar with. The most recent article, about the US-Mexico Drug War, has some real gems:
The Pentagon is working toward toward intervention, whether it know that it is or not. There is something called the Merida Initiative, in which the US supplies money and advice to transform Mexican society to combat the narcos. The colonels in the Five-Sided Squirrel Cage really believe they can reform the Mexican judiciary and infuse the police with virtuous fervor for American ideals. I spoke to a field-grade American officer about this. He had taken a six-month intensive course in Spanish at the Defense Language Institute and spoke less Spanish than my daughter did after two weeks here. The money would be used to reform the Mexican government, he said, which would then make short work of the narcos. He explained this with the earnest mission-orientedness that officers display when they are about to do something senseless.
I’m certain from first-hand knowledge that I’m smarter than the average Army officer and I don’t think they can pull it off. Anyway, go read the rest of the story.
Guns in Guate
Posted by: | CommentsEvery now and then I hear from someone or meet someone in town who expresses dismay/fear over the prevalence of guns here in Guate. It’s true, they are everywhere, from the water truck, to the coke truck, outside many storefronts, all the banks, and on the hip of the random local.
I grew up in a gun-friendly culture in Phoenix where it wasn’t uncommon to see people wandering the malls with guns on their hips (what is called ‘open carry’), and always felt better knowing that a criminal was less likely to do me harm if lots of other guys were likely to fill him with holes at the first sign of trouble.
One British friend of mine said, “But that’s the whole problem with your gun laws; you have so much crime precisely because everyone has a gun.” I ignored the logical fallacy and raised the question of why banning guns would stop criminals (who by definition ignore/violate the law), from using guns, there was a long silence and then this Brit says, “Well, maybe you should try it”. I explained how it had been tried in Washington, D.C., and the result-not surprisingly-was that DC had one of the highest crime rates in the country.
I understand the presence of the guns here may be a reflection of the incidence of crime in the country. Would anyone really feel better though if you could take all the guns away from all the aforementioned people and hope that the bad guys would similarly give up their guns?
A liberal expat-to-be recently observed that it wasn’t legal for me to own a gun in this country. I pointed out that if true, it wasn’t the first immoral act of a government and that the natural rights of men include the right to self-preservation. (For you Obama disciples, natural rights cannot be legitimately infringed upon by governments). Since I was talking about human life and not owls or seals, the whole concept of the right to life didn’t mean much to her and the conversation deteriorated further when she inquired whether I was one of those ‘global warming deniers’. Hehe. Don’t worry, I went easy on her and told her I’d never heard of it before but would love to talk about it…next time.
I once heard this story about an expat, who we’ll call Matt, who struck up a conversation with some cops. It turns out the cops have to buy their own ammunition, and naturally don’t get much practice because ammunition is expensive. Matt volunteered to buy some ammo if the cops would allow he and his sons to get some time in at the range as well.
When Matt showed up at the shooting range/finca, he found not the two cops he was expecting, but six guys, each of whom had brought his gun and was more than happy to let the gringo and kids practice.
A few thoughts:
An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
Colt Peacemaker: The original point and click interface.
Gun control is not about guns; it’s about control.
If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
If you don’t know your rights, you don’t have any.
Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.
What part of “shall not be infringed” do you not understand.
The Second Amendment is in place in case they ignore the others.
64,999,987 firearm owners killed no one yesterday.
Guns only have two enemies: Rust and Politicians.
Know guns, Know peace and safety. No guns, no peace nor safety.
You don’t shoot to kill; You shoot to stay alive.
911 – government sponsored Dial a Prayer.
Assault is a behavior, not a device.
Criminals love gun control – it makes their jobs safer.
If Guns cause Crime, then Matches cause Arson.
Only a government that is afraid of it’s citizens tries to control them.
You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.
When you remove the people’s right to bear arms, you create slaves.
Chuchos
Posted by: | CommentsIt might surprise some of you to learn that I’m an animal lover. Perhaps I’m different from the modern-day animal lovers in that I don’t elevate animals above humans, but rather, I respect and appreciate them and believe they should not be tortured or unnecessarily harmed. Cattle, for example, should be pampered and well-treated and then killed quickly before being turned into filet mignon.
If you’re an animal lover, life in Guate can be tough because every day you’re exposed to the torture and neglect of dogs. The people here are unbelievably cruel to these stray dogs. Often my kids’ soccer practices are put on hold so the other children can stone the closest dog and, if possible, stab it with a stick. Yesterday in our neighborhood the children witnessed a gang group of kids jumping on a dog’s belly that appeared to be pregnant. The teenager wanted to charge en masse and break it up, but due to the previous assassination attempt they are no longer allowed outside. 
