Riding in Circles

Day 112 ta:3381 kt:49.1 gps: N 14 degrees 39.678' W 90 degrees 49.743'

The wind was raging outside of my tent all night long and this morning when I woke up. I have no way of ascertaining this but it seemed like the wind was gusting at about thirty miles per hour. Needless to say, I did not want to leave the warm confines of my sleeping bag this morning. I eventually managed to force myself to get up.
I was fortunately shielded from this wind by the mountains for most of the day. There were moments, however, when fierce headwinds almost redirected me. The first part of my day was filled with challenging ascents and terrifying descents. The roads here are extremely steep and are not in the greatest condition. I was braking for dear life around a lot of the turns as I felt like I was just a little bit more speed away from losing control of my bike which weighs more than half my body weight with gear. This being said, I am glad that I didn't have to challenge the wind as this would have been even more exhausting.
When I arrived in Chimaltenango, there was still plenty of time left in the day and I could have ridden further but I was so close to Guatemala City that I didn't feel like rushing. My friend won't be back in the city until Monday night and we probably won't be able to meet up until Tuesday so there is no reason to rush. I asked some firemen if they knew where Mayapedal was and they said it was probably closed since it was a Sunday. I then asked them if they knew a cheap place where I could stay and they told me that I could stay at the fire station for free. I had my own room with a television and everything. How cool is that!
The television in the fire station only picked up one station: it picks up the Evangelical station broadcast from Guatemala City. I watched a little bit of a cheaply made movie about a teenage girl who gets pregnant when she has sex with her boyfriend. She originally wants to get an abortion but changes her mind when she finds out what it entails. The movie ends with the girl having the baby with support from her middle class parents so she can still attend school and even the university. Her boyfriend starts a personal relationship with Jesus and asks her to marry him at the end of the movie. Bullshit propaganda! I want to make a movie about a Mayan girl when she has sex with her boyfriend only to be dumped when he finds out that she is pregnant. She then ends up begging on the streets with her baby as her Evangelical family shuns her for having the baby out of wedlock. As is usual, her pleas for help will be ignored by the vast majority of those who walk by. The movie will end with her freezing to death while clutching her malnourished baby.
This all makes me want to research the availability of condoms in this country. Mexico is a majority Catholic country but they have television for condoms where the pharmacist always sells a pack of condoms, "Con gusto." I have also seen posters, paid for by the government, advising victims of rape of their right to an abortion. They also sell pornography on street corners in Mexico. I have even seen little girls selling porn. My point is that Catholics seem a lot less hung up about sex than Evangelicals.

Day 113 ta: 3298 kt: 70 gps: N 14 degrees 37.783' W 90 degrees 31.143'
Day 114 and 115 I stayed in Guatemala City.

When I left Chimaltenango, I was kind of in a hurry so I could meet my friend in Guatemala City and go pick up my new wheel. My old rear wheel has definitely seen better days. I took a slight detour through Antigua. I can't say that I was particularly impressed. It seemed like another tourist trap to me. The rocky roads only reminded me of how fucked up my wheel was and the prices seemed high throughout the city. I basically just stayed for lunch and a little internet surfing and then I was on my way to the big city. I had to climb up one side of a little mountain, ride on the top for a while and then zoom down the other side. I didn't realize it at the time but I topped out at 77 kilometers per hour. This was probably when I was passing cars in the left lane of the highway. With a fully loaded bike, that is not just staring-death-in-the-face fast. That is french-kissing-death-while-copping-a-feel fast. I live for that shit.
I spent most of my time in Guatemala City doing a bunch of nothing but I did end up being productive by trying out new things. My bicycle is very happy now that it has a new wheel. I washed my dirty, stinky clothes and managed to find some new flavors to try. I tried atole de platano and atole blanco which is an unsweet atole soup. The Museum of History is not where my map said it was and pretty much seems nonexistent or I would have gone there.
Guatemala City has a reputation as an ugly city. I think that this is an unfair reputation. If you were to hang out in the Central Plaza, you might think that you were in a European city if it wasn't for the man selling fresh goat's milk squeezed from the goat's nipples right in front of you. The city is, however, a dangerous city. I read a news article about how there was an average of thirteen murders a day during the first thirteen days of the presidency here. That is 4,745 murders a year if it continues at that rate. There are reports in the news every day about members of the Mara Salvatrucha killing bus drivers or pregnant ladies. At night, most of the city shuts down. Since I am not much of a drinker, I stayed at the hotel hanging out with the others who were travelling through.
The Mara Salvatrucha is a gang that was originally started in Los Angeles by Salvadoran immigrants. As the gang grew, they eventually started to allow immigrants from other Central American countries to join. They participate in drug dealing, human trafficking, and various other criminal enterprises. During the mid-1990s the U.S. government officials decided to deal with the problem of the Maras by deporting them back to the countries of their origins where they only multiplied since these countries had no law enforcement resources to deal with gangs. El Salvador is still the epicenter of Mara activity but they have become quite prevalent in Guatemala and Honduras, too. They are notoriously violent and I have read that they represent 60% of all Salvadoran prisoners. Their most infamous attack occured when they boarded a bus in Honduras and killed every single person on board with machine guns. They are a problem which I am going to have to look out for.
I am happy to report after a cursory investigation that contraceptives and condoms are indeed available here. The Evangelicals haven't fucked everything up, yet. It doesn't seem to me that many people use them but, at least, they are available.

