I am sitting on a blanket in the grass of my sister’s
garden in Santiago, Guatemala.
I am looking at the magnificent lake Atitlan,
suspended so high up in the sky that you feel like you
are swimming with the clouds and the sleeping
volcanoes. Under the shade of my straw hat, I come
back to my book about the legends of the lake when,
suddenly, I hear the housekee per calling us. His smile
of the other days is gone. He begs us to not leave the
house for the day. Silence.
Even as he tries to be reassuring, I can see some
concern in his eyes. “The city is dangerous now. Some
villagers are going to be on strike today.” I make a
skeptical face. I am not sure I understand the meaning
of “dangerous”. Hesitantly, the housekeeper decides
to tell us what happened.
Late the night before, a policeman came into a grocery
store and asked for a beer. The owner of the shop
asked him to pay. The policeman, drunk, took his gun
and killed the owner. When the villagers got the
news, they went mad and decided to track down the
Photo By alq666 via Wikimedia Commons
policeman.
I realize that this story isn’t just a fluke but a real
consequence of what I have learnt about the country’s
background. For years corruption has corroded every
branch of society, even the police. People have lost
faith in those who lead and work for the nation. Tired
of being manipulated and feeling unsafe, now they
make their own justice, based on their personal
judgment of what is right or wrong by the Bible code.
Most of the time, it becomes a retaliation.
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THE CONE - ISSUE #8 - WINTER 2016