Which rebels?

Violence in Central America ebbs and flows, and the causes change. And a lot gets hyped by the press. On my second trip to Guatemala in 1961 I remember sitting in the bar of a motel in Coatepeque talking with the owner who had lived in New York. He said back in 1961 the CIA had trained the troops for the Bay of Pigs invasion in the hills around Coatepeque. Guatemala had a right wing government and a lot of the violence in the old days was left wing guerillas. A year or two later I remember Charlie Greg, the traffic manager for first IRCA and then Fegua, saying he felt safer in Guatemala City than in some U.S. cities. As time passed the source of the violence can be traced more to drugs and a gang culture that originated in the barrios of Los Angeles and was carried back to Central American by illegals sent back by the U.S. In the period that George and I were running tours the level of violence was relatively low. But in 1980 my wife and I encountered an army roadblock and after staring down the muzzle of an AR15 held by a nervous kid who couldn't have been older than 15-16, we decided not to return. Actually we have returned a few times, because Guatemala is an incredibly attractive country, the land of eternal spring.

But stuff like this



does tend to discourage visits.

JBWX



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2021 09:24PM by John West.