Day 116 kt:64 ta: 2420 gps: N 14 degrees 49.378' W 90 degrees 08.947'

Today, there was a long descent leaving the city followed by rolling hills. I have descended enough that I don't think that it is going to be quite so cold tonight. Hopefully, I won't have to deal with the mosquitos or gnats just yet. I have already grown used to not dealing with them in the cold mornings. I look forward to riding through a flatter part of Guatemala soon.

Day 117 kt:72.4 ta:5145 gps: N 15 degrees 02.634' W 90 degrees 12.301'

I fooled myself into thinking I was mostly going to travel on flat land today. I could not have been more wrong. The terrain was challenging but the scenery was beautiful as is typical in the mountains. There were less semis and more space. There were less semis and more space and this made me very happy. Hopefully, tomorrow I won't have to do as much climbing.
I saw a weird occurence in nature today. It was a mother hen followed around by a flock of adopted ducklings. I took a picture. It was cute. I am convinced that if a hen will adopt a bunch of ducklings that we can eventually live in a world without borders.

Day 118 kt:80.2 ta: 3510 gps: N 15 degrees 29.054' W 90 degrees 22.846'

The countryside here is beautiful. I feel like I have said that so many times but there are so many beautiful places in the world. It is a transitional ecosystem that has pine trees mixed with jungle plants. The banana trees looked out of place next to the pine trees but there they were. The crisp, cool air made riding my bike to be quite pleasant. There were dozens of varieties of wildflowers and I took many pictures.
I could have ridden much farther than I did but my internet addiction was calling me. I just had to read the news. Hopefully, I will ride through a large stretch of land where there is no internet. Today, I read an article on the ESPN web site about a black man who is doing the same thing as me albeit in a different continent. He claims to be the first African-American to do something like this. He is definitely the first that I know of. When I think about it, I don't know that many black bike commuters. Lifestyle activism still seems like a very white middle-class thing to do.
The campsite where I am at is at the base of a hill covered in sunflowers. Pictures just don't do this place justice. I was discovered by the family that lives at the top of the hill. As most people are naturally curious, they came down to check me out. We talked for a while and they brought me some delicious tamales. They even offered to let me stay at there house but I was already set up so I graciously declined.
I know that I have been talking a lot of shit about Evangelicals here in Guatemala so I figured that I would balance that out with some nice things to say. With the obvious exception of Rios Montt, most Evangelicals live truly Christian lifestyles. They are honest, hardworking, and more than happy to offer hospitality to strangers. These people are not hypocrites. Hypocrisy is probably the one thing that offends me the most about Christins in the United States. They support the death penalty but worship a martyr put to death by the Roman government. They decry homosexuality but have have secret affairs with gay prostitutes. They only seem to remember the teachings of Jesus when it suits their interests. I think that poverty has a way of purifying religious beliefs and practices. In the United States, people really worship the almighty dollar and power, not Jesus.

