Dispatch Number 31 -Advances in Guatamala

They are not likely to be considered advances where you are from but the point is that all improvement is relative, and relative only to that country with its own culture, government and related structural challenges. Guatemala is a delicate democracy and the changes noted here are very real advances in Guatemala.

• Ballot boxes were made available for first time in small towns in the rural areas. Prior to 2006, a person who wanted to participate had to take a bus to a large city to cast a vote. Often this meant a full day of travel and a day without pay.
  
• In the countryside where there were no schools 15-20 years ago there are now.
• Public health clinics now appear in small communities and their services are free.
  
• Dirt roads once subject to seasonal travel are being paved making them passable year round. New dirt roads are being cut for first time linking remote hamlets that previously were reached only by foot.
  
• Although political murder remains a savage way of maintaining political and business power it happens less often. Considered an equivalent of murder but categorized differently, disappearances still continue but on a much smaller scale. In a psychological sense they are very effective.
  
• Criminal murder is on the rise and the daily papers are full of covered bodies with bored investigators standing around. This is not an advance, however, to omit the trend would be unfair.

David
Leon, Nicaragua