More on Ramiro Choc...

There is a report in the Guatemalan press referring to the recent arrest of Ramiro Choc. It alleges that he was working with at least 13 other people 'to locate, invade and sell farms, which were illegally appropriated.'

The report further alleges that
' This group joined a mob that deceives farmers with the argument that the land is theirs by historical background, and those who do not want to violate the law are intimidated to support invasions.'

There is translation of the report HERE.

This mornings edition of the same paper contains this report.

And so the maneuvering really begins. I wonder who finances this newspaper, Prensa Libre?

It appears to me that this issue is far from over. The President certainly has`his work cut out to bring some sort of compromise and conciliation to these people.

It sadly reminds me of an old computer game that TBH used to play called Dictator. You are the ruler of a banana republic. Probably your best strategy is to postpone the inevitable revolution as long as possible by being nasty to the peasants, appeasing the landowners and whatever you do not upsetting the secret police. Meanwhile salt away as much money as possible in your Swiss bank account and buy an escape helicopter in readiness for that fateful day. You can download the program for free HERE, It comes with the emulator that will convert your high-powered PC into the 48K Spectrum necessary to run the software! Download the file dict14.zip, unzip it, and double-click on the DICTATOR shortcut. Be sure to turn up the sound not to miss the exciting sound effects. Warning: you need to press Ctrl+Alt+Del together, then select the Applications tab and click the End Task button to get out of the program.

And talking of banana's I recommend the book Banana's by Peter Chapman. A recent book on how the United Fruit Company shaped the world. It is a fascinating read, particularly the information about Guatemala.