Day 119 kt:85.8 ta: 5103 gps: N 15 degrees 53.566' W 90 degrees 13.504'

When I woke up this morning, my tent was completely wet with dew. It was cold, too. This problem was solved by descending 3,000 feet into the jungle. The first part of my day consisted of me zooming down mountains. I was just about the fastest thing around. Some of the hills here are so steep and have such sharp turns that I had some very scary moments. There is no room for error when you are rounding a curve at 60+ kilometers per hour with a fully loaded bike.
The second part of my day consisted of me going up and down hills in the heat. The hills gradually got smaller and mostly flattened out near the end of the day. This was exhausting and I worked up quite and appetite. I took and internet/lunch break in the town of Chisec during the hottest part of the day. I didn't get a whole lot more riding in during the rest of the day because I was still hungry and stopped to eat again.
The jungle here is very beautiful. It looks like something that you might see in the movies. All the plants are overgrown and the soil seems very fertile. I look forward to the next week even though it is going to be hot and steamy.

Day 120 kt:104 ta:3395 gps: N 16 degrees 31.902' W 90 degrees 11.431'

There is a crack in my tent poles that is in the very worst possible place. It is in the one place that I can't cover with the repair tube. I have covered it with electrical tape and am hoping that it will hold. I have decided that electrical tape is the second greatest invention of mankind right after the bicycle and ahead of birth control. Electical tape is useful for patching the sidewalls of my tires when they wear out and for lashing my GPS device onto my handlebars now that the mount doesn't function properly. I am sure that I will find other uses for it as well. If I sold a universal fix-it kit, it would have electrical tape, superglue, and epoxy putty.
I made good time today but I would have made even better time if it wasn't for the three flats that I had on the road. The Mexican state of Guerrero is the last place where I had a flat so I had a pretty good run of luck until today. I used patches until the third time when my tire exploded while I was looking for a hole so I could patch it. There was an old man at the store who told me he could use my old innertube. I was happy to be able to recycle it rather than just throw it away. Today was hot and frustrating to the point where I almost shooed away the children who had gathered to watch me fix my flat. I restrained myself because I realized that they were only curious.
I made it to the town of Sayaxche and found a $2.50 hotel room. I left to go find food and water only to discover my fourth flat when I returned. I have checked my tire for stubborn thorns and did everything that someone who is fixing flat should do. Fuck you God!
Someone tried to charge me gringo prices today. He tried to sell me a cold hamburger for 8 Quetzals. I wasn't interested in the hamburger, anyway, but I overheard him selling the same hamburgers to passengers passing by in the buses for 5Quetzals. I may be a dumb gringo but I'm a dumb gringo who speaks Spanish. Moreover, I am willing to bet that at least 95% of those who read my blog can count to ten in Spanish. I was tempted to say something to him but I decided to let sleeping dogs lie.
There are definitely some Mexicans and Guatemalans in the words they use and how they use them. Mexicans use the word tope for speedbump while Guatemalans use the word tumulo. Mexicans use estacionamiento for parking lot while Guatemalans use parqueo. Gringo is used as a derogitory word in Mexico while it is purely descriptive here in Guatemala. In Mexico, they use güero to describe a light-skinned person. I still don't like being called gringo, though. I ignore the dozens of children who cry out, "Gringo." as I ride by. I completely understand how my Korean-American friend feels when people call him chino. The last thing that I have noticed is that Guatemalans always seem to say adios to those who pass by. In Mexico it is always buenos dias, buenos tardes, or buenos noches depending on the time of the day. Sometimes people say goodbye to me instead of adios. That and mister seem to be a few of the English words that everyone learns in school. I almost want to stop and explain that we never say goodbye without first saying hello and that we only say mister followed by a surname.