Nic lives in another part of the country but regrettably things appear to be the same there:
Chuchos, aka the dogs of Guatemala that claim no real home and just wander the street, are not the bad ones. These dogs are basically in just survival mode, scavenging what they can to get by and can even provide an occasional laugh when they are seen stuck together after a little baby chucho making-always with an incredibly guilty look on their faces as they stroll along attached end to end. The dogs that are the real culprits in Guatemala are the ones which are actually owned by people, who keep them close to the house and often on very short chains so that when they are released they are very aggressive and want to attack anything that moves. Guatemalans encourage their dogs to be aggressive as a deterrent to intruders, but the dogs will attack anyone who happens to pass within 50 yards of the house. These dogs are the ones who need to be eliminated.
With that said, since about last September, I’ve had a couple of local chuchos that scavenge around my house. One of them, who Katie named Mama Bear, showed up with a huge wound on her back, what looked like a possible machete wound. This wouldn’t be completely out of the question; Guatemalans can be pretty cruel to animals, especially dogs that they don’t want around. When Mama Bear had this wound, she also had some super saggy milkers hanging down-a single mother who was being abused. She was a pretty sympathetic figure and I started giving her my leftovers. Soon enough, one of her puppies started coming around with her and she was christened Blacky by me-Katie’s a bit more creative than I am.
Like all PCVs, Nic has to be careful what he writes, but if you read between the lines you’ll learn a lot. You can finish his article here.
Seen In My Neighborhood This Morning
Posted by: | CommentsReaders may have noticed that I took a few days off since the last post, the first time I’ve not blogged for more than a day since I began. It’s not a good idea to speak or write when you’re angry, and I got more than one email concerned that I might be developing an unjustified anger towards ALL Chapines. Not to worry, but I did decide to take a break. This morning I was browsing my draft posts to see what might be nice to post today when I received some intel you won’t believe…
A kid was spotted doing some recon in our area and in his hand was-you guessed it-a slingshot.
Unfortunately, by the time the report arrived it was too late to send in the cavalry, armed with the lightsabers they got for Christmas that, with blades of painted copper and handles of painted aluminum pipe, could be interesting.
Stay tuned.
A New Low in Guate
Posted by: | CommentsA few months back when I reported about the attorneys going around town telling people that the Wife and I had stolen our children, I was pretty upset. It’s a small town and when you’re trying to do business and people are willing to touch on an issue that is as hot and sensitive as adoptions/stolen children, well, I was pretty hot about it.
Today brought me to the worst feelings I’ve had about this place in 15 months. Let me give you some background; on a frequent basis the Wife or I take the kids out into the neighborhood or in the empty lot next door and they kick the soccer ball around, climb trees and basically do harmless, old-fashioned kid stuff. One of us always accompanies them for their own safety and to make sure everyone is well-behaved.
Over the last few weeks, there have been some strange happenings. One of the kids told me that he thought someone had thrown a rock at him. I didn’t pay it much attention since he couldn’t actually point a finger, but the next day he had a huge bruise on his leg. It’s hard to place blame when you’re a rough and tumble kid and you have a mysterious bruise.
Well, a few days later the Wife was sitting with the kids and got hit by another mysterious flying rock. She looked around and wasn’t able to place where the rock had come from or who might have thrown it.
Today the Wife and kids were outside playing when the two year-old suddenly dropped to the ground and after those long seconds of silence which preface an outburst, began screaming wildly. We wouldn’t have had any clue except that at the exact same instant the Wife was hit by a small piece of brick which presumably ricocheted off the baby or originated from the same place.
The impact left a gash and a huge knot, not bad enough for an emergency room trip but pretty severe. I surveyed the scene with a neighbor and we quickly ruled out about 270 degrees of the field as an origin for the rock based on the wall that separates the neighborhood from the street, dense trees and our own house. The severity of the impact on the baby’s head and the substantial bruising left by the previous projectiles pointed toward a device, unless Nolan Ryan is hiding behind a tree and throwing 90 mph rocks and broken bricks.
We found nothing, but my suspicion was immediately centered on a kid with a slingshot. Regrettably, we didn’t find such a kid, in fact, we found nothing at all suspicious, there are only a handful of houses around that could shield an assailant and the lay of the land is such that there just aren’t that many angles that would work. However, it was obvious to me that someone has noticed a pattern of the gringo kids playing outside in the afternoons and has decided to use them for target practice.
I shared the story with Santiago, concluding, “I can’t believe it”, to which he replied, “Dude, that’s the way it works here. They hate you because you have money and white skin and they’ll attack the weakest, most defenseless member of your family with a slingshot and then slip back into the shadows. Even if you caught them red handed their parents wouldn’t do anything; they probably know about it and approve. You’re lucky they weren’t using marbles, which is their favorite weapon.”
