IN THIS ISSUEEl Diario Queztal May 2011

Article One Verison OneTrekking Through the Highlands

Article One Verison TwoTrekking Through the Highlands

Article Two Version TwoLove Affair

Article One Verison TwoLove Affair

2 8 14 18

TRAVEL TRAVEL GOSSIP GOSSIP

Trekking Through the Highlands

A personal story of a simple vacation that evoled into a great adventure of culture and beauty in a refound land.

Mark Sudden

“...its cobblestone streets so heavily trod by foreign sandals that it ceases to feel Guatemalan and takes on an international charac-

ter all its own.“

Remember when Guatemala was the world’s coolest destination, when

your dorm-mates returned from winter break bedecked in purple ponchos

for which they’d bargained— in Spanish! — from some actual Maya on

market day in Chichicastenango? As decades of civil war calmed enough

to allow tourism, your friends reported hair-raising rides aboard rickety

chicken buses, those Blue Birds pimped like low-riders with flashing lights,

naked-lady mud flaps, and Jesus and the Virgin airbrushed on the hood.

But that was so 1990. When the next generation lugged its backpacks

to more exotic places like Uzbekistan and Laos, Guatemala became a done-

that, losing its cachet among the Lonely Planet vanguard and opening itself

up to the Frommer’s masses. Tourism is now the country’s top industry, a

fact made evident by the tour buses spilling North Americans, Europeans

e walked into the village around dusk,

but with the fog pouring down the dirt

streets, it could have been anytime. It was

cold, and I could hardly see across the

concrete plaza. The Catholic church had

been cleaved by an earthquake, the gap

between its two halves now spanned with

sheets of plywood, but that didn’t stop people from praying in the dank

cavern on a floor littered with boughs of long green pine needles.

Our accommodations were a municipal building, a cinder block structure

around a courtyard with a fountain that didn’t work and an ash heap where skinny

mutts gnawed leftovers. We were to sleep on the tile floor of a room with no fur-

niture and a nonfunctioning light bulb hanging from a wire. I recognized the place

from Hollywood thrillers: this was where the narco-cartel tortured its enemies.

The BeginningIt was the first day of our three-day walk across the highlands from Quet-

zaltenango to Lake Atitlan. I was back in Guatemala, and pretty pleased about

it. Later that night, in the yard of someone’s house, we crawled on our knees

to enter a smoky sauna. Inside, a fire had been burning for an hour and the

temperature was well over 100. It was like a large doghouse, a concrete box with

a pitched roof, not tall enough to stand in, but we could sit upright on a wooden

bench. From a steel drum we scooped bowls of steaming water and rinsed our-

selves. It felt good after hauling a pack 13 miles through sun-beaten cornfields,

dropping into cloud forests where bamboo and orchids grew and where weath-

ered woodcutters with machetes heaved beneath 100-pound loads of firewood.

We sweated in this Mayan sauna, a temescal, for half an hour, before crawl-

ing outside to discover that the fog had dispersed and the sky was exploding

with stars. Back at the plaza a town meeting was under way, and the villagers

were debating something in their glottal, popping language called Tz’utujil.

3 El Diario Queztal

and South Americans into destinations like An-

tigua, Tikal and Lake Atitlán. Just how tame has

Guatemala become? Well, in the past two decades

my 72-year-old mother had gone there 15 times.

But when my parents invited my girlfriend and me

to join them on Trip No. 16, I was struck with nos-

talgic yearning. It had been 17 years since my only visit

to Guatemala, and in the intervening years as a writer searching

for new places, I had ended up in a few locations that were just as well left

unvisited. Maybe the reason so many people still flock to Guatemala is that

it is fun to be there. It is, after all, a country where a man in a cowboy hat

will board the public bus and sell you a pink ice cream cone for 25 cents.

Non-Gringo TrailOur plan was to travel the new gringo trail with my parents and then peel

off into parts unknown. First we took a week of Spanish classes in Antigua,

its cobblestone streets so heavily trod by foreign sandals that it ceases to

feel Guatemalan and takes on an international character all its own. The

narrow sidewalks teem with mimes and Michigan State students among

the Mayas and marimbas, and you can choose Thai, Italian or sushi each

night. The one-on-one Spanish lessons cost just $120 a week, and even

if you don’t want to learn the language, paying someone $7 an hour to

listen to you is a pretty good deal. We spent afternoons climbing volca-

noes and riding bikes through hillside villages, the pat-pat-pat of hands

slapping dough audible through the open doors of the tortillerias.