Day 121 kt: 81.8 ta: 2059 gps: N 16 degrees 53.981' W 89 degrees 48.980'

It still hasn't thawed out in North America, Europe, and Asia but it is hotter and steamier than the devil's scrotum in the northern part of Guatemala calle the Petèn. I got a late start and that was too bad because it was already hot by 9:00 a.m. It was mostly flat today though there was a headwind. I am going to wake up early tomorrow and, hopefully, I will make it to Tikal by midday.
Today is Fat Tuesday or Super Tuesday depending on whether you are religious or political respectively. I don't truse Barack Obama one iota but I would enjoy seeing him best out Hillary Clinton. Even though she is female, she represents just about everything that is wrong with the Democratic party to me. She is the kind of person who wouldn't make a decision without first conducting a poll, running it by focus groups, and discussing it with her campaign donors. We need presidents that would make decisions based on the courage of their convictions without worrying whether it is the popular choice. Hillary's Iraq vote is the perfect example of her cowardice. She is a smart woman and I know she knew better.
I am not a huge fan of football but I follow it enough to know that the New England Patriots were undefeated heading into the Super Bowl. I appreciate the irony that a team called the Giants got to be the giant slayer. Though I am not a fan of either team, I will never root for a team called the Patriots. To me, patriot is just a synonym for retarded, jingoistic frat boy. I like how I didn't know the outcome of the game until two days afterwards. That would be impossible in the U.S.
I read in the New York Times that more people tuned into the game to watch the commercials than the game itself. When did we all become such corporate whores. Commercials are supposed to be annoying. I close all ads on the internet before they even load. Until advertising agencies embark on a quest to improve the world by teaching us how to prevent disease epidemics, fighting global warming, etc... I will always despise advertising. We don't need to buy more disposable shit. I don't care if the entire world economy depends on us consuming more and more. We need to find a better, more sustainable way of living if we don't want to become extinct in a hundred years.

Day 122 kt:55 ta:2065 gps: N 17 degrees 13.486' W 89 degrees 36.625'

I made it to Tikal by midday as I had hoped but by then things had taken a frustrating turn. My tent pole officially broke though I was able to make things function with some electrical tape and a the repair tube. I might try another epoxy solution when I find another ferreterìa. To make things worse, my jungle heat rash has returned. I am sure that this is going to make my bike ride pretty hellish tomorrow. I decided it was best to just leave all of those problems behind and enjoy the jungle trek through the ruins.
I ended up making most of the trek with Vicki and Aleph, a single mother and her son from Great Britain. They are living in Central America and Mexico for a year. I am sure that it is going to be a wonderful educational experience for Aleph and I hope he comes away with an appreciation of the diversity of the earth's cultures from this experience. I enjoyed discussing the trials and tribulations as well as the joys of travelling through Central America with Vicki. She gave me a heads up on places to visit and has me rethinking my decision to bypass El Salvador. She is planning to write a book during her sojourn here and I wish her the greatest of luck.
My feelings about Tikal are ambivalent. On the one hand it is definitely a tourist trap. It cost about $20 just to enter the park if you are a foreigner plus all of the food is expensive. I even ended up paying $5 an hour for a slow internet connection with no headphones so I couldn't rock out to cumbias on youtube. On the other hand there are pretty impressive ruins here and the flora and fauna are spectacular. I saw monkeys, parrots, and various birds which I don't know the name of. There are even some spiders that come out at night that have crazy irridescent eyes that reflected the light of my flashlight.

Day 123 kt:69.2 ta:2033 gps: N 16 degrees 46.711' W 89 degrees 48.519'

