I met with the Mutal Support Group (GAM), an organization of families and relatives of the disappeared. GAM´s director Mario Polanco has been receiving death threats over the past 2 weeks, so he was not available. I spoke with Carlos Sag who told me about the recent work of this human rights organization. GAM says that since the signing of the Peace Accords in 1996, this year is by far the most violent, with political executions and intimidations on the rise. Some of this is done directly by the military, but most often it is clandestine groups who work in collaboration with the military.

GAM said several of their members and villagers in the town of Sacqualpa have received threats after the process of uncovering a mass grave began in October. GAM is also involved in analysis and organizing against the murder of women throughout the country. Just to give some perspective, more women in Guatemala have been murder in the past year than the past 10 years in Juarez, Mexico where the deaths of many women in poverty has received international attention. Just a few weeks ago the upper hal of a woman´s body was found near Zone 1, her legs discovered several miles away. The GAM spokesperson said that most of the female deaths bore signs of execution, not random murder. So far the Guatemalan government has done little to investigate