Then we spent a week on Lake Atitlán, which has perhaps borne the

hardest brunt of backpackers. While the indigenous villagers, since the

landing of Pedro de Alvarado 500 years ago, have resisted outside con-

quest well enough to maintain their native language, they appear to have

capitulated almost entirely in the four decades since the arrival of the hippie.

Travel 4

Wood craving of a man hiking up hill carring national instrament. Made in

Guatemala City

You can get by easily here with no language but English and no currency

but dollars, and fantasies of Mayan immersion are disrupted by barefoot

white people hawking trinkets and busking Bob Marley on the guitar.

We avoided these Haight Street dregs- not to mention all glimmers of native

culture -when my parents checked us into the exquisite Hotel Atitlán. Here amid

captive blossoms and parrots in cages, the waters of the infinity pool seemed to

merge with the lake, and as mist hovered on the volcano tops, cocktails were de-

livered caldron-side by Mayas dressed in the warrior costumes of their ancestors.

Once my parents left, my girlfriend, Cedar, and I wanted to get off the pave-

ment. In the 15 years since the civil war, the dangers of wandering Guatemala’s

wilderness have greatly decreased, and these days, outdoor adventure is

booming: mountain biking tours, sea kayaking and treks across the highlands,

like the one that landed us in the tiny fog-laden village of Santa Catarina.

New FriendsAfter packing up in the ramshackle municipal building that had proved a

perfectly acceptable campsite, we crossed the plaza for breakfast in a

one-table diner where an elderly woman named Maria was pressing torti-

llas over a fire. After our breakfast of eggs and rice and beans, we started

the day’s hike, which would take us across plots of corn and green peas

that clung to the steep hills like patchwork, and then down a ravine to

cross a rickety wooden footbridge and hoist ourselves up the mountain

on the other side. Our guides were young volunteers from Britain and Ire-

land. The company was called Quetzaltrekkers, a nonprofit that operates

a school and a youth home with the funds it raises through these trips.

Late in the afternoon, after criss-crossing a creek shaded with alder

groves and banana trees and orange lilies, we climbed out of yet another

canyon. The lead guide, Anne McGarr, a 25-year-old Dublin speech

therapist on indefinite leave from her job, whipped out a phone and

said, “Who wants strawberry, and who wants pineapple?” Fifteen minutes

later when we arrived at the house on whose floor we’d be sleeping — an

upgrade from the previous night’s interrogation chamber. Don Pedro, the

house’s owner, was ready with two blenders of cold fruit licuados.

He and his wife served us chicken, rice and beans, and afterward we sat

around a fire passing a guitar back and forth. Don Pedro sang us songs in both

Spanish and Quiche, and paused to tell us of the dire poverty he’d grown up

in, just a thatched roof shack for all 14 siblings, 10 of whom had died young. I

didn’t want to interrupt his story, so I never asked if they died from poverty,

or the war, or something else. He said that the hardship had ended, thanks

to God, only with the arrival of missionaries from Spokane and Helena who

brought with them radios, medicine, and irrigation. They even taught Don Pe-

dro to read. He thanked us for passing through his village, for supporting the

school and the youth home with the money we spent for the hike. “Somos

todos los hijos de Dios,” he concluded. We are all God’s children.

I guess I expected resentment toward the unending stream of

foreign do-gooders — from missionaries to the Peace Corps to Quet-

zaltrekkers — who can create one set of problems as they address

another. I was surprised by Don Pedro’s earnest appreciation: the closest

5 El Diario Queztal

translation of his words was, “We love tourists here.” And I suppose that’s what I’m

looking for when I ramble across other countries — not obliterating my own identity

or merging with the locals, but just that thrill of not knowing what will happen next.