The low-pitched, throaty growl of the howler monkeys is what woke me up this morning. I would take that any day over roosters, loud trucks, or copulating horses. I spent some time looking at birds and then I was off. It was time to leave the tourist trap that is Tikal.
It was overcast until the the early afternoon which was totally welcome because it made for the best riding weather. I took off my shirt, hat, and sunglasses and enjoyed it. It even seemed liked the animals stayed out a little bit longer. I even saw a toucan as it was flying away. If it had rained, I would not even have put on my rain gear. I have seen a lot less rain than I prepared for at the beginning of my trip but it is better safe than sorry.
The area that I have been riding through strives to be a jungle but it seems like most of it has been cleared to make way for cattle ranching and monoculture. The jungle is always encroaching. It makes me wonder if humans could ever truly destroy the planet before the planet destroyed them. A hundred thousand years from now, will the planet be a vast, barren wasteland ruled ruled by super-intelligent cockroaches with opposable thumbs who wonder and speculate about humanity the same way we do about the dinosaurs who ruled the planet before us, or will humanity survive albeit in smaller numbers and humbled by the fierce backlash that nature will have against its destructive practices? Time will only tell. It is hard to tell if humanity is struggling against the encroachment of nature or if it's the other way around.
Everyone seems to be carrying a gun in this part of the country. It is legal for Guatemalan citizens without criminal records to own and possess weapons unlike in Mexico. Today, I even saw a man drinking a bottle of rum with his gun tucked into his pants ready to blow his dick off. I restrained myself from commenting to him about this because it is a good rule not to antagonize those who are drinking and packing heat. Maybe this means my life-long dream of owning a one-stop gun and liquor store could be a reality some day.
I spent a larger chunk of my day than I would like trying to use epoxy putty to make a more permanent repair to my tent pole. This was all done in vain and, as nightfell, I had to do the unenviable task of filing off the epoxy putty while being swarmed by insects so I could fit the repair tube over the pole. Tomorrow, I think I might try to use the repair tube and epoxy putty in conjunction for a more permanent solution. The one thing that I learned from this is that if I ever see cracks in my tent pole that I should immediately epoxy the cracks shut before they become a bigger problem. I saw the cracks about three or four days ago and I decided to take the wait-and-see approach. Boy was that a mistake. Anyhow, I managed to construct my tent tonight so things aren't that bad. I am going to check the details of the lifetime warranty for my tent though I have camped more on this trip than many people camp in their whole lifetimes. I seriously doubt they will send me a new pole outside of the U.S.

Day 124 kt:82.6 ta: 2324 gps: N 16 degrees 18.246' W 89 degrees 25.326'
Day 125 kt:103 ta: 3385 gps: N 15 degrees 39.375' W 88 degrees 59.876'
Day 126 I stayed in Rio Dulce
Day 127 kt:56.4 ta:1598 gps: N 15 degrees 23.160' W 89 degrees 01.053'

I am back in the southern part of Guatemala. It is still hot and steamy but it seems to rain a lot more. I stayed in Rio Dulce for an extra day because the rains would not let up. I left the place the place where I was staying because there was a break in the rain. It didn't matter though because I got completly soaked in the afternoon.
On the road, I met yet another bicyclist. He is Christian from Switzerland. He is also going to southern Argentina. When we met it had just finished raining and he told me about a place not to far down the road from where we were called Finca Ixobel. Since I was wet, I rode with him there and stayed the night in a dorm rather than my tent. Finca Ixobel seems to be a tourist destination in itself rather than just a place to stay. You can go on jungle tours and horseback rides all withing the property. There seems to be a fair number of people that stay there for extended periods of time. You can volunteer there for six-week periods of time for free room and board. Since I was in social mood, I hung out at the bar. The next morning, I was on my way south, again. Christian and I parted ways though not before exchanging emails.
When I made it to Rio Dulce, I met a man named George who is kayaking all of Guatemala's river systems. He has made several first descents down some class 5 rapids and says that Guatemala is mostly undiscovered as a kayaking destination. He is making me think that I want to take up kayaking. When he is working, he is a National Park Ranger. As much fun as I am having, I couldn't help but be a little envious of him.
I read in the news that producing ethanol from corn actually releases more carbon dioxide than burning gasoline. This is because the increased corn production displaces other crops to parts of the world where they still use slash-and-burn agriculture which dumps massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Those of us in the developed world have to know that we can't have our cake and eat it, too. Sooner or later, the technoligical solutions to our energy crisis will run out and we will have to use conservation as our primary strategy to combat global warming. Very few people here in Guatemala have air conditioners and they seem to do just fine. They also don't light every single street at night. There are so many small changes we could make in our lifestyle that would have a very real effect on our overall energy consumption.
I am trying to escape from the wet part of the country. Hopefully, I will have done so by tomorrow. I will, however, be in the cold part of the country, again.