So, I hung up the phone and counted to 10. I don’t lose my temper easily, but neither do I take kindly to people attacking my family. The kids on the soccer fields who responded to gringo goals by throwing rocks was bad, the licensiados lying about my family around town was pretty bad, but this stuff is deadly. A small child hit with a brick could be fatal, and I know better than to imagine that anyone here would care if a gringo toddler was blinded, impaired or killed by a Guatemalan kid with a slingshot.
It’s not that kids around the world aren’t bad and don’t throw rocks or use BB guns, but realizing that someone has staked us out and is methodically taking shots at little kids…and who knows how many attempts there have been that have gone unnoticed? It makes sense that if you’re armed with a slingshot or some other device that you’re going to miss more often than hit, so somebody has been working hard at this.
So, I’m kind of down on life beyond the gated community at the moment. It’s sinking in that it doesn’t matter how safe I feel around town if the moment my baby steps outside the door he’s target practice for would-be snipers. I know some of you readers will laugh at my concern over what is undoubtedly nothing compared to the violence some experience regularly, but when I think about how close we came today to losing a child, I get sick to my stomach and wonder what my hand in it would have been since I am the one who brought my children into this culture.
Theft in Antigua
Posted by: | CommentsIt was Thursday night and the Wife and I were enjoying a Tom Collins and a Sazerac at RumBar when I heard a blood curdling scream. It’s not unusual that you might hear a young woman scream in Antigua, but knowing women as I do, I thought this scream had a certain element to it that conveyed true agony, as opposed to some other passion.
The doors were already closed so, in keeping with proper security procedures, I peeked around and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. As I opened the door to get a full view of 7th Calle, I saw two females at the corner, whose body language suggested fear and uncertainty. Being the chivalrous type, I approached carefully and called to the two blondes to inquire if they were okay.
Their response-stuttering in English, choppy and wavering tones, looking about nervously-told me that I had reached the source of the aforementioned blood curdling scream. In the dark I couldn’t be sure that they weren’t hurt and so I had to ask several times whether they were injured. Finally the more mature of the two said they were ‘physically okay’ but needed help.
I escorted them into the safety of the RumBar and learned that they had just been robbed. Apparently they were at the corner of 5th Ave South and 7th Calle and a car pulled up to the corner, a man jumped out, grabbed a purse, re-entered the car and sped off. Of course, these two ladies had ignored every possible security precaution, and included in the missing items were their passports, wallets, all their cash, credit cards, iPods and assorted other valuables.
I resisted the urge to say “You’re idiots” and instead found someone to get them a drink and the ever-chivalrous JP to help them contact the police, their banks, and begin the process of putting their lives back together. (I don’t think the police ever showed up).
We should rejoice that no one was injured in this attack, and certainly it would have been easy for this theft to become a robbery or assault given the quiet corner and the late night. But it’s painful nonetheless, and a reminder for tourists, expats and particularly females that while Antigua is generally a safe place, you must act as you might if you were walking in worst parts of Detroit or south LA after dark. (First tip: don’t walk around the worst parts of Detroit at night)
So, for the sake of education and ‘lessons learned’, let’s break this down and study the mistakes they made:
1. Females walking alone in Guatmala at night.
2. Carrying a purse (this makes you a target).
3. Carrying your passport with you.
4. Carrying ALL your credit cards with you.
5. Carrying ALL your cash with you.
6. Not reading GuateLiving.
Capisci?
Security Procedures for Expats, Gringos and Other Targets
Posted by: | CommentsA friend of mine who used to work officially for Uncle Sam and who now doesn’t work officially for Uncle Sam contacted me recently and wanted to review some security procedures with me, in light of the threats I’m getting and the enemies I’ve made around town by speaking rather freely about how the Antigua LaCosaNostra works. I was reminded of this by a post from Trudy with rare candor about security here:
One of the bad things of living here is that, although one is less at risk, there is always the fear of being kidnapped or robbed. Hence, one is careful not to display anything that can be construed as wealth, not to use the same ATM all the time, not to take the same route every day, etc. These are simple common-sense behaviors, but many forget to keep to them. I haven’t been robbed, but still. Doesn’t hurt to be cautious.
There are several levels of security that expats/gringos/conquistadors need to employ here. The most basic is what Trudy has described, which I would characterize as ‘passive personal security’. I would add to that the following:
- Don’t wear shorts; it marks you as clueless and not only will the prices be higher for everything but you’ve put a target on your back.