Before bed Anne informed us that our wake-up call was 4 in the morning. She

told us to trust her, it would be worth it. So when the alarm chirped we packed in

chilly darkness, hauled ourselves past the lone bulb of a church, dodged buses as

we climbed a paved road and emerged at a rim overlooking Lake Atitlán, the lights

of the villages twinkling below. There on a rugged patch of earth we rolled out of our

sleeping bags and boiled water for powdered coffee and chocolate, watched the sky

go gray and the lake go blue. Only a few hours had passed since Don Pedro’s lul-

labies. Now with the sun in the sky, we descended the rest of the way to the waters

“ He thanked us for passing through his village, for sup-porting the school and the youth home with the money we spent for the hike. So-mos todos los hijos de Dios,

he concluded. We are all Gods children.“

Images of the village and local students. All were taken on the trip.

Travel 6

Guatemala,Trekking Through

The Highlands

A personal story of a simple vacation that evoled into a great adventure of culture and beauty in a refound land.

Mark Sudden

hauling a pack 13 miles through sun-beaten cornfields, dropping into cloud forests

where bamboo and orchids grew and where weathered woodcutters with machetes

heaved beneath 100-pound loads of firewood.

We sweated in this Mayan sauna, a temescal, for half an hour, before crawling

outside to discover that the fog had dispersed and the sky was exploding with stars.

Back at the plaza a town meeting was under way, and the villagers were debating

something in their glottal, popping language called Tz’utujil.

Remember when Guatemala was the world’s coolest destination, when your

dorm-mates returned from winter break bedecked in purple ponchos for which they’d

bargained— in Spanish! — from some actual Maya on market day in Chichicaste-

nango? As decades of civil war calmed enough to allow tourism, your friends reported

hair-raising rides aboard rickety chicken buses, those Blue Birds pimped like low-

riders with flashing lights, naked-lady mud flaps, and Jesus and the Virgin airbrushed

on the hood.

But that was so 1990. When the next generation lugged its backpacks to more

exotic places like Uzbekistan and Laos, Guatemala became a done-that, losing its

cachet among the Lonely Planet vanguard and opening itself up to the Frommer’s

masses. Tourism is now the country’s top industry, a fact made evident by the tour

buses spilling North Americans, Europeans and South Americans into destinations like

Antigua, Tikal and Lake Atitlán. Just how tame has Guatemala become? Well, in the

past two decades my 72-year-old mother had gone there 15 times.

But when my parents invited my girlfriend and me to join them on Trip No. 16, I

was struck with nostalgic yearning. It had been 17 years since my only visit to Guate-

mala, and in the intervening years as a writer searching for new places, I had ended

up in a few locations that were just as well left unvisited. Maybe the reason so many

people still flock to Guatemala is that it is fun to be there. It is, after all, a country where

a man in a cowboy hat will board the public bus and sell you a pink ice cream cone

for 25 cents.

Non-Gringo TrailOur plan was to travel the new gringo trail with my parents and then peel off into parts

unknown. First we took a week of Spanish classes in Antigua, its cobblestone streets

so heavily trod by foreign sandals that it ceases to feel Guatemalan and takes on an

international character all its own. The narrow sidewalks teem with mimes and Michi-

gan State students among the Mayas and marimbas, and you can choose Thai, Italian

or sushi each night. The one-on-one Spanish lessons cost just $120 a week, and even

if you don’t want to learn the language, paying someone $7 an hour to listen to you is

e walked into the village around dusk, but with the fog pouring down the

dirt streets, it could have been anytime. It was cold, and I could hardly

see across the concrete plaza. The Catholic church had been cleaved by an earth-

quake, the gap between its two halves now spanned with sheets of plywood, but that

didn’t stop people from praying in the dank cavern on a floor littered with boughs of

long green pine needles.

Our accommodations were a municipal building, a cinder block structure around

a courtyard with a fountain that didn’t work and an ash heap where skinny mutts

gnawed leftovers. We were to sleep on the tile floor of a room with no furniture and a

nonfunctioning light bulb hanging from a wire. I recognized the place from Hollywood

thrillers: this was where the narco-cartel tortured its enemies.

