Project

Guatemala: Forgotten Trauma

Samuel Loewenberg ventures to Guatemala to survey the underlying issues of the Central American country's extreme poverty. There, income inequality equals the worst in Africa - particularly among indigenous communities. In some regions, an estimated 75 percent of the children from infants to the ages of 6 and 7 are chronically malnourished. It is a startling example of food scarcity in a country a mere four-hour flight away from the U.S.

Loewenberg also explores Guatemala's close economic ties with the U.S. as Guatemalan workers are being driven out due to immigration crackdowns and the reverberating economic crisis. Many Guatemalans are dependent on remittances sent from the U.S. and experts now worry that the country is facing a demographic time bomb as men return home from the U.S. without work or prospects.

Guatemala: A Divided Country's Hidden Hunger

The little girl does not smile. She doesn't have the energy. Hopefully she will soon.

She is in a rehabilitation clinic in Jocotan, Chiquimula, a province in the far east of Guatemala, near to Honduras. Her name is Domitila, she is nine years old. Her body is emaciated, she is fragile. Patches of her hair are missing, the veins in her legs show through her skin. Her face has a perpetual look of sorrow – the muscles are too weak to change expression. Other children in her family were in similar shape, the nurse tells me.

Guatemala: Migration Tears

I am interviewing a couple about their experience working as immigrant laborers in the U.S., I'll call them Eduardo and Anita. Eduardo has told us that after working successfully for several years in New Orleans doing construction, he was arrested by U.S. immigration officials and put in jail. It was over the Christmas holidays, he says. He was separated from his family. He starts to cry.

Guatemala: Death in the Streets

Thirteen years after the peace accords were signed here, violence and fear continue to be a way of life. In a country as bloody as Guatemala, the last two weeks have stood out. In the past several years bus drivers have became targets for street gangs seeking extortion money; but the thugs are not breaking the drivers' kneecaps, they are blowing their heads off. The number of bus drivers killed so far this year is up to 33.