Day 128 kt:65.2 ta: 2443 gps: N 15 degrees 05.622' W 89 degrees 26.245'

Having a flat tire and finding an internet cafe pretty much ruined my chances of riding a 100 kilometers today. When I saw a lovely, babbling brook on the side of the road about an hour and a half before sunset, I decided to call it quits for the day since I found such a perfect campsite. I even took a bath meaning that I jumped into the creek naked.
They sure do like their guns in rural Guatemala. I saw man today who was carrying a 9mm with four extra ammunition clips. You would never need this much ammunition unless you got in a shootout with other people. I wondered if the guy thinks he is a badass or if he is that scared of being in a shootout.

Day 129 ta:1930 kt: 57.9 gps: N 14 degrees 55.125' W 89 degrees 54.572'

I have got to break free from my slacker ways. I could travel a lot faster if I wasn't such an internet addict. At least I am well informed. I know, for example, that Barack Obama has recently been sweeping the primaries and caucuses and has been taking in more campaign contributions than Hillary Clinton. As I have said before, I don't particularly like Obama but I strongly dislike Hillary Clinton on account of being a Clinton. Bill Clinton singlehandedly drove me from the Democratic party. I unapolagetically voted for Nader in 2000 and didn't vote for president in 2004. I have lost faith in the American democratic system and now focus my efforts on paying as little taxes as possible. Eventually, I will probably move out of the U.S. altogether so I am not financing the government.
My rear brakes are acting kind of weird. I think that I am going to have to replace the cable housing when I get to Guatemala City. Right now, it is just a minor nuissance.
I am camping right now in what is probably the driest part of Guatemala. A row of cacti separates me from the highway. I was just interrupted from writing my diary by the police who say my headlamp. At first I turned off my headlamp to hide but,when I saw that they had their guns drawn, I decided that it was best to announce my presence. Once they realized that I was just some crazy foreigner they were more at ease and reholstered their guns. They told me it was dangerous where I was and I told them that I felt safe. They, of course, didn't say anything about me camping on public or private land. I am behind a fence but they didn't seem to care. There are too many laws in the United States. I know for a fact that what I am doing right now would be considered illegal for a variety of reasons in the U.S. I probably would be arrested or, at least, ticketed in Texas.

Day 130 kt:100 ta: 6948 gps: N 14 degrees 37.783' W 90 degrees 31.103'

Since I have been slacking off so much, I decided it was time for a punishing day. I had to ascend from a valley to about 5,000 feet to get into Guatemala City. The stretch of highway that I rode on is the worst in Guatemala as far as I know. There are long sections of highway with no shoulder and it is a major east-west trucking corridor. Needless to say, I don't find tightroping the edge of the road and zooming down hills,while being passed by ten semis at a time with inches to spare, to be a whole lot of fun. I am an adrenaline junkie but I still prefer to be in a little bit more control over my life.
Happy corporate-guilt-trip-you-into-buying-something-for-the-one-you-love-or-think-you-love day. I hope yall don't have to declare bankruptcy after today.

Evangelism and the Guatemalan Civil War

Day 110 I stayed in Sololá
Day 111 kt:19.7 ta:1925 gps:N14°43.150' W 91°07.262'