The BeginningIt was the first day of our three-day walk across the high-

lands from Quetzaltenango to Lake Atitlan. I was back in

Guatemala, and pretty pleased about it. Later that night, in

the yard of someone’s house, we crawled on our knees

to enter a smoky sauna. Inside, a fire had been burning

for an hour and the temperature was well over 100. It

was like a large doghouse, a concrete box with a

pitched roof, not tall enough to stand in, but

we could sit upright on a wooden bench. From

a steel drum we scooped bowls of steaming

water and rinsed ourselves. It felt good after

W

“...its cobblestone streets so heavily trod by for-

eign sandals that it ceases to feel Guate-

malan and takes on an international charac-

ter all its own.“

9 El Diario Queztal

a pretty good deal. We spent afternoons climbing volcanoes and riding bikes through

hillside villages, the pat-pat-pat of hands slapping dough audible through the open

doors of the tortillerias.

Then we spent a week on Lake Atitlán, which has perhaps borne the hardest

brunt of backpackers. While the indigenous villagers, since the landing of Pedro de

Alvarado 500 years ago, have resisted outside conquest well enough to maintain their

native language, they appear to have capitulated almost entirely in the four decades

since the arrival of the hippie. You can get by easily here with no language but English

and no currency but dollars, and fantasies of Mayan immersion are disrupted by bare-

foot white people hawking trinkets and busking Bob Marley on the guitar.

We avoided these Haight Street dregs- not to mention all glimmers of native cul-

ture -when my parents checked us into the exquisite Hotel Atitlán. Here amid captive

blossoms and parrots in cages, the waters of the infinity pool seemed to merge with

the lake, and as mist hovered on the volcano tops, cocktails were delivered caldron-

side by Mayas dressed in the warrior costumes of their ancestors.

Once my parents left, my girlfriend, Cedar, and I wanted to get off the pavement.

In the 15 years since the civil war, the dangers of wandering Guatemala’s wilderness

have greatly decreased, and these days, outdoor adventure is booming: mountain bik-

ing tours, sea kayaking and treks across the highlands, like the one that landed us in

the tiny fog-laden village of Santa Catarina.

New FriendsAfter packing up in the ramshackle municipal building that had proved a perfectly ac-

ceptable campsite, we crossed the plaza for breakfast in a one-table diner where an

elderly woman named Maria was pressing tortillas over a fire. After our breakfast of

eggs and rice and beans, we started the day’s hike, which would take us across plots

of corn and green peas that clung to the steep hills like patchwork, and then down a

ravine to cross a rickety wooden footbridge and hoist ourselves up the mountain on the

other side. Our guides were young volunteers from Britain and Ireland. The company

was called Quetzaltrekkers, a nonprofit that operates a school and a youth home with

the funds it raises through these trips.

Late in the afternoon, after criss-crossing a creek shaded with alder groves and

banana trees and orange lilies, we climbed out of yet another canyon. The lead guide,

Anne McGarr, a 25-year-old Dublin speech therapist on indefinite leave from her job,

whipped out a phone and said, “Who wants strawberry, and who wants pineapple?”

Fifteen minutes later when we arrived at the house on whose floor we’d be sleeping —

an upgrade from the previous night’s interrogation chamber. Don Pedro, the house’s

owner, was ready with two blenders of cold fruit licuados.

He and his wife served us chicken, rice and beans, and afterward we sat around

a fire passing a guitar back and forth. Don Pedro sang us songs in both Spanish and

Quiche, and paused to tell us of the dire poverty he’d grown up in, just a thatched roof

shack for all 14 siblings, 10 of whom had died young. I didn’t want to interrupt his story,

so I never asked if they died from poverty, or the war, or something else. He said that

the hardship had ended, thanks to God, only with the arrival of missionaries from Spo-

kane and Helena who brought with them radios, medicine, and irrigation. They even

taught Don Pedro to read. He thanked us for passing through his village, for supporting

the school and the youth home with the money we spent for the hike. “Somos todos

los hijos de Dios,” he concluded. We are all God’s children.

I guess I expected resentment toward the unending stream of foreign do-gooders

— from missionaries to the Peace Corps to Quetzaltrekkers — who can create one set

of problems as they address another. I was surprised by Don Pedro’s earnest appre-

ciation: the closest translation of his words was, “We love tourists here.” And I suppose

that’s what I’m looking for when I ramble across other countries — not obliterating

my own identity or merging with the locals, but just that thrill of not knowing what will

happen next.

