There are blunders and there are failed acts. Make no mistake.
To explain the strange headline of this column, I must point out that it refers to the most recent action of the communication secretariat of the presidency of the republic of Guatemala, where some genius of design had the idea of creating a misleading logo that clearly reads: “Guatemmata: Guatemmata. In other words, a clumsy attempt to imprint the idea of Giammatei (the double mm) on the country’s identity.
Needless to say, this is just one more example of the incapacity of those who surround this dictatorial project of a banana republic. What is striking about this faux pas is the implicit truthfulness of this logo. In Guatemala, indeed, the state and its government kill. They kill its children and adolescents; they kill any opportunity for development; they extinguish a weak and deceitful justice system through a system of corruption never seen before supported by all the powers of the State and, from the shadows, by the organised business sector allied with criminal organisations. And also, those who fight to protect their land and their democracy.
It is impossible not to point out what is currently happening in Guatemala. A country abandoned by the international community but, even worse: abandoned by its urban dwellers, divorced from their rural counterparts by divisive strategies charged with racism.
Guatemala is an example of what a country should not be. Its best citizens are fiercely harassed and forced to leave their homeland in order to survive. Ethical journalists and communicators, engaged in a relentless struggle to investigate and disseminate the real tragedy in this punished nation, suffer all kinds of harassment and threats, are denied access to public information, are persecuted and, as if that were not enough, the political sector at the highest levels organises a massive disinformation campaign, which some media outlets join without hesitation, making use of abundant state funds.
Criminals prosecuted for high-impact crimes – many of them linked to economic power – have taken refuge in a purposely dismantled legal system populated by corrupt judges and magistrates, with the aim of criminalising the few remaining probusiness jurists and thus evading justice.
In the midst of this extreme decomposition, the silence of the international community is suspicious. It suggests that the collapse of a Third World country could be beneficial to its resource-looting companies, its economic expansion plans or the more than obvious opportunity to influence its domestic policies. Because that is how power dynamics work, and how colonialism works under the guise of development plans.
The creator of the new logo for Guatemala has unwittingly made one of those unconscious revelations that are often defined as a failed act. There is no deception in truth, and that country abundant in resources and wealth, but ruled by a gang of corrupt businessmen, politicians, drug traffickers and military officers, is now the most lamentable example of how it is possible to plunder a nation before an unmoved world, keeping its citizens divided in order to maintain absolute impunity for their crimes.
The collapse of a third world country before the passive looks of the world.
elquintopatio@gmail.com @carvasar
Photo source: Desinformémonos.