- Don’t wear flip flops (see above), plus you’re more likely to hurt your feet in this town.
- Don’t stand at the street corner holding a huge, unfolded map in front of you wondering aloud in English “Where can I change all my dollars to local currency”.
- Don’t yell down the street to your gringo friend in English/German.
- Don’t ask a random passerby on the street, “Donde esta el banco?” because you’ve just advertised that you either have or will have money. Ask a gringo or, better yet, ask someone where the park is, which will take you to where the banks are.
The next level I would refer to as ‘basic personal security’. This would involve:
- Looking out a door or window before opening the door to your home or business. The easiest assault will happen when you open your door and they rush in and rape you, kill you for your organs, eat your food and then steal your valuables.
- Don’t ever let someone in your home unless you know them already and know there is no one else with them.
- When sitting in a restaurant or public place, sit with your back to the wall and facing the primary entrance. Tell the staff you love to look out the window at all the beautiful local people.
- Check out the layout of the restaurant you’re visiting, preferably for another exit but if nothing else, a kitchen, pantry or bathroom you could secure yourself in until the assailant gets frustrated and leaves. Also gives you a moment to work things out with your maker if you’re meeting him sooner than expected.
- Randomly crossing the street rather than remaining on the same side of the street for the entire block. If someone is trailing you to pickpocket you or scalp you, this will make it more difficult and more obvious.
- Stopping occasionally to look in a window or to tie your shoe so you glance behind you. Most would-be attackers here aren’t very sophisticated and they’ll likely appear surprised and stop in their tracks.
- Pausing before reaching into a pocket or your purse to look around to see who is watching you.
- Conspicuously look people in the eye; this makes most people uncomfortable and if someone was considering you as a target, they may be just unnerved enough to ‘pass’.
- Not opening car doors while people are walking by-you’re sitting and immobile, they’re standing and mobile, i.e., you’re going to lose.
- Not unlocking car doors until you’ve surveyed your surroundings; if someone loiters, move on. If you’re in love with the parking place, pull out your cell phone and start talking to yourself and pointing at the lurker. He’ll get nervous and move on.
- Not stopping when you are approached by people begging or wanting to sell things; keep walking and if they’re serious they’ll follow, if they’re malicious you’ve just made it more difficult.
- If accompanied by children or the elderly, positioning the strongest and most aware people at the front of and back of the group.
Some of you will scoff at these things but if you’ve ever had a wallet or purse stolen, your passport stolen (and then offered for sale to you for $2,500), or a loved one kidnapped, you won’t be laughing. My own attitude is that the odds are rather small of attack, but like being struck by lightening, it is a catastrophic event if it does occur. I prefer to improve the odds in my favor and it’s easy to do that.
You can easily improve your personal safety dramatically by getting a German shepherd and taking him with you whenever you leave the confines of your gated community. Make sure you don’t feed him before you leave the house, so he’ll be extra hungry, and that you have a quick-release collar so if you need him, you can free him up with a click of your thumb. Bad guys fear a hungry dog more than they do your Glock 23 with 13 rounds (not that a gringo would ever carry such a thing).
Of course there’s a whole other level of personal security that requires a little more discipline but not much additional effort, but you only need to employ those tactics when you’ve been reminded that you can have someone whacked here for 200Q plus the costs of some boombas (to cover up the noise). Think about that the next time you hit the ATM for 2,000Q.
P.S. If I don’t post on GuateLiving for three consecutive days, someone stop by RumBar and let them know, please…JP will know what to do.
Vigilante Justice Update
Posted by: | CommentsThis website is reporting that a lynch mob burned a man alive for allegedly raping his nine year-old daughter. What’s interesting is it reportedly happened in ‘San Juan, Sacatepequez’. There is a San Juan del Obispo only a mile or so up the road, but I’m sure there are dozens of San Juans in this state.
If you’re anything like me, your first thought might be ‘Good riddance’. Of course, as I’ve pointed out before, vigilante justice is fraught with problems. God forbid your son or daughter is angry at you and starts telling people you’ve abused her; you might end up crispy even if there is no truth to it.
Consider another scenario, not very far-fetched; a visiting college kid from the US manages to persuade some local girl to share some love, an accomplishment not appreciated by Mom and Dad who raise the alarm in town and claim the gringo raped their daughter. (A little better for the family honor than admitting she’s a hussy). Said gringo gets roasted.
It seems to me that if the society fails at justice, it is a fundamental failure of the state. However, this solution is seriously defective. Can’t these lynch mobs come up with a form of corporal punishment that’s a little less…permanent? How about tying him up in the public square for a month, and letting passerbys whip him at will. Or branding him with a big ‘R’ on his forehead.
What do you think?
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