Before bed Anne informed us that our wake-up call was 4 in the morning. She

told us to trust her, it would be worth it. So when the alarm chirped we packed in

chilly darkness, hauled ourselves past the lone bulb of a church, dodged buses as

we climbed a paved road and emerged at a rim overlooking Lake Atitlán, the lights

of the villages twinkling below. There on a rugged patch of earth we rolled out of our

sleeping bags and boiled water for powdered coffee and chocolate, watched the sky

go gray and the lake go blue. Only a few hours had passed since

Don Pedro’s lullabies. Now with the sun in the sky, we descended

the rest of the way to the waters

“ He thanked us for passing through his village, for sup-porting the school and the

youth home with the money we spent for the hike. Somos todos los hijos de Dios, he concluded.

We are all Gods children.“

Gossip 10

The first lady of Guatemala files for divorce days before she begins her race for president against her former lover.

Sophia Wright

13 El Diario Queztal

n the 8 of March, 20011, Guatemala’s First Lady Sandra

Torres de Colon announced her run for the presidency. On

March 11, 2011, the presidential couple applied for divorce, the

news was published today in the newspaper La Hora. La Hora

published the following information: It was confirmed that the presidential

couple Alvaro Colom and Sandra Torres de Colom filed for divorce at the

Second Family Court. It is a civil enforcement proceeding and thereby it

is private.

However, the spokesman of the judiciary, Edwin Escobar, confirmed

that on 11 of March, 2011, divorce proceedings where presented. Op-

ponents and constitutionalists call this strategy as a joke and immoral.

Escobar did not state the names of lawyers acting on behalf of the

Presidential couple; he confirmed that the divorce was applied in terms of

mutual consent.

Some hours earlier, Roxanna Baldetti, secretary general and

vice-presidential candidate of the Patriotic Party, had warned about the

possibility of a divorce process for electoral purposes, since there is a

constitutional ban on the president’s wife. When asked, Fernando Barillas,

spokesman for the National Unity for Hope Party (UNE), denied the di-

vorce process.” Representatives of the UNE Party stated that they had no

comment at this time, but that there would be a press release or a press

conference to announce the official party position.

ANALYSISThe constitutional lawyer Carlos Molina Mencos said that despite cir-

cumventing the constitutional prohibition, the strategy of divorce must be

regarded as a “mockery” and “immoral.”

The Guatemalan Constitution prohibits relatives of the President

to qualify for the candidacy of President. According to Molina Mencos,

although technically the divorce evades this ban, the action has no moral

and ethics.

Molina Mencos indicates that constitutionally when the divorce is

signed, the candidacy of Sandra Torres will be legal. There are four legal

requirements: 1) change of address, 2) stop using the surname Colom, 3)

complete separation of property, and 4) settlement of marital property.

On the other hand, from the moral point of view, he described the

event as “immoral.” “No presidency should be worth a marriage, for me,

her campaign touched bottom, it is based on an immoral act, meaning

that the marriage, the foundation of the family, does not apply to the presi-

dential candidate,” says the expert.

Given that marriage is a guarantee of protection for women and fam-

ily, Molina Mencos believes that whoever does not respect marriage, does

not respect any of those principles. “In addition it denigrates the husband,

when I need him there I have him, and when he becomes an obstacle I

thrown him into the trash” -Molina Mencos.

REACTIONSFor her part, Ninth Montenegro, Member of Encuentro por Guatemala,

stated that “all I can say is it’s amazing where your ambitions to be the

next President of this country can lead you, even, to leave her husband.

This is not ethical or moral. When she is no longer the wife of the Presi-

dent, it does not mean that it never was his wife. “

Zury Rios, Member of the Guatemalan Republican Front, FRG, Party,

stated: “First, it is sad that for the love of power she left the love of her life.

One can divorce for many reasons, but for the love of power, is unthink-

able. Sandra de Colom has to change her electoral platform, divorced she

is no longer eligible for any security service or access to the media, also

she has to vacate the presidential palace, and I do not know if the Presi-

dent will leave her a pension. “

Prensa Libre published this afternoon the comments of ex- general

Otto Perez, Presidential candidate of the Patriotic Party, concerning the

divorce proceedings of the first couple. He stated that it was a fraud, he

said that they where using the law to do something illegal. He explained

Gossip 14

“...when I need him there I have him, and when he be-comes an obstacle I thrown

him into the trash”

Torres shed tears as she described the “great and solid love” she

felt for her husband, but said that her love for the people was “limitless.”