I spent an extra day in Sololá doing a bunch of nothing. It was great. I wondered around the marketplace, which was a short distance from where I stayed, watching people interact and finding out the names of fruits and herbs that I did not recognize. The town in very small and walkable so I didn't even touch my bicycle. I walked around for a little bit longer and then spent most of my day in an internet cafe. I had neglected transcribing my blog and ended up typing until my fingers hurt. There was still a lot of work to do when the man who ran the internet cafe kicked me out so he could close up shop. I got a late start in the morning because I wanted to finish transcribing my blog.
Guatemalans do, indeed, drink atole in the mountains. This pleases me to no end even though my only two options are arroz con leche and arroz con leche con chocolate. I do love atole.
El Lago de Atitlan is a place of celestial beauty. It was created when a volcano blew its top. It is a natural lake that is high in the mountains and flanked by several dormant volcanoes. The clouds here seem so close to the ground that you can almost reach up and touch them. They fly by at very high speeds as this is a very windy place. I have no doubt that the ancient Mayans considered this a very sacred place. I took many pictures in many different lights. I am even camping in the mountains close to an overlook so I can savor the beauty of this place for one last time in the morning.
I have done a little research into the prevalence of Evangelism in this country. The Christian Childrens' Fund(CCF) is, indeed, one of the players in the history of the growth of Evangelism but it is not the only one. To understand the growth of Evangelism in this country one has to learn a little about the civil war that began in the 1960s and didn't officially end until peace accords of 1996 were signed. I have seen estimates that some 200,000 people were killed during the fighting. An independent inquiry declared that 93% of the atrocities were committed by government troops. Some might argue that the civil war is not quite over as many of those who played an active role in the slaughter of mostly Mayan campesinos are still in positions of power and have not been brought to justice.
There were Evangelical and Protestant missionaries in Guatemala as early as the nineteenth century thought they didn't rise to prominence until a century later during the civil war. The watershed event that led to an explosion in Evangelism here is the earthquake of 1976 that killed some 20,000 people. Christian aid organizations began flooding into the country and aggressively proselytizing while helping with the rebuilding effort. They ended up staying in the country and helping rebuild the country during and after the civil war.
During the civil war, the Guatemalan troops, with the help of paramilitaries, razed about 400 villages. They killed the livestock and burned the crops. This was total war. Those who weren't killed were relocated to concentration camps where they were often forcibly conscripted into the army or paramilitary troops. I remember how I was surprised that I did not see any centuries-old Catholic churches or colonial architecture when I entered the country as almost every town in Mexico abounds with these old churches. They are absent because they were burned to the ground along with the rest of these villages. They have all been replaced by recently built Evangelical churches.
In the early 1980s an Evangelical minister by the name of Efrain Rios Montt rose to power after a coup d'etat which was supported by Ronald Reagan and the Moral Majority. Pat Robertson, delighted that Latin America had its first "Christian" leader, even flew in to interview Rios Montt five days after the coup. Robertson's television network C.B.N. even had a telethon for the same Guatemalan military that was responsible for most of the atrocities during the civil war. Rios Montt, like almost all outwardly religious leaders, turned out to be a bloody hypocrite. He presided over one of the bloodiest periods of the civil war.
It should be mentioned that this was the time in which liberation theology was in vogue with many of the Catholic parish priests of Latin America. Liberation theology is the idea that priests should not just help the poor get into heaven but actually help them improve their lives. This is the same time period in which priests were being executed by the Salvadoran military just to the south in El Salvador.
Anyone who has ever been to an Evangelical church knows that Catholics are viewed with suspicion and are sometimes even regarded as a cult among Evangelicals. Combine this with the fact that so many Catholic priests were practicing liberation theology in the time of the Cold War, it can be seen how an Evangelical such as Rios Montt would view these priests as communist sympathizers while the government was at war with a communist insurgency. Being a "good" Evangelical, Rios Montt allowed many Evangelical aid organizations to come in and feed, clothe, shelter, and "educate" those who were displaced by the war. Many Mayan campesinos, who were previously Catholic, converted to Evangelism at the time because they did not want to be viewed as communist sympathizers when the Evangelical dominated government was waging a brutal war against the communist. It was an act of self-preservation much like when Jews converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition.
Here we are today. The conversion of Guatemala continues. Many aid organizations only aid those who are Christian (read Evangelical and not Catholic). Rios Montt not only has not been brought to justice but is a Guatemalan congressman and heads a political party known as La Frente Republicana de Guatemala or FRG. A huge American-style church has been built in Guatemala City. Remember that wide-eyed little girl who the bald guy from the CCF commercials of the 1980s would always trot out when asking for your money. I am willing to bet that she probably has about five children by now and is probably as poor as ever. She probably takes all of her children to an Evangelical church, too. It sometimes seems like every woman between the ages of 18 and 35 is carrying a baby in the rural parts of Guatemala. We all know that Evangelicals have their heads up their asses when it comes to the effect that overpopulation has on the impoverishment of the developing world. I can't excuse Catholics for their intransigence on this issue, either.