Critics say the move mocks the constitution, but the couple dismiss

the critics as politicians and business interests opposed to the govern-

ment’s strick social reforms.

What the People ThinkThe divorce is causing a ruckus in Guatemala for political and religious

reasons, also Torres was involved in programs that had deep corrup-

tion problems.

Follow Sara Ines Calderon on Twitter @SaraChicaDHillary should of thought of that!

Follow Emily Diaz on Twitter @em27zzzaShe feels compelled to do what she believes in. She believes in Gua-

temala. He know that she will always love him but she has to do what

she needs to do.

Follow Richard on Twitter richhy@socccr456

that this divorce will not eliminate the constitutional ban of relatives of the

president to run for the presidency. “The law does not state a time frame

of when a person ceases to be a relative of the President.” He stated that

they would not allow that the law should be mocked and fraud would

be committed.

The members of the new Constitutional Court in Guatemala

have been elected. They will take position on April 15, 2011.The

legal experts who have followed the election proceedings have se-

rious concerns about the honorability and impartiality of the elected

magistrates, there where ominous signs of political pressures of

different power sector of Guatemala. Serious concerns exist that

the new magistrates elected will be defending the interests of politi-

cal parties and will not be impartial. The Constitutional Court of

Guatemala is the highest legal authority that decides the legitimacy

of each of the the presidential candidates and interprets the Guate-

malan constitution.

A group of lawyers filed suit to block the divorce being sought by

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom that would allow his wife Sandra

Torres de Colom to seek the presidency. Judge Mildred Roca said the

petition filed in the Central American nation’s Supreme Court seeks to

“suspend the process of divorce” of the first couple. The lawsuit and a sim-

ilar one filed last week represent the latest drama in Guatemala where

the president and first lady agreed to split to circumvent legal obstacles

to her running for his office.

Mynor Berganza, one of the lawyers involved in the lawsuit, said the

divorce of the presidential couple “affects the public interest” because it

seeks to “circumvent or skip” a constitutional ban. The country’s constitu-

tion prohibits the spouse and other relatives of the outgoing president to

run for the presidency.

Torres said last month she was divorcing despite her love for her

husband. “The love for Guatemala is the reason why the president and I

put the interests of the country ahead of our own interests,” said Torres

GREEDY

GREEDYLOVEThe first lady of Guate-

mala, Sandra Torres, files for a fast divorce just days before she begins her own race for president against the current president, Al-vardo Colon.

Sohia Wright

ANALYSISThe constitutional lawyer Carlos Molina Mencos said that despite circumventing the constitutional

prohibition, the strategy of divorce must be regarded as a “mockery” and “immoral.”

The Guatemalan Constitution prohibits relatives of the President to qualify for the candidacy of Presi-

dent. According to Molina Mencos, although technically the divorce evades this ban, the action has

no moral and ethics.

Molina Mencos indicates that constitutionally when the divorce is signed, the candidacy of Sandra

Torres will be legal. There are four legal requirements: 1) change of address, 2) stop using the sur-

name Colom, 3) complete separation of property, and 4) settlement of marital property.

On the other hand, from the moral point of view, he described the event as “immoral.” “No presidency

should be worth a marriage, for me, her campaign touched bottom, it is based on an immoral act,

meaning that the marriage, the foundation of the family, does not apply to the presidential candidate,”

says the expert.

Given that marriage is a guarantee of protection for women and family, Molina Mencos believes that

whoever does not respect marriage, does not respect any of those principles. “In addition it deni-

grates the husband, when I need him there I have him, and when he becomes an obstacle I thrown

him into the trash” -Molina Mencos.

REACTIONSFor her part, Ninth Montenegro, Member of Encuentro por Guatemala, stated that “all I can say is it’s

amazing where your ambitions to be the next President of this country can lead you, even, to leave

her husband. This is not ethical or moral. When she is no longer the wife of the President, it does

not mean that it never was his wife.”

“No presidency should be worth a marriage, for me, her campaign touched bottom, it is based on an immoral act,”

n the 8 of March, 20011, Guatemala’s First Lady Sandra Torres de

Colon announced her run for the presidency. On March 11, 2011, the presidential

couple applied for divorce, the news was published today in the newspaper La

Hora. La Hora published the following information: It was confirmed that the presi-

dential couple Alvaro Colom and Sandra Torres de Colom filed for divorce at the

Second Family Court. It is a civil enforcement proceeding and thereby it is private.

However, the spokesman of the judiciary, Edwin Escobar, confirmed that on 11 of March, 2011,

divorce proceedings where presented. Opponents and constitutionalists call this strategy as a joke

and immoral. Escobar did not state the names of lawyers acting on behalf of the Presidential couple;

he confirmed that the divorce was applied in terms of mutual consent.

Some hours earlier, Roxanna Baldetti, secretary general and vice-presidential candidate of the Pa-

triotic Party, had warned about the possibility of a divorce process for electoral purposes, since there

is a constitutional ban on the president’s wife. When asked, Fernando Barillas, spokesman for the

National Unity for Hope Party (UNE), denied the divorce process.” Representatives of the UNE Party

stated that they had no comment at this time, but that there would be a press release or a press

conference to announce the official party position.

0

17 El Diario Queztal

Zury Rios, Member of the Guatemalan Republican Front, FRG, Party, stated: “First, it is sad that for

the love of power she left the love of her life. One can divorce for many reasons, but for the love of

power, is unthinkable. Sandra de Colom has to change her electoral platform, divorced she is no

longer eligible for any security service or access to the media, also she has to vacate the presidential

palace, and I do not know if the President will leave her a pension.”

Prensa Libre published this afternoon the comments of ex- general Otto Perez, Presidential candi-

date of the Patriotic Party, concerning the divorce proceedings of the first couple. He stated that it

was a fraud, he said that they where using the law to do something illegal. He explained that this

divorce will not eliminate the constitutional ban of relatives of the president to run for the presidency.

“The law does not state a time frame of when a person ceases to be a relative of the President.” He

stated that they would not allow that the law should be mocked and fraud would be committed.

The members of the new Constitutional Court in Guatemala have been elected. They will take posi-

tion on April 15, 2011.The legal experts who have followed the election proceedings have serious

concerns about the honorability and impartiality of the elected magistrates, there where ominous

signs of political pressures of different power sector of Guatemala. Serious concerns exist that the

new magistrates elected will be defending the interests of political parties and will not be impartial.

The Constitutional Court of Guatemala is the highest legal authority that decides the legitimacy of

each of the the presidential candidates and interprets the Guatemalan constitution.

A group of lawyers filed suit to block the divorce being sought by Guatemalan President Alvaro

Colom that would allow his wife Sandra Torres de Colom to seek the presidency. Judge Mildred

Roca said the petition filed in the Central American nation’s Supreme Court seeks to “suspend the

process of divorce” of the first couple. The lawsuit and a similar one filed last week represent the

latest drama in Guatemala where the president and first lady agreed to split to circumvent legal

obstacles to her running for his office.

Mynor Berganza, one of the lawyers involved in the lawsuit, said the divorce of the presidential

couple “affects the public interest” because it seeks to “circumvent or skip” a constitutional ban. The

country’s constitution prohibits the spouse and other relatives of the outgoing president to run for

the presidency.

Torres said last month she was divorcing despite her love for her husband. “The love for Guatemala

is the reason why the president and I put the interests of the country ahead of our own interests,”

said Torres. Torres shed tears as she described the “great and solid love” she felt for her husband,

but said that her love for the people was “limitless.” Critics say the move mocks the constitution,

but the couple dismiss the critics as politicians and business interests opposed to the government’s

strick social reforms.

“...when I need him there I have him, and when he becomes an obstacle I thrown him

into the trash.”

What the People Thinkv The divorce is causing a ruckus in Guatemala for political and religious reasons, also Torres was involved in programs that had deep corruption problems.Follow Sara Ines Calderon on Twitter @SaraChicaD

v Hillary should of thought of that!Follow Emily Diaz on Twitter @em27zzza

v She feels compelled to do what she believes in. She believes in Guatemala. He know that she will always love him but she has to do what she needs to do.Follow Richard on Twitter richhy@socccr456

Gossip 18